Pity the general whose sole claim to fame is the conquest of a tiny or un-resisting nation. Few today recall which German commanders seized Luxembourg in the First World War, or Denmark in the Second. I doubt their exploits bring them much praise in Valhalla, even from fellow militarists and Nazis.
Pity still more the military commander who tried to conquer a tiny principality and failed. So doleful a figure was Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, who in the late 1730s decided that the continued independence of San Marino - a microscopic, land-locked republic in northern Italy - affronted the neighboring Papal States. In October 1739 Alberoni and a small force of archers and gunmen took San Marino by siege. They then gathered the conquered nation's leaders at its central church to swear loyalty to the Pope. Instead, the patricians of the 600-year-old republic swore a loyalty oath to San Marino and liberty. The cardinal was not amused. Arrests and confiscations ensued. Once Pope Clement learned of the Sammarinese preference for political self-determination, however, he decided to forego the expense of continued riot control and restored the republic's independence, on 5 February 1740. Alberoni's humiliation became complete.
As they vilified the cardinal, the partisans of San Marino also sought to elevate heroes of their brief struggle for independence. They found one in Antonio Belzoppi, a local leader who during the invasion raced down Mount Titano to seek reinforcements. Cardinal Alberoni sent three men after Belzoppi, with orders to terminate the fugitive. The assassins tracked their quarry to Venice, and chased him by gondola up the Grand Canal. Antonio at last confronted his pursuers and, the story goes, killed all three of them with his stiletto. He also took out the soldiers' gondolier. At the end of the fight Belzoppi fell or was pushed into the canal. As he could not swim - not much opportunity to learn, high on a mountain - this seemed like curtains for Our Hero. But wait! San Marino's patron, Saint Marinus himself, at this moment intervened and taught Belzoppi to swim, a skill he retained just long enough to make it ashore.
Belzoppi became a national hero. One of his descendants became San Marino's captain-general in the nineteenth century, and hosted Garibaldi during the First War of the Risorgimiento. I regret to say, however, that (as far as I know) the Republic has not erected any monuments to the hapless gondolier whom Belzoppi murdered during the Venice fight. Killing nameless bystanders, and keeping them nameless, would appear to form an essential part of every country's national project.
Source: John Sack, Report from Practically Nowhere (Harper & Brothers, 1959), 128-130.
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| San Marino, present day (via Wikimedia Commons) |
As they vilified the cardinal, the partisans of San Marino also sought to elevate heroes of their brief struggle for independence. They found one in Antonio Belzoppi, a local leader who during the invasion raced down Mount Titano to seek reinforcements. Cardinal Alberoni sent three men after Belzoppi, with orders to terminate the fugitive. The assassins tracked their quarry to Venice, and chased him by gondola up the Grand Canal. Antonio at last confronted his pursuers and, the story goes, killed all three of them with his stiletto. He also took out the soldiers' gondolier. At the end of the fight Belzoppi fell or was pushed into the canal. As he could not swim - not much opportunity to learn, high on a mountain - this seemed like curtains for Our Hero. But wait! San Marino's patron, Saint Marinus himself, at this moment intervened and taught Belzoppi to swim, a skill he retained just long enough to make it ashore.
Belzoppi became a national hero. One of his descendants became San Marino's captain-general in the nineteenth century, and hosted Garibaldi during the First War of the Risorgimiento. I regret to say, however, that (as far as I know) the Republic has not erected any monuments to the hapless gondolier whom Belzoppi murdered during the Venice fight. Killing nameless bystanders, and keeping them nameless, would appear to form an essential part of every country's national project.
Source: John Sack, Report from Practically Nowhere (Harper & Brothers, 1959), 128-130.
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