Why would that matter? The Saracens were only kicked out of Italy because the Normans showed up. The Russians and other Orthodox Christians certainly didn't do much to stop the Ottomans from taking Constantinople.
An Ottoman Europe?
- Thread starter TopGearFanatic
- Start date
Dreadnought
Deity
I feel the French and Spanish have much more capability to send their armies and navies to defend the Pope in the 16th century, as opposed to the 11th century. I mean, I'd even be scared if I were the Pope, seeing a vast Ottoman army in southern Italy.
While I generally approve of your argument - that the proximity of the Papacy would be almost irrelevant unless the Ottomans actually invaded central Italy - the "Saracens" had been restricted to Sicily a century and a half before the Normans showed up. Bari ceased to be a Muslim pirate base in the 870s.
Again, it wasn't the Papacy that made an Ottoman invasion improbable, it was the fact that Venice and/or Genoa could still muster a navy superior to the Ottomans and quite capable of beating any Turkish fleet that ventured outside its home waters. The Ottoman fleet was quite inadequate to supply and reinforce an army in southern Italy, let alone do that and fight off the Venetians.
aelf
Ashen One
Really? I thought they held onto Bari for much longer than that. Oh well.
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