Theodore in the South
Looking up from the Pass of Vizzavona, which divides the Diqua from the Dila.
Quandu tuttu u mondu cumanda, l’affari vanu male.
(When everyone's in charge, business goes badly.)
- Corsican proverb
King Theodore, accompanied by his royal guard, descended into the
Dila through the Bocca di Vizzavona and valley of the Gravona in the first week of August. It was the first time he had set foot in the south, a region which was less populous and economically important than the north but was nevertheless just as vital if he was to assert his claim to be king of all Corsica.
The
Dila was geographically isolated from the north, but it had long been socially distinct as well. In the days of the Carolingians, when Corsica had been freed from the terrors of Saracen raids, many noblemen of Frankish and Lombard descent had settled on the island, but by the turn of the millennium the situation had degraded into constant strife between these petty lords. The people of the inland north, particularly in the region of Castagniccia, decided to take action against such predations, and in the 11th century at Morosaglia in Rostino they established an elective republican government comprised of a union of the various pieves and their chosen elders. Their territory became known as the
Terra di Comune, as opposed to the
Terra di Signori of the south, where the quarreling lords still ruled. As the southern lords would not leave them in peace, the men of the
Terra di Comune invited the Margrave of Massa to come to their aid, and in a very poorly-attested campaign Margrave William succeeded in defeating the southern
signori. Although these structures had long been submerged in centuries of Papal, Pisan, and Genoese dominion, their legacy was still evident: the rebellion against Genoa had been led in large part by men of the old
Terra di Comune, who still treasured their legacy of autonomy and resistance to feudal dominion, while the old
Terra di Signori retained a somewhat more hierarchical society in which the descendants of the old barons still guarded their ancient privilege.
[1]
Lieutenant-General
Luca d'Ornano had been made a marquis by Theodore, but he did not need a German baron to tell him he was a nobleman. Of the old noble families of the
Terra di Signori, his was among the most respected. A proud man with an aristocratic bearing, he was also a devoted patriot. Ornano had been the supreme commander of the revolt in the
Dila since at least 1734 and had seen various "national" regimes (which were inevitably headquartered in the north) come and go. When a new uprising had been proclaimed in January of 1735, he had gone north to be appointed as general, and then returned to the
Dila; he had done the same later that year after the government of the
ghjunta had been proclaimed; and he did it once more shortly after the coronation of Theodore. News of arms shipments and rebel victories in the north, however, had irked him, not because he begrudged the northern rebels their success but because he felt unequally treated, as rumors came of the northerners being showered in vast amounts of munitions and money by Theodore's foreign friends. That was a bit of an exaggeration, to be sure, but Ornano's lack of support was real enough. After engaging in a long and fruitless (not to mention artillery-less) siege of Ajaccio only to be surprised and defeated by a sally by the Genoese garrison, he abandoned the siege and demanded the aid he felt was due him before he would continue the campaign.
Theodore's trip south was as much to soothe the feelings of this very important commander as to accomplish any real military objective. Arriving in advance of the caravan of artillery and arms under Lieutenant-Colonel
Antoine Dufour, Theodore met personally with Ornano at the little village of Peri in the Celavo. After a congenial chat and Theodore's promises of aid soon to come, they decided to take a short trip to Cinarca to the north. It was thought that the
indifferenti had been attempting to rally support there, but evidently without much success, as Theodore and Ornano captured the whole
pieve practically without a fight and raised a company of Cinarcans to join Ornano's army. That brought them within striking distance of Vico, but Theodore declined to waste more time on the "traitors." They returned south towards Ajaccio, and stopped at Alata, the hilltop estate of
Carlo Maria Pozzo di Borgo just four miles from the Genoese port. Signore Pozzo di Borgo, another one of the grand
signori of the south, hosted the king for dinner. On the 15th of August, Theodore departed, assuring Ornano that Dufour would be along shortly. He was, although not without some difficulty, as his caravan was ambushed by the
indifferenti near Tavera. They made off with some of the muskets but not with the vital artillery, which they had no means to carry away anyway.
Theodore traveled southeast to the district of La Rocca, the domain of Lieutenant-General
Michele Durazzo, a southern lord second only to Ornano in importance (and his superior in wealth, we are told). Theodore had made Durazzo a general and a count, and Durazzo had done reasonably well for the rebel cause by driving the Genoese garrison out of Sartena soon after Theodore's arrival. He welcomed the king at Livia with a little parade by a troop of cavalry that had been assembled from the noblemen of La Rocca. Although Durazzo possessed fewer men than Ornano, he was an officer of somewhat more initiative and daring, and had skirmished several times with Genoese companies operating out of their southern garrison ports. Theodore had no artillery to give him, but provided him with a modest amount of arms and ammunition and promised him that once affairs were on a better footing in the north he would be able to give him aid in the recapture of Porto Vecchio. Durazzo and his cavalry accompanied Theodore to Fiumorbo on the eastern coast, a sparsely populated but restless
pieve whose village elders readily swore fealty to Theodore.
Clearly, however, not all in the province were friends of the king. After Durazzo turned back to his home territory, Theodore was left with only a small part of his royal guard—most seem to have been given to Dufour as an escort, leaving only a small group on horseback to accompany the king. Near the village of Ventiseri, their local guide insisted on taking a path down a forested valley, claiming that the usual route lay near a hostile village, but Theodore refused to go despite his protests. Perhaps he trusted in his charisma; perhaps he did not fully trust the guide. Either way, the man vanished from the column a few miles later, and when Theodore reached the next village he found them quite friendly. It was discovered, in retrospect, that the "guide" had been paid off by the Genoese, and it was assumed he was trying to lead the little royal party into an ambush.
While Theodore was away, the war in the north had been focused in the Nebbio. Although humbled by defeat, the Genoese colonel
Marchelli still controlled around 2,000 men in total, and he was reinforced by another 500 or so in mid-August, although these appear to have all been more additions of prisoners and galley slaves to the
compagnia dei banditi. Count
Andrea Ceccaldi, recently promoted to Lieutenant-General, was his chief adversary, along with Colonel Don
Felice Cervoni, who had acquitted himself bravely at Rutali; Colonel
Giovan Natali, the leader of the local militia of the Nebbio; Captain
Giovan Luca Poggi, who had defended the Bocca di Teghime against the Genoese battalion of Major
Morati; and Major
Antone Nobile Battisti, a former engineer in the Venetian army who had been placed in command of artillery in the absence of Dufour.
This was a fairly experienced and capable group of officers, but a rift between Ceccaldi and Cervoni had continued to grow since their victory at Rutali. Cervoni disputed the great credit that had been given to Ceccaldi and despite being made a knight by Theodore resented that Ceccaldi, once his fellow colonel, had been given general rank ahead of him. This division between Ceccaldi and the second most senior leader in the Nebbio stymied progress, as did the depleted rebel numbers during the harvest season. A more daring leader than Marchelli might have sought to take advantage of this situation by going on the offensive, but Marchelli was probably fearful for his career prospects if he were to lead his army into disaster a second time and never risked it.
Despite these complications, the rebels did capture Olmeta and Cervoni managed to defeat a large company of
banditi under Captain Domenico de Franceschi in the valley of the Aliso. An attack on Oletta, however, was delayed because of disagreements between Ceccaldi and Cervoni, allowing Ceccaldi to reinforce Major Morati and hold the position. On the 19th the rebels made another go at it, this time attempting to cut off Oletta by seizing the road between the village and San Fiorenzo. The result was Ceccaldi's defeat at the hands of Marchelli in the Battle of Conca d'Oro ("Valley of Gold"), an engagement which was won by the Genoese less through brilliant generalship than the superior discipline and musketry of the Genoese and Swiss regulars. In an open field with none of the confounding terrain that had been so useful to the rebels at Rutali, the rebels were at a clear disadvantage. Marchelli claimed it as vengeance for Rutali and the Genoese government, hungry for any kind of good news, crowed about it as a sign of the impending collapse of the rebels. Numerically, however, it was poor revenge; the rebels suffered some 300 dead, wounded, or captured compared to a probable 100-150 on the part of the Genoese, a far cry from the 1,000 or so Genoese casualties at Rutali. Marchelli was seemingly content within the defensive triangle which he had established between San Fiorenzo, Oletta, and Patrimonio, and made no attempt after the battle to expand his control.
Unhappy with Theodore's extended absence, a number of northern leaders including his own prime minister Marquis
Luigi Giafferi had presented the king with a petition upon his return to Vescovato, imploring him for the good of the realm and the preservation of his own life to fix his residence in one place and not go touring the realm anymore. As we find him in the Nebbio on the 24th, he cannot have taken this advice entirely, but matters there urgently demanded his intervention. After Conca d'Oro, the rebels in the province were in disarray. Ceccaldi and Cervoni were blaming each other for the defeat and morale was low. The king, meeting with his commanders at Murato, decided to reassign Cervoni to command the rebels in Niolo so as to end the raids of the
indifferenti and perhaps stamp them out entirely. Cervoni was from Rogna in central Corsica and had family ties in Niolo, which recommended him for the position, but it was probably also intended as a means to keep him and Ceccaldi on opposite sides of the island. Theodore then proceeded to Bastia, where he met with Count
Gio Giacomo Ambrosi di Castinetta. Castinetta had been doing well enough keeping order in occupied Bastia, whose residents were mostly opposed to the rebel movement, but he had been hoarding the arms and ammunition which had been arriving at the port, preventing it from being disseminated elsewhere. Major Battisti had complained he had no powder or shot for his guns. Theodore managed to get him to loosen his grip, allowing the rebels in the Nebbio to receive new supplies, and attempted to get Castinetta to use his time more productively by instructing him to organize some privateers to take the fight to the Genoese.
In the Balagna, meanwhile, the Genoese of Algajola under Captain
Bembo broke out of their confinement for the second time and, in coordination with an armed flotilla, made an attack against Isola Rossa less than five miles to the east. Although only a small fishing village, Isola Rossa had rapidly become the primary port for the smuggling of Balagnese olive oil (primarily to France), for although the rebels controlled the port of Bastia there existed no infrastructure by which oil could be transported from the Balagna to the eastern coast. As Theodore's government levied no direct tax upon the already impoverished citizens, Balagnese oil (which Costa estimated at 100,000 barrels annually) represented the lion's share of the rebel government's regular income (excluding irregular exactions and confiscations of Genoese and
filogenovesi property). Although the rebel besiegers of Algajola were heavily defeated, the physician-turned-officer Captain
Paolo-Maria Paoli (no relation to Giacinto Paoli) delayed Bembo at Corbara long enough for Marquis
Simone Fabiani to arrive and force the attackers back, while the Genoese flotilla was dissuaded from landing men by strong winds and sporadic cannon-fire from the Torre Pietra, a Genoese tower off the coast of Isola Rossa which had been garrisoned by the rebels. Bembo caused more casualties than he suffered and burned fields and orchards in the vicinity of Pigna and the Nonza Valley, but Isola Rossa remained in rebel hands and smugglers continued to arrive.
[A]
Map of Corsica around the end of July
Green: Royalist control
Yellow: "Indifferenti" control
Red: Genoese occupation
White: Neutral, uncertain, or unoccupied areas
Dotted Green Line: Route of Theodore's southern review
Footnotes
[1] The north and south had linguistic differences as well. Despite the
Terra di Signori being ruled by lords who claimed descent from Frankish counts of the continent, it was the northerners who spoke a dialect much closer to Tuscan, for the north's proximity to the Italian coast and its relative richness compared to the south had attracted many more immigrants from Tuscany over the course of the second millenium. The language of the south, meanwhile, was considered more "rustic;" that is, less Tuscan-influenced and closer to Sardinian and Sicilian. This contributed to a certain northern chauvinism, particularly among the educated class which contributed heavily to the leadership of the rebellion: while many (mainland) Italians thought of Corsica as a rough and uncivilized backwater, northern Corsicans thought much the same of the
Dila. It was, in a sense, the Corsica of Corsica.
Timeline Notes
[A] IOTL, Isola Rossa (now
L'Île-Rousse) played a similar role. Pasquale Paoli, unable to take Calvi, built the little village up into a major port (by Corsican standards). That has not happened ITTL, but it's possible that it may, depending on how long the rebels hold the Balagna and how long Calvi and Algajola remain in Genoese hands.
