Page 161 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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an attempt in February-March 1667 by the French to relieve the siege, or another in Spring
1669, succeed. Endeavors to pay for an end of the siege by the Venetians were also rebutted.
41
40
Eventually exhaustion among the besieged and dissension among their leaders brought an
end to the conflict. On 5 September 1669 the captain-general of Candia, Francesco Morosini,
sued for peace; his only condition was that the valiant citizens who had resisted the Ottoman
Turks for so long be allowed to leave with all their moveable possessions. This condition
was granted. 42
The Candians had lost, as eventually did the Rhodians and Belgradians. This is, of course,
a historical reality. Equally real are the large numbers of Ottomans who died in all their
attempts to take the cities, as well as the large numbers lost in these same attempts defend-
ing them. It is to our detriment as military historians that, in remembering all of history’s
conflicts, we forget the common, unnamed people – soldiers, militia, non-combatants – who
fought so hard and so long to save their cities and lands from conquest.

194).
40 Setton, Venice, Austria and the Turks, pp. 193-94 and Finkel, p. 271.
41 Finkel, p. 270 and Setton, Venice, Austria and the Turks, pp. 220-28.
42 Setton, Venice, Austria and the Turks, pp. 227-28.