Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-05
VAL0NA AND THE 1894 CRUSADE
Recent dispatches announced that "a
prospe ctive rearrange-

Recent dispatches announced that "a
prospe ctive rearrange-
VI Ancient ment of the Dalmatian
Rsrown coast and the Partition of
Albania with Greece
would be made. except valona. which
would go to Italy" The foregoing events
place In Vedette the existence of this
port Of Valona. also called Av,ona.
which is on the coast of Albania opposite
Italy. Valona recalls among other
things that il was over Dalmatia that
Marshal Soult was created Duo de
Dalmatie." But If vaiona has been
hidden from view for more than four
centuries 1t was. nevertheless, a point
Of such political and geographical i'm
portance that 1t was proposed as the
pivot Of a serious military movement in
1894 against Constantinople.
The Turks captured Constantinople
after a memorable siege in 1853. The
taking of ancient Byzance carried with
1t all that remained of the Christian
empire OF the orient or the empire of
Greece. as 1t was often called at that
time IN Europe. The echo of this great
cataclysm resounded throughout the
world and has left its imprint in his
tory Generous spirits of that period
were indignant that the princes of
occidental Europe did not hasten to the
aid of this last stronghold of Chris
t1anity against the invasion of the
Turks. But il the history of the four
teenth century has held the Christian
princes Of that time culpable. the his
tory Of the nineteenth century will be
still more severe upon those Christian
powers which have so encouraged and
sustained the Turk as an instrument
of their selfish interests that he may
be counted as one Of the principal fac
tors In the Matching of the present
formidable catastrophe the seeds of
which were sown in 1863.
Forty years after the fall of Byzance
a monarch of the occident dreamed of
repairing the fault
The Dream of committed and eff
rLL vyrrr facing the shame of
permitting the cres-
cent to carry off the cross from ST.
Sophia. This monarch was Charles
VIII, King Of France, who would place his
name among those of his predecessors
who had taken part in the. crusades,
from Peter the Hermit in 1895 to Louis
TX in 1870. The king, as an initial
pASSSSAiH6p penetrated Italy Win a
powerful army. and in the month of
February, 14s5. having traversed
Florence. he entered Naples as con-
queror. The immediate object of that
grand expedition was the conquest of
the kingdom of Naples. of which
Charles VIII pretended to be the only
legitimate sovereign as the heir to the
second house of Anjou. Charles dan
1ou, brother of St Louis, was King of
Naples. and lost Sicily after the gem
he oil 1y
in 1881
But in reality for Charles VIII the
conquest of Naples was intended as a
preparatory step-a point Of departure
The possession of the southern prov
inees Of Italy would assure the king a
favorable base of operations. which
would permit him to take not only
Constantinople and the rest of the
empire of Greece" but also the
Holy Land"
1t is possible that Charles VIII may
have had the idea and ambition since
infancy to deliver the provinces of the
ancient empire of the orient from the
said to the Italians who came to him
in 147S: Il humbly supplicate the Vir-
gin Mary to accord to my very dear
son great honor: To give him the
aston. the power and the means to
go in person with his mobiles and tina
chevaliers of France and fight the de-
testahle Turk" 1t is certain that, seat
ed on the throne. the son of Louis XI,
receiving the Milanese ambassadors
sent him by Francesca Sforza In 1892
to induce him to go to Italy heard the
remark: The expedition to Italy. in
giving him the means to pass into
Greece (and by Greece was meant the
ancient empire of Christian orient). will
the Catholic faith and Christian re-
public II he wishes as he can to COM
bat and retake the empire of Constan-
tinople." That which appears in the
most manifest manner Is that Charles
VIII himself many times. either before his
departure for Italy or during the course
Of the expedition. affirmed clearly and
precisely his intention to undertake a
campaign to snatch oriental Christian
ity from the tyranny Of the Turks.
Charles VIII. for example. in a letter
dated March IA. 1894, addressed the
Pope, declaring his
Planned War unalterable re olu-
H tion to make war on
the peninsula. he wrote from viterbe,
December IA, 1894. to certain bishops
of France: Our intention is not only
the recovery of our kingdom of Naples,
but for the good of the church and the
recovery Of the Holy Land"
Also, there is similar note in the
series of letters of Charles VIII ex-
changed with very high parsonage of
the Latin orient in the commencement
Of June, 1491. the grand master of the
Order of Hospitaliers of Saint Jean of
Jerusalem Qater the Order of Malta)
then established at Rhodes. Pierre
d'AubuSson, on whom the Pope con-
ferred the cardinals hat.
letter from the grand master. dated
February 90. 1885 to the King of
France. was very explicit. Among
other things: Now every Catholic is
very much obliged to you considering
the ruin and calamities the Turks have
inflicted on the Christians, especially
the loss of the imperial siege of Con-
stantinople and the pollution
Of the excellent Church of ST. Sophia"
The expedition of Charles VIII con-
tributed to the birth of news publica-
lions which have become the daily po-
litical journals Of the present day. The
news publications of that time were
small sheets in four. generally folded
In these precious publications of the
epoch of Charles VIII the greater part
of space Is occupied by communica-
tons and news ema mating from the
royal government and having thus an
official authority. Seignor de la Pilor-
gerie, who published in 1866 Campaigns
and Bulletins of the Grand Army of
Italy Commanded by Charles VIII"
found a resemblance between these
documents and the Bulletins of the
Grand Army" which Napoleon pub