Giorgio Basta

Giorgio Basta, Gjergj Basta
File:Portret van Georg graaf van Basta Atrium Heroicum (serietitel), RP-P-1910-66.jpg
Born	1550 La Rocca, Kingdom of Naples
Died	1607 (aged 62–63) Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia
Allegiance	Holy Roman Empire
Service/branch	Imperial Army
Rank	General
Battles/wars	Long War Battle of Mirăslău Battle of Guruslău

Giorgio Basta, Count of Huszt, Gjergj Basta or Gheorghe Basta (1550 – 1607) was an Italian general, diplomat, and writer of Arbëreshë origin, employed by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to command Habsburg forces in the Long War of 1591–1606. He was later sent to administer Transylvania as an Imperial vassal and to restore Catholicism as the dominant religion in the region.

On his orders, his ally Michael the Brave, who ruled Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia, was assassinated on 9 August 1601, a few days after the common victory at the Battle of Guruslău, for trying to turn against Rudolf II. For this, he is often depicted as disloyal and violent by Romanian and Hungarian historians. Basta was also the author of books on the art of military leadership.

Biography

Basta was born to an Arbëreshë family. He is claimed to be born in La Rocca, modern day Roccaforzata, a village in Salento, Italy, however the bibliographic tradition claims he was born in Rocca sul Tanaro, Monferrato.

He was the son of Demetrio Basta, an Albanian Epirote who had fled the Ottoman conquest of the region to Italy, where he served the Spanish Empire. His father fought in the Piedmont countryside in the middle 1500s, and then in Flanders as commander of a cavalry regiment under the Duke of Alba. Very young, Basta became a soldier, and eventually got promoted to the rank of officer in a detachment commanded by Demetrio. Then after his father died, Basta served in a cavalry company run by his oldest brother Niccolò.

He began his military career in Flanders, where the young officer impressed Don John of Austria, and gained the governorship of Nivelles. In the service of Philip II of Spain, he commandeered mainly on the French front during the War of the Three Henrys and the Catholic League. In 1584, Basta gained his first major victory when his troops were blocking communications between Malines and Antwerp. Even in the Spanish defeat in Brussels in March 1585, the blockade of the city was achieved by Basta's troops. During the end of the year, the commissar general led the cavalry of the expeditionary body which at Charles de Mansfeld's orders rose to the moon. When the Catholics, in 1589, marched to retake Paris, it was the cavalry led by Basta who rescued the back of the Spanish army from the sudden attack of Henry of Navarre.

In 1590 he joined the forces of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma in Flanders. He returned to France in 1591, and partook in the siege of Rouen with the rank of Commander General of the cavalry. He however was almost killed by Sir Roger Williams, who sliced his neck in personal combat. In February 1592 he separated Navarre from his greater army and the prince fled capture by his forces. He was tasked with ensuring communications between Rouen and the Netherlands, which was massively threatened by the French army, and then protecting the retreat of the Spaniards after the injury of Alexander Farnese to Caudebec. In 1596, after the death of the Duke of Parma, Balta followed the fate of many Italian princes, and had to abandon the Spanish. He then went to the service of Emperor Rudolf II, on the recommendation of Philip II, and served as general master in the army of Archbishop Mattia, later deputy governor of Upper Hungary, and finally the commander of the armies of Hungary and Transylvania. Ambrogio Merodio in his Istoria Tarantina, calls him the "terror of Ottoman armies".

For more than a decade, Basta fought against Hungarians, Transylvanians, Vlachs, and Tatars, gaining much fame of one as the best generals of the Empire. In 1597 he was released, together with General Schwarzenberg, from Pápa, which was conquered three years earlier by the Turks. In 1597, while he was deputy governor of Hungary, he recaptured the city of Huszt, which had rebelled against the Empire.

At the Battle of Mirăslău, Michael the Brave was defeated by Basta, forcing Michael to appeal to the Emperor Rudolf II to mediate the dispute with Basta.

Under his command, his ally Michael the Brave, the former ruler of Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia, was assassinated at Keresztesmező camp, near Câmpia Turzii, because Basta considered him a liability. The event happened on 9 August 1601, only days after a joint victory in Battle of Guruslău. Following the murder of Michael and his victory over Báthory, Basta reached military commander of Transylvania, but his cruelty led to public discontent. Under his leadership, iniquities and murders are multiplied throughout Transylvania. During his brief period, Basta tried to uproot Protestantism. Following Papal and Imperial policy, Calvinist Hungarians and Székelys, Orthodox Wallachians and Serbs, and Lutheran Saxons were subject to any kind of abuse. Following years of warfare and his ruthless regime, famine and plague appeared in Transylvania. At that time Rudolf II decided to recall him from command, leading to Basta's departure from Transylvania and put him in charge to fight against the Ottomans of West Hungary(1604). He successfully defended Esztergom with his 10,000 mercenaries against 80,000 Ottomans.

After Bocskai's uprised army chased away Belgiojoso, Rudolph sent Basta from West-Hungary to the Partium to suppress the uprising. In November of 1604 Basta twice defeated forces led by Stephen Bocskai (see also: Bocskai Uprising). Bocskai at the end cut his supplies and he had to withdraw in winter to Eperjes where he got into trap. After some months Rudolph called him back to defend at first the mine towns (e.g. Besztercebánya) in Upper-Hungary, Moravia and Austria against Bocskai's looting armies.

In July of 1605 he did not get enough money to keep up enough mercenaries to defend Visegrád, Esztergom and Érsekújvár against the Ottomans and was defeated by Lalla Mehmed. The Military Committee didn't supply him enough money but Rudolph II made his Czech baron to compensate. The court became tired of the war and they started pushing aside Basta after Treaty of Vienna and Treaty of Zsitvatorok, and even didn't wanted to pay him their debt. He claimed 380,000 Thaler debt from the court (80 000 wages of mercenaries came from his own pocket). His last 4 years he did not get his payment and not even invited to the Military Committee.

After his experiences of warfare in Eastern Europe he went to Prague to live a quiet life; he died in the same city.

Basta wrote several military manuals, the best known of which are his Il maestro di campo generale...(Venice 1606), and his posthumous work Il governo della cavalleria leggiera (Venice 1612). Both were translated into German and into French.

Contributions and military Style

File:Zittende Victoria met Oorlog en Vrede Titelpagina voor Giorgio Basta, Il Governo Della Cavalleria Leggiera, 1616, RP-P-BI-5182.jpg

Giorgio Basta, Il Governo Della Cavalleria Leggiera: Trattato Che Concerne Anche quanto basta alla Grave per intelligenza de Capitani. Oppenheim: H. Galler, J.T. de Bry, 1616.

Basta was born into a period of transition from the tradition sword and shield to the gun. And cavalry switched from the Gendarme to lighter and armed cavalrymen, which valued quick cavalry charges. Due to influence from his father, he was a very strict observer of the rules, and the laws of a militia. When he worked for Alexander, Duke of Parma he was responsible for the renewal and restructuring of the cavalry weapon. However, during his early years, Basta experimented with his personal method of "mobile sculptures", which were small and numerous groups of cavalrymen who pushed in the forefront of the army, so as to create a complete "crown" in continuous movement; The method assured the army of sudden destructive capability and gave fruit in the French countryside.

The government of light cavalry is doubtless the most important work of Basta, as it represents the first organic regulation of light cavalry in Europe. Basta's theories led to the cavalry being releasing from its close ties with infantry, according to previous military tactics. To a degree, Basta's work is also largely anticipatory of further developments, especially in the concept of light cavalry being "the pupil of the armies" and in the reiterated need for a constant co-ordination of cavalry movements with those of other weapons : Theories, which influenced Raimondo Montecuccoli. Interesting remarks are made by Basta regarding the choice of cavalry officers to be performed not according to the nobility titles, but on a more meritocratic internship through the various degrees of the militia. He wants the captain to have absolute authority over all officers, "but always with the advice of the commissioner"; For the lieutenant requires a mature age, which can guarantee "credit and authority to the soldiers"; Young people must be the standard bearers, for the pursuit and adventurous spirit. Those carrying the banner must "have in their heads the guidance of all the others." Particular care is given by Basta on the question of the armament of the soldiers. The Blunderbuss should be equipped with an arbutus to carry with shoulder strap and a short sword, which allows to hit the tip, more timely and more effective, according to the dictation of the Italian school, rather than cutting. Among the Blunderbuss, who must be young and robust in shape, Basta estimates particularly Flemish to be best, not Italians, who prefer military in infantry.

The main quality of the lancers' wards must be, according to Basta, "velocity and collision velocity, i.e. velocity joint mass"; The gun armor is, besides the spear, a short sword for tip and picks that "can greatly benefit in retreat." On the "rules of residence", Basta illustrates the rules already dictated by Alessandro Farnese: the commissioner. It has to carry out topographic surveys and deal with all the logistical problems with the help of a "forier major", also providing the surveillance system for the equinox. Another important chapter is the one devoted to remote viewing, which Basta underlines as one of the main tasks of the cavalry. In this part, he sets out with great precision the various procedures to be followed to secure the large army of enemy surprises. Especially of personal experiences in the Netherlands and France, although he attributes the merit of introducing this use of cavalry to Duke of Alba. Finally, Basta deals with the tactical organization of light cavalry in combat, recommending the crescent moon, rather than the manipulative ones, in lines, in chessboard, in columns.

Gallery

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  Battle of Guruslău

• Georgius Basta.jpg

  17th century aquarell of Basta

• Via Giorgio Basta (Brindisi Montagna).jpg

  Street sign in Brindisi Montagna

See also

• Ottoman wars in Europe
• French Wars of Religion

External links

• Il mastro di campo generale (Venice, 1606) available on Internet Archive from Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma
  • German translation: Il maestro di campo generale, das ist: außfürliche Anzeig, Bericht und Erklärung von dem Ampt eines General-Feldt-Obersten (Frankfurt, 1617) available on Google Books from Austrian National Library
• Il governo della cavalleria leggiera (Venice, 1612) available on Internet Archive from Complutense University of Madrid (scans in reverse order)
  • German translation: Governo della cavalleria, Das ist, Bericht Von Anführung der leichten Pferde (Frankfurt, 1614) available on Google Books from Austrian National Library
• Basta György hadvezér levelezése és iratai.[Giorgio Basta military leader's letters and documents]. II. Volume. 1602-1607 Editor and translator[most of the letter are in Italian, German and Latin, some of them in 16th century Hungarian]: Dr. Veress, Endre. Budapest, 1913. Akadémiai Kiadó 974. p