The red insignia with the black eagle and the cross of Saint Andrew was a gift by his Caesarean Majesty Emperor Maximilian for Captain general of the Leggeri cavalry (MDX).[6]
As accounted by Giovanni Andrea Saluzzo, Lord of Castellar who participated in the Battle of Novara in 1500 as a trusted man of the marquessLudovico II of Saluzzo against the Duke of MilanLudovico il Moro, the Albanian captain Mercurio, who at that time was serving the Duke of Milan, was captured in Novara by a certain Duncan after the defeat of Ludovico il Moro. Taken into the prisons of Castellar for a few weeks, Mercurio was then liberated by Giovanni Andrea Saluzzo in June 6, 1500.[13]
Later, placed under the French insignia, he participated in the war against the Spaniards in the Kingdom of Naples and was involved in the Battle of the Garigliano, in recognition of his enterprises, the Bua was invested by the King Louis XII of France of the fiefs of Aquino and Roccasecca. In 1506, however, he was in the army of the Chaumont, with which he fought against the Bolognese family of Bentivoglio, regaining the Felsineo capital to the sovereignty of the papal (Pope Julius II then granted him the sum of 1,000 florins as a reward for this enterprises). After other military actions in Lombardy and Piedmont, he went to Liguria, where, in 1507, he quelled the anti-French revolt that broke out in Genoa, decapitating the rebellious doge Paolo da Novi. In that same year, he was with Louis XII on his solemn entry into Milan. In 1508, however, he was hired by Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg and sent to Flanders under the command of 400 stradiots: he first clashed with the troops of the Duke of Guelders, then took part in the War of Succession in Landshut, Bavaria.
Bua was described as having been
a grim-looking soldier, with a rough beard which brushed his cuirass, his head covered with a skull-cap, like the modern Greek capote, rallied his troopers in the open space, and brought them down upon the Huguenots with the speed of greyhounds.[14]
A letter written by Bua has survived. He wrote it in June 17, 1506 and directed to the treasury administration of the court of France as the capitaine de cent hommes de guerre de cheval albanoys ("Captain of 100 Albanian cavalrymen and men-of-war") in relation to the payment of his company.[15]
The armorial of Mercurio Bua features within the shield, on the upper right corner, an azure insignia with the eagle displayed in dexter position, belonging to the Despot of Argyrokastron, whose realm bears the symbols of the House of Bua.[16]
His Albanian stratioti were described as the best cavalry of the age, supported by the fact that they were always employed by European monarchs.[17] Himself Bua was ranked as one of the best generals in Italy.[5] In 1515, Bua was given the command of all the stratioti of Venetian army, which caused unrest among the Greek officers.[18]
Starting in 1509, after the outbreak of the Third Italian War (also called the War of the League of Cambrai), he returned to Italy, carrying out looting and raids precisely in the territories of that Venetian Republic that had first welcomed him: his raids are known in the country of Bassano, Soave, Caldiero, Cittadella, Castelfranco, Nervesa and near the hills of Montello; he conquered the castles of Lonigo (where he carried out a horrible massacre by massacring more than 1,500 inhabitants and setting fire to their homes). On May 9 of that year he participated in the famous battle of Agnadello, overwhelming the troops of the Venetian leader Bartolomeo d'Alviano.[19] He also took part in the siegies of Padua (1509) and Treviso (1511). It is perhaps in this period (in 1510) that Maximilian of Habsburg gave Bua the title of count of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Bua became famous, in these years, also for the capture of the castle of Quero (1509), a Venetian fortress built along the Piave at the foot of the Bellunese Prealpi: a Greek celebratory poem of the sixteenth century tells that the Bua threw himself swimming into the river, followed by his own, bypassing the defenders and taking them by surprise. Prisoner of excellence was the captain of the castle, Gerolamo Emiliani, belonging to the patrician family of the Miani, who, chained and forced to follow the stradriots of Bua in their raids in the upper Trevigian, he would then be miraculously freed. Returning to Treviso after his imprisonment, the Miani brought in ex-voto his chains (still visible today) to the venerated fresco of the Madonna and Child, in the church of Santa Fosca in Santa Maria Maggiore.[20]
He distinguished himself in the battle of Creazzo against the Spaniards, receiving the praise of Alviano and thus earning access to the Collegio dei Savi. In 1514 he moved towards Polesine and reconquered Rovigo, taking the Spanish commissioner prisoner; later he carried out other brilliant military operations against Spaniards and Germans, capturing weapons and horses from the enemy. After having sacked the country of Trento, he entered Este and subsequently flanked Alviano in the new reconquest of Rovigo, previously reoccupied by the Spaniards: the General Domenico Contarini praised again its audacity. In September 1515 it was, however, on the field of the famous battle of Marignano, where Venetians and French resent the Swiss across the Alps, it seems that on this occasion, with a heroic action of his stradiotts, he managed to save the life of the king of France, present on the battlefield under the command of its troops. That same evening, the sovereign would have embraced him by publicly acclaiming him as his own savior.[21]
Mercurio Bua died in Treviso, (Italy) between 1542 and 1545, where earlier he served as captain of a unit of 50 soldiers.[22] He is buried in Santa Maria Maggiore in the same city near the tomb of his wife. In 1562 a marble monument was erected on his tomb, made by Antonio Lombardo. In 1637 the following inscription was made on the monument:
Mercurio Bua Comiti E. Principibus Peloponnesi Epirotarum Equitum Ductori, Anno Salu. MDCXXXVII.
Which means "To Count Mercurio Bua, Prince of Peloponnesus, Leader of the Epirote Horsemen, Year of our Salvation, 1637".
The monument also lists some of his military career.[23][24]
Marriages and children
His first marriage was in 1519 to Maria Boccali, the daughter of Niccolò Boccali and princess Katerina Arianiti.[25] The couple had a son named Flavio Bua.[26] Maria always lived in Venice, even when Mercurio served the Holy Roman Empire.[25] She died in 1524 and was buried in Santa Maria di Treviso. In 1525, Mercurio married Elisabetta Balbi, daughter of Alvise Balbi. With her Mercurio had four children: Elena Maria, Curio, Polissena and Alessandro. Elisabetta died in or before 1528.[4]
In culture
The life of Bua had been dramatised in the works of Tzanes Koronaios (Zanetto Coroneo). Koronaios, who had been stradiotti-troubadour of Zantiote origin, was a companion of Mercurio Bua.[27] In his work, a long epic poem in vernacular Greek on the exploits, bravery and military victories of Mercurio Bua, Koronaios gives Bua's mythological pedigree, which includes Achilles, Alexander the Great and Pyrrhus.[28] A possible answer on why this work was written in Greek and not in Italian or even medieval Albanian would be that the close environment of Mercurio Bua spoke primarily Greek, retained its Byzantine traditions and cultural identity.[29] In this work he was praised as "chosen among the Hellenes" or in another verse as "rampart of the Albanians"[30]
This poem was found in a manuscript in Italy and was published partially by C. Hopf and in its entirety by Constantine Sathas. It was written in 1519 when Koronaios was in Venice and refers to Bua's history till 1517. It consists of about 4.500 rhyming verses and contains valuable historical information. Koronaios wrote and sent to Bua also a smaller poem (“pittakion”) of about 125 verses in Greek language, too.[31][32]
Another mention of a Mercurio Bua exists in the Histoire des guerres civiles de France by Enrico Caterino Davila. There a man named Mercurio Bua was active in the service of the king of France in the 1580s. He was present as a commander of a unit of light cavalry at the Battle of Coutras in 1587, leading an ill-fated cavalry charge that led to his unit being diverted away from the decisive action, thus contributing to a catastrophic defeat of the royal army.[33] Nevertheless, it is unknown if it is the same person.
^Institutul de Istorie și Arheologie "A.D. Xenopol." (1987). Anuarul Institutului de Istorie și Arheologie "A.D. Xenopol.". Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România. p. 91. Intre acestia, un loc insemnat 1-a ocupat Mercurio Buia, ajuns la inceputul secolului XVI in serviciul imparatului Maximilian de Habsburg, care l-a primit in rindul contilor imperiului. ... Familiei Buia (Bua)...; Magazin istoric. 1994. p. 62. Mercurio Buia („Bua" — socotit „albanez") a dobândit în serviciul împăratului Maximilian de Habsburg; Valente, Francesca (28 September 2014). "San Girolamo Emiliani sarà patrono di Quero Vas". Corriere delle Alpi. Retrieved 1 June 2020. Il 27 agosto dello stesso anno il forte fu raggiunto da 3 mila fanti francesi inviati da Jacques de La Palice (proprio l'ispiratore dell'aggettivo "lapalissiano") che guidati dal capitano di ventura Mercurio Buia conquistarono la fortezza, uccidendo tutti i soldati nemici, tranne Girolamo e due capitani bellunesi.; (Bujduveanu 1997, p. 91):"1495 = Familia Buia a dat din acest an până la finele secolului al XVI-lea opt căpitani de armatoli. Mercuriu Buia trece în Italia cu vreo..."; (Giurescu & Giurescu 1976, pp. 395, 405):"Familia Buia a dat de la 1495 pînă la finele secolului al XVI-lea nu mai puţin de opt căpitani, dintre care Mercuriu Buia a avut o deosebită însemnătate....Buia, Mercuriu - capitan".
^ abcRicciardi Maria Luisa (1989) Lorenzo Lotto, "Il Gentiluome della Galleria Borghese", Artibus et Historiae, vol. 10, No 19, p. 96. Available through JSTOR.)
^Sathas, Konstantinos (1867). Hellenika anekdota (1 ed.). University of Crete Library: Τύποις του Φωτός. pp. 5–9.
^Gramaticopolo 2016, p. 47: "Pietro Bua, di nobile famiglia albanese trapiantata nel Peloponneso, considerato dalla comunità albanese della regione come loro capo dopo la caduta del despotato di Morea."
^Floristán 2019, p. 10: "Dalle notizie del 1457, conosciamo i fratelli Alessio e Giovanni Bua uno dei quali fu padre di Pietro Bua, a sua volta padre di Mercurio Bua, famoso condottiero e capitano degli stradioti nei primi decenni del sec. XVI."
^Zorzi, Renzo; Cini.", Fondazione "Giorgio (2002). Le metamorfosi del ritratto (in Italian). L.S. Olschki. p. 164. ISBN978-88-222-5147-3. as the greek condottiere Mercurio Bua who was resident in Treviso
^Bugh, Glenn Richard (2002). "Andrea Gritti and the Greek Stradiots of Venice in the Early 16th Century". Thēsaurismata tou Hellēnikou Institoutou Vyzantinōn kai Metavyzantinōn Spoudōn: 93. Retrieved 16 April 2021. In any case , there is no evidence to disprove Barbarigo ' s testimony that Teodoro Paleologo , 54 perhaps the most famous Greek stradiot - captain ( outside of Mercurio Bua )
^Comba 2005, p. 177:"Giovanni Andrea Saluzzo Castellar, egli stesso condomino di numerosi feudi, fiero della sua consanguineità col marchese, e contemporaneamente uomo di corte (...uomo di fiducia di Ludovico II...)"; p. 218: "Giovanni Andrea Saluzzo di Castellar racconta come alcuni anni dopo, partiti per parteciare alla presa di Novara, lui stesso e il marchese..."; p. 302: "L'autore narra anche un episodio del giugno 1500 che lo riguarda personalmente: la liberazione di Mercurio Bua Albanese, capitano di 500 stradiotti arruolato dal duca di Milano, preso a Novara insieme al Moro da tale Duncan scozzese. Tradotto nelle prigioni private del Castellar per alcune settimane, fece amicizia con il suo carceriere."
^ abBassani 2008, p. 159: "...nonché anche le vicende dello stradiota Mercurio Bua, ammogliato in prime nozze anch'egli con una Boccali, Maria, vissuta sempre a Venezia, anche quando Bua militava con gli imperiali.
^Zečević, Nada (2019). "Restoration, Reconstruction and Union: memories of home in the stratiot poetry of Antonio Molino". Radovi: Zavoda za Hrvatsku Povijest Filozofskoga Fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu. 51 (1): 165. doi:10.17234/RadoviZHP.51.8. Among such works we find the elegant rhymes of Greek Humanist Michael Tarchaniota Marullus (b. ca. 1458–1500), the heroic poems of Tsanes Koronaios which glorify the famed Albanian commander of the Venetian army, Mercurio Bua (fl. late 15th/early 16th c.), the comprehensive cycles of the oral tradition of Albanian stratiots in Southern Italy and Slavic peasant-fighters from Venetian Dalmatia (uskoci) – but also plays by Italian comedy writers that utilised the stratiot tradition to win the interest of their popular Italian audiences.
^Of the various people called Pyrrhus, the most likely candidates would seem to be the mythological Neoptolemus, son of Achilles and king of Epirus, and the historically-documented King Pyrrhus of Epirus.
^Korre, Katerina (2018). Μισθοφόροι stradioti της Βενετίας: πολεμική και κοινωνική λειτουργία (15ος-16ος αιώνας) (Thesis) (in Greek). Greece: Ionian University. p. 412. Εντύπωση προκαλεί το γεγονός ότι το έργο γράφτηκε στην ελληνική γλώσσα και όχι στην ιταλική ή ακόμα στη μεσαιωνική αλβανική. Μία απάντηση θα ήταν ότι ο κύκλος του Μερκούρη Μπούα μιλούσε πρωτίστως ελληνικά, είχε βυζαντινή κουλτούρα και πολιτισμικές καταβολές.
^Fattori, Niccolò (7 May 2019). Migration and Community in the Early Modern Mediterranean: The Greeks of Ancona, 1510-1595. Springer. p. 13. ISBN978-3-030-16904-6. Ethnic and confessional boundaries in the early modern Mediterranean could be extraordinary blurred, especially withint the same cultural sphere, and , and for example the Stradiot captain Mercurio Bua was celebrated as "chosen among the Hellenes / rampart of the Albanians" within the same stanza of a poem without anyone seeing anything contradictory about it
^Hopf Charles (1873) Ex Jannis Coronei Rebus a Mercurio Bua gestis, in Chroniques Greco-Romanes, Librairie de Weidmann, Berlin, pp 367- 370. (Contains the first 136 verses).
Floristán, José M. (2019). "Stradioti albanesi al servizio degli Asburgo di Spagna (I): le famiglie albanesi Bua, Crescia e Renesi". Shêjzat – Pleiades (1–2).
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