Valerio Korvini

[Cristina]

Valerio Korvini, nephew of the doge of Modena Jon Baptista Korvini, is recorded as a member of the Royal Mantellan sloop Gabbiano, which sailed from Saint Chist in 1584. During the course of the voyage, Valerio conspired with some other crew members to attempt a mutiny aboard the ship which, upon doing so, stated their intentions to sail southward as pirates. Aldo Lanini was elected captain and eventually had several ships. Valerio commanded one of these, the brigantine Grandi Speranze.

During the night of 18 April 1586, Lanini's ships headed for the @Bainbridge Islandsbut Korvini and his crew in the Grandi Speranze slipped away in the night and continued to operate in the Konstantinopoli Sea. Between Byzantium Nova and @Miiros, the Grandi Speranze plundered two vessels. Aboard one, the Kyria, Valerios's crew committed a cruel murder against a Byzantium Nova's noblewoman passenger. Afterwards they stopped to careen their vessel.

 

A rare depiction of Valerio Korvini (1586).

 

Continuing onward towards Miiros, Valerio Korvini spotted a treasure ship out from Orthen heading towards the Bainbridge Islands, Western Star. After its capture, the ship was outfitted with weapons and placed in the command of ships gunner Juliano Tiro, Valerio opting to retain command of the smaller Grandi Speranze. because of her superior handling. The two ships continued to sail and attacking along the southeastern coast of the Miirosi Eisadai island until fighting began to break out among many of the forced crew members, and they decided to petition Miirosi and Mantellan authorities for a pardon, claiming they had been forced into piracy by Valerio and Lanini.

Sailing to a small island in the Bainbridge Islands, the crew awaited a reply from the Miirosi and Mantellan governments for nine months until August 1587, when they received news from their courier ship that their pleas had been ignored, and the king Armandi II of Mantella had sent Admiral Tulio Fiati to eradicate the pirates. On their southward course they encountered the Southern Meteorolas, where the Western Star ran aground and, as the survivors were being rescued by the Grandi Speranze, the pirates were sighted and pursued by HMS Santorini and HMS Avventura. Valerio Korvini was forced to cut his anchor cable and run, finally making his escape under oars when the fresh wind subsided. Valerio Korvini lost more than forty of his men on Southern Meteorolas, most of these being captured by a landing party from the two Mantellan Navy vessels, under the command of Fiati.

Modern day replica of Valerio's ship Grandi Speranze

Valerio Korvini and Juliano Tiro (who had been rescued from Southern Meteorolas before Fiati’s interference) now sailed to the Bay of Honolulu and careened on an offshore island, capturing three or four prizes en route and augmenting their depleted crew from their captives. Valerio next sailed through the Azure Sea for @Orioni in early 1588. On the way, he captured a Pirilao’s sloop named Croaker, which he added to his squadron, and then a longship, which was entrusted to Juliano Tiro.

The pirates put in at Orinese port of Vega in April 1588, intending to careen their new vessels, and having just started the task, they were surprised by an Orinese warship that was already hunting the pirates advised by Pirilao's merchants. Valerio Korvini and his men were forced to burn the ship and the sloop and flee along the island's southern coast, but the Orinese overtook and captured them. Valerio escaped again in his swift Grandi Speranze, but his crew, discouraged by their losses, murdered him as he slept in his hammock, and took prisoner all who remained loyal. The mutineers then surrendered to Miirosi authorities in Airae o Maesaeloria and taken to Orthen where they received amnesty and their prisoners were hanged.

Despite his ruthless cruelty and his cold-blooded nature, Valerio Korvini's life of piracy has been romanticized by several writers through the centuries, primarily as part of Cristinese nationalist movements or as a means of "heroification" of the name Korvini.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Cristina (see edit history)