To the Most Honorable Council of Elders of the Republic of Ancona,

 

I hope this letter finds you will.

There is no way that it has escaped your attention the domineering gaze that so many powers seem to have when looking over our Fair peninsula in recent years. Between the Austrians and French sending thousands of men to their deaths over who will control Milan, to the Aragonese takeover of Naples, forcing Siena into their fold, and their marriages across most of the peninsula giving them claim to nations from Milan to Urbino, and of course the Papal State taking a far more aggressive policy and sending their bastard son in Romagna to destroy the fair city of Bologna, no one seems to care about the institutions that make Italy so great.

However, unlike the other powers that be, Venice has, at minimum, attempted to keep alive the people that have found themselves asking for protection. When Bologna found themselves at the mercy of Papal and Aragonese forces they asked Venice for help, and we sent twenty thousand men to try and hold them off. When the Duke of Ferrara and Modena overrode the will of his nobles and let France waltz their way into Italy, Venice went in and gave the nobles more rights over their own Duchy than they had ever had before, all under the protection of the Republic. And since that point, Venice has invested nearly half a million florins in the defense, connections, and other upgrades to the Peninsula .

It is with this in mind that we reach out to a fellow Republic with an offer of protection. Let us invest in a massive citadel on Astango hill from where we can come to the defense of your great city from any who would wish to take away your rights and abilities to rule yourselves. We will guarantee your ruling traditions and pledge the full might of the republic to defending you militarily, in exchange for an alignment of foreign priorities, synchronizing trade practices, elimination of mercantile barriers, and a nominal protection fee.

We hope you consider this offer closely, and look forward to hearing your response.

 

Yours in faith,

Leonardo Loredan, Serenissimo Principe de Serenìsima Repùblica Vèneta e Duca di Modena e Reggio