The Papal Navy (Italian: Marina Pontificia, "Pontifical Navy"; Latin: Classis Pontificiae)[2] was the maritime force of the Papal States. Loosely constituted, it was sporadically extant from approximately the Battle of Ostia (849) during the pontificate of Leo IV until the ascension of Pope Leo XIII in 1878 (though the Navy had ceased all operations in 1870), when he sold the last remaining Papal warship, the Immacolata Concezione.
The Papal Navy was separate from the Papal Army, a varying combination of volunteers, mercenaries, and Catholic military orders, being disbanded in 1870. The modern Vatican City State does not maintain any formal naval or maritime forces; however, it does maintain a paramilitary police force, the Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City as well as the militarized Swiss Guard, responsible for the close protection of the Pontiff and other dignitaries of Vatican City, as well as providing a uniformed guard of honour across the city-state.
Originally protected by the Byzantine navy, the Papal States found themselves in need of a naval force of their own following a Muslim raid on Rome in 843 and the sack of the city's basilicas extra muros in 846. Under the leadership of Caesar, prince of Naples, a force of Neapolitan, Amalfitan, Gaetan, and Papal ships repulsed the pirates off Ostia in 849.
Later, the Papal States subsidized various fleets during the Crusades and outfitted some squadrons of their own, which participated with Venice and others against the Ottoman Empire following the fall of Constantinople. With hired and affiliated ships from Tuscany and Malta, one Papal squadron participated in the Battle of Lepanto. Papal ships often assisted the Republic of Venice in her wars with the Ottoman Empire.
In 1715, Pope Clement XI constructed the Pontifical Arsenal near Porta Portese in Ripa Grande on the Tiber.[3] By 1793, the Papal squadron at Civitavecchia consisted of five galleys, two coast guard vessels, four launches, eight gunboats, and a stove boat.[4] In 1798, Napoleon conquered the Papal States, capturing the entire Papal fleet and pressing its ships into French service for his Egyptian campaign.[4][5] In 1799, the Sanfedismos invaded Napoleonic Rome, liberating the Papal States and restoring pontifical sovereignty over its ports. In 1802, following the disastrous end of his Egyptian campaign, Napoleon donated two brigs to Pope Pius VII and the restored Papal Navy: the somewhat aged Saint Paul, and the brand-new Saint Pierre. Under the names San Paolo and San Pietro they sat in the arsenal at Civitavecchia until 1806, when San Paolo was struck and San Pietro recaptured by Napoleon, who returned it to the French navy where it served until being struck in 1813.
Pontifical ships were protected by international treaty in 1819, but the navy only slowly recovered from the seizure of its vessels during the Napoleonic Wars. One was captured by Muslim pirates in 1826, but following a show of force by two frigates and a sloop-of-war from Piedmont under Captain Arnous, the Bey of Tripoli freed the ship with 10,600 francs compensation.[6]
By 1823, the navy comprised the 12-gun schooner San Pietro, a cutter, a felucca, and a pinnace.[7] Another twelve patrol boats armed with mortars performed coast guard duties in two squadrons, eight vessels in the Adriatic Sea and four in the Tyrrhenian. Lt. Col. Alessandro Cialdi directed an expedition to Egypt and then led three British steamers to Rome for navigation on the Tiber.[7] A fourth steamer, the Roma, participated during the unrest of 1848, opposing the Austrian siege of Ancona. A fifth steamer, the San Paolo, would eventually be added, and at the time of its capture in 1860 became the Sardinian (and later, Italian) Navy's first steam-powered ship (the three steamers Garibaldi used in his Expedition were all merchant ships his supporters had rented).[8]
In 1856, the separate Navy (Marina da Guerra), Finance Navy (Marina di Finanza), and Tiber Navy (Marina del Tevere) administrations were combined into the Pontifical Navy (Marina Pontificia).
As part of his break from the diplomatic policies of Pope Pius IX, Leo XIII sold off the last ship in the Papal Navy, the corvette Immacolata Concezione, during his first year in office. As the papacy had already been confined to Vatican City following the capture of Rome, it had been docked at Toulon, France.[9] Its flag and a scale model of the vessel are in the Vatican Historical Museum in the Lateran Palace, Rome.
...apostolic legate, governor-general, captain and general condottiere...
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