D URING THE YEARS 1615-18 the Uskok War was waged in northeastern Italy between the Republic of Venice, supported by mercenary troops from England, Holland, and the Protestant regions of the empire, and the Catholic forces mustered in support of Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, soon to become king of Bohemia and second German emperor of that name. The immediate occasion, providing the name for this conflict, was the activity of the piratical Uskoks, descendants of the military colonists settled in Croatia by the first emperor Ferdinand. It is to the history of these men and their relations with Venice that this article is devoted. The Uskoks, a name commonly used during the sixteenth century for the hardy and warlike Christian refugees fronm the Tuikish occupied areas of the Balkans, originally were settled in Croatia-Slavonia to provide the Hapsburg lands with a cheap but effective screen against Turkish incursions.' Freed by special charters from the usual manorial obligations, the Uskoks were liable to continuous military service as frontier guards and light troops. Starting with a