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Introduction During Untitled By: Mike Dielman Introduction During a morning of blazing heat of the first July 1571 shouting of joy everywhere in Barcelona could be heard. 47 galleys were about to weigh the anchor in the port. The leading ship was the Reale and the supreme-commander Juan d 'Austria went on board. It was not his intention to inspect the fleet but to make himself familiar with the ship. The Reale build in the shipyards of Barcelona was kept in the colors of Don Juan: Red and Gold. The ship was heavily decorated with splendid ornamentation which made it an impressive flagship. At the quays people were congratulating the young prince of 23 years on leading one of the most important naval enterprises in European history.
A beautiful day- but it ended with a humiliation for the hero. At the time Don Juan returned to his domicile in the evening he found a letter of Philipp II who was his royal half-brother. He prohibited him to carry the title of sublimity because this status only should belong to one excellency. This was also a rude reminder of his illegitimate origin. (Jean Descola, Meilensteine der Geschichte, 1990, Verlag Hersching The Supreme Commander DON JUAN DE AUSTRIA, ENGLISH LORD JOHN OF AUSTRIA, illegitimate son of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V and half brother of King Philip II of Spain. Removed from his mother, a bourgeois daughter, at an early age, he was brought up in concealment in Spain. After the death of Charles V, Philip II of Spain recognized him as his half brother, provided him with a substantial household, and gave him the name Don Juan de Austria (1559).
Though it was hoped that he would enter the church, the handsome and spirited Don Juan expressed a desire to embark on a military career, and Philip acceded to his wishes. In the summer of 1568 Don Juan had his first brief experience in warfare, fighting Moorish pirates in the Mediterranean, and he was then appointed in March 1569 commander in chief of Spanish forces attempting to subdue the rebellious Moors, or Christians of Moorish ancestry, in Granada. Philip then appointed him in 1571 to head the naval forces of the Holy League of Spain, Venice, and the pope against the Ottoman Turks in the eastern Mediterranean. (Britannica Online, 1999, web) Even though he left his mark in history as the winner of Lepanto, he surely was not the only actor on the scene. Many others have played its part before, during and after the battle, whose prologue began in Venice Venice The only city which still could make independent politics remained Venice which governed itself with changing luck since the 9 th century.
The story of Venice could be compared to a trader epic. The streets of Venice were shimmering of silk and scents of spices waving through the markets. The venetian traders were the inventors of a solid trading ship and dominated the im- and export business. Over centuries as a main supplier for products from the east and ruler of a sea-empire it was partially only possible by force of arms. The Venetian maritime territory reached over Istria the coast of Dalmatia, the Ionic isles and Crete. In the 15 th century Venice decided not only to expand on sea but also on land.
The Venetian victory over Genoa took place under the threat of Turkish advance in the East. The Venetian had to negotiate a state of neutrality with the Turks and find another economic base to compensate for the smaller yield now to be expected from trade with the East. So they turned to the Italian mainland, first to rid themselves of neighboring lordships and then to defend and exploit the rich lands they had acquired. Later Venice received from the Turkish sultan in Istanbul the trade monopoly in the organic empire and annexed 1489 the isle of Cyprus which has been a center of Christian, Latin culture and major trading place since the conquer ation of the crusaders. Since this year Venice ruled over the whole east Mediterranean Sea through and sent ambassadors to all European courts which its political fame increased. (Jean Descola, Meilensteine der Geschichte, 1990, Verlag Hersching) It can be said that Venetian policy in the 16 th century was dictated by the need to keep intact its political, economic, and territorial heritage against the advance of the Turks on the one side and the pressure of the great western European powers on the other. This need supplied the reason for Venice's intervention in the Italian crisis of the emperor Charles V; for its struggle against the Turks, from the defeat of Pr&execute; very in 1538 to the victory of Lepanto and the loss of Cyprus in 1571; and for its tenacious resistance to pressure from the pope. (Britannica Online, 1999, we Philipp II In the year of the battle of Lepanto PilippII came to the high point of his power and Spain to highest fame.
Even though he might not have inherited the hegemony in Europe which his father Karl V has conquered but lost again, so he didn't recognize his country as a part of the Holy Roman Empire but as self-dependent power. The Netherlands, Mexico and Peru belonged to him. At the same time he ruled over Naples and Sicily which gave him quite a big influence in Italy. (Jean Descola, Meilensteine der Geschichte, 1990, Verlag Hersching Political Situation in Turkey In Turkey the place of Suleiman I was taken by his son Selim II, became SARI (THE BLOND), Ottoman sultan from 1566, whose reign saw peace in Europe and Asia and the rise of the Ottomans to dominance in the Mediterranean but marked the beginning of the decline in the power of the sultans. He was unable to impose his authority over the Janissaries and was overruled by the women of his harem.
Selim, the son of S&url; layman I the Magnificent, came to the throne in the wake of palace intrigues and bitter civil strife with his brothers. He was more inclined to a life of pleasure than to the difficult task of governing, and he entrusted the affairs of state to his able grand vizier (chief minister) and son-in-law, Mehmed SokolluThe Ultimatum The fact that Cyprus was occupied by Christians bothered the ruler of Turkey because it was an obstacle for Turkish shipping. He send an Ultimatum to Venice and requested them to clear the island. If they wouldn't do it voluntarily he threatened them with war. In Venice this request was considered to be outrageous, impudent and rejected the claim with reference to the peace agreement made years before. In July 1570 turkey lead a squadron to attack Cyprus which commenced hostilities.
How did Spain react? While Venice was only interested to keep its territorial property under control, Philip II intended to conquer the coast lines of North-Africa. Despite Spain and Venice were not well-disposed, mistrusted each other and had followed different principles, the occasion was enough to form a community of common interests against the Islamic world. To make it a military pact a moral justification was needed which should be announced by a neutral and unquestioned party.
Pope Pius V whose original name was ANTONIO GHISLIERI, Italian ascetic, reformer, and relentless persecutor of heretics, whose papacy (1566 - 72) marked one of the most austere periods in Roman Catholic church history. During his reign, the Inquisition was successful in eliminating Protestantism in Italy, and the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545 - 63) were put into effect. Pope Pius V gave them the induce. He increased the value of a possible war as crusade against the infidels. The zealot Philip II and Venice founded the Holy League The Holy League The Holy League- the contract between Spain and Venice- approved by the pope contained a declaration of war to the Os manic Empire as well as to the Barbary-States of North-Africa, Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli. The contract contained the regulations for the military stake as well as agreements From splitting the costs.
The campaign was guided by three commanders, one venetian, one Spanish and a substitute of the papal court. The holy fathers emphasized wish was to make Juan d'Austria the supreme commander as Dux Generalis. (Jean Descola, Meilensteine der Geschichte, 1990, Verlag Hersching The Preparations At the 20 of May 1571 the alliance was put into action and two month later the galleys consisting out of two groups of 11 and 37 ships left the harbor. They headed to Genoa and then further to Messina on Sicily which was the melting pot for the squadrons. Don John of Austria met his fleet off Messina and saw that he had 300 ships, great and small, under his command. The Pope himself had outfitted twelve galleys and the depth of his war chest had paid for many more. Don Johns eye must have gazed with pride on the 80 galleys and 22 other ships that had been provided by his half-brother Philip II of Spain.
Each of these Spanish galleys held a hundred soldiers on top of the 50 - 200 rowers who propelled the ship through the water and no less than 30, 000 men in the service of Spain would fight at Lepanto. The next largest contingent was that of Venice. No longer the dominating power of yesteryear the Venetian could still assemble a fleet of more than a hundred vessels beneath the winged Lion of St. Mark standard. The Venetian ships were poorly manned, however, and the necessity of stationing Spanish soldiers on Venetian ships led to friction and in some cases blows. It was the Venetian, however, who provided the technological cutting edge that was to win the battle.
In the Venetian fleet were six galleass es. Broader in the beam than regular galleys and with a deeper draught they were so difficult to maneuver that they had to be towed into battle by speedier vessels. Despite their lethargy of movement, they were the most powerful ships in the Mediterranean. Their broad beam and deeper draught gave them a stability as a gun platform hitherto unknown. On their prow was constructed a kind of walled platform mounted with swivel guns that presaged the armored turrets of later battleships by almost 300 years. The sides and the stern of the galleass were also heavily armed and a wooden deck protected the rowers.
On its bow there was a long point that could effectively crush any smaller vessel that was unfortunate enough to be in the galleass way. A total of 80, 000 men manned the ships of the Holy League. Of these 50, 000 toiled at the oars and the remaining 30, 000 were soldiers. On September 17 th 1571, Don John moved his fleet eastwards and at Corfu they heard that the Turks had recently landed and terrorized the Christian population. They then moved on and as they lay anchored off the coast of Cephalonia, bad news reached them. Famagusta, the last Christian stronghold on Cyprus had fallen to the Turks.
The news enraged the men of Don Johns fleet and stiffened the resolve of the commanders to engage the Muslims as quickly as possible. There was one other piece of disturbing news: the Turkish fleet under the command of Ali Pasha had been reinforced by a Calabrian fisherman turned Moslem and corsair. His name was Uluch Ali and he was now the Bey of Algiers, that notorious nest of the Moslem corsairs feared by all Christian ships plying their trade in the Mediterranean. Don John moved his force towards the anchorage of Lepanto where he knew the Turks to be waiting and during the night of October 6 th, with a favorable wind behind him, Ali Pasha moved his fleet westward toward the mouth of the Gulf of Patras and the approaching ships of them Holy League. (Alex's Military History Homepage, 1999, we The Battle The action that was to follow was the biggest naval engagement anywhere on the globe since the Battle of Actium in 30 B.
C. at which Octavian and Antonius once fought for the survival of the Roman Empire. And the tactics had changed little since then. Both commanders hoped to rapidly come to grips with their enemy, board them and let the soldiers fight it out to the end. The only major difference was that in 1571 the ships carried guns and those on the galleass es in particular would have a crucial effect. When the Turkish fleet was sighted Don John split his force into three sections.
On the right of the Christian line he placed the Venetian under Barbarrigo, on the left Andrea Doria leading the Genoese and papal galleys. The center he took for himself. In reserve was Santa Cruz with a force of 35 Spanish and Venetian ships. He also ordered the iron rams to be removed from his ships as he knew that gunfire and close quarter fighting would be of more use than attempts to ram.
Two galleass es were towed into position in front of each Christian division. The Turks, initially arrayed in a giant crescent-shaped formation, quickly separated into three sections also. The centre, under Ali Pasha, pushed forward and the action opened when the cannon of Don Johns two center galleass es began to do great execution among Ali Pashas advancing ships. The engagement had lasted for more than four hours and when the smoke finally cleared it became apparent that this was a major victory for the Holy League and a bitter defeat for the Turk. Almost 8, 000 of the men who had sailed with Don John were dead and another 16, 000 wounded. On the brighter side 12, 000 Christian galley slaves had been released from their servitude to the Ottomans.
The Turks and Uluch Alis Algerines had suffered more grievously: 25, 000 of them had been killed. (Alex's Military History Homepage, 1999, web) 10. The Outcome Even though the victory was evident and spectacular it should be mentioned that not all of the Turkish fleet was destroyed. The Algerian Uluch Ali managed to escape with a group of 40 ships. And one of his fellows put the victory as following: They only cropped the Sultan's beard. Indeed, how fast they would recover could be seen in the Turkish shipyards.
Still the 7 th of October was a memorable date but in its effects changing and quite different for everyone. Venice felt the liberation of the Turkish threat directly. It could keep ist political independence but lost its dominating position in trade. In the year after the battle the driven out ships from Levante stopped running into the ports of the north. In a medium-term it supported the expansion of England's trade with the organic empire.
Ten years after the battle, British trade fleets crossed regularly the Mediterranean Sea under its flag of the Levante Company, to trade with the Turks. With regard to Spain it could be said they were freed from the Turkish threat for a long term and the feared engagement of the French and Turkish fleet was made impossible due to the battle. Despite all assumptions Philipp II was not upset with the break-up of the Holy League. He may have wanted to save Venice from the Turkish threat but the victory was not supposed to be so devastating for the Turks. This way some balance could be reached and prevented to make Venice politically too strong for Philipp's plans. He hoped to incorporate his Italian properties into his empire at a later time.
Furthermore, his worry was not be involved into the Holy League too much but at the end the Spanish finances were exhausted and loans from Genuine Banks were a burden on its treasury. In his zeal to fight the infidels and being convenient for its finances he confiscated the property of Jews and Moors driven out of Spain at these times. (Jean Descola, Meilensteine der Geschichte, 1990, Verlag Hersching) The strategic effects of this great victory were negligible, but its moral effects were immense. It confirmed the Spaniards in their chosen role as champions of Christendom and explains much of their continued willingness to support their kings religious and imperial policies, even in the face of ruinous costs and mounting disasters. After Lepanto, however, it became clear that the stalemate in the Mediterranean could not be broken. Although the Ottoman navy was destroyed by the fleet of the Holy League at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), it was able to rebuild and regain naval mastery in the eastern Mediterranean through the rest of the 16 th and most of the 17 th century, taking Tunis from the Spanish Habsburgs (1574), Fez from the Portuguese (1578), and Crete from Venice (1669). In consequence, as long as Europe continued to fear the Ottomans, no one tried to upset the precarious peace treaties concluded in S&url; layman later years, and the Ottomans were shielded from their own weakness for quite some time. (Britannica Online, 1999, web) Table of ContentIntroductioThe Supreme CommandeVenicThe Political Situation in TurkePhilipp It UltimatuThe Holy League Preparation The Battle 10.
The Outcome
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