Holy League (1538)
The Holy League of 1538 came at the instigation of the Republic of Venice and Pope Paul III. conditions.
After the corsair and Ottoman admiral Khair ad-Din Barbarossa appeared in the Ionian Sea in 1537, besieged the Venetian fortress of Corfu and devastated the coasts of Calabria , Pope Paul III succeeded. to bring together a Holy League in February 1538. In addition to the Pope and the Maltese, they also belonged to Spain and Venice.
In order to face Barbarossa and his 120 galleys, the League assembled a fleet of 302 ships (162 galleys and 140 sailing ships) near Corfu in September 1538. Venice sent 55 galleys, Spain and Genoa 49 and the Papal States and the Maltese 27 commander was the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria , the emperor in the service of Charles V stood.
On September 28, the naval battle of Preveza took place between the two fleets , in which Barbarossa decisively defeated the Christian fleet, probably also because of Doria's very hesitant behavior, who as a Genoese did not necessarily want to lose his own ships for the benefit of the rival Republic of Venice .
literature
- Michael Cook (Ed.): A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1976, ISBN 0-521-20891-2 (excerpts from Cambridge History of Islam and New Cambridge Modern History ).
- Edward C. Hamilton: Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean . Nelson Press, London 1912.
- John Julius Norwich : A History of Venice . Penguin Books, London 2003, ISBN 0-14-101383-4 (reprint of New York 1982 edition).
- John B. Wolf: The Barbary Coast. Algeria under the Turks . WW Norton, New York 1979, ISBN 0-393-01205-0 .