The

Habsburg Empire of Charles V The Empire of Charles V, also known by the umbrella term Habsburg Empire and labelled "the empire on which the sun never sets", included the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish empire, the Burgundian Low Countries, the Austrian lands, and all the terri ...

and its allies conquered

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

in 1535, wresting the city away from the control of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

Background

In 1533,

Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...

ordered

Hayreddin Barbarossa Hayreddin Barbarossa ( ar, خير الدين بربروس, Khayr al-Din Barbarus, original name: Khiḍr; tr, Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa), also known as Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis (c. 1466/1478 – 4 July 1546), was an O ...

, whom he had summoned from Algiers, to build a large war fleet in the arsenal of

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

. Altogether 70 galleys were built during the winter of 1533–1534, manned by slave oarsmen, including 2,000 Jewish ones. With this fleet, Barbarossa conducted aggressive raids along the coast of Italy, until he conquered Tunis on 16 August 1534, ousting the local ruler, theretofore subservient to the Spanish, Muley Hasan.Crowley, p.58 Barbarossa thus established a strong naval base in Tunis, which could be used for raids in the region, and on nearby

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infa ...

assembled a large army of some 30,000 soldiers, 74 galleys (rowed by chained Protestants shipped in from Antwerp),Crowley, p.59 and 300 sailing ships, including the carrack ''

Santa Anna Santa Anna may refer to: * Santa Anna, Texas, a town in Coleman County in Central Texas, United States * Santa Anna, Starr County, Texas * Santa Anna Township, DeWitt County, Illinois, one of townships in DeWitt County, Illinois, United States. ...

'' and the Portuguese galleon '' São João Baptista'' (the most powerful ship in the world at the time) to drive the Ottomans from the region.Crowley, p.60 The expense involved for Charles V was considerable, and at 1,000,000 ducats was on par with the cost of Charles' campaign against Suleiman on the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

.Crowley, p.62 Unexpectedly, the funding of the conquest of Tunis came from the

galleons Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch Wa ...

sailing in from the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

, in the form of a 2 million gold

ducats The ducat () coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained ...

treasure extracted by

Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro González, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of Peru. Born in Trujillo, Spain to a poor family, Pizarro chose ...

in exchange for his releasing of the

Inca The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

king Atahualpa (whom he nevertheless executed on 29 August 1533). Despite a request by Charles V,

Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to: * Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407) * Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450 * Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547 * Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...

denied French support to the expedition, explaining that he was under a three-year truce with Barbarossa following the 1533 Ottoman embassy to France.Garnier, p. 94–95 Francis I was also under negotiations with

for a combined attack on Charles V, following the 1534 Ottoman embassy. Francis I only agreed to Pope Paul III's request that no fight between Christians occur during the time of the expedition.

Battle

Having sailed from Sardinia at the head of a Catholic coalition, protected by a Genoese fleet, Charles V destroyed Barbarossa's fleet on 1 June 1535 and, after a costly yet successful siege at La Goletta, captured Tunis. In the action, the Portuguese galleon '' São João Baptista'' distinguished itself by breaking the chains protecting the harbour's entrance, thereafter opening fire on La Goletta. In the ruins, the Spanish found cannonballs with the French

fleur-de-lis The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a lily (in French, and mean 'flower' and 'lily' respectively) that is used as a decorative design or symbol. The fleur-de-lis has been used in the ...

mark, evidence of the contacts stemming from the

Franco-Ottoman alliance The Franco-Ottoman Alliance, also known as the Franco-Turkish Alliance, was an alliance established in 1536 between the King of France Francis I and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman I. The strategic and sometimes tactical alliance was o ...

. The resulting massacre of the city left an estimated 30,000 dead. Barbarossa managed to flee to Algiers with a troop of several thousand Ottomans. Muley Hasan was restored to his throne. The stench of the corpses was such that Charles V soon left Tunis and moved his camp to Radès. The siege demonstrated the power projection of the Habsburg dynasties at the time; Charles V had under his control much of southern Italy,

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, Spain, the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, Austria, the Netherlands, and lands in Germany. Furthermore, he was Holy Roman Emperor and had ''de jure'' control over much of Germany as well. Ottoman defeat in Tunis motivated the Ottoman Empire to enter into a formal alliance with France against the Habsburg Empire. Ambassador

Jean de La Forêt Jean de La Forêt, also Jean de La Forest or Jehan de la Forest (died 1537), was the first official French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, serving from 1534 to 1537.''Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman Empire 1453-1923'' by Charle ...

was sent to Constantinople, and for the first time was able to become permanent ambassador at the Ottoman court and to negotiate treaties. Charles V celebrated a neo-classical

triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

"over the infidel" first in Sicily and then at Rome on 5 April 1536 in commemoration of his victory at Tunis. The Spanish governor of La Goulette, Luys Peres Varga, fortified the island of Chikly in the lake of Tunis to strengthen the city's defences between 1546 and 1550.

Aftermath

Barbarossa managed to escape to the harbour of

Bône Annaba ( ar, عنّابة, "Place of the Jujubes"; ber, Aânavaen), formerly known as Bon, Bona and Bône, is a seaport city in the northeastern corner of Algeria, close to the border with Tunisia. Annaba is near the small Seybouse River ...

, where a fleet was waiting for him. From there, he sailed to accomplish the

Sack of Mahón The sack of Mahon occurred in 1535, when Hayreddin Barbarossa attacked the harbour of Mahón in the Balearic Islands. The expedition followed closely the defeat of Barbarossa in the Conquest of Tunis by Charles V. Barbarossa had escaped Tunis ...

, where he took 6,000 slaves and brought them to Algiers.''E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam 1913–1936'' by M. Th. Houtsma p.872
/ref> The Ottomans recaptured the city in 1574. Thereafter the Ottoman governors of Tunis were semi-autonomous

bey Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...

s, who acted as privateers against Christian shipping. Consequently, raiding in the Mediterranean continued until the suppression of the Barbary pirates in the early 19th century. A French invasion led to the establishment of French Algeria in 1830; France would create a protectorate over Tunisia in 1881.

Gallery

File:Bombardment_of_La_Goletta.jpg, Bombardment of La Goletta. File:Attack at La Goletta.jpg, Attack at La Goletta. File:Battle_of_Tunis_1535_Charles_V_vs_Barbarossa.jpg, Battle scene at Tunis, 1535. File:Capture of Tunis 1535 liberation of 20000 Christian captives.jpg, Liberation of 20,000 Christian captives. File:Charles quint a rades.png, Charles V going to Radès. File:Charles V announcing the capture of Tunis to the Pope in 1535.jpg, Charles V announcing the capture of Tunis to Pope Paul III in 1535. File:Conquest of Tunis 1535.jpg, Imperial troops in the conquest of Tunis, 1535,

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, or Jan Mayo, or Barbalonga (c. 1504 – 1559) was a Dutch Northern Renaissance painter. Biography Based on his will, rediscovered in 1998, Vermeyen was born in Beverwijk in 1504 (possibly 1503 or 1505). According to ...

. File:Conquest of Tunis 1535 bis.jpg, Ottoman troops in the conquest of Tunis, 1535.

Notes

References

* Allen, Bruce Ware. "Emperor vs. Pirate Tunis, 1535." ''MHQ: Quarterly Journal of Military History'' (Winter 2014) 26#2 pp 58-63. * ''Battle: a Visual Journey Through 5000 Years of Combat''. Grant, R. G. 2005 * Roger Crowley, ''Empires of the sea'', 2008 Faber & Faber * Garnier, Edith ''L'Alliance Impie'' Editions du Felin, 2008, Paris * ''La Marina Cántabra''. Ballesteros-Beretta, Antonio. 1968

External links

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Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

Tunis (1535) Tunis (1535) Tunis (1535) Tunis (1535) 16th century in Tunisia Military history of Tunisia History of Tunis

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

1535 in the Ottoman Empire 1535 in Africa

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

Background

Battle

Aftermath

Gallery

See also

Notes

References

External links