Battle of Pianosa
42°48′N 10°00′E / 42.800°N 10.000°E
Battle of Pianosa | |||||||
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Part of the wars of Christian powers against the Barbary Corsairs | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Republic of Genoa | Tunisian corsairs | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Filippino Doria | Kaid Ali (POW) | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
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The Battle of Pianosa was a
Background
Raiding had long been part of life in the
For the most part, the European Christian powers were too occupied fighting each other to pay much heed to the rather small-scale predation of the Barbary corsairs.
Battle
The
Having reached Elba, the Genoese captain took advantage of a local wind pattern to change direction and head straight towards the Bizertines. However, the newly recruited free-rowers of the two additional ships lacked the skill and strength for these arduous maneuvers and began drifting with the wind. Andrea Doria had to send two of his older galleys to tow the less experienced ships. Two-thirds of the Genoese ships were unable to face-off and run down the adversary in time. Rather than letting the opportunity pass, Andrea Doria put his nephew Filippino Doria in charge of the four slower ships and took his main galleys, the Capitana and the Patrona, straight towards the Bizertine to pin them down before the main force arrived.[13][14]
The Genoese had more artillery than the corsairs and managed to do some damage with their cannons. However the Bizertine succeeded in grappling and boarding the Genoese ships. Hand-to-hand combat ensued. Badly outnumbered, Doria and his men managed to sustain the shock for fifteen minutes. At this point the four ships under Filippino Doria reached the thick of the fight and within half-an-hour the battle was won for the Genoese. Only three fuste ships of the corsairs managed to escape. The rest of the flotilla – possibly as many as nine vessels of various sizes – were captured or sunk. The Capitana of the Pope had been recovered and was towed back to Genoa along with four other ships.[15]
Aftermath
The fight, as was often the case in the overcrowded
With Kaid Ali prisoner and Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin serving the Ottomans in the East, the bulk of their men dead and most of their ships captured or sunk, the strength of the Bizertine corsair base had been broken and the city receded into a very secondary raiding base, far behind the main corsair ports Tripoli and, above all, Algiers.
References
- ^ Valérian 2006, p. 421 et seg.
- ^ Graziani 1991, p. 477
- ^ Bono 1964, p. passim
- ^ Braudel 1995, p. 251
- ^ Zachariadou 2002, p. passim
- ^ Guglielmotti 1876, p. 161
- ^ Graziani 2008, p. 69
- ^ Espinosa 2005, p. 249
- ^ Pacini 1999, p. 59
- ^ Grendi 2005, p. passim
- ^ Guglielmotti 1876, p. 165
- ^ Guglielmotti 1876, p. 165
- ^ Guglielmotti 1876, p. 165
- ^ Williams 2015, p. 87 et seg
- ^ Guglielmotti 1876, p. 165
- ^ Guglielmotti 1876, p. 166
- ^ Graziani 2008, p. 70
Bibliography
- Bono, Salvatore (1964). I corsari barbareschi. Rome: ERI-Edizion RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana.
- Braudel, Fernand (1995). The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Volume 1. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520203082.
- Campodonico, Pierangelo (1997). Andrea Doria. Genoa: Tormena Editore.
- Cavanna Ciappina, Maristella (1982). "Doria, Filippo". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 41.
- Espinosa, Aurelio (2005). "The Grand Strategy of Charles V (1500-1558): Castile, War, and Dynastic Priority in the Mediterranean". Journal of Early Modern History. 9 (3): 239–283. .
- Graziani, Antoine-Marie (1991). "Domaines coloniaux, industrie sécuritaire et système fiscal en Corse à la fin du XVIe siècle". Mélanges de l'École française de Rome: Italie et Méditerranée. 103 (2): 461–520. .
- Graziani, Antoine-Marie (2008). Andrea Doria: Un Prince de la Renaissance. Paris: Tallandier.
- Grendi, Edoardo (2005). "Genova alla meta del Cinquecento: una politica del grano?". Journal of Early Modern History. 5 (13): 106–160. JSTOR 43900349.
- Guglielmotti, Alberto (1876). Storia della marina Pontificia dal secolo ottavo al decimonono, Volume 3, Issue 1. Rome: Tipografia Tiberina.
- Lo Basso, Luca (2007). "Gli asentisti del re. L'esercizio privato della guerra nelle strategie economiche dei Genovesi (1528-1716)" (PDF). R. Cancila. Mediterraneo in Armi. Mediterranea. Palermo: 2712–81.
- Pacini, Arturo (1999). La Genova di Andrea Doria nell'impero di Carlo V. Florence: Olschki.* Valérian, Dominique (2006). Bougie, port maghrébin, 1067-1510. Rome: École Française de Rome.
- Zachariadou, Elisavet A., ed. (2002). The Kapudan Pasha : his office and his domain : Halcyon Days in Crete IV, a symposium held in Rethymnon, 7-9 January 2000. Rethymnon: Crete University Press.
- Williams, Phillip (2015). Empire and Holy War in the Mediterranean: The Galley and Maritime Conflict Between the Habsburgs and Ottomans. New York City: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 9781784533755.