Holy League (1571)
Holy League (1571) | |
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Founder | |
Opponents | Ottoman Empire |
The Holy League (
- the Papal States under Pius V,
- Spanish Empire under Philip II (including Naples and Sicily),
- the Republic of Venice,
- the Republic of Genoa,
- the Knights of Malta,
- the Cosimo I de' Medici,
- the Duchy of Savoy under Emmanuel Philibert,
- the Guidobaldo II della Rovere,
- the Duchy of Parma under Ottavio Farnese.[citation needed]
These Christian states were to have a force of 200 galleys, 100 other ships, 50,000 infantry, 4,500 cavalry and adequate artillery ready by 1 April each year. John of Austria, illegitimate half-brother of King Philip II of Spain, was designated supreme commander.[2] The League kept membership open for the
The League initially assembled a fleet to aid the Venetian defenders of
On 7 October 1571, the League won a decisive victory over the Ottoman fleet at the
The victory at Lepanto confirmed the de facto division of the Mediterranean, with the eastern half under firm Ottoman control and the western half under the Habsburgs and their Italian allies.[5]
The following year, as the allied Christian fleet resumed operations, it faced a renewed Ottoman navy of 200 vessels under
Pius V died on 1 May 1572. The diverging interests of the League members began to show, and the alliance began to unravel. In 1573, the Holy League fleet failed to sail altogether; instead, Don John attacked and took
See also
- Holy League of Pope Clement VIII
- Great Siege of Malta
- Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–73)
- Battle of Lepanto order of battle
- Siege of Navarino (1572)
References
- ^ The image shown is a reproduction of an 1888 watercolor drawn from a copy of the banner in the Museo Naval in Madrid. F. Javier Campos y Fernández de Sevilla, "Cervanted, Lepanto y el Escorial"
- ^ "Battle of Lepanto (1571)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
- ^ The Story of Don John of Austria – Luis Coloma, SJ, trans. Lady Moreton, (New York: John Lane Company, 1912), pp. 265–71.
- ISBN 978-0-307-42518-8.
- ^ Abulafia, David (2012). The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean. Penguin Books. p. 451.
- ISBN 9780304352630.
- ^ Finkel, Caroline (2006). Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300–1923. London: John Murray. p. 161.
- Loretta Turner Johnson, The Holy League of 1571: The Diplomatic Background of the Battle of Lepanto (1969).
- Luis Coloma, The Story of Don John of Austria, trans. Lady Moreton, (New York: John Lane Company, 1912), pp. 265–71 (online transcription Archived 2012-06-18 at the Wayback Machine).
- Braudel, Fernand, trans. Siân Reynolds, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, 2 volumes, London: Collins (1972/3).
- *Setton, Kenneth M. (1984). The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571), Vol. III: The Sixteenth Century. DIANE Publishing. pp. 1093–95. ISBN 9780871691613.
External links
- Robert Wilde, Holy Leagues Of The 16th Century Archived 2016-04-08 at the Wayback Machine about.com (2001).