Battle of Lepanto
A Holy League fleet destroyed the Ottoman navy in the Gulf of Patras on 7 October 1571, in the last great battle fought between galleys under oars. The league was assembled by Pope Pius V from Spain, Venice, Genoa, Savoy, Malta and the Papal States, after the Ottomans invaded Venetian Cyprus in 1570 — and it held together only because Cyprus fell that August, at Famagusta, where the Venetian commander Bragadin was flayed alive after surrendering on terms. Don John of Austria, the illegitimate half-brother of Philip II, commanded at twenty-four. The fleets were roughly matched at over two hundred galleys each. The decisive difference was six Venetian galleasses — heavy converted merchant galleys mounting cannon on all sides, towed into position ahead of the line, which broke the Ottoman formation before contact. The Christian ships also carried far more arquebusiers, where the Ottomans relied on archers, and the fighting was a matter of boarding and infantry. Some 40,000 men died in about four hours. The Ottomans lost around 210 ships and their commander Ali Pasha, whose head was displayed; some 12,000 Christian galley slaves were freed. Cervantes was wounded there and lost the use of his left hand. Europe treated it as deliverance, and the celebrations were enormous. Its strategic effect was smaller than the noise. The Ottomans rebuilt the fleet within a year, kept Cyprus at the peace of 1573, and took Tunis in 1574. What ended was the belief that they could not be beaten at sea.
- Year: 1571 CE
- Category: Military
