Meeting Benches World art in all forms
Americans know that in 1492 Christopher Columbus “sailed the ocean blue,” but how many know that the 1571 – the year of the battle of Lepanto, the most important naval contest in human history – is not well known to Americans. It happened in October 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. In a papacy of great achievements, the greatest came on March 7, 1571, when Pope Pius formed the Holy League, and Genoa, the Papal States and the Kingdom of Spain put aside their jealousies, and pledged to assemble a fleet capable of confronting the sultan’s war galleys.
The Battle of Lepanto, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcNPKHopeoQ marked the first significant victory for a Christian naval force over a Turkish fleet, and the climax of the age of galley warfare in the Mediterranean. The allied fleets assembled at Messina in Sicily, waiting until August 24, 1571, for the Spaniards. Don Juan de Austria (Philip’s young half brother), was to be commander in chief, and the papal general Marcantonio Colonna was to be his lieutenant. An advantage for the Christians was their numerical superiority in guns and cannon aboard their ships.
Estimates of the Christian force vary slightly: 6 large Venetian 44-gun, 207 oar-propelled galleys (105 Venetian, 81 Spanish, 12 papal, and 9 from Malta, Genoa, and Savoy), carrying 30,000 soldiers. The Turkish force is said to have been larger, but less well equipped and not so well disciplined. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPLXaZzIwEw The battle’s outcome was decided in the allied centre and left, where a Venetian force led by Sebastian Venier provided crucial support. Although the dead on each side were put at about 8,000, the Christian victory was complete.
The allies captured 117 galleys and many thousands of men, liberated about 15,000 enslaved Christians, and sank or burned about 50 galleys. The victory of the Holy League prevented the Ottoman Empire from expanding further along the European side of the Mediterranean. There are many pictorial representations of the battle (in the Doge’s Palace and in the collection of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice), and the battle has also appeared in literature and poetry.
EMPIRES OF THE SEA – Roger Crowley
In Empires of the Sea https://www.amazon.it/Empires-Sea-Battle-Lepanto-Contest/dp/0812977645 acclaimed historian Roger Crowley has written a thrilling account of this brutal decades-long battle between Christendom and Islam for the soul of Europe, a fast-paced tale of spiraling intensity that ranges from Istanbul to the Gates of Gibraltar. Crowley conjures up a wild cast of pirates, crusaders, and religious warriors struggling for supremacy and survival in a tale of slavery and galley warfare, desperate bravery and utter brutality. Empires of the Sea is a story of extraordinary color and incident, and provides a crucial context for our own clash of civilizations.
LEPANTO 1571 – Angus Konstam
The Mediterranean was a battleground between Christians and Muslims, for much of the 16th century. A decisive battle between two large galley fleets was expected to decide the fate of the entire Mediterranean basin. In August 1571, an Ottoman fleet of some 235 galleys encountered the slightly smaller Christian fleet of the Holy League. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lepanto-1571-greatest-Renaissance-Campaign/dp/1841764094 In a five hour melee the Christians inflicted a decisive defeat on the Turks. Lepanto was the last great galley fight of all time and one of the most decisive naval battles in history. This book details the course of one of the most crucial military campaigns of the Renaissance.
