The scattered fleet

Prologue

Don Juan de , half- brother of King Philip II of , glanced up towards the light blue banner with the image of crucified Christ given him by the and prayed for the victory. Then, surrounded by shouts and cries of enthusiasm, he made as if he was dancing. He was twenty-four years old and he was in command of the most powerful war fleet ever put to sea by the Christendom against the Turkish. On board of the Marquesa , a ship of the League, a young Spanish fevered soldier reached his combat station watching the lifeboats: his name was Saavedra. On board of the Real (Royal) , an arquebusier without beard and moustache and with delicate features was trying to hide his face and his tension: Maria la Bailadora (Mary The Dancer ) had dressed herself as a man to be close to her own lover. Muezzinzade Ali , commander of the Ottoman fleet, made erect on the mainmast of his flagship Sultana the white banner on which women's hands had embroidered Allah’s ninety-nine names and attributes repeated thousands of times and he took leave of his teenage children. Then he made shoot a cannon shot with blanks. From the Real , the flagship of the League, Juan ordered to return with real bullets. The had begun. It was October 7, 1571, Sunday.

The disputed sea

The way towards Lepanto had been long, tortuous, bloody and marked, from both sides, by cruelties and by excesses, by indecisions and mistakes, by victories and defeats, by successes and failures . The Ottoman fleet, every year more powerful, cruised nearly undisputed in the , arousing apprehension and fears every time it took the sea; after Mehmed the Conqueror, the Sultans of Istanbul made no secret of aiming to Rome. The Barbary corsairs -the notorious Barbarossa and , hand in glove with the Sublime Porte- spread terror along the coasts of and of southern Spain in search of booty and slaves; the Knights of St. John imitated them in the name of Christ along the coasts of or Greece. The presence itself of the Christians in the "White Sea", as the Ottomans named the Mediterranean Sea, was in danger. At first Rhodes fell, despite the valiant defence of the Knights of St. John, then was conquered a large part of Northern Africa, finally it was the turn of . Against all odds, Malta withstood. The Knights of St. John, to whom Malta was "rented" by the emperor Charles V in exchange for an annual gift of an hawk, fought with bravery; the hard rock of which the island is made deprived the Ottomans of one of their decisive weapons: the excavation of tunnels for laying mines. The Ottoman superiority in means and men crashed against the indomitable courage of the population, against the small and seemingly fragile Fort St. Elmo and against the entrenched camps of and ; King Philip II, after much thinking and rethinking, sent a rescue contingent from nearby in command of the Don Garcia de Toledo; the imminent winter season did the rest.

Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto: painting ( 1572-1573) by Paolo Veronese

Malta was a glorious episode for the Christian armies, but it was isolated. The war did not cease. It had never ceased. Now "hot" now "cold", now punctuated by the gunfire of the fleets or by the sudden incursions of the corsairs, now battled out on a psychological level, now fed by fears and apprehensions, by false alarms and worried questions, now suspended by ephemeral treaties, the war stretched over the Mediterranean and over the Christendom as an oppressive blanket of fog. When the Sultans had looked elsewhere - Hungary, Vienna or Persia - the waters of the White Sea had remained untroubled relatively, but when the Sultans had changed strategy and alliances, the waters of the White Sea had become red with blood. In Rome, the pope was terrified at the thought of seeing the green flag of waving over the holy sites of the Christendom.

In Spain, Philip II – whose nickname was the Prudent King - was taking time. He was rigging a fleet, it is true, even because the Pope was paying him a generous contribution, but, privately, he was firmly determined not to risk his precious and expensive galleys in the eastern Mediterranean in order to safeguard the interests of others. Those of , for example. Formally neutral, proudly jealous of its independence and of its commercial policy, the Serenissima Repubblica ( the Most Serene ) was playing on two tables. While it proclaimed itself , it did profitable business with Istanbul; while it was evoking the Turkish danger, it was eagerly awaiting the galleons returning from the Golden Horn, laden with silks and spices; while it pretended to tremble for Malta or for besieged Rhodes, it paid a heavy tribute to the Sultan to keep Cyprus. Venice had behaved in this way for centuries. The eastern Mediterranean was its sea, its store, its treasure chest. Philip II had other thoughts on his mind and, if anything, he was looking at or . Two very different attitudes and two very different conceptions seemed irreconcilable.

Not infrequently, in addition, the general interest was subordinated to particular interests. Most of those who rented their galleys- now to the king of Spain, now to the highest bidder- seemed to care more to preserve them than to give or to win battles . About Gianandrea Doria, a very expert Genoese sailor, but also a ship owner, strange voices were heard after the defeat that he suffered in in 1560. It was said -and maybe rightly- that he had fled in order to preserve intact the ships of his property. This reputation followed him up to Lepanto , and in Lepanto became, in the eyes of many combatants , a

clear certainty. The battle seen by a painter of the era.

For his part, the pope had other troubles, starting with the measures that had to be taken against the Protestant . Under attack at level of faith, pressed on the ground by the Ottoman and at sea by the , the Christendom lived in a perpetual state of uncertainty, swinging between mystical impulses and uncontrollable terrors, between desire to be levied and frustrating helplessness, between Te Deum and sombre ceremonies of atonement. Sometimes the unthinkable happened. Allied with the devoutly Catholic king of , for example, the Ottomans had devastated the coasts of for a long time and had reached the town of Pisa. Some time before, Haradin Barbarossa had ravaged the coast of Naples, had penetrated inland and had tried to kidnap the beautiful Giulia Gonzaga, Countess of Fondi, to bring her as a gift to the sultan. The raid had not been successful, but so much boldness had led to believe that everything was coming to a head. Then something changed. The wind began to turn when an uncompromising monk, Antonio Ghislieri, ascended the throne of St. Peter, under the name of Pius V . Of humble birth (his father was a mule- driver), determined, relentless, stern, the new pope lived for the faith and through the faith. He spoke freely right from the start: stop hesitation: the Sultan fire has to be fought by Christian fire. That wind was not the Roman ponentino . That wind was the bearer of a wind storm, a raging wind which would have blown in and Venice and finally it would have reached the still waters of the Golden Horn. And that wind will become even stronger when, far from Rome, in Spain, the of Alpujarras will rebel to Philip II and, in the White Sea, the Turks will rise the sails of their fleet in front of the Venetian Cyprus. Lepanto, the mother of all battles, fed itself and grew by virtue of these events.

The Sublime Porte had changed tenants. Selim had replaced the great and, some time before him, Mehemet Sokolli (or Sokollu) had been elevated to the office of grand vizier. The two were different characters . Selim was an alcoholic , had a weakness for women and no intention to lead the armies at war. Sokolli was an old fox, an experienced politician, quick to understand the circumstances and try to turn them to his advantage. The former - remained sole heir - had ascended the throne without the ritual of the fratricide, the latter had received the charge after the natural death of his predecessor. If the Sultan had no rivals – when he ascended the throne, his brothers were strangled in order to avoid possible future disturbances to the kingdom- the other had too many rivals. Especially at court. Given the situation, the caution was a duty, the cunning a talent, the shrewdness a necessity. And Sokolli did not lack either the one, nor the other ones. The Sultan had more than a duty. Ascended the throne , for example, he had to celebrate the event by bringing the war against the infidels in order to increase his domains. He had to celebrate by a military victory, in other words. It was a kind of obligation to which even the reluctant Selim could not escape. But where to go? To Malta? Given the previous experience, it was unwise. And, then, why not Cyprus? Cyprus was Venetian and Venice, as we have seen, was paying a tax to the Sublime Porte. It was worth it: the island was too important for the trades of Venice and the tax, although expensive, was largely cushioned by the proceeds. Seriously concerned about the increasingly insistent rumours about an attack to Cyprus, the Venetians, as usual, tried to negotiate. And to bribe some notables. According to the Eastern habit, the first letters sent by Selim to the officials of the Serenissima Republic, said and not said, alluded and concealed, apparently turned round without going to the point. But the Venetians knew how to read between the lines and they did not take long time to realize the Sultan’s true intentions. There was little to be happy: this time it would have been their turn. They strengthened as best they can the defences of the island and waited, arming themselves with cannons and making to run substantial bribes.

The Sacred Union.

In the meantime, Pius V did not idle . In order to cope with the arrogance and intrusiveness of the Turkish, he wished to revive the formed by Pope Pius III. For this reasons, he sent letters to the right and left in . Without much success, according to initial reactions. One of the recipients, the Prudent Philip II, hesitated; and France were not enthusiastic; the Venetians, not yet touched by the storm of Cyprus, not practised what they said. And, above all, they dragged it out, placing a distinction after the other, an objection after the other. It was a bad time. The Spanish King considered his galleys a valuable asset to be preserved at any cost and not to be lent to lost - though noble - causes, and, in addition, he had to solve the problem of the rebellion in . Venice wanted to defend its own trade, and for this reason, towards the Turkish, it preferred diplomacy to war, pen to sword, gold to iron. Its was, given the times, a dead end, and perhaps even Venice was aware of it. But how leaving suddenly the old habit of promising and corrupting in order to address the difficulties ? It always had worked in this way , it had to work in this way again.

The Battle of Lepanto, Antonio Danti. Vatican Museums The talks proceeded very slowly and they were often a mere waste of time. The pope's patience was sorely tested. Then in Spain the revolt of the Moriscos broke out, and some time later, the Ottoman ships appeared in front of Cyprus. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Actually, before Cyprus, Sokolli had explored other ways, looking beyond the White Sea. He had planned to open a channel at and to unite, through another channel, the Caspian Sea with the Sea, in order to widen the range of the . He had failed. With the failure of those attempts, also the Crescent's attempt to leave the White Sea had failed. The Ottoman Empire was almost prisoner of those waters and to those waters it would have continued to bind its destiny. Attacking Cyprus was a confirm of this.

Also Philip II, now, was looking at the waters of the White Sea. The Moriscos of Alpujarras ( historical region in Southern Spain, between the towns of and Almerìa) had rebelled against him and they did not cease to invoke the intervention of Istanbul in the name of a common faith. When the rebellion had burst, Sokolli had abounded in promises, but he had been very sparing in sending soldiers and absolutely stingy in terms of warships. As consummate politician, he was determined to exploit that rebellion to keep the Christendom in general and Spain in particular on tenterhooks , but it was not even touched by the idea to engage seriously the Ottoman empire in that war. Philip II, however, saw the issue in another way. In his opinion, the revolt of the Moriscos was an opportunity long awaited by the Ottomans, after years and years of raids and forays of their , to set foot on Spanish soil to replace the Cross with the Crescent. For him the question was: why here, why now? Could it be because my best regiments are hundreds of leagues away from Spain to counter the Dutch heretics? More he thought about it, more one thing seemed clear to him: the ties between the rebels of the Alpujarras and the Barbary pirates with Istanbul had to be cut. In other words: the Turks had to be fought within their dominions. So he made cruellest the repression against the Moriscos - without sparing women and children - and was more conciliatory with the pope and the Venetians about the formation of the Holy League. The axis of Europe was moving towards the Mediterranean Sea.

In Cyprus things were going wrong. had fallen, the Christian rescue fleet had failed its intervention and the Ottomans were besieging Famagusta. There was no time to lose. The Venetians, hitherto lukewarm towards the being formed Holy League, became worked up and began to make demands. They demanded immediate action in favour of Cyprus and they criticized those who, as Cardinal Granvelle, Plenipotentiary of the Catholic King , did, proved to be pessimistic about the possibility of helping the island in the immediate future. But just not to disprove, they secretly sent to Istanbul a delegate of theirs, Jacopo Ragazzoni. Calmly and without a blush of shame, they will say much time after that fact: it was an attempt to gain time. False! With specific proposals and with full and unlimited powers, Ragazzoni went to Istanbul to negotiate. The mutual suspicions and allegations seemed to weigh a ton over the negotiations and to deadlock their course. But, instead, this did not happen. Philip II, disappointed by the revolt of the Moriscos , made things easier ; the Venetians with Nicosia on fire and with Sokolli deaf to their requests, followed his example. And so on May 25, 1571 the agreement was signed. The premise sounded great and solemn: the League was formed "in perpetuity" for the defence of the faith and for fighting the Turks and their acolytes (the pirates of ). In particular, it was more prosaic: the half of the vessels are in charge of Spain, two thirds of the remaining half are in charge of Venice, the last third of the Pope. The spoils, of course, will be proportionately divided. Business, even when the faith is involved, is always business. While it was still discussing, while almost nobody did know whether the League would have been formed or not, when the fleet was not a fleet yet, but single ships scattered here and there in the Italian and Spanish harbours, the commander was appointed. The pope sponsored one of his men, ; Philip preferred Gianandrea Doria. Colonna lacked experience, had a reputation as a loser because of recent not too bright past; Gianandrea Doria was disliked by the Venetians, and after the episode of Djerba, he was considered unreliable. Philip – choosing the designation was up to him - mentioned His Don Juan of Austria’s (Don Juan de Austria ) name. Nobody had anything to say at the moment.

A boy named Jeronimo.

Don Juan was illegitimate son of Charles the Fifth, and therefore, half-brother of Philip. Immediately after his birth, his father had entrusted him to a foster family so that it took care of him, and over time, he had almost forgotten him. The future victor of Lepanto had grown up, with the name of Jeronimo, in a locality distant from the capital city, along with other peers, from whom he learned to speak a very shoddy Castilian. On the threshold of adolescence , he was recalled to Madrid, welcomed into the home of a trusted man of the Emperor, and after some time, admitted to court. On his deathbed, Charles the Fifth ordered Philip to respect Juan and treat it like a real brother. Philip did it, but not all the way. He often behaved coldly towards his half- brother, and never recognized him the title of . His Excellency, however, knew how to deal both at the court, and on the battlefield, arousing the jealousy of Philip. Someone attributed to don Juan a secret desire: to become the king of Flanders or of Tunis. Were this true or not, this sparse blond bearded, handsome and charming young man had something special. Sighting, the women watched him, the men obeyed him without question, the Moriscos learned to fear him. Don Juan was not a block of ice like his half-brother. When he had to carry out the King's orders - orders, moreover, shared by him - and deport women and children of the rebels from the Alpujarras he was touched by their suffering. After Lepanto, he will give an illustrious prisoner back to his family without demanding any ransom, accompanying him with noble words and valuable gifts. In those days, however, many were wondering: will this young man have the necessary experience? Will he be worthy of a so difficult task? Among them, there was an old soldier, thin as a rake and with a long white beard : the designated commander of the Venetian galleys, the irascible .

The muezzin’s voice .

Like Don Juan, also Muezzinzade Ali Pasha, the Ottoman fleet’s Kapudan ( Commander in Chief), was inexperienced of sea. Son of a muezzin, he owed everything to his deep and warm voice. That faceless voice had sent into ecstasy the harem of the Sultan, exciting in it, at the hour of prayer, not mystical visions, but more mundane erotic fantasies. Sponsored by the harem’s favourites, Ali had risen rapidly up the social ladder and occupied prominent positions, demonstrating his effectiveness. As a final award, the war fleet, nightmare of the Christendom, had been entrusted to him . With him there were experienced people who have fought in many battles. There was Piale Pasha, the winner of Djerba; there was Kara Hodja, a ruthless Italian pirate nicknamed "the black priest" since he had thrown away his tunica , and there was, in particular, Uluc Ali (called by the Christians Uccialì), Calabrian by birth ( his true name was Giovanni Dionigi Galeni), shrewd, skilled, but also cruel and ruthless, a worthy heir to the tradition of the Barbary corsairs like Barbarossa and Dragut. Because of a birthmark or a skin disease was dubbed " the scabby”. And he was “scabby” in name and in fact.

Towards .

The Christian fleet would have been formed in Messina. Hurrying was necessary because the of Famagusta were in increasing trouble. On the contrary, the operations were painfully slow. Collecting food and ammunition, gathering soldiers, finding oarsmen were at all not easy operations in that race against the time. It was a job for amateurs compared to the perfect Ottoman organization. Everything was travelling late. Commander included. Don Juan sailed from , stopping often along the way. Whenever he landed among jubilant crowds, the churches flung open, religious ceremonies were multiplied, and the squares filled with people. Wherever people invoked Christ and the Virgin. In Naples, the enthusiasm reached its highest point. In Naples, amid a jubilant crowd, Cardinal Granvelle gave the young prince the huge blue banner destined to the mainmast of the Real.

Meanwhile, in his secret rooms, the policy was trying to follow other paths. The Prudent king Philip had not lost his hope of diverting that mighty war machine to Tunis, conquered some time ago by a bold stroke, by the "scabby" Uluc Ali. And so, just to be on the safe side, he placed side by side to his half-brother a war council with the task of curbing don Juan’s impulsivity and direct his decisions. Don Juan was obliged to consult it and not to ignore its suggestions. The young prince, however, trusted above all in Don Garcia de Toledo, Viceroy of Sicily already in command of the Spanish fleet, but put aside after the conclusion of the siege of Malta. The old and experienced was in the vicinity of Pisa to cure his gout and, between a cure and the other, sent to Don Juan – who asked him them- advice and recommendations. Whether and when you will attack, do not hold the fleet massed, put fast ships and experienced commanders in the wings of your deployment, don’t waste shots, shoot at the last moment and with zero degrees of elevation, the old Admiral advised. And he added: take care of yourself. If the commander falls, the battle is lost. Even the legendary Duke of Alba wrote to him : let His Excellency treat the men well: they will more readily obey and they will more willingly follow the orders, was his advice.

"I am going to sail this night ..."

But there were not only the "prudence" of Philip and the limited available time to complicate the situation. In Messina there was a lot of ships, but relatively few men, the crews - especially the Venetian ones - were incomplete. Soldiers of the Serenissima , and armed men hired by the Spanish looked sideways each other and sometimes came to blows, because of old never forgotten grudges and disagreements; the commanders were suspicious of each other; sarcastic comments directed to this or that one abounded; the wages did not arrive, the season was advancing, the weather was unsettled , the sea was rough. Once assembled the fleet, Don Juan summoned the officers to decide what to do. It would be better to delay everything, suggested the Prudent Philip's prudent advisers, in particular Gianandrea Doria. Deferring the issue to next year? thundered Venier. Would you take the same view if the fort of La Goulette instead Cyprus were burning ? Don Juan cut the Gordian knot and decided to take to the sea. After all, they had gathered in Messina for that task. The expectations were too many and if they had given up they would lose the face in front of the whole world. Once arrived in it would have taken the final decision. It was September 16. Don Juan wrote to Don Garcia : I am going to sail this night towards the enemy. When the aged admiral read the letter, he shivered. Even Philip’s advisers shivered, but they could not oppose: if they had opposed, they would have been accused of cowardice and despised by everybody. They intended to intervene when the waters had subsided: in the fullness of time they should have tried again to modify don Juan’s decision. For his part the Pope, had made don Juan aware of this, more or less : win and you will have a crown. Things were going in this way in the year of Our Lord 1571 in some part of the White Sea, while Famagusta was burning and its heroic defender, the Venetian Marcantonio Bragadin, to whom had been promised that his life would have been spared, was flaying alive.

Black ships and round ships.

When the fleet was still in Messina, the commander of the papal ships, Marcantonio Colonna, was reached by the news of his daughter’s death. His ships hoisted the black of mourning, the crews prayed. At night, black between black ships, a agile boat slipped along the entire Christian line, and then it came back. Nobody paid any attention. In hindsight, it was a stroke of luck. That ship was in fact an enemy ship and it was bringing aboard the pirate Kara Hodja, who had come to get an idea of the Christian forces. At the orders of Don Juan there were two hundred and eight warships: the bold counted one hundred and forty of them. And six round cargo ships. Or at least, they seemed as such to him. A strong Venetian contingent, tucked into a sheltered cove, had not been seen by him. In the same time, another Christian ship, agile and dark , was sailing the waves of the White Sea: it was carrying the news of the fall of Famagusta.

Orders and threats.

Propelled by the oars, Don Juan's ships were trudging towards Corfu, while those ones of Muezzinzade Ali Pasha were sailing the Adriatic in the direction of , stopping frequently to plunder. The weather was bad, raging winds were blowing. The Ottoman ships were bedraggled, their keels were encrusted with algae, their crews were tired . On the deck, the space was minimal; below deck , the stench of sweat and excrement were unbearable. The oarsmen ate, drunk, slept , swore , defecated and died chained to the oars. Most of them were slaves, but from time to time, on the Christian ships, it was possible to meet the so-called " buonavoglia "( Good willing), freemen who had become oarsmen to escape the debts or the hunger. On the Venetian galleys, moreover, it was not uncommon to find some conscripts among the oarsmen. There were contradictory information. The Ottomans underestimated the Christian fleet, and vice versa. Nobody knew exactly where the enemy was and what intentions had. What would the Christians have done? Would they have tried really the battle, or would they have limited to a demonstration, by plundering the coasts of Epirus before withdrawing? And what would the Ottomans have done ? Would they have fought? Or would they have holed up in a safe harbour, leaving everything to the following year, as some explorers, gone on ahead with their ships, had reported to don Juan? Would they have scattered the fleet until the next summer? Questions abounded, answers lacked. On both sides The time, that was the problem. It was the end of September and the margin for manoeuvre shrank more each day, increasing the possibility of a disengagement of the Ottoman fleet. Among the Christian ranks nervousness increased. Once reached Corfu - devastated but not conquered by Uluc Ali- the tension exploded. Some Spanish soldiers were sent to thicken the ranks of a Venetian , L'Uomo armato di Rethymnon ( The armed man of Rethymnon). They were there just since a few time, when a brawl broke out on board for trivial reasons. There was more than one dead. Quelled the riot, Sebastiano Venier had made hang at the mainmast of the ship those responsible of the brawl. All in the pay of the Spaniards. Don John felt divested of authority, flew into a rage and threatened to hang Venier; the tension increased and, for some hours, the outcome of the expedition seemed compromised. Then the tempers calmed themselves and the misunderstandings dissolved in the name of the common interest. But the nerves continued to remain tense. Philip’s nerves also seemed tense. Hundreds of miles away, the Prudent king was dictating a letter that will arrive after the event: he was ordering don Juan to return to Sicily and to delay everything a year later. And maybe Selim's nerves were tense: almost every day, he sent orders to Muezzinzade Ali Pasha, indicating to him in detail what he should do and when, how and where he should move the ships, how and where get the supplies, putting him in a terrible hurry. The victories obtained by the Ottoman fleet in that campaign did not seem to count for the Sultan. Safe with his galleys in the narrow and well-equipped Gulf of Lepanto- Inhebati reached in the meantime, Ali gave up: the battle could not be avoided.

“We shall fight!”

The fleet of the League, left Corfu, was cruising in the waters in front of island of Cephalonia. Some time before, on a clear night -one of the few clear nights of those days - the men of Don Juan had seen in the sky a meteor crumbling into three long tongues of fire, and they had interpreted it as a sign of divine favour. The enthusiasm was short-lived. The meteor trails were not extinguished yet in the eyes of the men , when the news arrived of the fall of Famagusta. It was October 4. It looked like the end of everything. With Cyprus in the hands of Ottomans and the sea more and more rough, had continuing the mission still made sense ? The commanders wondered, King Philip wondered , the soldiers and their leaders wondered. Especially The Venetians wondered about the sense of the mission . But for them continuing the mission had become a moral duty, the revenge had become a right. Now more than ever. The more so as now there was a reliable information: the enemy fleet was at anchor in the Gulf of Lepanto. At Igoumenitsa, Don Juan convened the council of war, listened his officers, weighed the opinions (many were contrary), and finally he announced his decision to go and meet the enemy. Nobody found the courage to reply. The Christian galleys sailed towards Lepanto coasting the Curzolari islands. At the approach of the enemy fleet, even Alì had convened his war council. And he had had to listen to the dissenting opinions of experienced people as Uluc Alì, as Piale Pasha, as Kara Hodja, as Pertev Pasha. Okay, Christians have fewer ships than us, but why should we move first when the bad season is imminent? Why should we make the first move, when we are short of oarsmen and protected in a safe harbour? They were right and sharable observations. But Ali had the Sultan breathing on his neck; from Istanbul he was receiving orders and pressures continuously. Far from Lepanto, someone else had already decided for him. The doors kept open by clever Sokolli to separate Venice from Spain had been closed abruptly with Bragadin’s death. The policy had failed: the word passed now to the cannons. It came time to decide. Allah willing, Ali said, we won't receive little damage from having four or five oarsmen less on each ship. Then, he explained the real reasons: every day I receive orders and pressures from Istanbul, he confessed. Even those who were opposed to give battle were aware of the meaning of Ali’s words. Nobody replied. The chains were removed at the mouth of the harbour and, in the night, one after another, the Ottoman galleys went out in the open sea, leaving behind themselves the protection of the coastal guns. It was a serious mistake. The first one.

On Sunday, October 7th the weather was good, the sea was calm. A flock of cawing crows flew above Ali’s ships. It seemed a bad omen. From the Christian maintops the first Ottoman sails were sighted at dawn. The horizon gradually was populated by a vast "forest" of ships. The scouts of both parties apparently had made a huge mistake: nobody had seen so many warships at once. Seeing the Christian galleys appear one by one and always more numerous from the inlets of the Curzolari islands, Pertev suggested to Ali Pasha to feign a retreat in order to bring the enemy ships within the range of the coastal guns. Ali refused indignantly: the Sultan's fleet would have never withdrawn, not even for pretend. It was his second mistake. On board of the Christian galleys there were long faces and worried expressions. Even the impulsive Sebastiano Venier was silent. Yet another council of war was summoned . What to do? Would it better to accept battle or to sail away from there? For Philip's men, that was just what they were waiting for. They said: the Turks have more ships than us, the situation is bad, we must be cautious. Woe taking hasty decisions! How to say: let's sail quickly away from here while there's time. Maybe to Tunis. Then, summoned by Romegas, an officer of Don Juan, the spirit of Charles V came down on the deck of the Real. If the emperor was here and he had a fleet like this, he would go straight to , was the sense of Romegas' intervention . Don Juan asked, "Do you mean we have to fight?" "That is what I said," answered the Knight of Malta. "Well," said then Don Juan, with a firm voice, "We shall fight!"

The Cross and the Crescent.

After the time of decisions, time of prayer came . On the decks, the cross replaced the sword, the Qur'an replaced the bow, the tunic replaced the armour , the priest (or imam) the commander. On one hand God and the Virgin were being invoked, on the other one, Allah and Muhammad were being prayed. On every Christian ship a Mass was celebrated; on Ottoman galleys prayers were said. The two fleets were advancing one against the other wrapped in a continuous chanting, always higher with the shortening of the distance. Don Juan donned his armour, descended from the Real and, on board of a fast boat , he reviewed the fleet. He encouraged, animated, promised. The gruff Sebastiano Venier set aside every rancour and gave him a slight bow. When Don Juan returned on board of the flagship, the fifes were playing, the drums were beating, invocations to St James and shouts of " Serra, Spain! " were arising. Carried away from all that excitement, the young commander tried out a dance step. But there were not only prayers and promises to keep up the morale of the Christian fighters. There were raised parapets to protect the arquebusiers; the rostra of the ships had been cut at the base to widen the firing range of the bow gun (the so-called " corsiero "); the bulwarks and the broadsides had been wrapped in large nets to prevent the boarding. During the battle, these devices will be decisive. Sounds and colours mingled over the calm sea. The blue marked the fifty-eight galleys gathered in the centre around the Real , the yellow marked the fifty-three Venetian galleys under command of located to the left wing, the green marked the fifty galleys of Gianandrea Doria, placed on the right wing. The fleet was advancing in line trying to keep - and it was not easy-the alignment and the proper interval between a ship and the other. Behind it, in a row and hoisting white flags, were sailing the thirty-eight reserve ships under the command of the expert Alvaro de Bazan, Marquis of Santa Cruz, ready to intervene if necessary. At the top of the deployment, some galleys were towing the six "round ships", sighted by Kara Hodja during his foray into the port of Messina. The “black priest” had believed they were cargo ships. They were not. They were veritable gunboats, slow and clumsy, but able to develop a frightening volume of fire . The Venetians had given them the name of "", galeazze. Do not hoard your ships, exploit the full power of your fire, do not miss a shot before boarding the enemy ships, Don Garcia de Toledo had recommended. Now in the spa near Pisa, where he was trying to dispose of the excess uric acid, the old admiral could feel easy in his mind: his advices had been heeded. The rest was in God's hands. And Ali? His fleet was advancing describing a curved line, with the wings protruding from the centre. How the Italian scholar and journalist Arrigo Petacco has written, the two fleets, seen through the eyes of a bird that were flying high in the sky, were in the shape the first of a cross, the latter of a crescent, the symbols of Christ and the Prophet. It did not last for a long time, actually. The ships at the ends of the Crescent tended to move too far forward, compared to the slower galleys positioned in the centre. Ali then left the crescent deployment and took sides in a line, the mirror image of Don Juan's deployment. He put his vivid red coloured flagship, the Sultana , at the centre of the deployment: no one should have overtaken it. Meanwhile, the east wind had fallen and now it was blowing, even if slight, in favour of the Christians. This also was interpreted as a sign of divine favour.

The sixth hour.

The out-and-out battle began shortly before noon. It was not a battle, it was a butchery. The guns of the galleasses placed in front of the Christian line fired first and without fail, smashing bulwarks , sinking ships, dismasting galleys, smashing heads and arms. After a transient initial success, the enveloping manoeuvre brought by the Ottomans on the left flank was rejected and the crews were massacred when they were trying to gain the mainland. In the middle of the deployment the ships, clashing against each other, went into each other. Literally. According to the legend, when the Real boarded the Sultana, Maria la Bailadora was the first to set foot on board. Don Juan wielded a sword and, ignoring the advice of Don Garcia, exposed himself , receiving a wound in a thigh. Sebastiano Venier, too old to hold a sword and with too many corns to wear boots, made give a crossbow, and in slippers, hit the enemy. The mascot of the Real, a small South American monkey, was seen breaking the shafts of the arrows with its teeth and throwing the stumps around . On board of the Marquesa , Miguel de Cervantes received the first of two harquebus shots at the chest (the third will take away the use of his left hand); Gianandrea Doria took off away from the battle zone, perhaps to avoid the most numerous galleys of Uluç, more likely to preserve his own, in fact opening a highway to the enemy. Uluc took immediately advantage of it . He got rid of a dozen Christian ships detached from the line of Gianandrea Doria of their own initiative , and began manoeuvring to move behind Don Juan. The timely intervention of the Marquis of Santa Cruz with the reserves, but, more importantly, the exhaustion of the Ottoman thrust to the centre of the battle, where those who had finished arrows and ammunition were fighting using.. lemons and carrots, led him to milder counsels. He made cut the tow rope to the captured ships, and, carrying the banner of the Knights of Malta taken from one of them, slipped away. Ali Pasha fought to the end before falling to the place of his combat, Kara Hodja was killed by a Spanish sharpshooter, Pertev Pasha managed to slip away, but, once back in Istanbul, will be sidelined. At sunset, after five hours of fierce fighting and very bloody clashes, the Christians have remained masters of the sea . Everywhere the cries of the wounded and of those who were dying were being heard, and the waters of the White Sea were red with blood. Here was burning a ship, there another one was sinking slowly; an acrid smoke was enveloping everything, making the air unbreathable and making the eyes water; tables, rigging, sails were spread around, and around were floating arms, heads, legs and mangled bodies of men. The obsessive noise, lasted for the whole battle, had given way to an even more terrible silence, broken here and there by cries for help and by invocations to God and to Allah. The sixth hour was perhaps the most excruciating hour.

Winners of Lepanto Don , Marcantonio Colonna, Sebastiano Venier

Pius V foreshadowed the victory. When the news was announced to him, he cried and thanked God for having allowed him to defend His Holy Name. Philip II was attending Mass in Madrid when he received the news: he did not move a muscle and continued to follow the function. Then he ordered the celebration of a Te Deum. Even in distant and Protestant England religious services were celebrated. Don Juan became the hero of the moment, the avenging angel, the saviour of the faith. Books about him were written, stories were romanticized, booklets were printed. But the coveted crown never arrived. A few years later, before dying of typhoid in a remote village in Flanders, the winner of Lepanto said: "I wasted my time building castles in the air, but in the end they, and I with them, were swept away by the wind." And in Istanbul? At first, Selim took it very badly: he did not eat or sleep for three days (it is unknown whether he also abstained from wine). Then he showed up in public with Sokolli, as if nothing had happened. The message was clear: the Sublime Porte did dismiss Lepanto with a shrug. With the bombastic name of Kiliç (Sword) Uluç Ali was appointed kapudan to replace Ali Pasha, who was considered the unique guilty of that defeat; a parade in the Golden Horn was made and the banner of the hated Knights of Malta torn from a galley of them at Lepanto was flaunted as if a victory were celebrating . A bizarre version of those events took form in Istanbul: the fleet of the Sultan had not been destroyed at Lepanto, but since the winter was approaching , the fleet had straggled, scattered. It became the official version. Alluding to the fall of Cyprus and to the Battle of Lepanto, Sokolli said to a Venetian official : your arm was cut to you, our beard has been trimmed to us . Your arm won't grow back any more, but our beard will grow again and it will be thicker than before. Not even a year later, the rebuilt Ottoman fleet was again in the sea. But it was not more the one-time fleet: the vessels were of "green wood" , the crews were inexperienced, the cannons were cast in a hurry or they were rusty, the leaders were novice. The world was looking elsewhere: for this reason a second Lepanto there would have never been . The time of the great naval battles in the White Sea and the time of the crusades were over.

Epilogue.

Useless victory ? The subsequent events would seem to confirm it. The "holy and perpetual" league crumbled even before the death of Pius V that took place in '72; the effects of the resounding victory were not immediately exploited - or they did not want to be exploited; the Venetians returned to deal with Istanbul and nine years after Lepanto the Catholic Philip also came to terms with the Sublime Porte. These behaviours had some immediate reasons and some deeper reasons. In the immediate future, some contingent reasons were playing . The Prudent King wanted to have both hands free to deal with Protestant and privateering England; the Venetians wanted to regain, even if in part, their role of intermediaries in the commerce between East and West; the Sultan was struggling with internal rebellions and he was looking at Persia . The deep change taking place was escaping to everybody : the world of that time was, if one may say so, globalizing. Madrid and Istanbul were linked by a double thread; the gold and the silver from the Americas were intended to make growing inflation in both empires, for better or for worse, the economy joined where the faith divided. The White Sea was not the centre of the world anymore; perhaps it was not the centre of the world from quite a long time, definitely it was not worth to ruin oneself for having the control of it. Lepanto was a sort of bracket in the glorious history of the Christendom. And now the history, the whole history, continued on its way. Meaningless victory, then? Partly yes, partly not. After Lepanto the Christendom drew a loud sigh of relief, because, as Cervantes wrote, on "that day that he succeeded so happy", the Turks lost their reputation of being invincible at sea. A very scant result when compared with the sacrifices, with the spent money and, above all, with the spilled blood. But for many - and not just for those who had fought at Lepanto- even this scant result was a great victory.

Read “The Maltese hawk” ( the siege of Malta)

To read

Alessandro Barbero, Lepanto, the battle of the three empires , Laterza, 2010 Jack Beeching, The Galleys at Lepanto , Hugh Bicheno, Crescent and Cross: The Battle of Lepanto 1571 , New Ed. Editions 2005 , The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, 1949 Niccolò Capponi, Victory of the West: The Story of the Battle of Lepanto , Da Capo, 2007 Roger Crowley, Empires of the sea , Faber JFC Fuller , A Military History of the : from the earliest times to the Battle of Lepanto, Da Capo, vol 1 Roberto Gargiulo, La battaglia di Lepanto , Biblioteca dell'immagine, PN, 2004 Gianni Granzotto, La battaglia di Lepanto , Mondadori, 1979 Arrigo Petacco, La croce e la mezzaluna , Mondadori 2005

The race towards Lepanto: the events at a glance

1565: in Istanbul Mehmet Sokolli is appointed grand vizier.

December 9, 1565: Death of Pope Pius IV.

January 8, 1566: Antonio Ghislieri, former Grand Inquisitor, is elected to the throne of St. Peter with the name of Pius V.

September 1566: Death of . His son Selim ascends the throne .

Spring 1567: After a Piale Pasha' s raid without serious detriment in the , the Ottomans, struggling with internal problems (famine, rebellions), are less aggressive at sea.

1567: the Sublime Porte and the Venetian Republic govern their relations with a treaty.

December 25, 1567: In Andalusia, the Spanish Moriscos (the descendants of the ancient Arab conquerors) revolt against Philip II. The king , already committed to suppress the rebellion in Flanders that broke out a year earlier, confronts the situation with a firm hand.

1568: Don John of Austria( Don Juan de Austria) was appointed commander of the Spanish navy. the task of suppressing the revolt of the Moriscos is also given to him.

January 1570: with a bold coup brought with the help of four thousand janissaries and much of the local population, the pirate Uluç Ali deposes the pro-Spanish king of Tunis.

March 28, 1570: Selim, breaking the treaty of '67, sends to Venice a peremptory demand: either Cyprus will be delivered to Ottomans, or will be war. By a very large majority, the Senate of the Republic votes in favour of the war. The Pope returns to revive the idea of a Holy League. King Philip and the Venetians seem to agree. Meanwhile, a fleet is prepared to defend Cyprus and Marcantonio Colonna is appointed commander. The Spanish galleys were entrusted to Giandrea Doria, the Venetian ones to Gerolamo Zane.

July 1570: in Rome begin talks to form the Holy League desired by the Pope.

July, 20, 1570: sixty thousand Ottoman soldiers are landed in Cyprus. The navy is under the command of Piale Pasha, the army is under the command of Lala Pasha. The invasion force reaches Nicosia in the centre of the island.

August 30, 1570: after wandering in the Mediterranean, the allied fleets come together in . That of Venice is in a bad way because of an epidemic broke out among the oarsmen, that Spanish one has no intention of fighting, that papal one is small. An endless council of war is summoned. It will last thirteen days.

September 9, 1570: While discussions are being held in Crete, Nicosia is conquered.

September 17, 1570: The Allied navy puts out to sea towards Rhodes, with the intention of raiding.

September 21, 1570: The navy at sea is achieved by the news of the fall of Nicosia. They give up to the raid towards Rhodes is given up and the fleet comes back to starting points. Heavy storms sink some ships. For their actions on that occasion, that is to say for having cut a sorry figure, Zane will be imprisoned and Giandrea Doria promoted general.

October 3, 1570: Off of Famagusta, three shiploads of prisoners, direct gift to the sultan in Istanbul, sink because of a heavy explosion. According to a legend, the daughter of an Italian noble caused this explosion , preferring the death to the harem of Selim.

January 1571: Following the daring raids by sea of Venetian Marco Querini in Cyprus, Piale Pasha was ousted by the command. The fleet is entrusted to Ali Pasha Muezzinzade.

March 21, 1571: Ali's fleet leaves Istanbul. The orders of the Sultan are clear: looking for the enemy navy, attacking and destroy it. For the first time the Ottoman fleet -usually used to support amphibious operations- has the task to search for the battle at sea. May 25, 1571: in Rome the constitution of the Holy League is solemnly announced; in Cyprus, Famagusta is under increasing pressure.

July 20, 1571: the commander of the fleet of the League, don Juan de Austria, half-brother of King Philipp, leaves Barcelona towards Messina. On August 14, in Naples, he receives the light blue banner given him by the Pope. The banner is intended to the mainmast of Rea l, the flagship of the Christian navy. August 1, 1571: Marcantonio Bragadin surrenders: the resilience of Famagusta has ended. The negotiations start well, then they fall. On 17 August, the heroic defender of Cyprus is flayed alive.

August 22, 1571 : don Juan reaches Messina, where the navy of the League is gathering.

September 16 ,1571 : the fleet of the League puts at sea. It knows still nothing about Famagusta. September 27, 1571 : After a slow browsing, hampered also by bad weather , the navy of Don Juan drops anchor in the harbour of Corfu. September 28, 1571: Philip II writes the letter by which he orders Don Juan to return to Sicily. The letter will arrive only after the end of the battle. October 2, 1571: a brawl breaks out on board of a Venetian ship. After having put down it, Sebastiano Venier, the Venetian fleet commander, makes hang some of the responsible , all on the pay of the Spaniards. Feeling himself overtaken, Don Juan threatens to hang Venier. The relationships become very strained. The Ottomans, in the safe harbour of Lepanto (named Inhebati by them), when they are aware of it, reinforce themselves in the belief that the enemy navy, because of the disagreement among the commanders, will flake at the first encounter. October 4, 1571: Off of Kefalonia, is sighted a ship coming from Crete: it brings news of the fall of Famagusta. October 6, 1571: After yet another council of war, the Christian navy leaves Kefalonia in the direction of the islands Curzolari. October 7, 1571, two in the morning: the fleet of Ali Pasha leaves Lepanto and goes towards the fleet of the League. October 7, 1571, noon: the battle of Lepanto begins. It will end five hours later.

The battle in short .

In a nutshell, the events, on the Sunday of the "scattered" fleet go that way. First : Alì, as we have seen, leaves the Gulf of Lepanto, leaving behind himself a sure position and the coastal guns. When he sights the enemy, he could still remedy and, following Pertev’s advice, he could come back. He does not do it. Second : six galleasses are positioned in front of the Christian deployment, two in every sector( the centre and the two wings). They are slow ships, but heavily armed . Ali advances, the galleasses wait that the Ottomans are close, then they open fire. The damage is significant. Ali looses one ship in three. Third : while all this is happening at the centre, on the right wing of Ottoman deployment ( the left wing for the Christians) , Shuluk Mehemet- nicknamed Maometto Scirocco - tries an outflanking manoeuvre. He wants to outflank Barbarigo’s galleys, bearing down and taking advantage of the low seabeds. Once crossed that obstacle, nothing and nobody will avoid to him attacking don Juan from behind. When the battle map was discussed, the expert Uluc Ali had expressed his disagreement. Too many risks. And above all, too close to the dry land. If something had gone wrong, the crews would have abandoned their ships and they would have rushed to the dry land, he concluded . Initially Shuluk's manoeuvre succeeds. Then the Venetian reaction, the intervention of a galeasse, and, above all, the appearance of some galleys sent in haste by the Marquis of Santa Cruz in that sector, overturn the outcome of the battle. And as had been forecast by Uluc, the crews try to reach the dry land, and are massacred. Fourth. While on the right wing the fight is still uncertain, on the centre of deployment, Ali heads towards the Real that is flanked by the flagships of Marcantonio Colonna and Sebastiano Venier. The ships of the two formations, not only the Real and the Sultana , crash into each other. The script is always the same: initial artillery fire, fire of the arquibusiers to sweep the bridges, throw of boarding bridges, intervention of naval infantry. On the two flagships and around them, a furious fight with mixed results lights up . Fifth. While on the centre and on right wing it is fighting , on the Ottoman left wing (the right for Christians) Uluc Ali and Gianandrea Doria are facing one another. Uluc has more ships than Doria has. The Genoese admiral realizes it immediately and moves away. Why does he do it? To preserve the ships of his property? To play cat and mouse while waiting to catch the right moment to intervene? Whatever it is, his behaviour opens a hole about a kilometre large in the Christian deployment. Sixth . Some Doria's ships reverse their route and move against Uluc in a desperate attempt to stop him. The pirate manoeuvres like a master, gets rid of those few ships and throws himself like lightning in the corridor, with the intention to swoop on Don Juan. Seventh : Don Alvaro de Bazan moves promptly his reserves and closes the hole. Uluc cuts the ropes (the towlines of the captured ships ) and slip away. Eighth . On the centre, after a fierce and furious fighting, the Christians finally prevail. Ninth . Thanks to God are given and the dead and the wounded are counted.

A map of the battle.

The map below shows the initial deployment of the two formations. The Ottomans (in green) have at the centre the ships gathered around Ali Pasha, on the right of them, those of Shuluk Mehmet (Maometto Scirocco) and on the left, those of Uluc Ali (Uccialì). The deployment of the League (red) sees at the centre the galleys of Don John, those of Venier and those of Marcantonio Colonna. On right wing, in front of Uccialì,there is Gianadrea Doria and on the left in front of Shuluk Mehmet ,there are the ships of Barbarigo. Two galleys are positioned in front of every sector of the Christian deployment. The Marquis of Santa Cruz commands the reserve forces.

The starting deployment

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