The Battle of Lepanto was a naval engagement that took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic states arranged by Pope Pius V and led by the navies of the Spanish Empire and the Republic of Venice, inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire in the Gulf of Patras. The Ottoman forces were sailing westward from their naval station in Lepanto (the Venetian name of ancient Naupactus – Greek Ναύπακτος, Turkish İnebahtı) when they met the fleet of the Holy League which was sailing east from Messina, Sicily and used Kefalonia as its launching point.
Lepanto marks the last major engagement in the Western world to be fought almost entirely between rowing vessels, namely the galleys and galleasses, which were the direct descendants of ancient trireme warships. The battle was in essence an "infantry battle on floating platforms". It was the largest naval battle in Western history since classical antiquity, involving more than 450 warships. Over the following decades, the increasing importance of the galleon would displace the galley as the major warship of its era, marking the beginning of the "Age of Sail".
The victory of the Holy League is of great importance in the history of Europe and of the Ottoman Empire, with the Ottoman fleet almost completely destroyed. The Ottomans rapidly rebuilt their fleet, but the loss of qualified crews during the battle led to a sharp decrease of their naval initiative after 1580. The battle has long been compared to the Battle of Salamis, both for tactical parallels and for its crucial importance in the defense of Europe against imperial expansion. It was also of great symbolic importance in a period when Europe was torn by its own wars of religion following the Protestant Reformation. Pope Pius V instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victory, and Philip II of Spain used the victory to strengthen his position as the "Most Catholic King" and defender of Christendom against Muslim incursion. Historian Paul K. Davis writes that:
Background
The Christian coalition had been promoted by Pope Pius V to rescue the Venetian colony of Famagusta on the island of Cyprus, which was being besieged by the Turks in early 1571 subsequent to the fall of Nicosia and other Venetian possessions in Cyprus in the course of 1570. On 1 August the Venetians surrendered after being reassured that they could leave Cyprus freely. However, the Ottoman commander, Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha, had lost some 50,000 men in the siege and broke his word, imprisoning the Venetians, and had Marco Antonio Bragadin flayed alive.
The members of the Holy League were the Republic of Venice, the Spanish Empire (including the Kingdom of Naples, the Habsburg monarchy, the Kingdoms of Sicily and Sardinia as part of the Spanish possessions), the Papal States, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchies of Savoy, Urbino and Tuscany, the Knights Hospitaller, and others.
The banner for the fleet, blessed by the Pope, reached the Kingdom of Naples (then ruled by Philip II of Spain) on 14 August 1571, where it was solemnly consigned to John of Austria.
All members of the alliance viewed the Ottoman navy as a significant threat, both to the security of maritime trade in the Mediterranean Sea and to the security of continental Europe itself. Spain was the largest financial contributor, though the Spaniards preferred to preserve most of their galleys for Spain's own wars against the nearby sultanates of the Barbary Coast rather than expend its naval strength for the benefit of Venice. The combined Christian fleet was placed under the command of John of Austria with
Marcantonio Colonna as his principal deputy. The various Christian contingents met the main force from Venice under Sebastiano Venier, later Doge of Venice, in July and August 1571 at Messina, Sicily.
Deployment and order of battle
The Christian fleet consisted of 206 galleys and six galleasses (large new galleys with masts and sails in addition to their oars, and substantial artillery, developed by the Venetians). John of Austria, half-brother of Philip II of Spain, was named by Pope Pius V as overall commander of the fleet and led the centre division, with his principal deputies and counselors being the Roman Marcantonio Colonna and the Venetian Sebastiano Venier; the wings were commanded by the Venetian Agostino Barbarigo and the Genoese Gianandrea Doria. The reserve, meant to reinforce any necessary point of the line, was commanded by the Spanish Álvaro de Bazán.
Aside from the galleys and galleasses, the fleet included a division of galleons and carracks, composed by 24 from Spain and two Venetians. Not being rowing ships, they moved as an independent squad under the command of Carlo d'Avalos. There was also a squad of 76 galiots and fustas, including 50 from Spain, 20 from Venice and six from the Papal States, which would act as auxiliaries and messengers for the main fleet.
Holy League deployment
The Republic of Venice contributed 109 galleys and all six galleasses, 49 galleys came from the Spanish Empire (including 26 from the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sicily, and other Italian territories), 27 galleys of the Genoese fleet, seven galleys from the Papal States, five galleys from the Order of Saint Stephen and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, three galleys each from the Duchy of Savoy and the Knights of Malta, and some privately owned galleys in Spanish service. This fleet of the Christian alliance was manned by 40,000 sailors and oarsmen.
In addition, it carried approximately 30,000 fighting troops: 7,000 Spanish Empire regular infantry of excellent quality, belonging to the Tercios of Sicily, Naples, Sardinia and Figueroa, which comprised several units of Spanish Marine Infantry (4,000 of their troops were drawn from the Kingdom of Naples, mostly Calabria); 7,000 Germans landsknecht mercenaries and volunteers; 6,000 Italian mercenaries in Spanish pay, all good troops; all in addition to 5,000 professional Venetian soldiers. A significant number of Greeks also participated in the conflict on the side of the Holy League with three Venetian galleys commanded by Greek captains. The historian George Finlay estimated that over 25,000 Greeks fought on the side of the Holy League during the battle (both as soldiers and sailors/oarsmen) and stated that their numbers "far exceeded that of the combatants of any other nation engaged".
Oarsmen were mainly drawn from local Greek populations, particularly from the island of Kefalonia, who were experienced in maritime affairs, although there were some Venetian oarsmen as well. Free oarsmen were generally acknowledged to be superior to enslaved or imprisoned oarsmen, but the former were gradually replaced in all galley fleets (including those of Venice from 1549) during the 16th century by cheaper slaves, convicts, and prisoners-of-war owing to rapidly rising costs. The Venetian oarsmen were mainly free citizens and able to bear arms, adding to the fighting power of their ships, whereas convicts were used to row many of the galleys in other Holy League squadrons.
A heavy effort was done from the beginning to learn by past mistakes of the previous Holy League in the 1538 Battle of Preveza, where a similar alliance had been routed by an inferior Ottoman fleet. The new battle plan was heavily influenced by Viceroy of Sicily Garcia de Toledo, experienced in the Ottoman-Habsburg naval wars, who advised John of Austria that the fleet should adopt the battle plan used by the Ottomans themselves in Preveza. In order to prevent the infighting, John of Austria further ordered the fleet would not sail divided in national blocks as in Preveza, but in squads with galleys of all their nationalities intermixed, with the experienced Spanish and Italian infantry embarked in all of the vessels. He also arranged for the fleet to sail from Messina already in formation and maintain it up to the battle to earn cohesion and rowing experience. Gianandrea Doria also advised to saw off the long bow of the galleys so they could fire more easily their main guns at close range.
Turkish deployment
Ali Pasha, the Ottoman admiral (Kapudan-i Derya), supported by the corsairs Mehmed Sirocco (Mehmed Şuluk) of Alexandria and Uluç Ali, commanded an Ottoman force of 211 war galleys, 63 galliots, and some smaller vessels. The Turks had skilled and experienced crews of sailors but were significantly deficient in their elite corps of janissaries. The number of oarsmen was about 37,000 to 41,000, virtually all of them slaves, many of them Christians who had been captured in previous conquests and engagements. The Ottoman galleys were manned by 13,000 experienced sailors—generally drawn from the maritime nations of the Ottoman Empire—mainly Greeks (according to Finlay, around 5,000), Berbers, Syrians, and Egyptians—and 25,000 soldiers from the Ottoman Empire as well as a few thousand from their North African allies. The number of soldiers within the Ottoman ranks may have well been up to 34,000 in total.
Ali Pasha is supposed to have told his Christian galley slaves, "If I win the battle, I promise you your liberty. If the day is yours, then God has given it to you." John of Austria, more laconically, warned his crew, "There is no paradise for cowards."
Comparison
While soldiers on board the ships were roughly matched in numbers, an advantage for the Christians was the numerical superiority in guns and cannon aboard their ships. It is estimated that the Christians had 1,815 guns, while the Turks had only 750 with insufficient ammunition. The Christians embarked with their much improved arquebusier and musketeer forces, while the Ottomans trusted in their greatly feared composite bowmen. Another differential factor was the Spanish experience at using marine infantry, adept at boarding enemy ships and fighting on their decks, even using pikes.
Previous movements
Encounter of the fleets
An exploration party under Gil de Andrade warned the Holy League fleet about 150 Ottomans ships plundering the coast of Corfu, giving John of Austria the idea of catching and destroying them. The Christian fleet set off from Messina in two separate sections on 15 and 16 September, with d'Ávalos leading the sailing ships and Don John the rowing vessels. They crossed the Adriatic creeping along the coast, embarking reinforcements in Otranto and Corfu on the way, but failed to find the Ottomans, which were found out on September 29 to have moved to Lepanto. Serious conflict broke out between Venetians and Spaniards, and Venier offended John of Austria by hanging a Spanish soldier for killing a Venetian captain during a brawl. d'Ávalos also failed to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet due to unfavorable winds.
Eventually, and despite the weather, John of Austria and the fleet reached the rocky islets lying just north of the opening of the Gulf of Corinth on 6 October. After remaining for a while in the port of Val d'Alessandria, which is today known as the port of Sami in Kefalonia, early on 7 October they sailed toward the Gulf of Patras, where the Ottoman fleet remained. Christian parties discovered the Ottomans, while in turn Ali Pasha was warned of the oncoming fleet by two galleys, leading him to order a levy around Morea. Nevertheless, the two armadas ended up obtaining incorrect information about each other: the Christians were falsely reported that the Barbary squads had not joined the Ottoman fleet, while the Muslim explorers only got to see part of the Holy League fleet and underestimated its size.
Each fleet called a council. Although Doria and others recommended to avoid battle and not to risk the fleet, John of Austria pushed to engage, finding it necessary in order to maintain the integrity of the Holy League in the face of their disagreements. In the Ottoman fleet, Sirocco advised to take refuge under the fortress of Lepanto and wait for the Christians to be worn down by autumn, while Hasan Pasha and other officers called to fight, trusting their numbers and experience and noting that the Christian fleet was vulnerable without d'Ávalos' sailing ships. They also reminded that Selim II had issued express orders to destroy the Christian fleet. Eventually, Ali Pasha ordered to engage.
On the morning of 7 October, after the decision to offer battle was made, the Christian fleet formed up in four divisions in a north–south line:
- At the northern end, closest to the coast, was the Left Division of 53 galleys (mainly Venetian) and 2 galleasses, led by Agostino Barbarigo, with Marco Querini and Antonio da Canale in support.
- The Centre Division consisted of 62 galleys (and 2 galleasses) under John of Austria himself in his galley La Real, along with Marcantonio Colonna (Duke of Tagliacozzo) commanding the papal flagship, Sebastiano Veniero commanding the Venetian flagship, Paolo Giordano I Orsini and Pietro Giustiniani, prior of Messina, commanding the flagship of the Knights of Malta. The central division of 16 Spanish and Neapolitan galleys, organized into squadrons surrounding John of Austria's flagship, was commanded by three captains. Among them, Captain Diego de Medrano led the Fortuna de Napoli galley, Captain Martino de Caide commanded the Mendoza de Naples, and Captain Diego López de Llanos helmed the Luna de España, each overseeing respective vessels within the formation.
- The Right Division to the south consisted of another 53 galleys (and 2 galleasses) under the Genoese Giovanni Andrea Doria, great-nephew of admiral Andrea Doria.
- A reserve division of 38 galleys was stationed behind (that is, to the west of) the main fleet, to lend support wherever it might be needed, commanded by Álvaro de Bazán, Marquis of Santa Cruz.
The Ottoman fleet drew its own formation: