The Conquest of Tunis (called Jornada de Túnez in Spanish sources) in 1535 occurred when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his allies captured the city of Tunis from the control of the Ottoman Empire. The Catholic fleet, which included admirals Andrea Doria and Bazán the Elder, captured the fleet of grand Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, who had turned Tunis into his naval base for future invasions of Italy and Spain. Although Barbarossa managed to escape, the victory ensured Ottoman forces in North Africa remained limited to the usual actions of the Barbary corsairs. Tunis remained under Spanish control until its Ottoman recapture in 1569.
The conquest was one of the largest amphibious operations of the 16th century; historian Henry Kamen described it as "the most imposing ever mounted by Christian powers in the long history of the western Mediterranean". It was an unprecedented logistic achievement due to its proportions, complexity and relative quickness. It involved multiple types of ships, siege techniques and the intervention of the recently created tercios. Due to this and other successes, Charles founded officially the Spanish Marine Infantry, which remains the oldest still in existence.
With the advance of the Ottoman-Habsburg wars, the conquest of Tunis would be obscured in historiography by other battles, including failures like the Algiers expedition and victories like the battle of Lepanto. It was still recorded in many period pieces of art, most notably a series of tapestry works by Willem de Pannemaker.
Background
In 1533, Suleiman the Magnificent ordered Hayreddin Barbarossa, whom he had summoned from Algiers, to build a large war fleet for Constantinople. Altogether 70 galleys were built in the winter of 1533–1534, manned by slave oarsmen, including 2,000 Jews. With this fleet, Barbarossa conducted aggressive raids along the coast of Italy, then conquered Tunis on 16 August 1534, ousting the theretofore local ruler, Muley Hasan, who had been subservient to the Spanish. Barbarossa established a strong naval base in Tunis, which could be used for raids in the region, and on nearby Malta.
Charles V was informed that should Barbarossa remain in power in Tunis, both Italy and Spain might be threatened by the Ottoman navy. He therefore assembled a large fleet to drive the Ottomans from the region. He recruited forces from the Republic of Genoa under his grand admiral Andrea Doria, the Spanish navy under Álvaro de Bazán the Elder, the Portuguese armada under his brother-in-law Infante Luís, the Papal fleet under Virginio Orsini and the Knights of Malta under Aurelio Botigela. The fleet would included some 30,000 soldiers, 74 galleys rowed by chained Protestants shipped in from Antwerp.
The expense involved for Charles V was considerable, and at 1,000,000 ducats on par with the cost of Charles' campaign against Suleiman on the Danube. Unexpectedly, the funding of the conquest of Tunis came from the galleons sailing in from the New World, in the form of two million gold ducats extracted by Francisco Pizarro for releasing the Inca king Atahualpa, whom he nevertheless executed on 29 August 1533.
Despite a request by Charles V, Francis I denied French support to the expedition, explaining that he was under a three-year truce with Barbarossa following the 1533 Ottoman embassy to France. Francis I was also in negotiations with Suleiman for a combined attack on Charles V following the 1534 Ottoman embassy, and quickly advised Barbarossa of Charles' intention. Francis I only agreed to Pope Paul III's request that no fight between Christians occur during the time of the expedition. King Henry VIII of England and the Republic of Venice were also invited, but declined. Charles sent Genoese spy, Luigi de Presenda, to rendezvous with the exiled Muley Hasan, but he was betrayed by a morisco partner and captured. Barbarossa interrogated Presenda, who falsely assured him the emperor could not gather more than 150 ships against him.
Opposing forces
Charles V's armada
The Catholic fleet would be commanded by Andrea Doria on the sea and by Alfonso d'Avalos while on land. Other commanders in the fleet were Álvaro de Bazán the Elder, captain of the Spanish ships, as well as Luis Hurtado de Mendoza, 2nd Marquess of Mondéjar, along with his brother Bernardino de Mendoza, and a young Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba. The Italian contingent would be captained by Fadrique de Carreto, Agostino Spinola and Girolamo Tutavilla, Count of Sarno, while Germans landsknecht would be commanded by Maximilian Eberstain. The Spanish tercios included veterans Francisco de Sarmiento and maestre de campo Rodrigo de Ripalda.
According to the sources, the fleet officially carried around 25,000 soldiers, including 13,000 Spanish, 5,000 Italians, 7,000-8,000 Germans and Netherlanders, 2,000 Portuguese and 700 Knights Hospitaller. Additionally, Martín García Cereceda, who participated in the expedition, mentions as many as 32,000 adventurers and 20,000 volunteers. Leaving aside possible exaggerations, Fernández Duro proposes 54,000 people in the fleet, counting sailors, adventurers, guests and the members of various retinues, including women, who were found by the thousands in the fleet despite female presence on board was forbidden. Cavalry would have been 2,000. Discipline in the army was noted to be impressive despite its size and variety, with only the Germans occasionally breaking it.
The armada gathered vessels from Spain, Genoa and Portugal, later increased with ships from the Netherlands, Naples and Sicily, and featuring allies from the Hospitaller, the Papal States and other Italian realms. The fleet was mixed; there were both rowing ships, like galleys, galiots and fustas, and sailing ships, including galleons, carracks and hulks. Chronicler Sandoval records 80 rowing ship and 250 sailing ships, although he records a source giving them as 145 and 275 respectively, without counting vessels belonging to adventurers. Cereceda gives a similar number, stating that the fleet featured 412 ships not counting very minor vessels. Reviewing them, Duro proposes around 100 rowing ships and 300 sailing ships. It was composed of:
- The private Genoese fleet of Andrea Doria, grand Imperial admiral and commander of the armada, with 19 galleys. They included the royal galley used by Charles V, the Capitana o Bastarda, a richly decorated, 26 bench quadrireme galley. Aside from these, Andrea's cousin Antonio Doria captained five more private galleys, along with nine other galleys from the Republic of Genoa. They also brought carracks and galleons, including a heavily armed grand galleon, commanded by their cousin Franco Doria, which served as flagship of the sailing vessels.
- The Spanish armada captained by Bazán the Elder, with 15 galleys and many caravels, galleons, carracks and troop carriers. They included 80 heavy carracks built in Málaga and 42 carracks gathered in Biscay from the Cantabrian Sea bases. Their command ship was a giant carrack from Málaga nicknamed the "Capitana", large enough to have six topsails, which was used as a hospital ship.
- The Portuguese armada, with the famed the Portuguese galleon São João Baptista, considered the most powerful ship in the world at the time, at the head of one carrack and 20 caravels. The fleet was captained by Infante Luís, Charles V's brother-in-law, with the veteran João de Castro.
- The squad of Sicilia, captained by Berenguer de Requesens, with 10 galleys. They were joined by Sicilian corsair Guglielmo Bellomo with his private galleon.
- The squad of Naples, with six galleys under García Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio.
- A fleet from the Habsburg Netherlands with 60 hulks and carracks.
- The Knights Hospitaller under Aurelio Botigela, prior de Pisa, with four galleys. The order's flagship, the famed, ironclad carrack Santa Anna, arrived separately on June 17 as part of Sicilian reinforcements.
- The Papal fleet with 12 galleys under Virginio Orsini, Count of Anguillara.
- The Princedom of Monaco with two galleys.
Ottoman army
Barbarossa had prepared Tunis for the battle, putting 9,000 Christian slaves and masses of local Moors to build fortifications around the city of Tunis and the coastal fortress of La Goulette. Christian sources have him pondering about putting his fleet to the sea, hoping to either defeat the Imperial armada or at least escape, but ultimately deciding to seek to defend from land, unconvinced of the Tunisians' loyalty should he move his troops out of the city. He left most of his fleet, composed of over 100 galleys and fustas, safely locked in the lake of Tunis, behind La Goulette, bringing to land most of the ships' gun to mount them in the fortifications. He left outside only fifteen armed galleys. He called reinforcements from Algiers, Djerba, Tlemcen, Alexandria and Constantinople, and hired mercenaries from all the Barbary.
His lieutenants included Hasan Agha, Sinan Reis, Salih Reis and Aydin "Caccidiablo". His Janissaries were commanded by Jaffar Aga, while his renegados or foreign converts were led by Mustapha Cordobes, who was experienced in Spanish military tactics. Christian sources record as elite troops 8,000 Turks, 800 of them Janissaries, and Tunisian locals divided in 7,000 lancers, 8,000 archers equipped with poisoned arrows, and 8,000 horsemen described as using similar gear and tactics to those of the ancient Numidian cavalry. His army was large enough that according to the same sources, even with the constant casualties, it reached 100,000 footsoldiers and 30,000 horsemen between regulars and militiamen. These numbers are probably exaggerated, although it was still an army of a fearsome size. His combatants were also led by marabouts and local holy women to rouse their religious fervor, assuring them they were protected from enemy bullets and cannonballs, and promising them rewards in afterlife. He also recruited wives of soldiers as additional combatants.
The conquest
The armada sailed from Sardinia on June 14 in ordered formation. The Portuguese division was at the head of the convoy, followed by the emperor and Doria commanding from most of the ships in the middle, and Bazán the Elder covering the rear guard with the Spanish galleys. They sighted Africa the same day, landing in Porto Farina, between Bizerte and the ruins of Carthage. After sending part of the Biscayan ships to reinforce Melilla, which was found out to be harassed by corsairs, the rest of the fleet then surprised and captured two French ships, which returned from informing Barbarossa about the invasion.
The expedition finished disembarking on June 17 and planted its camp near the ruins, repulsing the first enemies and securing the nearby wells. The emperor then had engineer Benedetto da Ravenna fortify them. Barbarossa received then the first news about the true size of Charles V's armada; upon realizing Luigi de Presendes had fooled him, he had the spy beheaded. Afterwards he called his forces to be alert and imprisoned his 20,000 Christian slaves in the Tunis kasbah to prevent revolts, having pondered about executing them. His only strategy was to try to delay the invading army for enough time for it to run out of supplies and be weakened by plagues, hunger and Tunisia's scorching heat. Before the lake of Tunis could be blocked, he pulled fourteen galleys to send to Bona and twelve to Algiers.
Capture of La Goulette
The Ottomans sent skirmishers against the Catholic camp since June 17, being repulsed with high casualties, as Charles had ordered everybody to remain until the surrounding terrain had been scouted. His first goal was to conquer La Goulette, where Barbarossa had posted 5,000 soldiers, focused most of the artillery and surrounded with walks and trenches. He had also built a wooden bridge over the channel for better mobility. Juan Manrique de Lara probed the local artillery by exposing his galley to the enemy fire before withdrawing. Bazán the Elder inspected it from close thanks to a ruse, rushing to the port pursued by his own fleet as if his galley had been overpowered by a slave revolt, making the Ottomans give him passage. Only after he dropped his disguise, firing his own guns on them before fleeing.
The Catholics besieged La Goulette before the following morning. A boom had been tended by Turks across the galley to prevent enemy ships from approaching so the great São João Baptista was summoned to break it. The first attempt was unsuccessful, but during the second Dom Luís instructed the pilot to move back and run again with greater moment, which managed to break the boom. Afterwards, the São João was towed by two galleys to bring it as close as possible to land, and started firing its 140 guns to cover the land forces.
Charles fought personally in the next skirmishes, helping defeat a series of Ottoman attacks that heavily outnumbered his companies. The Muslims attacked with infantry, cavalry and camel cavalry, which scared away the western horses, unaccustomed to their smell. The fortress' garrison, led by Sinan and Caccidiablo, offered great resistance, to the extent of capturing two flags of the Spanish and Italian companies during the assaults.