De la Vigne was sent to the Ottoman Empire by Henri II of France, with the objective of getting help against the Spanish troops of the Duke of Alva in Italy as part of the long-standing Franco-Ottoman alliance, when, concomitantly France was facing the Spanish troops of Philip II of Spain in the north on the border of Flanders.[2] France could only hope for progress in Italy if it were to receive Ottoman help.[2] De la Vigne lobbied for an Ottoman naval intervention in 1557.[2]
Henry was hopeful of Ottoman help, as in the past his military actions against the Habsburgs had relieve pressure on Suleiman during his campaigns in Persia and in Hungary, and Henry had always refused to join anti-Ottoman coalitions.[3] The Ottomans however refused to send their fleet to Italy that year to support the French, partly because of the Ottomans feeling offense about the previous Truce of Vaucelles which Henry II had signed without informing them, and his lack of response to several of Suleiman's letters.[3] The Ottomans were also afraid of the increased power of the French under Henry II, and did not wish to see France occupy the whole of Italy, next door to the Ottoman Empire.[3]
In 1558, Suleiman finally communicated through de la Vigne his agreement to help Henry II, and he started to prepare an armada. He also committed to send an army in the direction of Hungary and Germany if Henry also committed not to make truces or agreements on his side.[4] The French king however preferred an Ottoman offensive against Naples in Italy, through the Albanian port of Valona, and wished to obtain financial help to the level of 2 million ducats from the Ottomans.[4] In May, Suleiman communicated that he would send an armada, which left Istanbul in April 1558. In June, the armada sacked Sorrento and took 3,000 captives, but otherwise did little, and was delayed from joining a French fleet in Corsica, possibly due to the failure of the commander Dragut to honour Suleiman's orders. Suleiman apologized in a letter to Henry at the end of the year 1558.[4][5] As the Ottoman refused to lend the 2 million ducats to France, and Henry failed in the Battle of Saint-Quentin and Battle of Gravelines, the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis was finally signed.[4][6]
De la Vigne had a reputation of being rather outspoken and impolitic, and Ghiselin de Busbecq, ambassador of Ferdinand to the Porte, commented that de la Vigne's freedom of speech as an ambassador was "wild and frightfull".[4]
Philip II, also known as Philip the Prudent, was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He was also jure uxoris King of England and Ireland from his marriage to Queen Mary I in 1554 until her death in 1558. He was also Duke of Milan from 1540. From 1555, he was Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.
The Italian War of 1551–1559, sometimes known as the Habsburg–Valois War and the Last Italian War, began in 1551 when Henry II of France declared war against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V with the intent of recapturing parts of Italy and ensuring French, rather than Habsburg, domination of European affairs. The war ended following the signing of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis between the monarchs of Spain, England and France in 1559. Historians have emphasized the importance of gunpowder technology, new styles of fortification to resist cannon fire, and the increased professionalization of the soldiers.
The Italian war of 1536–1538 was a conflict between King Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. The objective was to achieve control over territories in Northern Italy, in particular the Duchy of Milan. The war saw French troops invading Northern Italy, and Spanish troops invading France. The Truce of Nice, signed on June 18, 1538, ended hostilities, leaving Turin in French hands but affecting no significant change in the map of Italy. Overall, Spain increased its control over Italy, signifying the end of Italian independence. The war strengthened animosity between the Spanish and French, and reinforced ties between France and the Ottoman Empire which had sided with Francis I against Charles V.
The Habsburg Empire of Charles V and its allies conquered Tunis in 1535, wresting the city away from the control of the Ottoman Empire.
The siege of Nice occurred in 1543 and was part of the Italian War of 1542–46 in which Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent collaborated as part of the Franco-Ottoman alliance against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and Henry VIII of England. At that time, Nice was under the control of Charles III, Duke of Savoy, an ally of Charles V. This is part of the 1543–1544 Mediterranean campaign of Barbarossa.
The Franco-Ottoman Alliance, also known as the Franco-Turkish Alliance, was an alliance established in 1536 between the King of France Francis I and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman I. The strategic and sometimes tactical alliance was one of the longest-lasting and most important foreign alliances of France, and was particularly influential during the Italian Wars. The Franco-Ottoman military alliance reached its peak around 1553 during the reign Henry II of France.
Gabriel de Luetz, Baron et Seigneur d'Aramon et de Vallabregues, often also abbreviated to Gabriel d'Aramon, was the French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1546 to 1553, in the service first of Francis I, who dispatched him to the Ottoman Empire, and then of the French king Henry II. Gabriel de Luetz was accompanied by a vast suite of scientists, Jean de Monluc, philosopher Guillaume Postel, botanist Pierre Belon, naturalist Pierre Gilles d'Albi, the future cosmographer André Thévet, traveler Nicolas de Nicolay who would publish their findings upon their return to France and contribute greatly to the development of early science in France.
Antoine Escalin des Aimars, also known as Captain Polin or Captain Paulin, later Baron de La Garde, was French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1541 to 1547, and "Général des Galères" from 1544.
The conquest of Tunis in 1574 marked the conquest of Tunis by the Ottoman Empire over the Spanish Empire, which had seized the place a year earlier. The event virtually determined the supremacy in North Africa vied between both empires in favour of the former, sealing the Ottoman domination over eastern and central Maghreb, with the Ottoman dependencies in Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli ensuingly coming to experience a golden age as corsair states.
François de Noailles, Papal Prothonotary, made Bishop of Dax in 1556, was French ambassador in Venice in the 1560s, and French ambassador of Charles IX to the Ottoman Empire from 1571 to 1575.
Jean de La Forêt, also Jean de La Forest or Jehan de la Forest, was the first official French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, serving from 1534 to 1537. Antonio Rincon had preceded him as an envoy to the Ottoman Empire from 1530 to 1533. When Jean de La Forêt died in Constantinople in 1537, he was succeeded by Antonio Rincon as official Ambassador.
The siege of Tripoli occurred in 1551 when the Ottoman Turks and Barbary pirates besieged and vanquished the Knights of Malta in the Red Castle of Tripoli, modern Libya. The Spanish had established an outpost in Tripoli in 1510, and Charles V remitted it to the Knights in 1530. The siege culminated in a six-day bombardment and the surrender of the city on 15 August.
The Invasion of Corsica of 1553 occurred when French, Ottoman, and Corsican exile forces combined to capture the island of Corsica from the Republic of Genoa.
The Ottoman–Safavid War of 1532–1555 was one of the many military conflicts fought between the two arch rivals, the Ottoman Empire led by Suleiman the Magnificent, and the Safavid Empire led by Tahmasp I.
A Franco-Hungarian alliance was formed in October 1528 between King Francis I of France and King John Zápolya of Hungary.
The siege of Corfu in 1537 was led by the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent, against the Republic of Venice-held island of Corfu. It is part of the Ottoman–Venetian War (1537–1540), one of the numerous Ottoman–Venetian Wars of the period.
The Treaty of Adrianople of 1568 or Treaty of Edirne of 1568, was concluded in the Ottoman city of Adrianople, on 17 February 1568, by representatives of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, ruler of Habsburg monarchy and Ottoman Sultan Selim II. It concluded the Austrian-Turkish War (1566-1568) and began a period of 25 years of relative peace between the empires. It followed the siege of Szigetvár, in which the Ottomans took a key Hungarian fortress, but at great cost, including the death of the previous Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent.
Michel de Codignac was French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1553 to 1556, and successor to Gabriel de Luetz d'Aramon.
An Ottoman raid of the Balearic islands was accomplished by the Ottoman Empire in 1558, against the Spanish Habsburg territory of the Balearic islands.
The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis or Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in April 1559 ended the Italian War of 1551–1559, the last of the Italian Wars (1494–1559). It consisted of several separate treaties, the main two signed on 2 April by Elizabeth I of England and Henry II of France, and on 3 April between Henry and Philip II of Spain. Although he was not a signatory, the agreements were approved by Emperor Ferdinand I, since many of the territorial exchanges concerned states that were part of the Holy Roman Empire.
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