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, 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 when they met the fleet of the Holy League which was sailing east from Messina, Sicily.
The Holy League of 1571 was arranged by Pope Pius V and included the major Catholic powers of southern Europe, specifically the Spanish Empire as well as the Italian maritime powers. It was intended to break the Ottoman Empire’s control of the eastern Mediterranean Sea and was formally concluded on 25 May 1571. Its members were:
Occhiali was an Italian farmer, then Ottoman privateer and admiral, who later became beylerbey of the Regency of Algiers, and finally Grand Admiral of the Ottoman fleet in the 16th century.
Ulcinj is a town on the southern coast of Montenegro and the capital of Ulcinj Municipality. It has an urban population of 10,707 (2011), the majority being Albanians.
The Eyalet of Cyprus was an eyalet (province) of the Ottoman Empire made up of the island of Cyprus, which was annexed into the Empire in 1571. The Ottomans changed the way they administered Cyprus multiple times. It was a sanjak (sub-province) of the Eyalet of the Archipelago from 1670 to 1703, and again from 1784 onwards; a fief of the Grand Vizier ; and again an eyalet for the short period from 1745 to 1748.
Müezzinzade Ali Pasha was an Ottoman statesman and naval officer. He was the Grand Admiral in command of the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, where he was killed in action. He also served as the governor of Egypt from 1563 to 1566.
This is the order of battle during the Battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571 in which the Holy League deployed 6 galleasses and 206 galleys, while the Ottoman forces numbered 216 galleys and 56 galliots.
The Battle of Djerba took place in May 1560 near the island of Djerba, Tunisia. The Ottomans under Piyale Pasha's command overwhelmed a large joint Christian Alliance fleet, composed chiefly of Spanish, Papal, Genoese, Maltese, and Neapolitan forces. The allies lost 27 galleys and some smaller vessels as well as the fortified island of Djerba. This victory marked perhaps the high point of Ottoman power in the Mediterranean Sea.
Piali Pasha was an Ottoman Grand Admiral between 1553 and 1567, and a Vizier (minister) after 1568. He is also known as Piale Pasha in English.
The Ottoman Navy or The Imperial Navy, also known as the Ottoman Fleet, was the naval warfare arm of the Ottoman Empire. It was established after the Ottomans first reached the sea in 1323 by capturing Praenetos, the site of the first Ottoman naval shipyard and the nucleus of the future navy.
Real was a Spanish galley and the flagship of Don John of Austria in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
Lala Mustafa Pasha, also known by the additional epithet Kara, was an Ottoman Bosnian general and Grand Vizier from the Sanjak of Bosnia.
The Fourth Ottoman–Venetian War, also known as the War of Cyprus was fought between 1570 and 1573. It was waged between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice, the latter joined by the Holy League, a coalition of Christian states formed under the auspices of the Pope, which included Spain, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Savoy, the Knights Hospitaller, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and other Italian states.
Şuluk Mehmed Pasha, better known in Europe as Mehmed Siroco or Mahomet Sirocco, and also spelled Sulik, Chulouk, Şolok, Seluk, or Suluc and known with the titles Pasha, Reis, or Bey, was the Ottoman Bey of Alexandria in the mid-16th century. Both the foreign and the Turkish nicknames were derived from the name of the southern Mediterranean wind Sirocco, from Greek σιρόκος sirokos and the hence derived Levantine Arabic شلوق shlūq, respectively.
The island of Cyprus was an overseas possession of the Republic of Venice from 1489, when the independent Kingdom of Cyprus ended, until 1571, when the island was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.
Giovanni Bruni was an Albanian Bishop of Bar from Ulcinj part of the Bruni family and related to Antonio Bruni and Gasparo Bruni. Giovanni Bruni confronted Ottoman rule and the Greek Orthodox Church working hard for the Catholic cause. In 1551 he became the bishop of Bar. In 1553, the Pope wrote to Giovanni in Bar and to the bishops of Ulcinj asking them to investigate the proposed grant of land by the Abbey f St. Nicholas to Antonio Bruti, whom had asked for the papal confirmation to secure the family heir. In 1558 Giovanni became the archbishop of Ulcinj. Giovanni Bruni was a Jesuit and archbishop who took a lead role in 1563 at the Council of Trent, which launched the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Giovanni was enslaved by the Ottomans when the city fell in 1571 and was later killed by the Spanish as they cut him down despite yelling ”I am Christian, I am a bishop”. It is believed that Giovannis brother, Antonio Bruni, was only 100 yards away.
The Bruni were a Venetian-Albanian medieval family dating back to the 13th century in Shkodër The family fled when the city was occupied by the Ottomans. Part of the family was located in modern day Koper in Slovenia. Giovanni Bruni is mentioned as the archbishop of Ulcinj in 1581. He became the archbishop in 1551 and participated in the council of Trent in 1563. He died from the Spanish who boarded his ship and killed him after the Battle of Lepanto despite yelling ”I am a Christian, I am a bishop”. In 1537, Antonio II of the Bruti-family married with Maria of the Bruni family in Ulcinj. Gasparo Bruni is mentioned as the first knight of Malta, servant of Sultan Murad III. The family was ”trans-imperial subjects” with members working as translators, merchants, and men of the church making them valuable to the Venetians and Ottomans.
Antonio Bruti was an Albanian trader, agent, merchant and diplomat, part of the Bruti family, who worked for Venice in the cities of Ulcinj and Ragusa working with Venetian-Ottoman relations.
The anti-Ottoman revolts of 1567-1572 were a series of conflicts between Albanian, Greek and other rebels and the Ottoman Empire during the early period 16th century. Social tensions intensified at this time by the debilitation of the Ottoman administration, the chronic economic crisis, and arbitrary conduct of the Ottoman state authorities. The leaders of the uprisings were initially successful and controlled several strategic locations and fortresses, especially in Epirus, Central Greece, and the Peloponnese. However, the movement lacked the necessary organization. They were instigated and assisted by western powers; mainly by the Republic of Venice, and the victory of the Holy League against the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto, in November 1571, triggered further revolutionary activity. However, Venice withdrew its support to the rebels and signed a unilateral peace with the Ottomans. As such the rebellions were doomed to end and the Ottoman forces committed a number of massacres in the aftermath of the revolt during the suppression of the uprising. Throughout the pacification process, various primarily isolated areas were still out of Ottoman control and new rebellions erupted, like that of Dionysios Skylosophos in 1611.
The Albanian revolt of 1566–1571 were a series of conflicts between Albanian revolts against Ottoman rule during the second half of the 16th century.
