Coordinates: 38°57′33″N 20°45′01″E

Battle of Preveza
The Battle of Preveza was a naval battle that
Battle of Preveza
took place on 28 September 1538 near Preveza
in Ionian Sea in northwestern Greece between Part of the Third Ottoman–Venetian War
an Ottoman fleet and that of a Holy League
assembled by Pope Paul III. It occurred in the
same area in the Ionian Sea as the Battle of
Actium, 31 BC.[5] It was one of the three largest
sea battles that took place in the sixteenth
century Mediterranean, along with the Battle of
Djerba and the Battle of Lepanto.[6] In this
battle, the Ottomans defeated the
Europeans. [7][8]

Battle of Preveza, Ohannes Umed Behzad

Contents Date 28 September 1538

Location near Preveza, Ionian Sea
Background
Result Ottoman victory[a][1]
Forces
Belligerents
Deployment
The battle Ottoman Empire Holy League:
Aftermath
 Venice
Notes
 Papal States
References
 Genoa
Sources
Spain
External links
Mantua
Malta
Background Commanders and leaders
Hayreddin Andrea Doria

In 1537, commanding a large Ottoman fleet,

Barbarossa
Vincenzo Cappello

Hayreddin Barbarossa captured a number of

Aegean and Ionian islands belonging to the Sinan Reis
Marco Grimani

Republic of Venice, namely Syros, Aegina, Ios, Turgut Reis

Ferrante Gonzaga

Paros, Tinos, Karpathos, Kasos, and Naxos, thus Seydi Ali Reis Gianandrea Doria
annexing the Duchy of Naxos to the Ottoman Strength
Empire. He then unsuccessfully besieged the
Venetian stronghold of Corfu and ravaged the 122 galleys[2][3]
112 galleys

Spanish-held Calabrian coast in southern 20,000 soldiers[2] 50 galleons

Italy.[9] 140 barques[2][3]

60,000 soldiers[2]
In the face of this threat, Pope Paul III in
Casualties and losses
February 1538 in assembled a ’’Holy League’’,
comprising the Papal States, Habsburg Spain, 400 killed
thousands killed[2]

800 wounded[2][3] 3,000 captured

the Republic of Genoa, the Republic of Venice, 128 ships sunk,

and the Knights of Malta, to confront Ottoman destroyed or captured[4]
fleet under Barbarossa.[10]

Forces
Barbarossa's fleet that summer numbered 122 galleys and
galliots.[11] That of the Holy League comprised 300 galleys and
galleons (55 Venetian galleys, 61 Genoese-Papal, 10 sent by the
Knights Hospitaller, and 50 by the Spanish). Andrea Doria, the
Genoese admiral in the service of Emperor Charles V was in
overall command.

Deployment A satellite view of Lefkada and the

Gulf of Arta. Preveza is located at
The Holy League assembled its fleet near the island of Corfu. the entrance of the Gulf.
The Papal fleet under Admiral Marco Grimani, Patriarch of
Aquileia and the Venetian fleet under Vincenzo Capello arrived
first. Andrea Doria joined them with the Spanish-Genoese fleet
on 22 September 1538.

Prior to Doria's arrival, Grimani attempted to land troops near

the Fortress of Preveza, but he retreated to Corfu after
suffering a number of casualties in the ensuing encounter with
Ottoman forces.
Deployment of the opposing fleets
Barbarossa was still at the island of Kos in the Aegean Sea at
that time, but he soon arrived at Preveza with the rest of the
Ottoman fleet, after capturing the island of Kefalonia on the way. Sinan Reis, one of his
lieutenants, suggested landing troops at Actium on the Gulf of Arta near Preveza, an idea that
Barbarossa initially opposed, but which later proved to be important in securing the Ottoman
victory. With the Turks holding the fortress at Actium, they could support Barbarossa's fleet with
artillery fire from there, while Doria had to keep his ships away from the coast. A Christian landing
to take Actium probably would have been needed to ensure success, but Doria was fearful of a
defeat on land after the initial sortie by Grimani had been repelled. Two more attempts by the
Holy League to land their forces, this time near the fortress of Preveza at the opposite shore facing
Actium, were repulsed by the forces of Murat Reis on 25 and 26 September.

As Doria's ships kept their distance from the coast, much concerned about adverse winds driving
them onto a hostile shore, Barbarossa had the advantageous interior position. During the night of
27–28 September, Doria therefore sailed 30 miles south and, when the wind died down, anchored
at Sessola near the island of Lefkada. During the night, he and his commanders decided that their
best option was to stage an attack towards Lepanto and force Barbarossa to fight.

The battle
At dawn, however, Doria was surprised to see that the Turks were coming towards his ships.
Barbarossa had taken his fleet out of the anchorage and headed south as well. Turgut Reis was in
the van with six large fustas, and the left wing closely hugged the shore. Not expecting such a
daring offensive from the numerically inferior Ottoman fleet, it took Doria three hours to give the
order to weigh anchor and ready for battle—pressed by Grimani and Capello.

The two fleets finally engaged on 28 September 1538 in the Gulf of Arta, near Preveza.
The lack of wind was not in Doria's favor. The huge Venetian flagship Galeone di Venezia with her
massive guns was becalmed four miles from land and ten miles from Sessola. While the Christian
ships struggled to come to her assistance, she was soon surrounded by enemy galleys and engaged
in a furious battle that lasted hours and did much damage to the Ottoman galleys.

When the wind rose, the Christian fleet finally approached the action, although Doria first
executed a number of maneuvres designed to draw the Turks out to sea. Ferrante Gonzaga, the
Viceroy of Sicily, was at the left wing of the combined fleet, while the Maltese Knights were at the
right wing. Doria placed four of his fastest galleys under the command of his nephew Giovanni
Andrea Doria who was positioned in the center front, between Gonzaga and the Maltese Knights.
Doria's galleys formed a long line behind them, in front of the Papal and Venetian galleys of
Grimani and Capello. In the rear were the Venetian galleons under the command of Alessandro
Condalmiero (Bondumier) and the Spanish-Genoese galleons under the command of Francesco
Doria, together with the barques and support ships.

The Ottoman fleet had a Y shaped configuration: Barbarossa,[8] together with his son Hasan Reis
(later Hasan Pasha), Sinan Reis, Cafer Reis, and Şaban Reis, was at the center; Seydi Ali Reis
commanded the left wing;[8] Salih Reis commanded the right wing;[8] while Turgut Reis,[8]
accompanied by Murat Reis, Güzelce Mehmet Reis, and Sadık Reis, commanded the rear wing.
The Turks swiftly engaged the Venetian, Papal, and Maltese ships, but Doria hesitated to bring his
center into action against Barbarossa, which led to much tactical maneuvering but little fighting.
Barbarossa wanted to take advantage of the lack of wind which immobilized the Christian barques
that accounted for most of the numerical difference between the two sides. These barques fell as
easy prey to the Turks who boarded them from their relatively more mobile galleys and galliots.
Doria's efforts to trap the Ottoman ships between the cannon fire of his barques and galleys
failed.[8]

At the end of the day, the Turks sunk, destroyed or captured 128 ships[12] and had taken about
3,000 prisoners. The Turks did not lose any ships but suffered 400 dead and 800 wounded. A
number of Ottoman ships had been seriously damaged, however, by the cannon fire of the massive
Galeone di Venezia, the Venetian flagship under the command of Alessandro Condalmiero.

The next morning, with favorable wind, and unwilling to risk the Spanish-Genoese ships, Doria set
sail and left the battlefield for Corfu, deaf to the pleas of the Venetian, Papal, and Maltese
commanders to continue the fight.

Aftermath
It is widely speculated that Doria's prevarication and lack of zeal were due to his unwillingness to
risk his own ships (he personally owned a substantial number of the "Spanish-Genoese" fleet) and
his long-standing enmity towards Venice, his home city's fierce rival and the primary target of
Ottoman aggression at that time.[13]

In 1539 Barbarossa returned and captured almost all the remaining Christian outposts in the
Ionian and Aegean Seas.

A peace treaty was signed between Venice and the Ottoman Empire in October 1540, under which
the Turks took control of the Venetian possessions in the Morea and in Dalmatia and of the
formerly Venetian islands in the Aegean, Ionian, and eastern Adriatic Seas. Venice also had to pay
a war indemnification of 300,000 ducats of gold to the Ottoman Empire.

With the victory at Preveza and the subsequent victory in the Battle of Djerba in 1560, the
Ottomans succeeded in repulsing the efforts of Venice and Spain, the two principal rival powers in
the Mediterranean, to stop their drive for controlling the sea. The Ottoman supremacy in large-
scale fleet battles in the Mediterranean Sea remained unchallenged until the Battle of Lepanto in
1571.

Nicolò Zen the younger wrote his History of the War between Venice and the Turks which
primarily consisted of an invective against those who had called for the war against the Ottomans
in which they had behaved so ingloriously. The text was not published but a manuscript of it was
circulated in his household and survived and is now held by the Biblioteca Marciana.[14]

Notes
a. The sixteenth century saw only three such large battles: Preveza in 1538, Djerba in 1560 and
Lepanto in 1571. These battles were spectacular..[...].Nevertheless, these battles were not
really decisive; a galley fleet can be built in a few months and the logistical limitations of
galleys prohibit the strategic exploitation of victory.[1]

References
1. Hattendorf & King 2013, p. 32.
2. "Türk Tarihi: Battle of Preveza" (https://web.archive.org/web/20071113110616/http://www.dallo
g.com/savaslar/preveze.htm). Archived from the original (http://www.dallog.com/savaslar/preve
ze.htm) on 13 November 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2007.
3. Corsari nel Mediterraneo: Hayreddin Barbarossa (http://www.corsaridelmediterraneo.it/corsari/
b/barbarossa.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20070928203950/http://www.corsari
delmediterraneo.it/corsari/b/barbarossa.html) 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
4. "Denizcilerin piri: Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa (The master of the sailors: Barbaros Hayrettin
Pasha)" (https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/portre/denizcilerin-piri-barbaros-hayrettin-pasa-/1522954).
Retrieved 20 October 2020.
5. Hattendorf & King 2013, p. 6.
6. Hattendorf & King 2013, p. 15.
7. Aksin Somel, Selcuk (2010). The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire (https://www.google.com/book
s/edition/The_A_to_Z_of_the_Ottoman_Empire/tBoyoNNKh78C?hl). Scarecrow Press. p. 39.
ISBN 9780810875791. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
8. Mikaberidze, Alexander (2011). Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical
Encyclopedia [2 Volumes] A Historical Encyclopedia (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Co
nflict_and_Conquest_in_the_Islamic_Wor/jBBYD2J2oE4C?hl). ABC-Clio. p. 725.
ISBN 9781598843378. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
9. Roger Crowley, Empires of the Sea, faber and faber 2008 pp.67-69
10. Partridge, Loren (14 March 2015). Art of Renaissance Venice, 1400 1600 (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=WtokDQAAQBAJ&q=the+Knights+of+Malta%2C+to+confront+Barbarossa.&p
g=PA100). Univ of California Press. ISBN 9780520281790.
11. "Admiral Piri Reis ....The 500 Year Old Map that Shatters the Official History of the Human
Race [Archive] - The Project Avalon Community Forum" (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/archiv
e/index.php/t-76461.html?s=a72641ff9684beb503e4b2a3682c8a6f). projectavalon.net.
Retrieved 8 December 2017.
12. "Denizcilerin piri: Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa (The master of the sailors: Barbaros Hayrettin
Pasha)" (https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/portre/denizcilerin-piri-barbaros-hayrettin-pasa-/1522954).
Retrieved 20 October 2020.
13. Roger Crowley, Empires of the Sea, faber and faber 2008 p.71
14. Robilant (2011). Venetian Navigators: The Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the Far North.

Sources
 War portal

Hattendorf, John; King, Ernest (5 November 2013). Naval Strategy and Power in the
Mediterranean: Past, Present and Future (https://books.google.com/books?id=_XX_AQAAQB
AJ). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-71317-0. Retrieved 25 November 2015.

External links
Battle of Preveza (1538) - An in-depth Analysis (http://materiaislamica.com/index.php/Battle_of
_Preveza_(1538))

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