16th century naval engagement
42°48′N
10°00′E
/
42.800°N 10.000°E
/
42.800; 10.000
The
Battle of Pianosa
was a
naval engagement
which took place on 25 April 25, 1519, when a
Genoese
fleet severely defeated the flotilla of the
Tunisia
-based
Barbary
corsair Kaid Ali in the
Tyrrhenian Sea
, in view of the island of
Elba
. The battle broke the back of one of the rising corsair bases on the
Barbary Coast
,
Bizerte
, and established
Andrea Doria
as among the foremost captains in the
Mediterranean
.
Background
[
edit
]
Raiding had long been part of life in the
Mediterranean
. The last decades of the
Middle Ages
had seen numerous famous
corsairs
harassing both coastal populations and shipping activities, but the turn of the 16th century coincided with a marked surge of piracy.
[1]
[2]
Most notably, several captains established bases on the
North African
coast where strong corsair flotillas left every year for months-long cruises.
[3]
In the spring and summer, they raided and pillaged coastal regions and Mediterranean Europe's maritime trade.
[4]
Among the region's most famous
Barbary corsairs
at the time were
Hayreddin Barbarossa
and
Kurto?lu Muslihiddin
.
[5]
The latter set up his base of operation in the
Tunisian
town of
Bizerte
with support of the local
Hafsid Dynasty
. The prowess of Kurto?lu at sea attracted the
Ottoman
government's attention and he was offered
command
of the
Turkish fleet
in 1516. After Kurto?lu Muslihiddin left North Africa, command in Bizerte was assumed by another captain (
reis
), Kaid Ali (literally Ali the Boss) who soon proved as much a scourge for the Europeans as his predecessor had been.
[6]
The Bizertine flotilla had grown strong enough to be a threat not only for merchant ships and the coast villages but even for military vessels. In a battle in mid-September 1518, Kaid Ali defeated and captured the flagship
galley
(
Capitana
) of the
Pope
and took the papal fleet's admiral,
Paolo Vettori
, near
Mont’Argentario
, on the
Tuscan
coast.
[7]
For the most part, the European Christian powers were too occupied fighting each other to pay much heed to the rather small-scale predation of the Barbary corsairs.
Spain
, for instance, notably diminished the resources allocated to the fight against the North African raiders in the 1510s, considering
French
expansionism
as a much greater threat to its security.
[8]
Corsairs were taken seriously only by lesser coastal powers such as Genoa and the Papal States in particular because they directly menaced important trade routes upon which their economies and grain supplies depended.
[9]
[10]
In early spring 1519, aware of the arrival of Kaid Ali's flotilla in the
Tyrrhenian Sea
, the Genoese Republic entrusted its coastline defense to a local captain, the nobleman
Andrea Doria
, who had acquired a good reputation fighting in
Corsica
for the Republic. Mindful of the difficulty of the task at hand, Andrea Doria demanded that the Republic's four galleys be reinforced with another two. The Genoese government granted his request but, because there were too few prisoners and captives to provide the two new boats with sufficient rowers, free oarsmen were recruited (known as
buonavoglia
) to complement the rowing crew.
[11]
Battle
[
edit
]
The
Genoese
fleet left its base mid-April and headed south into the
Tyrrhenian Sea
looking for
corsairs
. On 25 April, in the
Tuscan archipelago
, near the island of
Pianosa
, the Genoese ships met the
Kaid Ali
flotilla. More numerous and with the support of a favourable strong southern wind (
sirocco
), the
Barbary corsairs
were at a clear advantage.
Andrea Doria
had his
galleys
turn face and flee while the
Bizertine
began to pursue. The chase went on for about 20
nautical miles
and probably four hours. The strong wind put the larger and more seaworthy Genoese ships at an advantage. They reached the westernmost cape of the island of
Elba
ahead of their pursuers.
[12]
Having reached Elba, the Genoese captain took advantage of a local wind pattern to change direction and head straight towards the Bizertines. However, the newly recruited free-rowers of the two additional ships lacked the skill and strength for these arduous maneuvers and began drifting with the wind. Andrea Doria had to send two of his older galleys to tow the less experienced ships. Two-thirds of the Genoese ships were unable to face-off and run down the adversary in time. Rather than letting the opportunity pass, Andrea Doria put his nephew
Filippino Doria
in charge of the four slower ships and took his main galleys, the
Capitana
and the
Patrona
, straight towards the Bizertine to pin them down before the main force arrived.
[13]
[14]
The Genoese had more artillery than the corsairs and managed to do some damage with their cannons. However the Bizertine succeeded in grappling and boarding the Genoese ships. Hand-to-hand combat ensued. Badly outnumbered, Doria and his men managed to sustain the shock for fifteen minutes. At this point the four ships under Filippino Doria reached the thick of the fight and within half-an-hour the battle was won for the Genoese. Only three fuste ships of the corsairs managed to escape. The rest of the flotilla ? possibly as many as nine vessels of various sizes ? were captured or sunk. The
Capitana
of the Pope had been recovered and was towed back to Genoa along with four other ships.
[15]
Aftermath
[
edit
]
The fight, as was often the case in the overcrowded
galleys
, had been extraordinarily violent and bloody. Italian sources mention 500 corsairs dead. This may be an overestimate, but the losses on the side of the
Bizertines
were undoubtedly heavy. The
Genoese
had also suffered important casualties. One of
Andrea Doria
's nephews, Lazzarino Doria, was killed in action and his second-in-command
Filippino Doria
was wounded twice.
[16]
[17]
The Genoese managed to take only a handful of prisoners among whom, however, was the Bizertine captain
Kaid Ali
. Most of these captives were rapidly ransomed but Kaid Ali himself was not exchanged and was held as a prisoner in the fortress of
Pianosa
until his death in 1530.
With Kaid Ali prisoner and
Kurto?lu Muslihiddin
serving the Ottomans in the East, the bulk of their men dead and most of their ships captured or sunk, the strength of the Bizertine corsair base had been broken and the city receded into a very secondary raiding base, far behind the main corsair ports
Tripoli
and, above all,
Algiers
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Valerian 2006
, p. 421
et seg.
- ^
Graziani 1991
, p. 477
- ^
Bono 1964
, p.
passim
- ^
Braudel 1995
, p. 251
- ^
Zachariadou 2002
, p.
passim
- ^
Guglielmotti 1876
, p. 161
- ^
Graziani 2008
, p. 69
- ^
Espinosa 2005
, p. 249
- ^
Pacini 1999
, p. 59
- ^
Grendi 2005
, p.
passim
- ^
Guglielmotti 1876
, p. 165
- ^
Guglielmotti 1876
, p. 165
- ^
Guglielmotti 1876
, p. 165
- ^
Williams 2015
, p. 87
et seg
- ^
Guglielmotti 1876
, p. 165
- ^
Guglielmotti 1876
, p. 166
- ^
Graziani 2008
, p. 70
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Bono, Salvatore (1964).
I corsari barbareschi
. Rome: ERI-Edizion RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana.
- Braudel, Fernand (1995).
The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Volume 1
. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
ISBN
9780520203082
.
- Campodonico, Pierangelo (1997).
Andrea Doria
. Genoa: Tormena Editore.
- Cavanna Ciappina, Maristella (1982).
"Doria, Filippo"
.
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 41
.
- Espinosa, Aurelio (2005).
"The Grand Strategy of Charles V (1500-1558): Castile, War, and Dynastic Priority in the Mediterranean"
.
Journal of Early Modern History
.
9
(3): 239?283.
doi
:
10.1163/157006505775008446
.
- Graziani, Antoine-Marie (1991).
"Domaines coloniaux, industrie securitaire et systeme fiscal en Corse a la fin du XVIe siecle"
.
Melanges de l'Ecole francaise de Rome: Italie et Mediterranee
.
103
(2): 461?520.
doi
:
10.3406/mefr.1991.4168
.
- Graziani, Antoine-Marie (2008).
Andrea Doria: Un Prince de la Renaissance
. Paris: Tallandier.
- Grendi, Edoardo (2005). "Genova alla meta del Cinquecento: una politica del grano?".
Journal of Early Modern History
.
5
(13): 106?160.
JSTOR
43900349
.
- Guglielmotti, Alberto (1876).
Storia della marina Pontificia dal secolo ottavo al decimonono, Volume 3, Issue 1
. Rome: Tipografia Tiberina.
- Lo Basso, Luca (2007).
"Gli asentisti del re. L'esercizio privato della guerra nelle strategie economiche dei Genovesi (1528-1716)"
(PDF)
.
R. Cancila. Mediterraneo in Armi. Mediterranea
. Palermo: 2712?81.
- Pacini, Arturo (1999).
La Genova di Andrea Doria nell'impero di Carlo V
. Florence: Olschki.
*
Valerian, Dominique (2006).
Bougie, port maghrebin, 1067-1510
. Rome: Ecole Francaise de Rome.
- Zachariadou, Elisavet A., ed. (2002).
The Kapudan Pasha : his office and his domain : Halcyon Days in Crete IV, a symposium held in Rethymnon, 7-9 January 2000
. Rethymnon: Crete University Press.
- Williams, Phillip (2015).
Empire and Holy War in the Mediterranean: The Galley and Maritime Conflict Between the Habsburgs and Ottomans
. New York City: I. B. Tauris.
ISBN
9781784533755
.
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