LEPANTO: DESTRUCTION OF THE TURKISH NAVAL POWER
By the defeat of the Turks in the naval fight near Lepanto their power was so seriously shaken that its decline may be reckoned to have begun with that event. For many years, under their great sultan Solyman, the Magnificent, they had kept Europe in terror of their assaults. They had taken a recognized place among European peoples. Before his alliance with Francis I of France (1534), Solyman had made himself master of Hungary, and by threatening Vienna he so alarmed Charles V that the Emperor agreed to the Peace of Nuremberg, in order that he might unite Protestants and Catholics against the Ottoman foe.
Although Solyman withdrew before the united forces of the Christian empire, the Turks continued their depredations, especially on the coasts of Italy and Spain. Charles succeeded in repelling them there, and defeated them (1535) at Tunis, but they soon renewed their frightful ravages along the European shores.
Finally, in the reign of Solyman's successor, Selim II, they were met with effectual resistance through the efforts of the Holy League formed in 1570 by Spain, Venice, and Pope Pius V. Selim in that year captured and pillaged Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. In May, 1571, the League agreed upon a plan of action, and after a series of indecisive operations the allies accomplished their task in the manner described below. Their forces were commanded by Don John of Austria, a Spanish soldier, illegitimate son of Charles V. Don John had already (1569-1570) defeated the Moriscoes or Moors in Granada. Stirling-Maxwell is the authoritative historian of his remarkable career. Sir William's account of the important victory near Lepanto is one of our most interesting examples of military narration.
The Gulf of Lepanto is a long inlet of irregular shape, extending east and west, and bounded on the north by the shores of Albania, the ancient Epirus, and on the south by the coast of Morea, and closed at its eastern end by the Isthmus of Corinth. The bold headland on the north side, guarded by the castle of Roumelia, and the lower promontory on the south with the castle of the Morea, advancing from the opposite shores into its waters, divide the long inlet into two unequal parts. The first of these parts consists of the mouth of the gulf and the lake-like basin, together forming the Gulf of Patras. The second is the long reach of waters within the castled headlands called the Gulf (anciently) of Corinth, and now of Epakte or Lepanto. When the hostile fleets came in sight of each other, that of the League was entering the gulf near its northern shore, while that of the Turk was about fifteen miles within its jaws, his vast crescent-shaped line stretching almost from the broad swampy shallows which lie beneath the Acarnanian mountains to the margin of the rich lowlands of the Morea.