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Introduction 369

with neighbouring Christian powers for centuries, as had many other
Muslim rulers in the Maghreb. This did not prevent them from tolerating
and benefitting from the activities of corsairs who preyed on Christian
shipping and coastlines. The real danger for Spain and, to a lesser extent,
Italy, came from Hayreddin Barbarossa once he consolidated power in
Algiers. His success attracted other corsairs and his power was reinforced
when he accepted the sovereignty the Ottoman empire. This destroyed
the equilibrium that had been reached in the Western Mediterranean.
The danger was compounded when he was appointed admiral – kapudan-
ı derya – of the Ottoman Mediterranean fleet. It signalled a greater
commitment on the part of the Ottoman sultan to expand into the Central
and Western Mediterranean. Süleyman (1520-1566) had already
demonstrated the change of direction in Ottoman policy when he
increased the navy and conquered Rhodes in 1522, expelling the most
committed and formidable Christian corsairs, the Knights of St. John.
That campaign, and the relentless Ottoman advance into Hungary and
Austria during the rest of that decade, exposed the internal divisions and
lack of cooperation among the Christian states.
Charles V was no less eager to develop a powerful Mediterranean
navy in the 1520s but it proved difficult to do while he was consolidating
his power over his scattered possessions and fighting the French. His
predecessor in Iberia, Ferdinand The Catholic, had marked the path to
follow with a series of campaigns in the 1490s which were part of a
strategy to ensure the security of the Iberian and Italian states by
creating a defensive bulwark along the Maghrebian coast, first taking
key ports and using them as a base from which to expand into the
neighbouring hinterland. North Africa was neither exotic nor peripheral
for the Spanish and Italian realms. States on both sides of the sea had
long been closely connected and remained so despite divergent
ideologies and political divisions. Charles V wanted to gain control over
the Western Mediterranean but, as had been the case with his
grandfather, he was repeatedly diverted by the longstanding conflict
with France. His position in the region was transformed when he
succeeded in securing the services of Andrea Doria and the powerful
Genoese fleet in 1528. Two years later he transferred the island of Malta,
hitherto part of the Sicilian realm, to the Knights of St. John to
compensate them for the loss of Rhodes and make sure of their future
cooperation. He also insisted that they maintained a base in Tripoli. For
a brief period after peace was signed between Charles V and his French
rival, Francis I, in 1529 it looked as if Christendom might be able to
unite against the Ottomans. But Francis I was unwilling to abandon the
friendly relations he had established with Süleyman, and the Holy
League which was formed and successfully took Ottoman-held ports in

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Agosto 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)