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396 Miguel Ángel de Bunes Ibarra

The Tunis campaign is well known due to the numerous chronicles,
many of which are readily available, as well as through the famous
paintings and tapestries which were commissioned to celebrate the
great victories of Charles V in the Gulf of Carthage , after which he
1
was greeted in Italy as a triumphant emperor . This should not hinder
2
us from appreciating that the emperor’s decision to go to North Africa
in person remains curious and surprising. The imperial secretary,
Antoine Perrenin, in what can be considered an official chronicle of
the campaign, explained it thus:

Having seen and pondered with great sorrow the great damage, cruelty and
tyranny which this Infidel and enemy, Barbarossa, also named Hayreddin
Pasha, had inflicted on Christendom, and especially along the frontiers and
ports of the kingdoms and maritime lands of His Majesty, where he had
captured many Christians – men, women and children – taking them in chains
as slaves and captives. [And having learnt that] the said Barbarossa had been
named Captain General of the Ottoman fleet and had left Istanbul heading for
the kingdom of Barbary with nearly three hundred sail, including galleys,
foists and brigantines as well as other sailing ships, all well manned and
provided with artillery and munitions, [and that] he had taken the fortress of
the port of La Goletta in Tunis, as well as the city [of Tunis] and the ports of
Bona and Bizerte which are on the border of the said kingdom of Barbary and
near the kingdoms and maritime lands belonging to the emperor, in particular
the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, Mallorca and Menorca... 3

1 S. Haag, K. Schmitz-Von Ledebur, Kaiser Karl V. erobert Tunis Dokumentation eines
Kriegszuges in Kartons und Tapisserien, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien, 2003; H.J.
Horn, Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, painter of Charles V and his conquest of Tunis, Paintings,
Etchings, Drawings, Cartoons and Tapestries, Davaco, Doornspijk, 1989. The campaign
became one of the most important for the Habsburg dynasty, and the Vermeyen
tapestries were used in public events more often than any others. The two candidates
for the throne of Spain during the War of Succession both commissioned copies of the
series. M. Falomir Faus, M.Á. Bunes Ibarra, Carlos V, Vermeyen y la conquista de Túnez,
in J.L. Castellanos, F. Sánchez-Montes (eds.), Carlos V. Europeísmo y Universalidad.
Religión, cultura y mentalidad, Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los
Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, Madrid, 2001, t. V, pp. 243-257.
2 A. Chastel, Les entrées de Charles Quint en Italie, in J. Jacquot (ed.), Les Fêtes de
la Renaissance. II. Fètes et cérémonies au temps de Charles V, CNRS, Paris, 1975; M.A.
Visceglia, Il viaggio ceremoniale di Carlo V dopo Tunisi, in J. Martínez Millán (ed.), Carlos
V y la quiebra del humanismo política en Europa (1530-1558), Sociedad Estatal para la
Conmemoración de los centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, Madrid, 2001, vol. II, pp.
101-108. It is very difficult at present to provide a synthesis of the different entries
because of the sheer volume of publications relating to them in the last few years.
3 A. Perrenin, Goleta de la ciudad de Túnez, 1535. Jornada de Túnez, in R. González
Cuerva, M.A. Bunes Ibarra (eds.), Túnez 1535: Voces de una campaña europea, CSIC,
Madrid, 2017, p. 59: «Viendo y considerando con gran pesar los grandes males y
crueldades y tiranías que el infiel y enemigo Barbarroja, nombrado Carinbasa, había
hecho en la Cristiandad, mayormente en las fronteras y puertos de los Reinos y tierras
marítimas de Su Majestad, habiendo prendido muchos cristianos, hombres y mujeres

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