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420 María José Rodríguez-Salgado

that the imperial victory of 1535 must have made a considerable
impact, even if, as in the case of Kohler, the unsubstantiated claim
that it had «a very positive effect» throughout Europe is accompanied
by a warning that the importance of the campaign should not be
exaggerated. Similarly, Horn, after acknowledging that «the effect of
the Tunis expedition on the political situation in the Mediterranean
was slight and of short duration», argued that «most people must have
thought of the expedition as a resounding victory» . It is a supposition,
9
made all the more plausible as it was impolitic, if not impossible, given
Christian ideology for other powers in Christendom to express hostility
to a campaign against Muslim forces.
To test these assumptions, this article considers the information
strategy adopted by Charles V and the response of Francis I and Henry
VIII to the campaign. Both monarchs were at peace with the emperor but
the French were hostile due to unresolved conflicts, especially over Milan,
and the English afraid of imperial retaliation due to the king’s adoption
of a Protestant faith and repudiation of his first wife, Katherine, who was
the emperor’s aunt. The study of French and English responses is
difficult in part because of the problems reconstructing an accurate
chronology of the receipt of news due to limited data, the habit of
amassing information before accepting news, and the abundance of false
news in circulation. Complications also arise due to the use of Tunis as
short-hand for events in North Africa as well as for the state and the city;
and of Barbarossa to refer indiscriminately to the man, to his Algerian
forces, and to the Ottoman forces he now commanded . Moreover, we
10
are dealing with consummate practitioners of dissimulation. Despite
these problems the research reveals a great deal about propaganda,
international politics and diplomacy in the sixteenth century, and further
erodes the myth of a crusade, contributing to the creation of a more
balanced and nuanced picture of these events.

The art of saying nothing: Charles V’s official declarations before
the campaign.

After the Ottoman-corsair conquest of Tunis in 1534 the emperor
appealed for aid from fellow Christian princes for a campaign to
dislodge them, on the grounds that it was a significant step towards

9 A. Kohler, Carlos V, 1500-1558, Marcial Pons, Madrid, 2000, p. 259. H.J. Horn,
Vermeyen cit., II, p 113.
10 The original correspondence of several ambassadors who were in Tunis has not
been found, including that of Claude Dodieu de Vély, the French ambassador, or his
English counterpart, Richard Pate.

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