Page 177 - sfogliabile 49

«No great glory in chasing a pirate». The manipulation of news during the 1535 443

find out what price the emperor was willing to pay for his alliance 150 .
When news of Süleyman’s latest defeat reached Europe, the pope’s call
for a campaign against the Ottomans went unheeded 151 . Ironically,
Francis I now found it expedient to exaggerate the importance of the
emperor’s victory at Tunis, in order to increase fear of the emperor’s
power and facilitate an anti-Habsburg Christian alliance 152 . He also
turned the emperor’s propaganda against him. To make the point that
he had no territorial ambitions, Charles V had given a great deal of
publicity to his decision to give Tunis back to Mulay Hassan. This had
prompted some negative propaganda presenting him as a lover of
Muslims, more closely allied to them than Francis I. Now it gave the
French a powerful argument: if Charles V could give a whole kingdom
to a Muslim ruler who did not deserve it, why could he not give a
Christian prince the duchy that belonged to him and thus guarantee
peace in Christendom? 153 The fate of Milan was regarded as
transcendental and overshadowed all other news 154 . As 1536 dawned,
all the talk was of war between Charles V and Francis I.

Conclusion

The material provided by the imperial secretariat was impressive in
quantity and in its method of dissemination, but it was far from the
only material in circulation about the Tunis campaign. Its impact was
short-lived for many reasons, not least the lack of substantial gains
by the emperor, and the short time span between victory and defeat.
Even supporters of the emperor such as the English Catholics
diminished his triumph in an effort to call attention to their own
cause; others feared his additional power and so muted their response.
Francis I and Henry VIII chose not only to dissimulate, but to delay
and stifle news from Tunis; in effect, to starve the news of the oxygen
of publicity. By doing so they successfully limited the impact of the

150 Csp SP, 5 (1), n. 246, Chapuys to Charles V, 30 December 1535.
151 V.-L. Bourrilly (ed.), Lettres Rabelais cit., pp. 42-43, Rabelais to Geoffroy
d’Estissac, Rome, 30 December 1535.
152 Ang, Carpi, p. 86, Carpi to Ricalcato, 12 Novenber 1535. News arrived on 10
November. The nuncio wrote the previous day (ivi, pp. 85-86): «quelli che naturalmente
non devono voler lo Imperatore così grande in Italia».
153 P. Giovio, Lettere Volgari cit., Giovio to Carpi, Roma, 28 December 1535. Ang,
Carpi, p. 242, Carpi to Ricalcato, 12 March 1537, reporting the complaint of Francis I,
«che l’Imperatore é andato in Africa ad acquistar un regno, per lassarlo poi a un infidele
et che ad un Re di Francia, suo cognato, non vol rendere’quel cosî ingiustamente si
ritien del suo».
154 Du Bellay, II, pp. 202 and 210.

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