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A baroque vision of the conquest of Tunis in 1535 473

In the same scene, an entirely fictitious female protagonist,
Marfilia, provides us with vital information that defines Mulay, as the
lawful and rightful ruler of Tunis. He is also given credibility by the
fact that he spurns Marfilia, who loves him, because she is a sort of
Sybil with supernatural powers, and he rejects her because of the
spells she casts. The setting allows Charles V to be presented as the
saviour who comes to set aright an illegal occupation by Barbarossa,
referred to as «a pirate and a thief».
Two other characters who appear in the play were well-known
personalities who participated with Barbarossa in the conquest of
Tunis and other exploits: Sinan Reis, also known as Sinan the Jew,
and Cachidiablo. Through the words of the latter we learn that
Barbarossa is also angry with the Turks and with his overlord, sultan
Suleiman. Barbarossa had sent Cachidiablo to Constantinople with
gifts for Suleiman, including a hundred maidens, but his envoy
returned to Tunis with this unwelcome news:

Visires y Belerveyes
refutaron la propuesta
de hacerte Bajá, diciendo
que puesto de gran grandeza
en un bárbaro corsario,
que sólo en robos, y presas
fundaba su gloria, estaba
como con baldón y afrenta (p. 5).

Interestingly, this adheres closely to the narrative included in the
sixteenth-century chronicle of Prudencio de Sandoval .
15
Hence, Barbarossa is not only criticized by Mulay on moral
grounds, and subsequently by Charles V and his collaborators, but
also by the Turkish elite in Constantinople. Because of their refusal to
raise him to the status he covets as Pasha, Barbarossa receives the
title of Grand Admiral with disdain. He even threatens the sultan
Suleiman, which turns him into a more evil and perfidious character .
16
Barbarossa goes on to describe some of his outstanding military
operations, in particular his attacks on the Rock of Algiers, Sicily,
Menorca, Ibiza and Valencia. In this, and throughout most of the work,

15 P. de Sandoval, Historia de la vida y hechos del Emperador Carlos V, Atlas, Madrid,
1955, vol. II, p. 471: «Viziers and Belerveys / refused the proposal / to make you a
Pasha, saying / that such an honourable office / does not befit a barbarian corsair, /
whose glory is based / only on robbery and predation, which is / an infamy and affront».
16 «Doesn’t it suffice for Suleiman / that I should forgive him and through my bravery
/ fight for the Empires he rules over?» (p. 5).

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