Siege of Tripoli (1551)

Siege of Tripoli
	Part of the Ottoman-Habsburg wars and the Italian War of 1551–1559
	;
Date	15 August 1551
Location	Tripoli, Libya
Result	Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Order of Saint John	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Gaspard de Vallier	Sinan Pasha; Turgut Rais
Strength
~30; ~630 mercenaries	~10,000
Casualties and losses
630 enslaved	Unknown

The siege of Tripoli occurred in 1551 when the Ottoman Turks and Barbary pirates besieged and vanquished the Knights of Malta in the Red Castle of Tripoli, modern Libya.^[1] The Spanish had established an outpost in Tripoli in 1510, and Charles V remitted it to the Knights in 1530.^[2]^[3] The siege culminated in a six-day bombardment and the surrender of the city on 15 August.

The siege of Tripoli was successive to an earlier attack on Malta in July, which was repelled, and the successful invasion of Gozo, in which 5,000 Christian captives were taken and brought on galleys to the location of Tripoli.

Siege

The city was under the command of Fra' Gaspard de Vallier, with thirty knights and 630 Italian and Sicilian mercenaries.^[3] The Ottomans had a base since 1531 in the city of Tajura, 20 kilometers to the east, where Khayr al-Din had been based.^[4] The Ottomans encircled the fort, and established 3 batteries of 12 guns each.^[3]

The French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Gabriel d'Aramon, joined the Ottoman fleet at Tripoli, with two galleys and a galliot,^[3]^[5] The declared mission of the ambassador was to dissuade the Ottomans from capturing the city, at the request of the Grand Master of Malta, as Malta was not identified as an enemy in the Franco-Ottoman alliance against the Habsburgs.^[6]^[7] According to later reports, when Sinan Pasha (Sinanüddin Yusuf Pasha) and Dragut refused to lift the siege, on grounds that they were under order to eradicate the Knights of Malta from the African continent, d'Aramon threatened to sail to Constantinople to appeal to Sultan Suleiman, but he was then barred from leaving the city until the end of the siege.^[6]^[7]

Soon the soldiers in the fort mutinied, and negotiation for surrender started.^[3] The city was captured on 15 August 1551 by Sinan Pasha after six days of bombardment.^[8]^[9]^[5] The Knights, many of them French, were returned to Malta upon the intervention of the French ambassador,^[5] and shipped on board his galleys, while the mercenaries were enslaved.^[3] (some authors say 200 men were freed^[5]). Murād Agha, the Ottoman commander of Tajura since 1536, was named as the Pashalik of the city.^[4]

Nicolas de Villegagnon, the future explorer of Brazil, was present at the siege of Tripoli in 1551, and wrote an account about it in 1553.^[10]

Aftermath

From Malta, d'Aramon wrote a letter about his intervention to Henry II.^[5] The role of d'Aramon was widely criticized by Charles V and Julius III on suspicion that he had encouraged the Ottomans to take the city.^[5] It appeared that d'Aramon had participated in the victory banquet of the Ottomans, raising further suspicions about his role in the siege, and leading to claims by Charles V that France participated in the siege.^[6]^[7] In any instance, d'Aramon had a special relationship with the Ottomans, and was clearly aware that the fall of Tripoli represented a major setback for Charles V.^[5]

Upon his return to Malta, Gaspard de Vallier was heavily criticized by the Grand Master Juan de Homedes y Coscon who wished to assign all the blame for the defeat on him. He was brought in front of a tribunal, and stripped from the habit and cross of the Order.^[11] He had been however staunchly defended by Nicolas de Villegagnon, who exposed the duplicity of de Homedes.^[12]

The siege was the first step of the all-out Italian War of 1551–1559 in the European theater, and in the Mediterranean the French galleys of Marseilles were ordered to join the Ottoman fleet.^[3]

In 1553, Dragut was nominated commander of Tripoli by Suleiman, making the city an important center for piratical raids in the Mediterranean and the capital of the Ottoman province of Tripolitania.^[4] In a famous attack from Tripoli, in 1558, Dragut attacked Reggio, and took all its inhabitants as slaves to Tripoli.^[4]^[13]

In 1560, a powerful naval force was sent to recapture Tripoli, but that force was defeated in the Battle of Djerba.^[14]

Notes

^ Cervantes in Algiers: a captive's tale by María Antonia Garcés p. 25 [1]
^ A history of Islamic societies Ira Marvin Lapidus p. 255 [2]
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II by Fernand Braudel pp. 920– [3]
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d A history of the Maghrib in the Islamic period Jamil M. Abun-Nasr p. 190 [4]
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Setton, Kenneth M. (1984). The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571), Volume III: The Sixteenth Century to the Reign of Julius III. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. p. 555. ISBN 0-87169-161-2.
^ ^a ^b ^c The biographical dictionary of the Society for the diffusion of Knowledge p. 230 [5]
^ ^a ^b ^c A Universal Biography, John Platts p. 49: [6]
^ The Middle East and North Africa 2003, p. 748 [7]
^ History of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey by Ezel Kural Shaw p. 106 [8]
^ The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe, N. W. Bawcutt p. 6
^ Achievements of the Knights of Malta Alexander Sutherland p. 108 [9]
^ Ancient and modern Malta by Pierre Marie Louis de Boisgelin de Kerdu p. 47
^ The History of England Sharon Turner, p. 311 [10]
^ A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730: chapters from the Cambridge history by Vernon J. Parry p. 101 [11]

32°54′8″N 13°11′9″E / 32.90222°N 13.18583°E / 32.90222; 13.18583

[1] Cervantes in Algiers: a captive's tale by María Antonia Garcés p. 25 [1]

[2] A history of Islamic societies Ira Marvin Lapidus p. 255 [2]

[Braudel-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II by Fernand Braudel pp. 920– [3]

[Abun-Nasr-4] A history of the Maghrib in the Islamic period Jamil M. Abun-Nasr p. 190 [4]

[Setton-5] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Setton, Kenneth M. (1984). The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571), Volume III: The Sixteenth Century to the Reign of Julius III. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. p. 555. ISBN 0-87169-161-2.

[Sdk-6] The biographical dictionary of the Society for the diffusion of Knowledge p. 230 [5]

[Platts-7] A Universal Biography, John Platts p. 49: [6]

[8] The Middle East and North Africa 2003, p. 748 [7]

[9] History of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey by Ezel Kural Shaw p. 106 [8]

[10] The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe, N. W. Bawcutt p. 6

[11] Achievements of the Knights of Malta Alexander Sutherland p. 108 [9]

[12] Ancient and modern Malta by Pierre Marie Louis de Boisgelin de Kerdu p. 47

[13] The History of England Sharon Turner, p. 311 [10]

[14] A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730: chapters from the Cambridge history by Vernon J. Parry p. 101 [11]

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v t e Major sieges involving the Ottoman Empire by century
13th-14th	1285 Kulaca Hisar 1326 Bursa 1328–1331 Nicaea 1333–1337 Nicomedia 1360s Adrianople 1385 Sofia 1393 Tarnovo 1394–1402 Constantinople
15th	1411 Constantinople 1422 Constantinople 1422–1430 Thessalonica 1428 Golubac 1440 Belgrade 1440–41 Novo Brdo 1448 Svetigrad 1450 Krujë 1453 Constantinople 1455 Berat 1456 Belgrade 1461 Trebizond 1462 Mytilene 1463 Jajce 1464 Jajce 1466–67 Krujë 1467 Krujë 1470 Negroponte 1474 Scutari 1477–78 Krujë 1478–79 Scutari 1480 Rhodes 1481 Otranto 1484 Chilia
16th	1500 Cephalonia 1517 Cairo 1521 Belgrade 1522 Knin 1522 Rhodes 1529 Peñón of Algiers 1529 Vienna 1531 Diu 1532 Güns (Kőszeg) 1532 Maribor 1533–34 Coron 1534 Tunis 1534 Baghdad 1537 Klis 1537 Corfu 1538 Diu 1539 Castelnuovo 1541 Buda 1543 Nice 1543 Esztergom 1548 Aden 1548 Van 1551 Tripoli 1552 Muscat 1552 Hormuz 1552 Temesvár 1552 Eger 1556 Oran 1559 Bahrain 1563 Oran 1565 Malta 1566 Szigetvar 1570–71 Famagusta 1574 Tunis 1578 Gvozdansko 1592 Bihać 1593 Sisak 1596 Eger
17th	1601 Nagykanizsa 1621 Khotyn 1638 Baghdad 1663 Uyvar 1664 Novi Zrin 1648–1669 Candia 1672 Kamenets 1683 Vienna 1684 Buda 1684 Santa Maura 1685 Érsekújvár 1686 Buda 1686 Pécs 1688 Negroponte 1688 Belgrade 1690 Belgrade 1695 Azov 1696 Azov
18th	1711 Brăila 1715 Nauplia 1716 Corfu 1716 Temeşvar 1717 Belgrade 1733 Baghdad 1734–35 Ganja 1737 Ochakov 1739 Belgrade 1788 Ochakov 1788 Khotin 1789 Belgrade 1789–90 Izmail 1799 El Arish 1799 Jaffa 1799 Acre
19th	1801 Cairo 1806 Belgrade 1821 Patras 1821–22 Acropolis 1821 Tripolitsa 1822 Missolonghi 1823 Missolonghi 1825–26 Missolonghi 1826–27 Acropolis 1828 Kars 1828 Varna 1854 Calafat 1854 Silistra 1854–55 Sevastopol 1855 Kars 1877 Plevna
20th	1912–13 Scutari 1912–13 Adrianople 1915 Van 1915–16 Kut 1916–1919 Medina
Ottoman defeats shown in italics.

Siege of Tripoli (1551)

Siege

Aftermath

See also

Notes