Empires of the Sea

by Roger Crowley Book 3 in the Mediterranean Trilogy series.

First published 2008

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The sixteenth-century Mediterranean became the central arena of a prolonged struggle between the Ottoman Empire and its Christian rivals. Roger Crowley begins with the expansion of Ottoman sea power under Suleiman the Magnificent and Hayreddin Barbarossa, set against the Habsburg interests of Charles V and the fleets associated with Andrea Doria. The contest moved through corsair warfare, attacks on coastal strongholds and repeated attempts to control the routes linking Spain, Italy, North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.

Crowley gives particular attention to the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, where Jean Parisot de Valette’s Hospitallers resisted an Ottoman army that included the veteran commander Turgut Reis, and to the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, fought after Selim II’s conquest of Cyprus. The Holy League fleet under Don John of Austria won a spectacular naval victory, but the Ottomans rapidly rebuilt their fleet. The book therefore treats Malta and Lepanto not as a simple end to Ottoman power, but as climactic episodes in a wider contest that gradually settled into a new strategic balance.

Historical Periods

Great Siege of Malta1565 CE Battle of Lepanto1571 CE

Genres

Political History

Historical people

Turgut Reis1485–1565 Suleiman the Magnificent1494–1566 Jean Parisot de Valette1494–1568 Don John of Austria1547–1578 Selim II1524–1574 Charles V1500–1558 Hayreddin Barbarossac. 1478–1546 Andrea Doria1466–1560