TheHoly League of 1538 was a short-lived alliance ofChristian states arranged byPope Paul III at the urging of theRepublic of Venice.

In 1537 theOttoman admiralHayreddin Barbarossa, had captured the Venetian stronghold ofCorfu and ravaged the coasts ofCalabria. In the face of this threat Pope Paul succeeded in February 1538 in organizing theHoly League which consisted of thePapal States, the Republic of Venice, theMaltese Knights, the Spains and the Spanish ruledNaples andSicily.

To confront Barbarossa and his roughly 120galleys andfustas, the League assembled a fleet of 302 ships (162 galleys and 140 sailing ships) in September 1538 near Corfu. Its supreme commander was theGenoese admiralAndrea Doria, who was then in the service of EmperorCharles V.

The two fleets met on 28 September 1538 in theBattle of Preveza, and Barbarossa decisively defeated the numerically superior Christian alliance. Doria's leadership in the battle was less than vigorous and is widely believed to have been a major contributing cause to the League's defeat. His hesitation to bring his own ships into full action (he personally owned a number of them) and to sacrifice them for the good of Venice, the traditional rival of his home town of Genoa, are generally considered to explain his actions at Preveza.

• Ottoman–Venetian War (1537–1540)
• Siege of Castelnuovo

• Wolf, John B., "The Barbary Coast: Algeria under the Turks," W. W. Norton, 1979;ISBN 978-0-393-01205-7
• Cook, M.A. (ed.), "A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730," Cambridge University Press, 1976;ISBN 978-0-521-20891-8
• Currey, E. Hamilton, "Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean," John Murrey, 1910.
• Norwich, John Julius, "A History of Venice," Vintage, 1982;ISBN 0-679-72197-5 (pbk.)

ThisEuropean history–related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Foreign relations of the Ottoman Empire
• 16th-century military alliances
• 1538 establishments in Europe
• 1538 disestablishments in Europe
• Holy Leagues
• European history stubs

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• All stub articles