Battle of Pantelleria (1586)

Battle of Pantelleria (1586)
Part of the Anglo–Spanish War

Island of Pantelleria coast: The English ships came close to shore for their protection.
Date13 July 1586
Location
Off Pantelleria, Mediterranean
Result English victory[1][2]
Belligerents
 Spain
Sovereign Military Order of Malta Hospitaller Malta

England England

Commanders and leaders
Pedro de Leyva Edward Wilkinson
Strength
11 galleys
2 frigates		 5 armed merchant galleons & vessels
Casualties and losses
Many galleys severely damaged,
Heavy casualties[3]		 2 killed and 15 wounded[3]

The Battle of Pantelleria (1586), also known as the Fight at Pantalarea[4] was a naval engagement during the Anglo–Spanish War off the island of Pantelleria on 13 July 1586. The encounter was between an English armed merchant fleet of five ships of the Levant Company in convoy under Edward Wilkinson and a fleet of eleven Spanish and Maltese galleys under Don Pedro de Leyva. The English managed to repel all the attacks and returned home unmolested.[5][6] Although minor, the battle had significant consequences in testing English armaments used against the Spanish armada two years later when England was under threat of invasion.[7][8]

  1. ^ Rowse p. 254
  2. ^ Corbett, Julian Stafford (1899). Drake and the Tudor Navy, with a history of the rise of England as a maritime power, Volume 2. University of Michigan: Burt Franklin. p. 24.
  3. ^ a b Clare pp. 62–63
  4. ^ Hakluyt, Richard p. 499 The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation
  5. ^ Bicheno p. 223
  6. ^ Braudel p. 1188
  7. ^ Pastor p. 45
  8. ^ Mattingly p. 98