Siege of Castelnuovo

Siege of Castelnuovo
Part of the Ottoman–Venetian War (1537–1540)

View of Castelnuovo in the 16th century – engraving by an unknown 17th-century artist
Date18 July – 6 August 1539
Location
Herceg Novi, present-day Montenegro
Result Ottoman victory[1][2][3][4][5]
Belligerents
Spain Spanish Empire Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Francisco de Sarmiento † Hayreddin Barbarossa
Strength
3,500[6]–4,000 men[7] 50,000 men
200 ships[6][8]
Casualties and losses
All killed or executed
except 100 men[8][9]		 8,000[10]–20,000 killed[9]

The siege of Castelnuovo was an engagement during the Ottoman-Habsburg struggle for control of the Mediterranean, which took place in July 1539 at the walled town of Castelnuovo, present-day Herceg Novi, Montenegro. Castelnuovo had been conquered by elements of various Spanish tercios the year before during the failed campaign of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire in Eastern Mediterranean waters. The walled town was besieged by land and sea by a powerful Ottoman army under Hayreddin Barbarossa, who offered an honourable surrender to the defenders. These terms were rejected by the Spanish commanding officer Francisco de Sarmiento and his captains even though they knew that the Holy League's fleet, defeated at the Battle of Preveza, could not relieve them.[6] During the siege, Barbarossa's army suffered heavy losses due to the stubborn resistance of Sarmiento's men. Even the Venetian refused the promised naval link to Castelnuovo with the supplies and reinforcements; after a general troop parliament, the commanding officer Francisco de Sarmiento asked his captains what his answer should be to Barbarossa's offer to surrender. The captains responded: "Que vengan cuando quieran" (Let them come whenever they want).[11] However, Castelnuovo eventually fell into Ottoman hands and almost all the Spanish defenders, including Sarmiento, were killed. The loss of the town ended the Christian attempt to regain control of the Eastern Mediterranean. The courage displayed by the Old Tercio of Naples during this last stand, however, was praised and admired throughout Europe and was the subject of numerous poems and songs.[8][9]

  1. ^ "...Admiral Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa led a costly siege which eventually recovered the port". Jaques, Tony: Dictionary of Battles and Sieges. Vol. I: A-E. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2007. ISBN 9780313335372, p. 210.
  2. ^ Pardo Molero states that Barbasossa endured an "extremely hard siege campaign" and later the admiral assured to the imperial agent Pedro Sánchez that "...what happened in Castelnuovo was the greatest feat among all he had seen or heard about". Pardo Molero, Juan Francisco: La defensa del Imperio: Carlos V, Valencia y el Mediterráneo. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, 2001. ISBN 9788495146687, p. 328.
  3. ^ "At no time can one say without exaggeration that a stronghold had been defended with more heroism". Preveden, Francis Ralph: A history of the Croatian people from their arrival on the shores of the Adriatic to the present day. New York: Philosophical Library, 1962. OCLC 949507306, p. 193.
  4. ^ "When the Turks entered Castelnuovo over the rubble and the Spanish corpses, Barbarossa had to admit that their losses amounted to more than nineteen thousand". Santiago, Vicente: Carlos I de España. Barcelona: Mateu, 1959. OCLC 19218641, p. 158.
  5. ^ Fernández Álvarez, p. 583
  6. ^ a b c Fernández Álvarez, p. 229
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Arsenal23 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b c Martínez Laínez, p. 116
  9. ^ a b c Arsenal/Prado, p. 33
  10. ^ Oman, Charles (1937). Charles Oman, A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century. E.P. Dutton. p. 693. ISBN 9780598497574.
  11. ^ "Francisco de Sarmiento, la furia española en Castelnuovo". 8 September 2013.