LEPANTO 1571: THE MADONNA'S VICTORY

摘要

The Battle of Lepanto was a naval engagement that took place on 7th October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic Christian states inflicted a major defeat on the Ottoman fleet in the Gulf of Patras. The league was financed mainly by Philip II of Spain while Venice was the main contributor of ships. Lepanto marks the last major naval engagement to be fought almost entirely between rowing vessels namely galleys and galleasses. These were the direct descendants of the triremes of the classical era but carried cannon and marines bearing fireams although massed archery and cold steel still played a major part on that fateful day. The battle was essentially an infantry action fought on floating platforms and involved more than 400 warships and was the largest naval battle in Western history since Mark Antony's victory at Actium. In subsequent decades the galley was replaced as the major warship by more seaworthy and manoeuvrable galleons which utilised the line of battle tactic thereby "beginning of the age of sail". In Part 1 of this fine volume the author starts with consideration of "The Players" including Miguel de Cervantes, Hayreddin Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, Philip II, Spanish "Steel", Don John of Austria, Venice, the Knights Hospitallers, the Pope, the Porte and the invincible Ottoman janissaries. Part 2 discusses "The Pieces" namely the galleys, the guns and the men. In Part 3 Nic Fields re-examines the battle and concludes that, it merely confirmed a strategic reality that had already emerged during the 16th century. Thus, naval supremacy lay with the Sublime Porte in the eastern Mediterranean and with Habsburg Spain and its Catholic allies in the western Mediterranean. The vital importance of Lepanto was psychological in that it ended the perception of Ottoman domination and the inevitability of Islam's westward encroachment into and beyond the Balkans. In Part 4, entitled "The Myth", there is consideration of war stories arising from the battle and a final discussion of "Mary's Victory" and its significance in the greater scheme of things. The book is completed by appendices entitled "The Gunpowder Reformation", "Bull Against Elizabeth I" and "A Town Called Naupaktos", 40 pages of end-notes, a comprehensive bibliography and a detailed index. This is a well-written, well-researched, authoritative and easy-to-read account of an important naval battle whose outcome changed perceptions of the likely future history of the eastern Mediterranean. Sadly, tensions and sensitivities arising from those times are still evident in the countries of that region today. Recommended.