The Glory of the Crusades

by Steve Weidenkopf

  The siege of Malta was an epic struggle for the center of the Mediterranean, and it proved costly to both sides. The Turks lost half of the fighting strength of their invasion force, and La Valette lost half of his Knights and 2,500 Maltese troops.635 An additional 7,000 Maltese men, women, and children also died during the siege.636 Pope Pius IV offered La Valette the cardinal’s hat for his valiant and brilliant defense of Malta, but the humble warrior refused the offer. He would live another five years, finally dying from a stroke suffered during the summer heat when returning from a hunt. He was buried on the island he had so gallantly defended.

  Pope St. Pius V and the Holy League

  Although the Ottomans faltered at Malta, they remained a strong force. Selim II (r. 1566–1574), the successor of Suleiman the Magnificent, conquered Cyprus in 1571, but his sights were on a much more impressive prize, one worthy of his great-grandfather, Mehmet the Conqueror: Selim dreamed of conquering Rome. He called the Eternal City the “red apple” that he believed was ripe for plucking. A massive fleet would be required for such an invasion, and so Selim set about building one. By the fall of 1571, it was ready.

  Pius V had been elected pope in 1566. As a Dominican monk he was known for his orthodoxy and hatred of heresy, serving as the head of the Holy Office of the Inquisition under Pope Paul IV. Pius was very aware of the Turkish threat to Rome and Christendom, so he wrote letters to the major European secular rulers pleading with them to unite against it.

  Most of them ignored the papal exhortation. Europe in the late sixteenth century “was a ferment of violent passions, torn apart by different interests, imperial dreams, and religious tensions.”637 Despite the lack of response, Pius kept pressing for an alliance to mitigate the Ottoman threat and, eventually, the persistent pontiff succeeded. A Holy League alliance between Spain, Venice, and the Papal States was formed on March 7, 1571.

  The Battle of Lepanto

  Selim II’s naval campaign to rule the Mediterranean Sea began with the crafting of large numbers of oared galleys.638 These galleys were ships with limited range that operated in the littoral areas near the shore. They rarely ventured into open ocean and could only do so for short periods of time, primarily because they required vast amounts of potable water for the oarsmen. Initially volunteers manned the oars for these ships, but by the sixteenth century, chained slaves—especially Christian slaves captured by Muslim pirates—and conscripts provided the manpower. Life as a galley oarsman was akin to servitude in hell: “[T]he galley was an amoebic death trap, a swilling sewer whose stench was so foul you could smell it two miles off.”639 In fact, galleys were periodically sunk just to cleanse the filth.

  As the deployment season of 1571 came to a close, the Ottoman fleet sought anchorage in their fortified port of Lepanto at the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth. Lepanto was a strategic location, as the prevailing Mediterranean wind favored the defender. An attacker would waste valuable energy and time trying to row against the wind to get into the gulf while the defender sat and waited to attack until exhaustion took the enemy fleet out of action.

  Ali Pasha commanded the Ottoman fleet in 1571. Ali Pasha was “brave and generous, of natural nobility, a lover of knowledge and the arts; he spoke well, he was a religious and clean-living man.”640 He was in charge of a substantial fleet of 300 war galleys, 100,000 men, and 14,000 Christian galley slaves. It was a fleet bred for one purpose: the invasion of Rome and the conquest of Christendom. His flagship flew a large green standard known as the banner of Mohammed. The flag was covered with verses from the Qur’an, and had the name of Allah embroidered 28,900 times in gold calligraphy. The banner had never been captured by enemy forces and always seemed to bring luck and victory to the Muslim force that raised it in battle.

  The Holy League fleet had assembled in Naples in August. Don Juan of Austria, the twenty-four-year-old illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, commanded the 208-ship fleet. Half-brother to Philip II, king of Spain, Don Juan was “good looking, dashing, intelligent, chivalrous, and daring, driven by an unquenchable appetite for glory.”641 Pius V sent Cardinal Granvelle to Naples to consecrate Don Juan as commander of the Holy League, presenting him with a twenty-foot blue battle pennant that contained an image of the cross with the linked coat of arms of Spain, Venice, and the pope.

  The cardinal also passed on the pope’s exhortation to Don Juan to demand virtuous living from his sailors and soldiers. The notion that warriors would embody Christian virtues while preparing for and participating in combat was a mainstay of the Crusading movement, and Pius V clearly saw his Holy League as the newest chapter in Crusading history.

  Among the 26,000 Holy Leaguers who were asked to live virtuously and pray the rosary (each man was given one), was the Spanish author, Miguel Cervantes. The later writer of Don Quixote fought well in the battle, was wounded, and lost the use of his left hand for the rest of his life. Despite his wound, Cervantes later wrote that the battle was “the greatest day’s work seen for centuries.”642

  The Cross and the Crescent

  The sound of the liturgy wafted across the water on the morning of October 7, 1571. The chaplains scattered throughout the fleet blessed the troops and granted them general absolution. Every man knew the next several hours would be filled with smoke, noise, confusion, death, and destruction. Each prayed that death would not find him.

  They were one part of the largest assemblage of galleries in history. Combined with the Ottoman fleet in safe anchorage at Lepanto, they numbered 140,000 men and 600 ships, or 70 percent of all oared galleys in the Mediterranean.643

  Don Juan left his flagship, the Real, to his staff with the words “Very well, let’s fight!” and sailed in a light frigate past the galleys in the fleet.644 Carrying a crucifix, he urged his men on, telling them, “You have come to fight the battle of the Cross—to conquer or to die. But whether you die or conquer, do your duty this day, and you will secure a glorious immortality.”645

  The Christian oarsmen were hard pressed as they sailed against the prevailing wind to the mouth of Lepanto. Don Juan decided to form his galleys in the shape of a cross, a formation that took three hours to complete, due to its intricacy and the sheer number of vessels.646 Don Juan was anxious for the battle to start, and once his ships had formed up, he danced a jig on the deck of the Real in anticipation.647

  Aware that the Christian fleet was outside the gulf and eager for battle, Ali Pasha made the decision to leave the sheltered anchorage and venture forth to win victory for the sultan, forming his galleys into the shape of a crescent. It was symbolic, but it also effectively served the Islamic strategy of encirclement and annihilation. On the morning of Sunday, October 7, 1571, the cross and the crescent literally clashed for control of the center of the world.

  Despite being outnumbered, Don Juan was confident of victory. He trusted in the Lord, and also had special weapons that he believed gave his fleet the advantage. The Venetians had outfitted six large transport ships called galleasses with side-mounted as well as bow-mounted cannons; fifty guns in total. Contemporary naval convention used only bow-mounted cannon on galleys, which limited the number of pieces. The galleasses were towed into position by other ships, and did not need oarsmen, so the extra room on the deck was filled with 500 sharpshooting arquebusiers. Don Juan’s use of these special ships revolutionized naval warfare, and soon side-mounted cannon became the naval norm.

  Don Juan also relied on spiritual weapons, too. Each man was asked to use the rosary he had been given to pray to our Lady for victory in the battle.

  Winds of Change

  The galleasses wreaked havoc with the Ottoman fleet right at the beginning of the battle, devastating the center formation of Ali Pasha’s ships. The Turks could not quickly overcome the shock, and the tide of battle initially favored the Christians. Later, though, the right wing of the Christian fleet under Admiral Doria found itself in trouble. His flagship was under heavy assault, and his force was greatly outnumbered. Fierce fighti
ng waged across the ships. On one of the ships, Federico Venusta was attempting to throw a hand grenade at Turkish soldiers when it prematurely exploded, severely wounding his left hand. He ordered a galley slave to cut it off, but the man refused. Venusta cut off the injured limb himself, and then ran to the mess where he ordered the cook to put a chicken carcass over the stump. Armed with a dead chicken as his hand, he ran back into the fight yelling at his right hand to avenge his left! Another soldier was struck in the eye with an arrow. He plucked out the damaged eye, tied a bandage around his head and kept fighting.648

  Despite these examples of bravery and heroism, the fight was going against the Christians. The wind prevented Admiral Doria from using his sails and releasing his oarsmen to join the fight. The situation seemed desperate when, miraculously, the prevailing wind changed direction, allowing the release of the Christian oarsmen from their rowing.649 This permitted Admiral Doria to engage the enemy with additional troops and win the fight. There was no natural explanation for why the wind changed direction as it did, but on Admiral Doria’s flagship was a special spiritual weapon: a copy of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Archbishop of Mexico, Don Fray Alonso de Montufar, aware of the Ottoman threat to Christendom, commissioned a small reproduction of the sacred image. It was touched to the real tilma of St. Juan Diego, and sent to King Philip II with instructions to give it to the Holy League. It is no coincidence that at the moment of direst need, our Lady came to the rescue of Admiral Doria’s flotilla and saved the day at Lepanto.

  After four hours the Battle of Lepanto ended in an overwhelming victory for the Christian forces of the Holy League. The final tally was 225 Turkish galleys destroyed or captured, and 25,000 dead Ottoman troops. The Holy League fleet lost only twelve ships with 15,000 Christian sailors and soldiers killed. Twelve thousand Christian galley slaves in Ottoman service were freed.650

  Our Lady of Victory

  While Don Juan was assessing his grand victory, and before news reached Rome, Pope St. Pius V was meeting with his treasurer when he suddenly stood up, went to the window and said, “This is not a moment for business; make haste to thank God, because our fleet this moment has won a victory over the Turks.”651 In commemoration of the salvation of Rome and Christendom through victory at the Battle of Lepanto, Pius V established the annual celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Victory in 1572. A year later, his successor Gregory XIII changed the name to the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary to highlight the important role played by that spiritual special weapon in the victory over the Ottoman Turks. It is a feast still celebrated on the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar.

  Don Juan of Austria was the celebrated hero of Christendom, but he was not able to enjoy the accolades showered upon him. He was sent by his half-brother Philip II to the Netherlands to put down a violent Protestant rebellion, and appointed governor-general in 1576. Two years later, at the age of thirty-one, the valiant, dashing, and handsome victor of Lepanto was dead of typhoid.

  The memory of Lepanto lived on after Don Juan’s death, celebrated in books, paintings, and music throughout the remaining years of the sixteenth century and beyond. In 1911 the English author G.K. Chesterton recalled the great victory through a poem (“Lepanto”) written on the 340th anniversary of the battle. Despite Chesterton’s popularity among modern Catholics, that poem remains shamefully obscure. Dale Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society, speculates why:

  This poem is more than just a poem. It is a rousing encounter with history, a pivotal event in history that some people would rather ignore … [T]the problem with the poem is that it is a defense of the Catholic Church, of the Crusades, and of war: three things not generally looked kindly upon in today’s English literature class. Hardly anyone knows of the poem. It suffers in obscurity because of a combined prejudice against rhyme and meter, against Catholicism, and against G.K. Chesterton.652

  Hilaire Belloc, who was Chesterton’s friend and the editor of “Lepanto,” had even stronger words for those who ignore Chesterton’s masterpiece celebrating the great Christian victory over the Turk. “People who cannot see the value of Lepanto are half-dead. Let them remain so.”653

  Christendom Threatened—Christendom Saved

  After Lepanto the Turks solidified their hold on the Balkans and built up strength for an attack on the gateway of Europe, the cultured and strategic city of Vienna. Ottoman forces had besieged the capital city in 1529, when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was dealing with heretical rebels in Germany. Suleiman the Magnificent had marshaled 120,000 soldiers to besiege a city of only 12,000 defenders, and was confident the siege would prove swift and victorious; he was wrong. The Viennese defenders proved their mettle as they beat back wave after wave of Muslim warriors. The siege dragged on into winter and with extended supply lines and heavy casualties, Suleiman made the prudent military decision to retreat. He hoped one day to return, but it would be more than a century before another Ottoman army arrived at the gates.

  Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (r. 1658–1705) was “highly educated, dignified, [and] he liked to take part in religious ceremonies, to hunt, and read … he never neglected the affairs of state; and he had strong general convictions; such as deep piety.”654 The emperor was a good man, but he had a fatal flaw: he was “infinitely susceptible to contradictory counsels, he was betrayed into excessive caution and only too often the results were inaction and delay. He foresaw but never anticipated.”655

  This flaw would prove problematic once the Turks invaded his lands and were at the very gates of his capital city. The forty-three-year-old emperor had pursued a diplomatic policy of appeasement with the Ottomans because he was more concerned about his belligerent neighbor, Louis XIV, the king of France. Some of Leopold’s advisers believed the once-mighty Ottoman military was weak and ineffective compared to the large and strong standing army of the Sun King. Concerned with French intentions and military might, Leopold entered into a peace treaty with the Ottoman Turks in 1665. Despite the treaty, Muslim and Christian warriors fought frequent, but not large or decisive, border clashes. Hedging his bets, Leopold also entered into defense treaties with other European nations, including Poland, to come to his aid should the Turks invade. By 1684 the treaty was set to expire in another year, but the emperor was confident it could be extended. Unbeknownst to him, though, the Ottomans had decided a year earlier to break the treaty and invade Austria.

  Mehmet IV (r. 1648–1687), the son of Ibrahim the Debauched and a Russian concubine, became sultan of the Ottoman Empire at the young age of seven. Mehmet had given executive powers to his grand viziers since his desire for outdoor sport (his nickname was “the Hunter”) precluded his attention to political, military, and diplomatic affairs. At a meeting on August 6, 1682, his advisers persuaded Mehmet that the time was right to break the treaty with Leopold and invade imperial territory. The invasion would commence in 1683 with an army of 100,000 men under the command of Grand Vizier Kara Mustapha (1634–1683).

  Kara Mustapha was a veteran of numerous military campaigns, but was not beloved by his troops since he was known to accept large casualties to accomplish the mission. He lived an ostentatious lifestyle with thousands of concubines in his harem, and numerous slaves and eunuchs to tend to his needs.656 Kara Mustapha also hated Christians, and was looking forward to the campaign. He was overly confident of victory, and openly bragged he would stable his horses in St. Peter’s Basilica.657 The Ottoman army crossed the frontier in late June 1683, rampaging and pillaging as they marched.

  The Siege of Vienna

  Vienna was not prepared for a massive siege. The outer defensive fortifications had not been well maintained over the years, and extensive suburbs had been built near the main defensives, limiting effective fields of fire on an advancing army.

  Rüdiger Starhemberg was appointed commander of Vienna’s defenses, and he quickly recognized the difficulty of his task. There was no professional garrison in the city since the plague that decimated the r
anks in 1679. Instead, a militia of only 13,000 able-bodied men—more a civil police force than a professionally trained army—was all that stood between the Viennese and the Ottoman Turks. The best Starhemberg could hope for was to hold out long enough for allies’ relief forces to reach the city.

  The Ottoman warriors arrived at the city on July 14 and once more arranged their camp around the city in the shape of a crescent.658 Kara Mustapha’s plan was first to encircle the city and cut if off, which he accomplished in short order. The Ottoman army musical corps “bombarded” the Viennese with music throughout the siege as a form of psychological warfare. The residents of the City of Music returned the favor so that at times over the din of gunfire one could hear a melodious tune wafting over the siege lines.659

  As soon as news had reached Leopold I that the Turks were on the move, he had reached out to his allies and begged them to come to the aid of Vienna. Jan Sobieski (r. 1676–1696), the king of Poland and a devout Catholic, responded to his treaty obligations and raised a relief army. He had been the Polish envoy to the Ottoman court, and had studied their military tactics and learned the Tatar language. Sobieski was “the model warrior hero for his time, spiritually sharp with a strong Catholic faith, and a decisive and vigorous man.”660 He left Warsaw with an army of 20,000 men, mostly cavalry, on the way to Krakow where the rest of his troops were ordered to assemble. Along the march, Sobieski stopped to pray at the shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa.661 Entrusting the success of his military efforts to the intercession of the Blessed Mother, his army began the march to Vienna on the Solemnity of the Assumption, August 15, 1683. His forces were buoyed by the knowledge that Pope Innocent XI (r. 1676–1689) had granted the Crusading plenary indulgence to all who fought for the defense and relief of Vienna.662

  Starhemberg and his valiant defenders had fought bravely for a month, but by the end of August and into early September food was scarce in the city. Flour supplies were running low, so bakers ceased making full loaves of bread, instead forming smaller pieces in the shape of a crescent to remind the inhabitants of the reason for their meager rations.663 Disease was also rampant, and out of the original complement of 13,000 troops Starhemberg’s effective defenders had dwindled to 5,000. It was only a matter of time before the Ottomans broke into the city.