Battle of Lepanto

During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, there was a constant naval war between the Christian States and the Moslem ones in the Mediterranean. When there was not a major campaign involved with this it was a handy excuse to be Pirates. Circa 1570, the Republic of Venice was entering a prolonged decline in Mediterranean dominance and the Ottoman Empire was extending its hegemony into the world's oceans.

By the reign of the Sultan Selim (affectionately known as Selim the Sot), The Empire was recovering from its failed attempt to conquer Malta. The Ottomans turned their gaze toward Cyprus which was rich in sugar, and an important base, under the authority of the Venetians at the time. The Ottomans invaded Cyprus, and the threat provoked an alliance among the Mediterranean Christian states chief among whom were Venice and Spain. The Turks managed to conquer the island, but the Christian fleet arrived to defeat them in a battle of annihilation. The ironic result was that the Turks lost the main battle but ended up with the island. However, arguably this was a Pyrrhic Victory for the Turks as so many skilled sailors and warriors had been lost that the Turkish fleet would be incapable for a generation (the galleys themselves would be rebuilt quickly but fleets at the time depended so much on the skill of sailors that it was something of a bluff) by which time its preferred methods were so obsolete that recovery was impossible.

This battle was a Crowning Moment of Awesome and celebrated as such. It was the last major galley battle before galleys were superseded by great sailing warships.

A rare option in the Tabletop Game Diplomacy, where Italy attacks Turkey, is named 'The Lepanto Gambit'.


 * A Father to His Men: The Turkish admiral, Ali Pasha, was a genuine rarity among Turkish (or for that matter European) high command in that he treated those under him decently, even the galley slaves. One account has him telling them before the battle that, "If we win, then I swear by God and His Prophet to free you all. If we lose, then God Himself has seen fit to free you."
 * The Alliance
 * Badass : Several...
 * Badass Army : The Turks and Spaniards were Badass Armies that had adapted to seafaring. The Venetians were more used to fighting at sea then on land making them a Badass Navy. However, the Venetians had not fought seriously for a while and some wondered whether they still "had it". As it turned out, they did.
 * Battle Cry: Vive San Marco for the Venetians.
 * Big Badass Battle Sequence
 * Boarding Party: How most of the battle was actually fought
 * Church Militant
 * Enemy Mine: The battle's result was celebrated even by the Protestant enemies of the Spaniards.
 * Folktale : It was said that the Sultan ordered the campaign simply because he was a drunkardand Cyprus had a lot of wine. Of course being Sultan he could already have as much wine as he wanted anyway. He probably didn't mind the possibility of taxing the sale of wine to other drunkards though in Real Life.
 * Cool Versus Awesome: Three of the greatest fleets of the galley era meet that day.
 * The Empire : The Ottoman Empire; because the story is almost always told from their enemies' perspective.
 * Dirty Business : One of the first things done after the victory was to separate the most skillful sailors and warriors from among the prisoners and cut their throats to prevent them from serving the Sultan again. The rest were Made a Slave.
 * Apparently the Spaniards and Venetians did read the Evil Overlord List.
 * Dude, Where's My Reward? : In his joy at Don Juan's glorious victory, Phillip of Spain rewarded Don Juan by putting him in charge of the endless war against the Dutch rebels.
 * Enemy Mine : The Venetians' and Spaniards' opinion of one another
 * The Federation : The Spaniards; because the story is told from Venice's and Spain's perspective.
 * Galley Slave
 * Hey It's That Guy : The Spanish Renaissance writer Miguel de Cervantes was serving with the Spanish Fleet during the battle and distinguished himself.
 * The Woobie: The Christians won, but Cervantes lost an arm and was captured by the Turks, spending years in an Algerian prison in horrible conditions.
 * Land of One City : The Venetian Republic
 * Let's Get Dangerous : Venice
 * Merchant City : Venice (duh)
 * More Dakka : One reason the Christian fleet won was its mastery of the proper tactics for gunpowder weapons. A number of Turkish galleys were sunk before battle was joined. Once the fighting was on the Spanish, who had caught on to the fact that muskets could be taught to anyone who was reasonably brave, and thus they could make peasants into reserves, whereas the Turks still thought of muskets as sort of a replacement for bows and used them individually rather than in volley fire.)
 * An inversion of Rock Beats Laser, in fact. Most Ottoman shipmen were still armed with crossbows while their opponents brought lots of arquebuses with them.
 * More a complication then an inversion. Bows had a lot of advantages over arquebusses but arquebusses had the big advantage that they were easily learned. Thus Europeans could actually manufacture soldiers, so to speak.
 * The Mutiny : On noticing their chance, a number of galley slaves in the turkish fleet did this.
 * New Roman Legions : The Venetians and other Italians.
 * The Old Spanish Armada
 * Nightmarish Factory: The Venetian Arsenal which could turn out scores of galleys in a few weeks and really did give nightmares to every prince around. Dante actually saw fit to compare it with Hell.
 * Panthera Awesome: The Lion of St Mark, the symbol of Venice.
 * Plunder : According to tales, there was lots of this. Apparently, Ottoman aristocrats sometimes took family treasures with them to battle; they feared taxmen more then their enemies.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge : The Christian fleet thought of it as this. Especially the Venetians, who had just heard tales of Ottoman atrocities on Cyprus.
 * Season Finale : The end of the galley era of Naval Gazing. Next season is Wooden Ships and Iron Men.
 * Shrouded in Myth : Lepanto became this almost immediately after it was fought.
 * Stiff Upper Lip : It is said that Don Juan danced a jig on the deck while going into action to show his contempt for the danger.
 * The Republic : Venice, as a long-existing medieval example of a republican-like country.
 * Teeth Clenched Teamwork: From the Venetians' point of view, the alliance with Spain and Genoa was this.
 * Turks With Troops
 * Warrior Prince : Don Juan of Austria, illegitimate son of Charles V and leader of the Christian fleet.
 * Won the War Lost The Peace: Yes, the Holy League won the battle but the Ottoman Empire won the war, and Cyprus became an part of the empire.
 * Worthy Opponent : Ali Pasha, the leader of the Ottoman fleet.

=== Depictions in fiction ===