Battle of Preveza 1538
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1538 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Greece | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Third Ottoman–Venetian War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Holy League, Ottoman Empire | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 38.9592, 20.7503 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Preveza (also known as Prevesa) was a naval engagement that occurred on 28 September 1538 near Preveza in the Ionian Sea in northwest Greece, in the same area as the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The battle was between an Ottoman fleet, led by Kapudan Pasha Hayreddin Barbarossa, and a Holy League of Venetian and Hispano-Imperial composition, led by Genoese admiral Andrea Doria. It was part of both the Ottoman–Habsburg wars and the Ottoman Venetian War of 1537-1547. It ended with the Holy League defeated by the Ottomans despite its enormous advantage in numbers and tonnage.
The course of the battle is uncertain; according to historian Roger Merriman, "accounts of it are so contradictory that it is almost impossible to reach the truth". Traditional historiography, aligned with Venetian sources, holds the Holy Fleet was undone by an inexplicable lack of initiative by Doria, who might have had secret incentives to throw the battle. The Genoese were long time rivals to the Venetians, while Barbarossa was in midst of negotiations with Doria for a possible change of sides. Conversely, Imperial sources blame the defeat on the Venetians, who would have refused to follow Doria's orders in a decisive moment out of the same enmity.
The battle was amongst the three largest in the Mediterranean in the sixteenth century, alongside the Battle of Djerba and the Battle of Lepanto.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Preveza (revision 1376805347), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Preveza (1911) 1911 · 2 km
- Battle of Actium 31 BC · 4 km
- Battle of Nicopolis (1798) 1798 · 6 km
- Siege of Santa Maura (1810) 1810 · 13 km
- Siege of Santa Maura (1684) 1684 · 28 km
- Battle of Peta 1822 · 33 km
Other battles of the Third Ottoman–Venetian War
Browse more: battles in Greece · Europe · Early modern battles