Raid on La Goulette (1609) 1609
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 29 June 1609 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1609 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Tunisia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Spanish–Ottoman Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Hispanic Monarchy, Kingdom of France, Tunis eyalet | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 36.8180, 10.3050 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The raid on La Goulette of 1609 was a naval attack by Spanish captain Luis Fajardo, at the head of a Spanish fleet and a French ship, on La Goulette, the main port of Ottoman Tunisia. The attack was carried on in response to previous acts of Barbary pirates based off Tunis, who now planned to raid the Spanish treasure fleet. It led to the destruction of the local corsair fleet in port, which included English renegades like Jack Ward and Francis Verney.
The raid was hailed in Christendom as the biggest blow to the Ottoman corsairs after the Battle of Lepanto. It was also the first early modern naval operation executed in the Mediterranean exclusively with sailing ships, like galleons and caravels, without the support of rowing galleys. Galley squads were increasingly seen in Spain as an unnecessary expense to maintain in great numbers after Lepanto, leading Fajardo to experiment with sailing ships instead. Its success was an early sign of the obsolescence of the galley.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Raid on La Goulette (1609) (revision 1374565952), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Browse more: battles in Tunisia · Africa · Early modern battles