Siege of Castelnuovo 1539
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1539 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Montenegro | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Ottoman–Spanish War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Empire of Charles V, Ottoman Empire | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 42.4528, 18.5311 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The siege of Castelnuovo was an engagement during the Ottoman-Habsburg struggle for control of the Mediterranean, which took place in July 1539 at the walled town of Castelnuovo, present-day Herceg Novi, Montenegro. Castelnuovo had been conquered by elements of various Spanish tercios the year before during the failed campaign of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire in Eastern Mediterranean waters. The walled town was besieged by land and sea by a powerful Ottoman army under Hayreddin Barbarossa, who offered an honourable surrender to the defenders. These terms were rejected by the Spanish commanding officer Francisco de Sarmiento and his captains even though they knew that the Holy League's fleet, defeated at the Battle of Preveza, could not relieve them. During the siege, Barbarossa's army suffered heavy losses due to the stubborn resistance of Sarmiento's men. Even the Venetian refused the promised naval link to Castelnuovo with the supplies and reinforcements; after a general troop parliament, the commanding officer Francisco de Sarmiento asked his captains what his answer should be to Barbarossa's offer to surrender. The captains responded: "Que vengan cuando quieran" (Let them come whenever they want).
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Castelnuovo (revision 1380198635), 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
- Siege of Cattaro 1813 · 20 km
- Third bombardment of mount Lovćen 1916 · 24 km
- Battle of Grahovac 1858 · 27 km
- Battle on Vrtijeljka 1685 · 35 km
- Siege of Ragusa (1806) 1806 · 40 km
- Siege of Ragusa (866–868) 866 · 40 km
Other battles of the Ottoman–Spanish War
- Battle of Formentera 1529
- Siege of Coron (1533–1534) 1534
- Conquest of Tunis (1535) 1535
- Battle of Alborán 1540
- Capture of Mahdia (1550) 1550
- Siege of Oran (1556) 1556
- Battle of Djerba 1560
- Sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir 1563
- Battle of Lepanto 1571
- Conquest of Tunis (1574) 1574
All 11 battles of the Ottoman–Spanish War →
Browse more: battles in Montenegro · Europe · Early modern battles