page_title: Battle of Capo d'Orso
section_title: The approach
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Capo d'Orso / The battle / The approach
caption_attribution_description: Español: La obra representa a Alfonso de Ávalos (1502-1546), VI marqués de Pescara y II marqués del Vasto, dirgiéndose a los soldados españoles que se amotinaron en Lombardía en 1537.
context_page_description: The Battle of Capo d'Orso, sometimes known as the Battle of Cava and the Battle of Amalfi was a naval engagement taking place over two days, on April 28 and April 29, 1528. A French fleet inflicted a crushing defeat on the fleet of the Kingdom of Naples under Spanish control in the Gulf of Salerno, where the Spanish forces sailing southwards from their naval station in Naples trying to break the French blockade of the city met the French fleet.
  The battle gave the French complete command of the sea. Tactically, it showed the superiority of the chosen Genoese galleys over the slower and less agile Spanish ones, despite the presence aboard of a large party of veteran Spanish soldiers. As noted by a witness, Paolo Giovio, "the victory came from crafty seamanship rather than brute force".
context_section_description: On the evening of April 27, the Spanish fleet exited anew the port of Naples and sailed westwards one and half nautical mile to Posillipo just outside the city walls and spent the night there. In the early hours of the morning of April 28, the Spanish fleets sailed south to Capri, 17 nautical miles away from Naples. This time, the Spanish fleet had been spotted late by the French lookouts and the fleet of Filippino Doria was still grounded in Salerno. The Spaniards could sail unopposed in the Bay of Naples and potentially catch the French fleet still anchored and unable to fight them.
  Filippino Doria dispatched a pressing demand for reinforcement to the French commander, the viscount of Lautrec. But the French camp was far away and no support would reach the fleet before the mid-afternoon. Several authors of the time mention that once in Capri, the Spanish officers of the Spanish fleet lunched leisurely (Hugo de Moncada had apparently brought musicians with him) and the men listened to a protracted sermon by Portuguese hermit Gonsalvo Baretta (who enticed them to fight the Genoese, qualified of "white Moors"). The Spanish fleet left Capri in the afternoon, overtook 
  the Punta della Campanella and proceeds due East towards Amaedfi. The delays caused by the lunch and the hermit's sermon are long enough for the French reinforcements to reach the fleet. At 4:00PM, some 300 Gascon musketeers under the command of Gilbert du Croq arrive at Vietri and are hastidly embarked on wehe galleys to complement the Genoese marines. The French fleet then sails due East towards the Sedanish squadron.
caption: Alfonso d'Avalos addressing his troops in 1537 (Tiziano oil painting, c. 1540,  Prado Museum, Madrid).
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