page_title: Hayreddin Barbarossa
section_title: Franco-Ottoman alliance
hierarchical_section_title: Hayreddin Barbarossa / Later career / Kapudan-i Derya of the Ottoman Navy / Franco-Ottoman alliance
caption_attribution_description: Presentations of gifts to Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent on the occasion of the circumcision of his sons Bayezid and Cihangir in 1530. Ottoman miniature painting from the Süleymanname. Hazine. 1517, folio 412a
context_page_description: Hayreddin Barbarossa, or Barbaros Kheireddin Pasha, born Khizr or Khidr, was an Ottoman corsair and later admiral of the Ottoman Navy. Barbarossa's naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid 16th century.
  Born on Lesbos, Khizr began his naval career as a corsair under his elder brother Oruç Reis. In 1516, the brothers captured Algiers from Spain, with Oruç declaring himself as Sultan. Following Oruç's death in 1518, Khizr inherited his brother's nickname, "Barbarossa". He also received the honorary name Hayreddin. In 1529, Barbarossa retook the Peñón of Algiers from the Spaniards.
  In 1533, Barbarossa was appointed Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman Navy by Suleiman the Magnificent. He led an embassy to France in the same year, conquered Tunis in 1534, achieved a decisive victory over the Holy League at Preveza in 1538, and conducted joint campaigns with the French in the 1540s. Barbarossa retired to Constantinople in 1545 and died the following year.
context_section_description: In 1543, Barbarossa headed towards Marseilles to assist France, then an ally of the Ottoman Empire, and cruised the western Mediterranean with a fleet of 210 ships (70 galleys, 40 galliots and 100 other warships carrying 14,000 Turkish soldiers, thus an overall total of 30,000 Ottoman troops). On his way, while passing through the Strait of Messina, he asked Diego Gaetani, the governor of Reggio Calabria, to surrender his city. Gaetani responded with cannon fire, which killed three Turkish sailors.
  Barbarossa, angered by the response, besieged and captured the city. He then landed on the coasts of Campania and Lazio and, from the mouth of the Tiber, threatened Rome, but France intervened in favor of the pope's city. Barbarossa then raided several Italian and Spanish islands and coastal settlements before laying the Siege of Nice and capturing the city on 5 August 1543 on behalf of the French king, Francis I. 
  The Ottoman captain later landed at Antibes and the Île Sainte-Marguerite near Cannes before sacking the city of San Remo, other ports of Liguria, Monaco and La Turbie. He spent the winter with his fleet and 30,000 Turkish soldiers in Toulon, but occasionally sent his ships from there to bombard the coasts of Spain. The Christian population had been evacuated, and the Cathedral of St Mary in Toulon was transformed into a mosque for the Turkish soldiers, while Ottoman money was accepted for transactions by the French tradesmen in the city.
  In the spring of 1544, after assaulting San Remo for the second time and landing at Borghetto Santo Spirito and Ceriale, Barbarossa defeated another Spanish-Italian fleet and raided deeply into the Kingdom of Naples. He then sailed to Genoa with his 210 ships and threatened to attack the city unless it freed Turgut Reis, who had been serving as a galley slave on a Genoese ship and then was imprisoned in the city since his capture in Corsica by Giannettino Doria in 1540. Barbarossa was invited by Andrea Doria to discuss the issue at his palace in Fassolo. The two admirals negotiated the release of Turgut Reis in exchange for 3,500 gold ducats. 
  Barbarossa then successfully repulsed further Spanish attacks on southern France, but was recalled to Istanbul after Charles V and Suleiman had agreed to a truce in 1544.
  After leaving Provence from the port of Île Sainte-Marguerite in May 1544, Barbarossa assaulted San Remo for the third time, and when he appeared before Vado Ligure, the Republic of Genoa sent him a substantial sum to save other Genoese cities from further attacks. In June 1544, Barbarossa appeared before Elba. Threatening to bombard Piombino unless the city's Lord released the son of Sinan Reis who had been captured and baptized 10 years earlier by the Spaniards in Tunis, he obtained his release. He then captured Castiglione della Pescaia, Talamone and Orbetello in the province of Grosseto in Tuscany. There, he destroyed the tomb and burned the remains of Bartolomeo Peretti, who had burned his father's house in Mytilene the previous year, in 1543.
  He then captured Montiano and occupied Porto Ercole and the Isle of Giglio. He later assaulted Civitavecchia, but Leone Strozzi, the French envoy, convinced Barbarossa to lift the siege.
  The Ottoman fleet then assaulted the coasts of Sardinia before appearing at Ischia and landing there in July 1544, capturing the city as well as Forio and the Isle of Procida before threatening Pozzuoli. Encountering 30 galleys under Giannettino Doria, Barbarossa forced them to sail away towards Sicily and seek refuge in Messina. Due to strong winds, the Ottomans were unable to attack Salerno but managed to land at Cape Palinuro nearby. Barbarossa then entered the Strait of Messina and landed at Catona, Fiumara and Calanna (near Reggio Calabria) and later at Cariati and at Lipari, which was his final landing on the Italian peninsula. There, he bombarded the citadel for 15 days after the city refused to surrender and eventually captured it.
  He finally returned to Constantinople and, in 1545, left the city for his final naval expeditions, during whi
caption: Suleiman the Magnificent receiving Barbarossa in Istanbul
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