The Mediterranean After Lepanto
All looked forward to the campaign of 1572, but events in France, with the growth of Protestant Huguenot power, seemed to threaten Philip's Low Countries, where the Duke of Alba had restored an uneasy order. Philip ordered Don Juan to hold his part of the Holy League armada at Palermo, prepared to respond to events in France. Colonna took the rest into Greek waters, but achieved nothing. By the time Don Juan joined his allies in late summer, and attempted to take the Turkish citadel of Modon on the Peloponnesus (then known as the Morea), the Turks had too many reinforcements in place.
Don John wintered in Naples, from which he made his first visit to his half-sister Margaret, Duchess of Parma, in l'Aquila. They had corresponded for some time and would continue to do so. He confided in her about his love affairs, and after the birth of an illegitimate daughter had her delivered to Margaret's care. His relations with the new Viceroy of Naples, Cardinal Granvelle, an old and experienced diplomat, were not easy, but he did learn more of statecraft and the problems of northern Europe. At some point he began to entertain fantasies of liberating the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, held in prison in England for treason, and perhaps marrying her and taking England's throne. Such an idea received encouragement in Rome. In May 1572 Pope Pius V died; by early 1573, the Venetians, distrusting Philip II, made a separate peace with the Turks. Don John put his energy into the recovery of Tunis, which he achieved that fall, restoring a client Muslim ruler. Against advice from Madrid to raze Tunis and destroy its harbor and the great fortress of La Goletta, erected by Charles V after his conquest of Tunis in 1535, Don John chose to keep La Goletta, which had held out in 1570, and build a new fortress inside Tunis to dominate the city. He and the Marquis of Santa Cruz planned next to take Algiers, while critics, including Granvelle, hinted that Don John dreamed of becoming King of Tunis.
By 1573, the revolt of the Low Countries had revived and Don John found himself increasingly short on funds. While his name had been bruited for the post of Governor General to succeed the Duke of Alba, it was the older Requeséns who received it. In 1574, unrest spread in Genoa against Doria and his dominant party. Genoa was Spain's chief banker, and Don John found himself preoccupied by Genoese politics. That summer a huge Turkish armada under Uluj Ali struck Tunis and within weeks, both La Goletta and the new city citadel were lost. Don John had hurried to Palermo and assembled all available forces, but it was too little and too late.
He came to feel abandoned and though Philip had enhanced his authority over the viceroys of Naples and Sicily, who had not always proved cooperative, he returned to Madrid at the beginning of 1575 to confer in person with Philip and the Council of War. He claimed to be unaware that orders had been sent that he remain in Italy. On his return there, he once again became entangled in Genoese politics, which had become more turbulent after Philip declared bankruptcy. Wars on two fronts, the Low Countries and the Mediterranean, had overtaxed his finances, and he suspended payments on debts prior to their renegotiation. With Santa Cruz in Naples, Don John could undertake little but occasional punitive strikes against Tunisian corsair lairs with his reduced fleet.
Read more about this topic: John Of Austria