The Siege of Castelnuovo was an engagement during the Ottoman-Habsburg struggle for control of the Mediterranean, which took place in July 1539 in 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 Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, who offered an honorable 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 the Barbarossa's army suffered heavy losses due to the stubborn resistance of Sarmiento's men. However, Castelnuovo eventually fell into Ottoman hands and almost all the Spanish defenders, including Sarmiento, were killed. The loss of the town ended the Christian attempt to gain control of the Eastern Mediterranean. The courage displayed by the Old Tercio of Naples, however, was praised and admired throughout Europe and was the subject of numerous poems and songs.

 

In 1538 the main danger to Christianity in Europe was the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. The armies of the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent had been stopped at Vienna in 1529. In the Mediterranean, a Christian offensive attempted to eliminate the danger of the great Turkish fleet in 1535, when a strong armada under Don Álvaro de Bazán and Andrea Doria captured the port of Tunis, expelling Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa from the waters of the Western Mediterranean. The Ottoman Admiral was then required to return to Constantinople, where he was appointed commander of a great fleet to conduct a campaign against the Republic of Venice's possessions in the Ionian Sea. Barbarossa captured the islands of Syros, Aegina, Ios, Paros, Tinos, Karpathos, Kasos, Naxos, and Corfu. The Italian cities of Otranto and Ugento and the fortress of Castro, in the province of Lecce, were also looted.

 

The Republic of Venice, frightened by the loss of their possessions and the ruin of their trade, conducted a vigorous campaign for the creation of a "Holy League" to recover the lost territories and expel the Ottomans from the sea. In February 1538, Pope Paul III succeeded in creating a league which united the Papacy itself, the Republic of Venice, the Empire of Charles V, the Archduchy of Austria and the Knights of Malta. The Allied fleet for the campaign was supposed to consist of 200 galleys and another 100 auxiliary ships, and the army of about 50,000 infantry and 4,500 cavalry. But only 130 galleys and an army of around 15,000 infantry, mostly Spaniards, were all that could be gathered. The command of the fleet was given nominally to the Genoese Andrea Doria, but Vicenzo Capello and Marco Grimaldi, commanding officers of the Papal and Venetian fleets respectively, had almost twice as many ships as Doria. The commander of the army was unquestionably Hernando Gonzaga, Viceroy of Sicily.

 

Differences among the commanders of the fleet diminished its effectiveness against an experienced opponent like Barbarossa. This was seen in the Battle of Preveza, fought in the Gulf of Arta. But the Holy League fleet provided support to the land forces that landed on the Dalmatian coast and captured the town of Castelnuovo. This small town was a strategic fortress between the Venetian possessions of Cattaro and Ragusa in the area known as Venetian Albania. Venice therefore claimed ownership of the city, but Charles V refused to cede it. This was the beginning of the end of the Holy League.

 

The town of Castelnuovo was garrisoned with approximately 4,000 men. The main force was a Tercio of Spanish veteran soldiers numbering about 3,500 men under the experienced Maestro de Campo Francisco Sarmiento de Mendoza y Manuel. This Tercio, named Tercio of Castelnuovo, was formed by 15 flags (companies) belonging to other tercios, amongst them the Old Tercio of Lombardy, dissolved the year before after a mutiny for lack of pay. The 15 captains in charge of this flags were Machín de Munguía, Álvaro de Mendoza, Pedro de Sotomayor, Juan Vizcaíno, Luis Cerón, Jaime de Masquefá, Luis de Haro, Sancho de Frías, Olivera, Silva, Cambrana, Alcocer, Cusán, Borgoñón and Lázaro de Coron. Among the garrison there were also 150 light cavalry soldiers, a small contingent of Greek soldiers and Knights under Ándres Escrápula, and some artillery pieces managed by 15 gunners under captain Juan de Urrés. The chaplain of Andrea Doria, named Jeremías, also remained in Castelnuovo along with 40 clerics and traders and was appointed bishop of the town.

В 1538 году основная опасность, угрожавшая Христианству в Европе, исходила со стороны Оттоманской империи. Армии Султана Великолепного были остановлены под Веной в 1529. В Средиземноморье христиане предприняли наступление в попытке устранить угрозу в лице турецкого флота, когда мощная армада под командованием дона Альваро-де-Базана и Андреа Дориа захватили порт Туниса, изгнав флотоводца Хайр-эд-Дина Барбароссу из вод западного Средиземноморья.