OTTOMAN CORSAIRS IN THE WESTERN ... - Bilkent University
OTTOMAN CORSAIRS IN THE WESTERN ... - Bilkent University
OTTOMAN CORSAIRS IN THE WESTERN ... - Bilkent University
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was dragged was not more than the conquest of the Duchy of Milan and some places in<br />
Flanders. What he wanted to do was to conserve his patrimony and fulfil his obligations<br />
that the imperial office set forth for him. Thus his idea was to preserve the peace in and<br />
the coherence of universitas cristiana and thus his eminent enemies were Turks, heretics<br />
(i.e. protestants), and the neighbour princes (i.e. France). He defended Ordinatio totius<br />
mundi against France; Concordia hominum against Protestants and acted as Defensor<br />
Fidei against the Turks. 9 His wars were the natural outcomes of his desire to establish<br />
peace within the Christian community and therefore to wage a holy war against the<br />
infidels.<br />
Charles had to confront Ottoman expansion as the Defensor Fidei of the Catholic<br />
World. It is interesting to note that the idea of a crusade has played an important role in<br />
the imperial propaganda of the time. According to Montes, messianic beliefs in Spain<br />
around the personality of Charles and consequently the belief for his invincibility that<br />
were strengthened by the expansion of the Hispanic world resulted in a concrete idea of<br />
a Crusade. 10 Castro asserted: “The emotion of holy war disappeared in France with the<br />
Crusades, while it was still vivid in Spain in the sixteenth century”. 11 Montes mentioned<br />
a three staged holy war in which North Africa appeared as the second. 12 This illusion of<br />
crusade was based on four pillars: The imperial dignity or the theoretic leadership of<br />
9<br />
Juan Sánchez Montes, Franceses, Protestantes, Turcos. Los Españoles ante la Política Internaciónal de<br />
Carlos V (Granada, 1995), p. 129.<br />
10<br />
Montes, p. 50.<br />
11<br />
Américo Castro, España en su Historia. Cristianos, Moros y Judios (Buenos Aires, 1948), pp. 191, 202,<br />
223, cited by Montes, p. 84.<br />
12<br />
Montes, p. 98. The first was the Reconquista and the third would be the conquest of Jerusalem.<br />
10