Charles V Captures Tunis

1535

Leading an armada of over four hundred ships, Charles V landed in North Africa and drove the Ottoman-backed corsair Barbarossa from Tunis. Thousands of Christian galley slaves were freed. It was the emperor's proudest personal victory, immortalized in tapestries he carried from palace to palace. The victory temporarily halted Barbarossa's corsair raids but demonstrated the limits of Habsburg naval power in sustaining North African conquests.