The “Sheep” and the “Lion”: Charles V, Barbarossa, and Habsburg Diplomatic Practice in the Muslim Mediterranean (1534-1542)

Abstract

Between the 1530s and the 1540s, the Emperor Charles V tried to win over the Ottoman Grand Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, leading him to defect from the Ottoman cause and turn him into a faithful Habsburg warlord. In exchange for this, the former would have given the latter the opportunity to rule over the Central Maghreb as a new Habsburg ally. Obviously, both sides managed this negotiation in strict secrecy to prevent the plan from being discovered by the Ottoman sultan. Although it might seem surprising, this kind of diplomatic operation was a common tool to address political rivalries in the Early Modern Mediterranean. While efforts to recruit the best warlords were a well-established practice in Renaissance warfare, inter-religious dialogue was certainly nothing new at the beginning of the sixteenth century, given the long-lasting relations established between Christian and Muslim polities in the Middle Ages. Therefore, by analyzing the three main dimensions of diplomacy—communication, negotiation, and information gathering—this article aims to emphasize that the negotiation between Charles V and Barbarossa was not an exception, but a well rooted diplomatic practice in Habsburg Mediterranean policy.