Siege of Coron (1533–1534)

For the 1685 siege, see Siege of Coron (1685).

Siege of Coron
Part of Ottoman–Habsburg wars
Fortress of Koroni
Date 1533–1534 Location Koroni Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire	Spain  Genoa
Commanders and leaders
Suleiman the Magnificent	Andrea Doria
Strength
60 ships	unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The siege of Coron in 1533–1534 was the recapture of the fortress of Koroni (Coron) in Messenia, Greece, by the Ottoman Empire, after the fortress was occupied by the Habsburg Empire in 1532.

Coron had been a possession of Venice since 1209, but Sultan Bayezid II captured it in 1500. In 1532, the Habsburg emperor Charles V ordered the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria to attack it as a diversion to the campaigns of the Little War in Hungary.^[1] Doria managed to capture the city, and to lay waste to the surrounding coast.^[1]

In spring 1533, the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent sent 60 galleys to retake the city. They blockaded the harbour, but they were defeated by Admiral Doria of the Genoese navy, highlighting the weakness of the Ottoman Navy at that time.^[1] An Ottoman land army however was successful in laying a siege around the city, forcing its surrender on 1 April 1534. The weakened Spanish garrison was allowed to leave the city unharmed.^[2]

Notes

1. Crowley, (2008) p. 55
2. Setton (1984), p. 392

References

• Roger Crowley (2008), Empires of the sea, Faber & Faber ISBN 978-0-571-23231-4
• Setton, Kenneth M. (1984). The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571), Volume III: The Sixteenth Century to the Reign of Julius III. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-161-2.