178 Ch. 5 • Rise of the Atlantic Economy: Spain and Englandhis father, he may have even
entered into contact with Dutch
leaders who had begun to
denounce Spanish policies in
their land. Don Carlos’s death
six months later haunted Philip,
inevitably generating stories that
he had ordered him murdered.
The introverted king thereafter
lived among the whispers of
intrigue and storms of aristo
cratic rivalries of the noble fami
lies and factions.
With Habsburg domination
of Italy secured by the 1559
Peace of Cateau-Cambresis with
France, Philip turned his atten
tion to fighting the Turks. The
Ottoman Empire had expanded
into Europe following the con
quest of Constantinople in 1453
(see Chapter 1), taking advan
tage of dynastic and religious
wars between its European rivals. Suleiman the Magnificent (ruled 1520
1 566) expanded his territories in the Balkans, where some of the Ottoman
cultural heritage endures today, and into the rich plains of Hungary. The
Turks also became bolder in their attacks on Spanish ships in the central and
western Mediterranean. When the Turks took the Venetian island of Cyprus
in 1571, the pope helped initiate the Holy League, in which Venice and
Spain allied. The long naval war against the Ottoman Empire lasted from
1559 to 1577. With southern Spain virtually undefended and with the
Moriscos (Moors who had been forced to convert to Christianity) rebelling
(1568-1570) against taxes, the Turks might well have captured Granada. But
a Spanish-Austrian Habsburg fleet defeated the sultan’s larger navy in the
Adriatic Sea at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), a monumental struggle in
which more than 200 galleys fought, taking the lives of thousands of combat
ants. The Turkish threat in the western Mediterranean ended, although the
possibility of the further expansion of the Ottoman Empire in southeastern
and central Europe remained. In the meantime, overexpansion had already
planted the seeds of Spanish imperial decline.
The Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Mag
nificent threatened Spanish rule during the