CHAPTER XII THE EXPEDITION TO TUNIS The danger from the Turks on the East had hardly been repelled when another Moslem cloud appeared, this time in the South. Barbarossa, suddenly risen from piracy to authority, triumphant on land and sea, had received from the Sultan a commission as admiral of the fleet. Leaving Constantinople, he sailed into the western Mediterranean, ravaging the southern coast of Italy in August, 1534. On the 15th of the month, Garcilaso was again dispatched to the Emperor with verbal instructions, to bear the tidings1. The Court was then at Palencia, so that it was well into September before he was able to deliver his urgent message.2 On the 29th he received the Emperor's reply and two days later he was on his way back to Naples, this time by land, fearing no doubt the possibility of capture at the hands of Barbarossa's fleet. He slept at Avignon on the night of October 12th, one of the many pilgrims of the sixteenth century to the grave of Laura.1 We owe the date to the closing lines of his Epistle to Boscán, his only attempt at blank verse; Digo que vine, quanto a lo primero y donde estan del fuego las cenizas. Before Garcilaso had left Spain, the Viceroy of Naples had written again to Charles V (September 15), informing him of the death of the chatelain of Reggio (Rijoles) and requesting that Garcilaso be appointed in his place. Since he knew that the Emperor never forgot an offense, he admitted Garcilaso's past misdemeanors, but at the same time called his attention to the signal services which he had performed and the desirability of his having his wife come to Italy and settle down with him. Despite the earnestness of his appeal, we must infer that the Emperor was not moved, for Garcilaso never received the appointment. Again in the following winter Charles V showed his obduracy. It seems that since Garcilaso's banishment, the Mesta, (a powerful organization of cattle-owners which controlled the industry in Spain) had refused to pay to him the income from the montazgo of Badajoz which his father had willed to him. Garcilaso had brought suit against the Mesta in the Chancery of Granada to recover this income, amounting to 85,000 maravedís a year. As he found it difficult to prosecute the case in his absence, he induced the Viceroy to write to the Emperor, begging him to grant a suspension, until such time as Garcilaso should return. The Emperor's reply was curt: "As for your request that we order a case which Garcilaso has in the court of Granada to be postponed, you are aware that we are not accustomed to postpone such matters, nor is it consonant with the administration of justice." He had neither forgotten nor forgiven Garcilaso's share in the affair at Ávila. In the autumn of 1534 Charles V announced his determination to take the field in force against Barbarossa and to thwart his pretensions to Tunis, the occupation of which by the Turks was a constant menace to Christian trade in the western Mediterranean. During the winter the ship-yards and arsenals of Naples were busy with the preparations for this expedition. On May 17th of the following year the fleet sailed for Cagliari in Sardinia, the place appointed as the rendezvous for the Imperial forces, stopping at Palermo to pick up the Sicilian contingent.3 Although the Viceroy did not take part in this expedition, he sent his two sons, Don Fadrique and Don García; with them went the leaders of the Spanish and Neapolitan nobility of his Court, among the number, Garcilaso. They reached Cagliari early in June before the arrival of the Emperor. A considerable armada had gathered, comprising detachments from all the Imperial possessions and a fleet under Andrea Doria. They reached Carthage on June 16th and the Emperor immediately proceeded to invest Goleta, a stronghold into which Barbarossa, realizing the weakness of the defenses of Tunis, had thrown some fifty thousand men.1 In spite of the Emperor's command, many of the gentlemen of his following recklessly entered into the skirmishes around the fort. In one of these encounters on June 22nd, a certain Pedro Suárez, stung by the taunts of Alonso de la Cueva, started forth alone to give battle to the enemy and although he was several times in dire peril and rescued by his friends, each time he returned to the strife. At last he was mortally wounded and even Alonso de la Cueva, who had gone out to aid him, was in danger, when the timely assistance of Garcilaso saved him. The poet was wounded in the face and arm, Sandoval tells us, but not seriously.2 |