/u/justformeandmeonly

Just like real life, the lofty idea of bringing the fight directly to the Ottomans was thwarted by politics, politics, politics, and heretics. To understand this, we must review how the Holy League of 1571 had come about, and how they were able to succeed. Then we will review what happened after the Battle of Lepanto.

A Holy League is a tricky thing

The idea of bringing a Christian coalition to stop the expansion of Ottoman sea power in the Mediterranean was not new. There were already several previous Holy Leagues, including the 1537 Holy League brokered by Pope Paul III for a maritime crusade. The timing seemed to have been perfect, as the Venetians who had tended to pay tribute to any power they needed to make a deal with, even Mamluks and Ottomans, had just been jilted in the Ottoman court. They reluctantly joined with Genoa, Spain and the Papal States, taking a very long time to assemble their fleet only to be hampered by indecision between long-time adversaries. The Venetians were eager for a quick, decisive battle, and then to strike a new trading agreement with the Ottomans.

The Genoese was in overall command, as they were hired as maritime enterprisers by Charles V, but there was lingering mistrust between them and the Venetians. Unsurprisingly, despite numerical superiority, the Ottoman fleet led by Barbarossa won the Battle of Preveza. Some say the Genoese didn't really want to fight, due to rivalry with Venice and because Charles V was attempting to bribe Barbarossa into switching sides. Others say the Holy League was subjected to unholy weather conditions that isolated elements of the fleet and made maneuvering difficult, resulting in the Venetians taking the brunt of the fighting and everybody else were becalmed in poor positions.

Regardless, as a result of that loss, Venice struck a highly pragmatic truce with the Ottomans by which they were to pay annual tribute to the Sultan, and the Holy League disbanded. This arrangement lasted until in 1570 the Ottomans turned their attention to the Venetian-controlled island of Cyprus.

Closer to Lepanto, there was a previous Christian naval alliance in 1560 -- consisting of Spain, Genoa, Venice, Savoy, Order of St. John and the Papal States -- that was decisively defeated by the Ottomans in the Battle of Djerba, where they were surprised and faced significant numerical disadvantage. The outcome of Djerba ensured a nearly continuous trajectory of Ottoman advantage in the Mediterranean sea, going back to the 1530-40s when Charles V himself had led and/or launched various expeditions in the western Mediterranean but failed to make a lasting victory.

The outcome of the Battle of Djerba was that the Ottomans were able to continue their push to consolidate power in the Mediterranean and expand westward, stopped only in the 1565 Great Siege of Malta.

Persistence, team-building and team-work can sometimes work

Following the Great Relief of Malta, with an energetic and fervently crusading Pope Pius V in charge of affairs in the Vatican, one would think that forming a new Holy League to bring the fight to the Ottomans would be trivial. It would be, except for heretics in the Low Countries. Philip II the king of Spain is famously quoted to have said,

"I would rather lose all my lands and a hundred lives than be king over heretics."

And 1566 was a particularly complicated year due to heretics in France and the Low Countries launching a campaign of iconoclasm, the infamous 1566 Beeldenstorm. So rather than focusing his resources on the Mediterranean, he spent his nights and days fretting over the situation in the Low Countries, facing contradictory information and requests from his regent and his nobles. He very nearly decided to travel there in person to face the issues directly, but decided instead to send the Duke of Alba, so-called the Iron Duke, to lead a 10,000 strong army of angry Spaniards from Italy to the Low Countries, through the Spanish Road.

But Philip II was a highly calculating man. To quote Don Juan de Silva,

"His majesty's brain must be the largest in the world."

He spent his days poring over state papers, scribbling decision and replies in its margins, personally deciding the affairs of his large, global, and unwieldy empire.

So Philip II had the good sense of continuing to invest in the Mediterranean navy, quietly building a fleet of galleys in Barcelona and increasing his investment in the Genoese navy that secured and provided the vital link between the Iberian coasts and the Balearic island, Sicily, and his domains in mainland Italy.

At the same time, Ottoman invasions of Cyprus (major victory for the Ottomans) and Malta (a nearly-run thing) unnerved Venice and they decided to join Pius V's Holy League with full commitment. As Philip's situation in the Low Countries started to look promising thanks to Alba's iron fist, he then started to put his empire's military and financial might behind the Holy League.

As Spain was once again the largest investor in the endeavor, Philip II had the choice of commander for this Holy League. Prudently, he chose his young, dashing, charming, and capable younger half-brother Don Juan of Austria, an illegitimate son of his father Charles V, who was acknowledged as member of the Habsburg family. Don Juan was supremely talented, and also unfailingly loyal to Philip. As a child, Philip had embraced him and acknowledged Juan, placing him behind immediate members of family but ahead of the Grandés of Spain. Don Juan had no naval experience, so Philip placed a team of advisers around him: Gian-Andrea Doria, Luis de Requesens, and Alvaro de Bazan. Astutely, Don Juan deferred to their advice rather than his own ego. He successfully built a coalition with other powers: Venice, Papal States, knights of Malta. He even managed his half-brother Philip's tendency to micro-manage affairs from afar. Thanks to all this, and a whiff of good luck, the 1571 Battle of Lepanto was won by the Holy League.

Victory can get ahead of further victory

In the aftermath of Lepanto, as soon as news reached Philip, he ordered Te Deum to be sung everywhere. Don Juan was now the greatest celebrity in Christendom, with even heretics in the Low Countries singing his praises.

"Today at 23 hours Don Juan of Austria made his entrance to the enormous delight of the people. Cardinal Granvelle went to receive him at the harbour mole, and gave him his right hand. The said lord is fair-skinned with blond hair, a sparse beard, good-looking and of medium height. He was mounted on a very fine grey horse in handsome battle dress and he had a very good number of pages and footmen dressed in yellow velvet with deep blue fringes.

Things looked very good for the Holy League, as Christian uprisings in the Balkans briefly threatened Ottoman rule there.

However, the victors quickly allowed victory to get into their heads and cloud their visions. Philip had been planning an invasion of England from the Low Countries, or at least there were murmurs of such endeavor. There were ideas to invade North Africa once again, fulfilling his father Charles V's dreams.

Just like many do today, the victors of Lepanto mistook all those possibilities for opportunities, and started to salivate at the prospect of further victories. For Don Juan, his followers started to pitch the idea of him earning his own kingdom. Could he not be King of England after leading the English endeavor? Could he not be King of Tunisia after fulfilling his father's dream of her conquest? Notwithstanding these rumors and gossip, Philip had initially supported Don Juan's plans as he captured key outposts of Tunis and Bizerta in October 1573. But when Don Juan proposed a further attack in April 1574, Philip ordered him to instead "go to Milan until further orders, to monitor the situation in all areas."

Philip had valid reasons to worry: Dutch Rebels were gaining support from German heretics. Ultimately, Spanish troops won the day, but Philip worried that his new commander Requesens may not be as decisive as Alba had been. And there were rumors that England might strike there first, forcing Philip to assemble a fleet in Cantabria but in the end vacillating between the North Sea and the Mediterranean, squandering men and money in doing so. By the end of 1574 Philip faced a huge deficit with little result and continuing stalemate everywhere.

Going back to Don Juan de Austria himself, despite tension between him and Philip, Don Juan ended up being sent to the Low Countries to replace Requesens who died in 1576. Don Juan won accolade as military commander, but the situation literally bogged down in the Low Countries due changing political circumstances and insufficient funds, which often led to mutinies such as the Sack of Antwerp in 1585. He died in September 1578 due to typhoid. In illness, he asked Philip to allow his body to be buried next to their father, which Philip honored. He is the only illegitimate Habsburg offspring to be honored in his way.

By this point, the Venetians had also discovered their own limits, namely that they could not re-gain Cyrus in the face of Ottoman recovery. In 1573 they signed yet another pragmatic treaty, taking them out of the Holy League.

TL;DR

Politics (Venice), politics (Venice), politics (Spain's many woes), and finally heretics (in the Low Countries) got in the way of further expeditions to bring the battle to the Ottomans following the victory at Lepanto.