The Ottomans had already attacked the Balearic…
June 1558 CE
Ottoman attacks will only decrease after the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, although they will continue until the seventeenth century.
Henry II of France, who is in conflict with the Habsburgs in the Italian War of 1551–1559, had on December 30, 1557, written a letter to Suleiman, asking him for money, saltpeter, and one hundred and fifty galleys to be stationed in the West. Through the services of his ambassador Jean Cavenac de la Vigne, Henry II obtains the dispatch of an Ottoman fleet in 1558.
Suleyman the Magnificent sent his fleet as a diversion to help his French allies against the Habsburgs. The Ottoman armada left Constantinople in April 1558. On June 13, 1558, the Ottoman fleet ravaged Italy, with little effect however apart from the sack of Sorrento, then part of the possessions of Spain in southern Italy, where they took 3,000 captives.[5]
Raid
In July, the fleet then started to ravage the Balearic islands.[6]
The Ottoman force consisted in 15,000 soldiers on 150 warships. The Ottomans, after repulsing an attack on Mahón, attacked the citadel of Ciutadella in Menorca, which was only garrisoned with 40 soldiers.[7]
Port of Ciutadella.
On the 9th of July 1558, the Turks under Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis, put the town under siege for eight days entered and decimated the town. After the fall of the citadel, the city was ravaged and the population enslaved.[7] All of Ciutadella's 3,099 inhabitants who survived the siege were taken as slaves to Turkey together with other inhabitants of surrounding villages. In total, 3,452 residents were sold into slavery in the slave markets of Constantinople.
The Balearic islands were ravaged, and 4,000 people were taken as prisoners.
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