The Battle of Girolata is a naval action fought between Genoese, Spanish and Ottoman ships on 15 June 1540 in the Gulf of Girolata, on the west coast of the island of Corsica, amid the war between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Suleiman the Magnificent.
A Christian squadron of twenty-one galleys led by the Genoese Gianettino Doria and the Spaniard Berenguer de Requesens surprised an Ottoman squadron of eleven galleys, anchored at Girolata, led by the Ottoman admiral Dragut, whom the commander of the Ottoman Navy, Hayreddin Barbarossa, had committed to raid the Italian coast after his victories in the Adriatic sea the year before.
As the crews of the Ottoman warships are ashore, distributing the booty from recent raids, the Spanish-Genoese fleet easily overtakes them, taking all eleven Ottoman galleys and taking twelve hundred prisoners, among them Dragut, who is carried to Genoa and, together with his captains, put to row in the Christian galleys.
