To exterminate the vile Algerine race.
This was the saying of the Great Emperor Charles V of Europe, so what’s his story?
After the fall of Andalusia in 1492 and after its Muslims fled to the coasts of Tlemcen, Oran and some Moroccan cities European Christian monarchies encouraged more and began conducting naval raids on these coasts so that they occupied some of them, such as Helmsin and Oran, which led Algerians to use the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire where they were organized by the brothers of the good religion and Arugus Barbros.
Algerians with the help of Turkish sailors were able to repel many Spanish attacks even they could retrieve the islands and colonial cities and expel the Spaniards from them in the belief that it was a crusade against Islam before it was merely discontent on the territory, But Berberus, because of his intensification and reputation, was renowned by the Ottoman ruler in Constantinople and told him I would appoint you as Minister of the Ottoman Navy as a whole, behind him in Algiers, Hassan Agha, Commander of the Ottoman Navy in Algeria. In this period, Europe was subject to the so-called Holy Roman Empire, a Christian project through which a full European unified under a political, religious and military banner in order to restore the glories of Rome and confront the Islamic span, This Holy Roman Empire stretched from Italy to Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and even Spain in the sense that it was wide-ranging geography and many assets and resources and had all the strength. He resided under the leadership of an emperor named Charles V, where he was called in the Books of the Arabs of Charlakan.
Charles V was a practical human being who was said to have spent one-third of his life travelling in the interests of his empire, uniting and expanding its ranks, while simultaneously spiteful about Muslims and rejoicing their exit from Andalusia and bearing a crusading military project for the occupation of North Africa as Rome had done before, and he was the first person to be told about his king. “The empire that the sun doesn’t miss,” but the news that Algerians were coming from Algeria is unpleasant that Algerians dominated some of the sorrow, that they were making ships, that they were united, that they had made more treaties with the Ottomans and that they were invading the sea. So for him, Algeria has become a word with a lot of challenge and threat.
Until September 28, 1541, where he said his famous phrase “get ready, I am going tomorrow to annihilate this connected Algerian race”
Charles ordered the equipping of a force that could not lose either on land or at sea, and which was:
– 500 vessels transporting a soldier
– 80 Fighter Vessels
– 200 Wheeled Wild Cannons
– 12 Thousand Seafarers
– 24 thousand soldiers
In addition to his own boats and soldiers, he is personally, because he decided to lead this campaign himself, and I am only staying in the palaces of Algeria and annexing it to his property. After stopping in Majorca, carrying more fighters and joining more than 150 additional vessels led by the man who had just opened Mexico.
This military campaign arrived on the coast of Algiers on Sunday 19 October 1541, and for Algeria it was no surprise because they knew in advance of Charles’ move, especially because his forces decided to postpone the landing due to wind and rain and stayed at sea in front of Algerians for about a week. This allowed Algerians to organize on land and prepare ambushes with men, as they got their castles and numbered:
– 5000 Algerians from Algeria
– 700 Ottoman sailors
The landing took place on the morning of 23 October 1541 and Emperor Charles’ tent was not far from the port of Algeria at present or the current location of Hama Park, and the leak of his soldiers to blockade Algeria in all respects and show them that by the end of the day Algeria will be in their hands But just after Morocco, God sent a cold wind and a strong rainy clouds of sea, and the ships of supplies and food sank before their shipments came down, causing the soldiers to go hungry and cool that night, and some of them even retreated to the Emperor’s tent in order to eat, As dawn broke, the Emperor wore his shield and carried his sword. He then got into a horse-drawn car. He started running and shouting amidst the soldiers, urging them to attack, but he found them exhausted, shivering from the cold and hunger. Only the Maltese and Spanish Legion came out with him with all the power and went to the castles in the Wade Door and Bab. Many of them surrendered and others died, as the emperor returned to his tent And Algerians behind him go after him and work his soldiers and force them to put down their arms. Many of them surrendered and others died, with the Emperor returning to his tent and ordering his soldiers to withdraw to the drop-off point to prepare to bombard the city from afar. He was very angry and began to slur his officers and disorder among the soldiers because they were of different nationalities. And when they went hungry, they wanted to slaughter horses, which made Emperor Charles more angry and ordered horses to be pushed from the top of the mountain, so it was said that they almost trapped the pure Spanish breed of horses that day, which made them worse, and Algerians dared them more and stalked their soldiers like sheep and isolated them from each other, And at a moment, Emperor Charles V decided to survive with his skin to a boat that the soldiers had been anchoring with ropes and otherwise destroyed by winds like the rest of the ships. He left his tent towards the ship, removed his crown from his head and threw it into the sea and then said his famous sentence “go, bauble; let some more fortunate prince redeem and wear thee”
The Emperor fled to the beaches of Bejaya to rest and absorb the magnitude of the loss. Then he returned to Spain. He lost his biggest spell in history. On the birthdays that were a month after the incident, he was a public mourner in Europe because of the loss of the Empire’s prestige and men in Algeria.
From this story, we conclude:
Algerians were very courageous in this incident because many cities were succumbing to such a blockade without fighting.
The wind and rain were clear verses of God, and God was the protector of his religion, because if this campaign had succeeded and Algeria had fallen at the time, it would have been the beginning of a bloody crusade.
This was the story of Emperor Charles with Algeria, in which we wish to add to your historical information.
