Barbarossa Brothers

The Barbarossa brothers had some new targets in mind this season. With a large number of ships, Oruc Barbarossa came upon the French coast of Provence with the intent to plunder towns rather than raiding shipping. However, the French had been forewarned of this somehow and their simple warning and evacuation measures proved rather effective, if only perhaps because Oruc had expected an entirely unsuspecting populace. What also played a role was that Oruc clearly had to sail a long way to get there, meaning there was a huge downtime between each raid.

His brother Hizir had no such complications. He raided Tuscany with half the fleet of Oruc, bringing back quadruple the loot. The Florentines were too busy fighting a war on land to guard their coast, but it was also obvious that the Barbarossa raiders were not operating out of Tripoli and Djerba for this one. They were making the Italian waters their own. Over the course of the raiding season, ships actively avoided the Tuscan coast if they could afford it, all speaking the same ill of the Barbarossas that the Spanish merchants once had. However, this year Spanish and Genovese merchants, who made up the bulk of shipping between Iberia and Italy, reported that none of them had been attacked by those bearing the name Barbarossa.

Barbarossa revenue (add as manual payment): ƒ125,918

Aragon and France

France began issueing Letters of Marque and Reprisal to Mediterranean captains, who actively raided Aragonese merchants sailing to and from Italy. However, few French captains made use of this, and resulting revenue for the crown was negligible. Raiding was a fickle business here, often more about the damage than the profits unless you really knew what you were doing.

The Aragonese launched a fleet of their own to hunt pirates and search for hideouts in and around Morocco. They were, however, wildly unsuccessful in doing so. Instead of finding anything that looked like real bases or real ships, they were mostly chasing ghosts and burning innocent towns, becoming the corsairs they sought to hunt.

Aragon revenue (add as manual payment): ƒ77,054

Knights Hospitaller

The Aragonese were not the only ones raiding the Maghreb Coast. As vengeance for the failed crusade, the Knights sent a fleet to aid the Crown of Aragon. Operating out of Sicily, Iberia and the Baleares, the Knights raided the entire length of the coast under the command of a relatively new monastic brother: Andrew Barton, who was already beginning to build a dreadful reputation. At the same time, another British Knight by the name of John Rawson continued the efforts of the Knights against Ottoman corsairs merchants. He was very effective as well.

However, the biggest play by the Knights this year was their holy mission against Ragusa. This poor Christian city has been subject to domination by the vile Ottomans for many years, and a strong message needed to be sent on behalf of all good men of the Cross. Emery d’Amboise launched a brutal raid in the area. Maneuvering his fleet to catch merchants by surprise and drive them away from the safe haven of Ragusa, his large fleet then quickly caught as much of local shipping as if driving them into a fishing net. Christians – whenever the Knights could tell people were Christians (so essentially just Catholics) - were spared, slaves even set free if galleys with Catholic slaves were captured. Muslims and those in cahoots with the infidels were taken to ransom or enslaved. The Ottoman-held coasts of Albania, Montenegro and Dalmatia were also raided, though land held by others, such as Venice, was carefully avoided.

Knights revenue (add as manual payment): ƒ603,821