HereditaryPrincess
Imperial Majesty
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I have just learnt of a most surprising event in our island story. Queen Elizabeth I’s privy council ordered bonfires to be lit and prayers to be said in church to give thanks for the defeat of the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571.
As a Christian queen, Elizabeth had no love of “the Turke”. During the Ottoman campaign to invade Hungary in 1566, long prayers were ordered to muster “spirituall ayde”, lest “the Infidels, who have already a great part of that most goodly and strong kyngdome in theyr possession, shoulde prevayle wholly agaynst the same (whiche God forbyd), and all the rest of Christendom should lye as it were naked and open to the incursions and invasions of the sayde savage and most cruell enemyes the Turkes”.
The notion of Christendom in peril remained, but the remarkable thing in 1571 was that Elizabeth was allying the prayers of Protestant England with the Holy League put together by Pope Pius V. The fleet sent into battle by Spain, Venice, Genoa, Savoy, the Papal States and the Knights Hospitaller from Malta was commanded by Don John of Austria, natural son of the Emperor Charles V and half-brother of Philip II of Spain.
Pope Pius and the Virgin Queen - Telegraph