Resumen de Renegades and the Habsburg secret services in the aftermath of Lepanto: Haci Murad and the Algerian threat as a case study
The purpose of this research is to analyse the role played by Christian renegades in the context of the Ottoman–Habsburg rivalry. As historians have long pointed out, in order to control the seemingly everlasting Ottoman expansion, the Spanish Monarchy poised throughout the whole sixteenth century between open war and elusive diplomatic methods, such as secretly negotiating with high-rank renegades on the Ottoman-payroll. By focusing on the case of Hacı Murad, a powerful Algiers-based renegade and diplomat made famous by Miguel de Cervantes’ Captive’s Tale, this essay seeks to uncover the rhetorical patterns that hide behind inter-religious negotiations with renegades, especially in the years that followed the Moriscos rebellion of 1568–71 and the emblematic Battle of Lepanto.
