I want to mention two facts from the life of Cervantes, about which no one has said. Miguel de Cervantes was a member of the grand naval battle of Lepanto,
in which the combined forces of the European maritime powers: Spain, Genoa, Venice, Naples, Knights of Malta, the fleet of the Pope and other powers, this is flag of the united fleets
under the leadership of the Spanish commander, talented and ambitious of Don Juan of Austria:
completely destroyed the Turkish fleet, and connected to the Algerian pirates. Here is a portrait of the commander of the papal fleet:
And the battle scenes:
In this battle, Cervantes was severely wounded in his left hand and displayed heroism while commanding a platoon of soldiers. After the battle he was captured and spent a few years.
In general, his life was very hard, returning from captivity, he received a small post quartermaster, but even there he was unlucky, he unsuccessfully spent government money and put him in jail. The stamp shows a Spanish prison cell, where Cervantes was serving his sentence.
When published his novel "Don Quixote", he did not get a lot of money for him, though the novel was a quick success, and Cervantes died.
The Battle of Lepanto took place in 1571 in the Gulf of Patras in western Greece. Now the bay is a beautiful cable-stayed bridge,
which can be seen from the place of battle.
But two hundred years after the Battle of Lepanto in the same place there was another battle, this time in the Gulf of Patras Russian fleet under Admiral Spiridov
completely destroyed the Turkish fleet - it was a battle of Patras. And the most famous battle of these campaigns was The Chesmen Battle, in which the Turks lost all of its fleet in the Aegean Sea.
Posted 12/12/2011 11:43 pm
