Spanish – Ottoman Relations After the 1574 Tunisian Campaign and the Unofficial Negotiator Jaime de Losada in the Ottoman Court

After the victory of the Crusaders' navy consisting of Spain, Venice and the Papal States in Lepanto against the Ottoman Navy, balances in the Mediterranean altered in favor of Spain. The next target for Spain, by maintaining the alliance between the Catholic powers, was to organize a maritime expedition to the capital of the Ottoman Empire the following year. But the separation of Venice from the alliance on March 7, 1573, the Low Countries' problem and increasing debts due to unsustainable situation in the economic structure, furthermore, after the victory of Tunisia in 1574 the Ottomans' establisment of dominance in the Mediterranean again, shadowed the victory of Lepanto. Spain, realizing that should be given a break to the exhausting economic and military struggle in the Mediterranean in order to solve internal affairs of the State, sent unofficial negotiators to ？stanbul to research the possibility of a cease-fire for a certain period. After the long-standing negotiations, representatives of the ancient world, the Ottoman and Spanish Empires, by signing the truce on February 7, 1578, temporarily gave a break in the struggle in the Mediterranean. From this moment, while Spain was directing the Atlantic, the Ottoman Empire embarked in the expedition to Iran. The report of Jaime de Losada who assumed the unofficial negotiator role and was sent to ？stanbul by Spain’s Sicily regent duke of Terranova in order to be rescued prisoners in the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1575, is adressed in the framework of Spain - Ottoman relations and is regarded as an important source as recordings of foreign observer who witnessed a period of history