Andrea Doria The Battle of Pianosa was a naval engagement which took place on 25 April 25, 1519, when a Genoese fleet severely defeated the flotilla of the Tunisia-based Barbary corsair Kaid Ali in the Tyrrhenian Sea, in view of the island of Elba.

The battle broke the back of one of the rising corsair bases on the Barbary Coast, Bizerte, and established Andrea Doria as among the foremost captains in the Mediterranean.

The last decades of the Middle Ages had seen numerous famous corsairs harassing both coastal populations and shipping activities, but the turn of the 16th century coincided with a marked surge of piracy.

[1][2] Most notably, several captains established bases on the North African coast where strong corsair flotillas left every year for months-long cruises.

In a battle in mid-September 1518, Kaid Ali defeated and captured the flagship galley (Capitana) of the Pope and took the papal fleet's admiral, Paolo Vettori, near Mont’Argentario, on the Tuscan coast.

Spain, for instance, notably diminished the resources allocated to the fight against the North African raiders in the 1510s, considering French expansionism as a much greater threat to its security.

[8] Corsairs were taken seriously only by lesser coastal powers such as Genoa and the Papal States in particular because they directly menaced important trade routes upon which their economies and grain supplies depended.

The Genoese government granted his request but, because there were too few prisoners and captives to provide the two new boats with sufficient rowers, free oarsmen were recruited (known as buonavoglia) to complement the rowing crew.

[12] Having reached Elba, the Genoese captain took advantage of a local wind pattern to change direction and head straight towards the Bizertines.