Ottoman troops were landed in Otranto from their encampment in Valona on July 23, 1537 but these were pulled out within a month when it became clear that Francis was not going to invade Lombardy.

At the same time, crisis in Venetian-Ottoman relations was developing during the siege of Klis - last Habsburg stronghold in Dalmatia, that fell in March 1537.

Venetian government feared that Turkish forces would attack Dalmatian cities and resorted to diplomatic efforts in order to avoid the war.

These events resolved Pope Paul III of the need to form a Holy League (1538) to combat and to deter the Ottoman assaults that were expected in the next year.

The Ottoman fleet had grown greatly in size as well as in competence over the course of the 16th century and was now headed by the former corsair turned admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa Pasha.

Here, in what the Venetians considered their home waters, the Ottomans, through the combined use of their navy and their army in Albania, captured a string of forts in Dalmatia and formally secured their hold there.