Qualla: Bombardment of Chios (1681)

Bombardment of Chios (1681): Introduction

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq, Public domain. On the morning of 23 July 1681, eighteen ships rode at anchor in the mouth of Chios harbor flying friendly flags, and the townspeople had little reason to fear them. Then the flags came down and the war colors went up. Over the next four and a half hours the French squadron of Admiral Abraham Duquesne poured roughly four thousand cannonballs into the castle and the city. When the smoke cleared, houses and mosques lay in ruins, somewhere between 110 and 130 civilians were dead, and around 800 lay injured. The dead were both Muslim and Christian, ordinary residents of a busy Aegean port who had been caught in a quarrel that was never really about them.

Image: Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq | Public domain

Bombardment of Chios (1681): A Hunt for Pirates

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq, Public domain. France in 1681 was waging a long campaign against the corsairs of the Barbary states — Tripoli, Tunis, and the Regency of Algiers — who operated under the loose umbrella of the Ottoman Empire. That summer a French squadron of six ships, four of them galleons, sailed from Toulon u...

Image: Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq | Public domain

Bombardment of Chios (1681): The Flags Come Down

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq, Public domain. What followed was an act that strained the rules even of that ruthless age. Chios was Ottoman territory, and the Ottomans were not at war with France; indeed the two powers had long counted themselves allies. Duquesne's deception — anchoring under peaceful colors before opening f...

Image: Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq | Public domain

Bombardment of Chios (1681): A Fleet Held Hostage

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq, Public domain. Word reached Istanbul, and the Ottoman response was firm but measured. Kapudan Pasha Bozoklu Mustafa Pasha sailed with 33 galleys, arriving on 7 August to blockade both the port and the French fleet inside it. The diplomacy turned sharp. The French ambassador in Istanbul, Count J...

Image: Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq | Public domain

Bombardment of Chios (1681): Settled with Gifts

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq, Public domain. The reckoning came not in battle but in tribute. Around ten months after the bombardment, on 17 May 1682, the gifts and compensation Louis XIV had promised reached the Ottoman court and were presented to Sultan Mehmed IV. The settlement even included a payment reckoned by survey ...

Image: Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq | Public domain