Ottoman governors (Beys) were relatively independent, and both piracy and trade continued to flourish.
In April 1655 the English admiral Robert Blake was sent to the Mediterranean to extract compensation from states that had been attacking English shipping. Only the Bey of Tunis refused to comply, with the result that Blake's fifteen ships attacked the Bey's arsenal at Porto Farina (Ghar el Melh), destroying nine Algerian ships and two shore batteries, the first time in naval warfare that shore batteries had been eliminated without landing men ashore.
In the 16th century Tunis was one of the principal theatres of confrontation between the Spanish monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman troops, under the leadership of Hayreddin Barbarossa, appeared before the Bab El Jazira on 18 August 1534 and pillaged the city. Charles V, called to the rescue by European leaders menaced by the Ottoman advance in the Mediterranean, retook the city on 6 August 1535, and restored Hafsid sovereignty.
Confronting the difficulties previously encountered, the Ottoman Ulu� Ali Reis, at the head of an army of janissaries and Kabyles, retook Tunis in 1569. However, following the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the Spanish succeeded in retaking the city and re-establishing the Hafsid sovereign. Following these conflicts, the city finally fell into Ottoman hands in August 1574. Having become an Ottoman province governed by a Pasha who was appointed by the Sultan based in Constantinople, the country was not slow to attain a certain autonomy (1591). Under the rule of deys and Moorish beys, the capital sprang into new life. Its population grew by additions from various ethnicities, among which were Moorish refugees from Spain, and economic activities diversified. To traditional industry and trade with distant lands was added the activity of the Barbary pirates, then in their golden age. Profits obtained from the trade in Christian slaves allowed the rulers to build sumptuous
