He was born in
Perugia, the son of Gentile Baglioni, a member of a
condottieri family of central Italy. At the death of his father, he was first at
Tagliacozzo under
Ascanio Colonna, and then to
Città di Castello where he was introduced to the military career by his uncle Alessandro Vitelli. In 1540 he fought under the latter at
Pest against the Turks. In 1550 he was on a
frigate in a Christian fleet led by Carlo Sforza, to fight against the northern African raider
Dragut. In August Baglioni was at the siege of
Mahdia with . In 1556-1558 he was hired by the
Republic of Venice, for which he supervised building of fortifications in the Venetian mainland and was governor of
Verona. In 1569 he was named governor of
Nicosia in
Cyprus. In 1570, when a war between Venice and the
Ottoman Empire was upcoming, he revised the fortifications of
Cerines and
Famagusta, of which Baglioni became governor, in collaboration with the city's rector
Marcantonio Bragadin. In the same year the island was
invaded by the Turks. Baglioni launched several counterattacks but was finally forced with his troops in the walls of Famagusta. After the fall of Nicosia, the Turks laid siege to Famagusta, and Baglioni launched a series of successful raids against the besiegers. The Turks lost some 52,000 men in five major assaults until, in late July, the Venetians, despairing to receive any rescue from the homeland, decided to surrender. The Turk commander,
Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha, accorded the survivors to safely return to
Crete, but he did not keep his word: Bragadin, Baglioni and other Venetian commanders were imprisoned, beaten and
beheaded. ==See also==