GK Chesterton's Lepanto, with annotations: Part 7. End

Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath
(Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.)
And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,
Up which a lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain,
And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade....
(But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)

Don Quijote and Sancho Panza

Miguel de Cervantes: 1547 – April 23 1616;  perhaps most famous as the author of Don Quijote. 
By1570, Cervantes had enlisted as a soldier in a regiment of the Spanish Navy Marines. In September 1571, Cervantes sailed on board the Marquesa, part of the galley fleet of the
Holy League defeated the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto. Though taken down with fever, he disobeyed an order to stay below and took part in the fighting. He received three gunshot wounds, one of which crippled his left hand.

From 1572 to 1575, he continued his soldier's life. In 1575, he was captured by Ottoman pirates. 
After five years as a slave in Algiers, and four unsuccessful escape attempts,
he was ransomed by his parents and the Trinitarians.



 Gustave Doré [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

a lean and foolish knight: Don Quijote. This world famous work was first published in 1605 and 1615.

For further reading, see Lepanto by Dale Ahlquist;

Dale Ahlquist, has gathered together insightful commentaries and explanatory notes. Here is the story behind the modern conflict between Christianity and Islam, between Protestant and Catholic Europe, and the origin of the Feast of the Holy Rosary. A fascinating blend of literature, history, religion and romance.

and

Philip II, by William Thomas Walsh (first published 1938).

Superb and insightful panorama of the 16th century. Covers the birth of Protestantism and the secret efforts to undermine Catholic unity, the Huguenot wars in France, the Sack of Rome, Great Siege, Battle of Lepanto, Spanish Armada, Council of Trent, etc.; and, Henry VIII, Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I, St. Pius V, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ignatius of Loyola,