The
Siege of MaltaMalta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed European country in the European Union. The Southern European island nation is an archipelago that includes the inhabited islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino, along with a number of smaller, uninhabited islands...
(also known as the
Great Siege of Malta) took place in 1565 when the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
invaded the island, then held by the
Knights HospitallerThe Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta is a Roman Catholic order based in Rome, Italy...
(also known as the
Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, Knights of Malta, Knights of Rhodes, and Chevaliers of Malta)
The Knights won the
siegeA siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit"....
, one of the bloodiest and most fiercely contested in history, and one which became one of the most celebrated events in sixteenth century Europe.
VoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and his defense of civil liberties, including both freedom of religion and free trade.Voltaire was a prolific writer and produced works in almost every...
said, "Nothing is more well known than the siege of Malta," and it unquestionably put an end to the European perception of Ottoman invincibility and marked a new phase in Spanish domination of the Mediterranean.
The siege was the climax of an escalating contest between a Christian alliance and the Ottoman Empire for control of the Mediterranean, a contest that included Turkish corsair
Turgut ReisTurgut Reis was a Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral as well as Bey of Algiers; Beylerbey of the Mediterranean; and first Bey later Pasha of Tripoli...
's attack on Malta in 1551, and the Turks' utter destruction of an allied Christian fleet at the
Battle of DjerbaThe naval Battle of Djerba took place in May 1560 near the island of Djerba, Tunisia in which the Ottomans under Piyale Pasha's command overwhelmed a large joint European fleet, chiefly Spanish forces, sinking half its ships.-Background:...
in 1560.
The Knights of Malta
At the end of 1522, the Ottoman Sultan
Suleiman the MagnificentSuleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566...
had forcibly ejected the Order of the
Knights HospitallerThe Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta is a Roman Catholic order based in Rome, Italy...
of St. John of Jerusalem from their base on
RhodesRhodes is a Greek island approximately southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea...
after a six-month siege. Between 1523 and 1530, the Order lacked a permanent home. They became known as the Knights of Malta when, on 26 October, 1530,
Philippe Villiers de l'Isle-AdamPhilippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam was a prominent member of the Knights Hospitaller at Rhodes and later Malta. Having risen to the position of Prior of the Langue of Auvergne, he was elected Grand Master of the Order in 1521....
,
Grand MasterGrand Master is the typical title of the supreme head of various orders of knighthood, including various military orders, religious orders and sectarian orders such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Orange Order...
of the Knights, sailed into Malta's Grand Harbour with a number of his followers to lay claim to Malta and
GozoGozo is an island of the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Southern European country of Malta; after the island of Malta itself, it is the second-largest island in the archipelago...
, which had been granted to them by Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VCharles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I of Spain, of the Spanish realms from 1516 until his abdication in 1556...
in return for one falcon sent annually to the Viceroy of Sicily and a solemn mass to be celebrated on All Saints Day. Charles also required the Knights to garrison
TripoliTripoli is the largest and capital city of Libya.Tripoli has a population of 1.69 million...
on the North African coast, which was in territory that the Barbary
corsairCorsairs were French privateers . Since the corsairs gained a swashbuckling reputation, the word corsair is also used generically as a more romantic or flamboyant version of the word privateer, or even of the word pirate...
s, allies of the Ottomans, controlled. The Knights accepted the offer reluctantly. Malta was a small, desolate island, and for some time, many of the Knights clung to the dream of recapturing Rhodes.
Nevertheless, the Order soon turned Malta into a naval base from which they continued to prey on Islamic shipping. The island's position in the center of the Mediterranean made it a strategically crucial gateway between East and West, especially as the Barbary corsairs increased their forays into the western Mediterranean throughout the 1540s and 1550s.
In particular, the corsair
Turgut ReisTurgut Reis was a Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral as well as Bey of Algiers; Beylerbey of the Mediterranean; and first Bey later Pasha of Tripoli...
was proving to be a major threat to the Christian nations of the central Mediterranean. Turgut and the Knights were continually at loggerheads. In 1551, Turgut and the Ottoman admiral
SinanSinanüddin Yusuf Pasha or shortly Sinan Pasha, was a Kaptan Pasha of the Ottoman Navy for nearly four years between 1550 and the end of 1553, during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent...
decided to take Malta and invaded the island with a force of about 10,000 men. After only a few days, however, Turgut broke off the siege and moved to the neighboring island of Gozo, where he bombarded the citadel for several days. The Knights' governor on Gozo, Galatian de Sesse, having decided that resistance was futile, threw open the doors to the citadel. The corsairs sacked the town and took virtually the entire population of Gozo (approximately 5,000 people) into captivity. Turgut and Sinan then sailed south to Tripoli, where they soon seized the Knights' garrison there. They initially installed a local leader, Aga Morat, as governor, but subsequently Turgut himself took control of the area.
Expecting another Ottoman invasion within a year, then Grand Master of the Knights
Juan de HomedesFra Juan de Homedes y Coscon was a Spanish knight and member of the Knights Hospitaller . From 1536 until 1553 he was Grand Master of the Order...
ordered the strengthening of Fort Saint Angelo at the tip of
BirguVittoriosa redirects here. For the coaster see MV Vittoriosa.Birgu is an ancient city in Malta. It played a vital role in the Siege of Malta in 1565. Its population is 2,691 as of November 2005.-History:...
(now Vittoriosa), as well as the construction of two new forts,
Fort Saint MichaelFort St Michael was a fortification on the island of Malta.A fort of that name was built by the Knights of Malta between 1551 and 1565 on the peninsula then known as Isla St Michael formed by Dockyard Creek and French Creek in Grand Harbour....
on the
SengleaSenglea is a fortified city in the east of Malta, mainly in the Grand Harbour area.It is one of the Three Cities, with the other two being Cospicua and Vittoriosa. The city of Senglea is also called Civitas Invicta, because it managed to resist the Ottoman invasion at the Great Siege of 1565...
promontory and
Fort Saint ElmoFort Saint Elmo is a fortification in Valletta, Malta. It stands on the seaward shore of the Sciberras Peninsula that divides Marsamxett Harbour from Grand Harbour, and commands the entrances to both harbours.-History:...
at the seaward end of Mount Sciberras (now
VallettaValletta is the capital city of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta and the city proper has a population of 6,315....
). The two new forts were built in the remarkably short period of six months in 1552. All three forts proved crucial during the Great Siege.
The next several years were relatively calm, although the
guerre de course, or
running battle, between Muslims and Christians continued unabated. In 1557 the Knights elected
Jean Parisot de ValetteJean Parisot de Valette was born into a noble family in Quercy. He was a Knight of St. John, joining the order in the Langue de Provence, and fought with distinction against the Turks at Rhodes...
Grand Master of the Order. He continued his raids on non-Christian shipping, and his private vessels are known to have taken some 3,000 Muslim and Jewish slaves during his tenure as Grand Master.
By 1559, however, Turgut was causing the Christian powers such distress, even raiding the coasts of Spain, that
Philip IIPhilip II was King of Spain and Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, during his wife Mary Tudor's reign, King of England and Ireland...
organized the largest naval expedition in fifty years to evict the corsair from Tripoli. The Knights joined the expedition, which consisted of about 54 galleys and 14,000 men. This ill-fated campaign climaxed in the Battle of Djerba in May 1560, when Ottoman admiral
Piyale PashaPiyale Pasha , was an Croatian Ottoman admiral between 1553 and 1567 and an Ottoman Vizier after 1568. He was also known as Piale Pasha in the West or Pialí Bajá in Spain; )....
surprised the Christian fleet off the Tunisian island of
DjerbaDjerba is, at 514 km², the largest island off North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes off the coast of Tunisia.-Description:The climate is mild and the soil well cultivated...
, capturing or sinking about half the Christian ships. The battle was a complete disaster for the Christians and it marked the high point of Ottoman domination of the Mediterranean.
Toward the siege
After Djerba there could be little doubt that the Turks would eventually attack Malta again. In August 1560, Jean de Valette sent an order to all the Order's priories that their knights prepare to return to Malta as soon as a
citazione (summons) was issued. However, the Turks made a strategic error in not attacking at once, while the Spanish fleet lay in ruins, as the five-year delay allowed Spain to rebuild her forces.
Meanwhile, the Knights continued to prey on Turkish shipping. In mid-1564,
RomegasMathurin d’Aux de Lescout, called Romegas or Mathurin Romegas , was a scion of the aristocratic Gascony family of d'Aux and a member of the Knights of Saint John...
, the Order's most notorious seafarer, captured several large merchantmen, including one that belonged to the Chief Eunuch of the
SeraglioA seraglio is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish household, from an Italian variant of Persian saray , meaning "palace", "enclosed courts"...
, and took numerous high-ranking prisoners, including the governor of Cairo, the governor of Alexandria, and the former nurse of Suleiman's daughter. Romegas' exploits gave the Turks a
casus belli, and by the end of 1564, Suleiman had resolved to wipe the Knights of Malta off the face of the earth.
By early 1565, Grand Master de Valette's network of spies in
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
had informed him that the invasion was imminent. de Valette set about raising troops in Italy, laying in stores and finishing work on Fort Saint Angelo,
Fort Saint MichaelFort St Michael was a fortification on the island of Malta.A fort of that name was built by the Knights of Malta between 1551 and 1565 on the peninsula then known as Isla St Michael formed by Dockyard Creek and French Creek in Grand Harbour....
, and
Fort Saint ElmoFort Saint Elmo is a fortification in Valletta, Malta. It stands on the seaward shore of the Sciberras Peninsula that divides Marsamxett Harbour from Grand Harbour, and commands the entrances to both harbours.-History:...
.
The armies
The Turkish armada, which set sail from Constantinople at the end of March, was by all accounts one of the largest assembled since antiquity. According to one of the earliest and most complete histories of the siege, that of the Order's official historian Giacomo Bosio, the fleet consisted of 193 vessels, which included 131 galleys, seven galliots (small galleys) and four
galleassesA galley is an ancient ship which can be propelled entirely by human oarsmen, used for warfare and trade. Oars are known from at least the time of the Egyptian Old Kingdom...
(large galleys), the remainder being transport vessels, etc. Contemporary letters from
Don Garcia, the Viceroy of SicilyGarcía Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio, 4th Marquis of Villafranca del Bierzo, Grandee of Spain, , , was a Spanish military officer and politician.- Biography :...
, give similar numbers."
The Italian-Spanish mercenary
Francisco Balbi di CorreggioFrancisco Balbi di Correggio born in Correggio in the province of Province of Reggio Emilia, Italy was an arquebusier who served with the Spanish contingent during the Siege of Malta...
in his famous siege diary gave the forces as:
| The Knights Hospitaller |
The Ottomans |
| 500 Knights Hospitaller |
6,000 Spahis (cavalry) |
| 400 Spanish soldiers |
500 Spahis from Karamania |
| 800 Italian soldiers |
6,000 Janissaries |
| 500 soldiers from the galleys |
400 adventurers from Mytheline |
| 200 Greek and Sicilian soldiers |
2,500 Spahis from Rouania |
| 100 soldiers of the garrison of Fort St. Elmo |
3,500 adventurers from Rouania |
| 100 servants of the knights |
4,000 "religious fanatics" |
| 500 galley slaves |
6,000 other volunteers |
| 3,000 soldiers drawn from the Maltese population |
Various corsairs from Tripoli and Algiers |
| Total: 6,100 |
Total: 28,500 from the East, 48,000 in all |
|
The Knight Hipolito Sans, in a lesser-known account, also lists about 48,000 invaders, although it is not clear how independent his work is from Balbi's. Other contemporary authors give much lower figures. In a letter written to Philip II only four days after the siege began, de Valette himself says that "the number of soldiers that will make land is between 15,000 and 16,000, including seven thousand arquebusiers or more, that is four thousand janissaries and three thousand spahis." On the other hand, in a letter to the Prior of Germany a month after the siege, de Valette writes, "This fleet consisted of two hundred and fifty ships, triremes, biremes and other vessels; the nearest estimate we could make of the enemy's force was 40,000 fighting men." That de Valette gives the enemy fleet as 250 vessels, a number much above any one else's, shows that the Grand Master himself was not above exaggeration.
Indeed, a letter written during the siege by the liaison with Sicily, Captain
Vincenzo AnastagiVincenzo Anastagi was an Italian Knight of Rhodes who participated in the Siege of Malta . He had joined the Knights two years before the siege. In 1585 he was nominated as Captain of the Galera Capitana, but then murdered by two fellow knights.His portrait was painted by El Greco sometime...
, states the enemy force was only 22,000 and several other letters of the time give similar numbers. However, Bosio arrives at a total of about 30,000, which is consistent with Balbi's "named troops." Another early history gives essentially the same figure.
Considering the capacity of sixteenth-century galleys, whose usual contingent of soldiers was between 70 and 150 men, it seems clear that Balbi's figure is an exaggeration, whereas Anastagi, who was attempting to convince the Viceroy of Sicily to send a relief as soon as possible, conceivably "lowballed" the numbers. The true size of the Turkish force will probably never be known, but given that several historians came up with specific—but not identical—lists totalling slightly under 30,000 (exclusive of the corsairs, who may have added another 6,000 upon arrival), that is a reasonable guess.
On the side of the defenders, Balbi's numbers may be somewhat low; there were indeed apparently only about 550 Knights on the island, but Bosio gives the total number of defenders as 8,500. Most of these, though, would have been Maltese irregulars, unschooled in the use of arms.
Arrival of the Ottomans
Before the Turks arrived, de Vallette ordered the harvesting of all the crops, including unripened grain, to deprive the enemy of any local food supplies. Furthermore, the Knights poisoned all wells with bitter herbs and dead animals.
The Turkish armada arrived at dawn on Friday, 18 May, but did not at once make land. Rather, the fleet sailed up the southern coast of the island, turned around and finally anchored at Marsaxlokk (Marsa Sirocco) harbour, nearly 10 kilometers from the Great Port, as the Grand Harbour was then known.
According to most accounts, in particular Balbi's, a dispute arose between the leader of the land forces,
VizierA vizier is a high-ranking political advisor or minister, often to a Persian Empire's monarchs such as Shah and Shahenshah. It sometimes refers to ministers and advisors of the Muslim's caliph, or sultan...
Lala Mustafa PashaLala Kara Mustafa Pasha was an Ottoman general and statesman.He had risen to the position of Beylerbey of Damascus and then to that of Fifth Vizier. He commanded the Ottoman land forces during the Siege of Malta in 1565, during the conquest of previously Venetian Cyprus in 1570/71, and in the...
, and the supreme naval commander,
Piyale PashaPiyale Pasha , was an Croatian Ottoman admiral between 1553 and 1567 and an Ottoman Vizier after 1568. He was also known as Piale Pasha in the West or Pialí Bajá in Spain; )....
, about where to anchor the fleet. Piyale wished to shelter it at Marsamxett bay, just north of the Grand Harbour, in order to avoid the
siroccoSirocco, scirocco, jugo or, rarely, siroc is a Mediterranean wind that comes from the Sahara and reaches hurricane speeds in North Africa and Southern Europe. It is known in North Africa by the Arabic word qibli or ghibli Sirocco, scirocco, jugo or, rarely, siroc is a Mediterranean wind that comes...
and be nearer the action, but Mustafa disagreed, because to anchor the fleet there would require first reducing Fort St. Elmo, which guarded the entrance to the harbour. Mustafa intended, according to these accounts, to attack the unprotected old capital
MdinaMdina, Città Vecchia, or Città Notabile, is the old capital of Malta. Mdina is a medieval walled town situated on a hill in the centre of the island. Punic remains uncovered beyond the city’s walls suggest the importance of the general region to Malta’s Phoenician settlers. Mdina is commonly...
, which stood in the center of the island, then attack Forts St. Angelo and Michael by land. If so, an attack on Fort St. Elmo would have been entirely unnecessary. Nevertheless, Mustafa relented, apparently believing only a few days would be necessary to destroy St. Elmo. After the Turks were able to emplace their guns, at the end of May they commenced a bombardment.
It certainly seems true that Suleiman had seriously blundered in splitting the command three ways. He not only split command between Piyale and Mustafa, but he ordered both of them to defer to Turgut when he arrived from Tripoli. Contemporary letters from spies in Constantinople, however, suggest that the plan had always been to take Fort St. Elmo first.. In any case, for the Turks to concentrate their efforts on it proved a crucial mistake.
The siege
Capture of Fort St. Elmo
Only 100 or so knights and 500 soldiers manned Fort St. Elmo, but de Valette ordered them to fight to the last. His intent was for them to hold out for a relief promised by Don Garcia, Viceroy of Sicily. The unremitting bombardment from three dozen guns on Mt. Sciberras reduced the fort to rubble within a week, but de Valette evacuated the wounded nightly and resupplied the fort from across the harbour. Still, by 8 June, the Knights were on the verge of mutiny and sent a message to the Grand Master asking to be allowed a sortie to die sword in hand. This was the last thing that de Valette wanted. A heroic sortie would be futile, and de Valette needed to buy time; St Elmo's resistance delayed the main assault. De Valette's response was to pay the soldiers and send a commission across the harbour to investigate the state of the fort. When the commissioners returned with differing opinions, de Valette said he would send replacements and go there himself if the Knights were too afraid to die as he had ordered. Thus shamed, the garrison held on, repulsing numerous assaults. Still, Turgut eventually was able to interdict the traffic across the harbour.
Finally, on 23 June, the Turks seized what was left of Fort St. Elmo. They killed all the defenders but for nine Knights whom the Corsairs had captured, and a few others who managed to escape. Turgut, however, died without savoring the victory. According to Bosio, a lucky shot from Fort St. Angelo mortally wounded him on 17 June; according to Balbi and Sans, "friendly fire" from Turkish cannons was the cause. Balbi says Turgut died before the day was out, while others have him languishing on until the day that St. Elmo fell. Although the Turks did succeed in capturing St. Elmo, allowing Piyale to anchor his fleet in Marsamxett, the siege of Fort St. Elmo had cost the Turks over 4,000 men, including half of their Janissaries. In that sense, it was certainly a
pyrrhic victoryA Pyrrhic victory is a victory with devastating cost to the victor.-Origin:The phrase is named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC during the Pyrrhic War...
, but Mustafa had no intention of giving up.
Mustafa had the bodies of the knights decapitated and their bodies floated across the bay on mock crucifixes. In response, de Valette decapitated all his Turkish prisoners and fired their heads into the Turkish camp. This was a deliberate move, not crude vengeance. It sent the signal that the knights expected no quarter and would give none. The knights knew that if they did not hold out, they would die.
Panic
By this time, word of the siege was spreading. As soldiers and adventurers gathered in Sicily for Don Garcia's relief, panic spread as well. There can be little doubt that the stakes were high, perhaps higher than at any other time in the contest between the Ottoman Empire and Europe. Queen Elizabeth I of England is said to have remarked:
All contemporary sources indicate the Turks intended to proceed to the Tunisian fortress of La Goletta and wrest it from the Spaniards, and Suleiman had also spoken of invading Europe through Italy.
However, modern scholars tend to disagree with this interpretation of the siege's importance. H.J.A. Sire, a historian who has written a history of the Order, is of the opinion that the siege represented an overextension of Ottoman forces, and argues that if the island had fallen, it would have quickly been retaken by a massive Spanish counterattack.
Although
Don GarciaGarcía Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio, 4th Marquis of Villafranca del Bierzo, Grandee of Spain, , , was a Spanish military officer and politician.- Biography :...
did not at once send the promised relief (troops were still being levied), he was persuaded to release an advance force of some 600 men. After several attempts, this
piccolo soccorso managed to land on Malta in early July and sneak into Birgu, raising the spirits of the besieged garrison immensely.
The Senglea Peninsula
On 15 July, Mustafa ordered a double attack against the Senglea peninsula. He had transported 100 small vessels across Mt. Sciberras to the Grand Harbour, thus avoiding the strong cannons of Fort St. Angelo intending to launch a sea attack against the promontory using about 1,000 Janissaries, while the Corsairs attacked Fort St. Michael on the landward end.
Luckily for the Maltese, a defector warned de Valette about the impending strategy and the Grand Master had time to construct a
palisadeA palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized trunks of trees aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks would be sharpened or pointed at the top...
along the Senglea promontory, which successfully helped to deflect the attack. Nevertheless, the assault probably would have succeeded had not the Turkish boats come into point-blank range (less than 200 yards) of a sea-level
batteryIn military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
of five cannons that had been constructed by Commander Chevalier de Guiral at the base of Fort St. Angelo which sole purpose was to stop such an amphibious attack. Just two salvos sank all but one of the vessels, killing or drowning over 800 of the attackers. The land attack failed simultaneously when relief forces were able to cross to Ft. St. Michael across a floating bridge, with the result that Malta was saved for the day.
The Turks by now had ringed Birgu and Senglea with some 65 siege guns and subjected the town to what was probably the most sustained bombardment in history up to that time. (Balbi claims that 130,000 cannonballs were fired during the course of the siege.) Having largely destroyed one of the town's crucial bastions, Mustafa ordered another massive double assault on 7 August, this time against Fort St. Michael and Birgu itself. On this occasion, the Turks breached the town walls and it seemed that the siege was over, but unexpectedly the invaders retreated. As it happened, the cavalry commander Captain Vincenzo Anastagi, on his daily sortie from Mdina, had attacked the unprotected Turkish field hospital, massacring the sick and wounded. The Turks, thinking the Christian relief had arrived from Sicily, broke off their assault.
St. Michael and Birgu
After the attack of 7 August, the Turks resumed their bombardment of St. Michael and Birgu, mounting at least one other major assault against the town on 19-21 August. What actually happened during those days of intense fighting is not entirely clear.
Bradford (in the climax of the siege) has a Turkish mine opening the town walls and the Grand Master saving the day by running into the breach. Balbi, in his diary entry for 20 August, says only that de Valette was told the Turks were within the walls; the Grand Master ran to "the threatened post where his presence worked wonders. Sword in hand, he remained at the most dangerous place until the Turks retired." Neither does Bosio mention a successful detonation of a mine. Rather, a panic ensues when the townspeople spy the Turkish standards outside the walls, the Grand Master runs thither, but finds no Turks. In the meantime, a cannoneer atop Ft. St. Angelo, stricken by the same panic, kills a number of townsfolk by "
friendly fireFriendly fire is an expression meaning fire from one's own side or allied forces, as opposed to fire coming from enemy forces, and was a tactic originally adopted by the United States military....
".
Fort St. Michael and Mdina
The situation was sufficiently dire that, at some point in August, the Council of Elders decided to abandon the town and retreat to Fort St. Angelo. De Valette, however, vetoed this proposal. If he guessed that the Turks were losing their will, he was correct. Although the bombardment and minor assaults continued, the invaders were stricken by an increasing desperation. Towards the end of August, the Turks attempted to take Fort St. Michael, first with the help of a
manta (similar to a
Testudo formationIn Ancient Roman warfare, the testudo or tortoise formation was a formation used commonly by the Roman Legions during battles, particularly sieges. Testudo is the Latin word for "tortoise"...
), a small siege engine covered with shields, then by use of a full-blown
siege towerA siege tower is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. The tower was often rectangular with four wheels and a height roughly equal to that of the wall or sometimes higher to allow archers to stand on top...
. In both cases, Maltese engineers tunneled out through the rubble and destroyed the constructions with point-blank salvoes of chain shot.
At the beginning of September, the weather was turning and Mustafa ordered a march on Mdina, intending to winter there. However, his troops by then did not have the stomach for another assault and the attack failed to occur. By 8 September, the Turks had embarked their artillery and were preparing to leave the island, having lost perhaps a third of their men to fighting and disease.
The previous day, however,
Don GarciaGarcía Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio, 4th Marquis of Villafranca del Bierzo, Grandee of Spain, , , was a Spanish military officer and politician.- Biography :...
had at last landed about 8,000 men at St. Paul's Bay on the north end of the island. The
Grande Soccorso positioned themselves on the ridge of San Pawl tat-Targa, waiting for the retreating Turks. It is said that when some hot-headed knights of the relief force saw the Turkish retreat, and the burning villages in its wake, they charged without waiting for orders from Asciano del Corna. Del Corna had no choice but to order a general charge which resulted in the massacre of the retreating Turkish force. The Turks fled to their ships and from the islands on 11 September. Malta had survived the Turkish assault, and throughout Europe people celebrated what would turn out to be the last epic battle involving Crusader Knights.
Aftermath
The number of casualties is in as much dispute as the number of invaders. Balbi gives 35,000 Turkish deaths, which seems implausible, Bosio 30,000 casualties (including sailors). Several other sources give about 25,000. The
knightA knight was a "gentleman soldier" or member of the warrior class of the Middle Ages in Europe. In other Indo-European languages, cognates of cavalier or rider are more prevalent suggesting a connection to the knight's mode of transport...
s lost a third of their number, and Malta lost a third of its inhabitants. Birgu and Senglea were essentially leveled. Still, 9,000 Christians, most of them Maltese, had managed to withstand a siege of more than four months in the hot summer, despite enduring a bombardment of some 130,000 cannon balls.
Such was the gratitude of Europe for the knights' heroic defense that money soon began pouring into the island, allowing de Valette to construct a fortified city,
VallettaValletta is the capital city of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta and the city proper has a population of 6,315....
, on Mt. Sciberras. His intent was to deny the position to any future enemies. De Valette himself died in 1568 after a hunting trip in
BuskettBuskett, in Rabat, Malta is the only woodland area in Malta and is overlooked by Verdala Palace.The Buskett Gardens are located in the fertile valley of Wied Il- Luq. They are located to the south of Rabat and just east of Dingli. The gardens are at their best in the spring but they offer shade...
.
The Turks never attempted to besiege Malta again. Although the Siege did little, if anything, to alter the balance of power in the Mediterranean, it was the first true defeat of the Ottoman Empire in a century and considerably lifted European morale.
The siege in recent historical fiction
Modern authors have attempted to capture the desperation and ferocity of the siege with varying degrees of success.
- Angels in Iron by Nicholas Prata remains faithful to the historical narrative and tells the story from a distinctly Catholic point of view.
- The novel Ironfire: An Epic Novel of Love and War by David Ball
David James Ball is an English producer and electronic musician, who has played in bands such as Soft Cell and The Grid, and collaborated with other producers including Ingo Vauk and Chris Braide...
is the story of kidnapping, slavery and revenge leading up to the siege of Malta. It takes a somewhat less sympathetic view of the Catholic Knights Hospitaller and maintains a more romantic approach.(British edition called,"The Sword and the Scimitar")
- The novel The Religion by Tim Willocks
Tim Willocks is a British doctor and novelist born in Stalybridge Greater Manchester, England. An experienced psychiatrist, Willocks has worked for some years on the rehabilitation of the sufferers of drug addiction...
(2006) tells the story of the siege through the eyes of a fictional mercenary called Mattias Tannhauser, who is on Malta fighting (at times) alongside the Knights (referred to primarily as The Religion), while trying to locate the bastard son of a Maltese noblewoman. In this attempt his opponent is a high-ranking member of the InquisitionThe Roman Inquisition was a system of tribunals developed by the Holy See during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes related to heresy, including sorcery, immorality, blasphemy, Judaizing and witchcraft, as well for...
. The story presents a picture of both sides of the conflict without romanticising or sanitising the content for modern consumption.
- The novel Blood Rock by James Jackson
James Jackson may refer to:*James Jackson , Revolutionary War soldier, Georgia Congressman, Senator and Governor*James Caleb Jackson , inventor of granula...
tells the story of the siege with a focus on a fictional English mercenary called Christian Hardy. Throughout the siege, Hardy works to discover the identity of the traitor within The Religion who works to ensure a Moslem victory. The traitor works on behalf of the French king, Francis I, who believed that peace with the Ottoman Empire was in the French interest and that the marauding Knights Hospitaller, by annoying the Sultan, threatened the security of France.
- It is the main plot of Pirates of Christ, the historical novel by Edward Lamond.
- There is a reference to the Siege of Malta in Age of Empires 3
Age of Empires III is a real-time strategy game developed by Microsoft Corporation's Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Released on October 18, 2005 in North America and November 4, 2005 in Europe, it is the third game of the Age of Empires series and the sequel to Age of...
, where Morgan Black, supposedly one of the Knights Hospitaller, battles the Ottomans and later travels to the New World to fight them there among other enemies. His grandchild, great-grandchild, great-great-grandchild, and great-great-great grandchild continue the plot later on.
- Dorothy Dunnett in "The Disorderly Knights" (book 3 of "The Lymond Chronicle") gives a detailed fiction account of the events of 1551 in Malta, Gozo and Tripoli. Although several of the characters are fictional, the bulk of the personages are historical.
See also
- List of sieges
- Barbary pirates
- Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in world history, and one of the first global empires. It included territories and colonies in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, from the 15th century through—in the case of its African holdings—the latter portion of the 20th century...
- Siege of Rhodes (1522)
The Siege of Rhodes of 1522 was the second and ultimately successful attempt by the Ottoman Empire to expel the Knights of Rhodes from their island stronghold and thereby secure Ottoman control of the Eastern Mediterranean. The first siege in 1480, had been unsuccessful.- The setting :The Knights...
- History of the Ottoman Navy
Turkish naval forces have historically been among the largest sea powers in the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean since the Medieval period.- General history :...
- List of Ottoman sieges and landings
External references
- Tim Pickles. Malta 1565: Last Battle of the Crusades; Osprey Campaign Series #50, Osprey Publishing, 1998.
- Stephen C. Spiteri. The Great Siege: Knights vs. Turks, 1565. Malta, The Author, 2005.
- Tony Rothman, "The Great Siege of Malta," in History Today, Jan. 2007.
- Bradford, Ernle, The Sultan's Admiral: The Life of Barbarossa, London, 1968.
- Wolf, John B., The Barbary Coast: Algeria under the Turks, New York, 1979; ISBN 0-393-01205-0
- Crowley, Roger. "Empires of the sea : the final battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580". London: Faber, 2008. ISBN 9780571232307
- E. Hamilton Currey, “Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean’’, London, 1910
- "History's bloodiest siege used human heads as cannonballs" by James Jackson - An account of the siege