Siege of Malta (1565)

The Siege of Malta (also known as the Great Siege of Malta) took place in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire invaded the island, held by the Knights Hospitaller. The siege is one of the great sieges of history, fought out by unequal forces on the small island of Malta which commands the sea-routes at the centre of the Mediterranean. The Knights of St John were a remnant of the medieval world, the largest of the surviving crusading orders - warrior priests sworn to obedience to the Grand Master, recruited from Europe's nobility. They had been driven out of their base on Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean after being defeated by the Turks in 1522. From Malta, their new ideal base in the middle of the known world, they continually harassed Ottoman trade shipping having acquired their naval skills from the renowned Rhodians.

The siege

On May 18th 1565, the Ottomans, having decided to remove the Knights from their base once again, landed in Malta with an attack force. Balbi in his account of the siege gives the force that sailed from the Levant to attack Malta as 28,000, supplemented by forces from Algiers and Tripoli bringing the total invading force to 48,000 men. Spies in Constantinople saw the preparations and got word back in time for the Christians to organize defence.

Balbi's numbers should be treated with caution however, as Balbi was a soldier serving with the defenders and is far from a disinterested observer.

Balbi gives the forces available to Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette when the siege began as 500 knights of all langues, 400 Spanish soldiers, 800 Italian soldiers, 500 soldiers off the galleys, 200 Greek and Sicilian soldiers, 100 soldiers of the garrison of Fort St Elmo, 100 servants of the knights, 500 galley slaves and mercenary oarsmen, and 3,000 soldiers drawn from the Maltese population.

Malta was defended by four fortresses, three around Grand Harbour controlled by the Knights, Fort St Elmo, Fort St Angelo, and Fort St Michael, and the old capital city of Mdina, on high ground in the central part of Malta. Fort St Angelo was the main stronghold, along with the fortified city on its shoreward approaches, known as the borg, or Birgu.

The Ottoman forces landed at Marsaxlokk on May 18, 1565 and quickly controlled the countryside. The population withdrew into the fortifications.

The Ottomans laid siege to the fortresses, but keen to secure an all-weather harbour for their fleet, initially concentrated their attack on the smallest fortress, St Elmo, which controlled the access to both Malta's all weather harbours, Grand Harbour and Marsamxett Harbour. The bombardment of St Elmo commenced on May 26.

St Elmo was fiercely defended and, supported by additional troops dispatched from the larger fortresses, held out against the attack for a month.

When St Elmo eventually fell, on June 23 at a dreadfull cost of 8,000 Ottoman casualties against the entire garrison of 1,500 Knights and Maltese soldiers killed, the Ottoman attack was then directed primarily against St Michael. Despite massive assaults on St Michael and Birgu over the following months, the fortresses held. A combined land and amphibious attack against St Michael and against the Senglea Harbour on July 15 ended in failure. One big attack on August 7 was about to succeed when the Ottomans were taken in the rear by an attack by the garrison of Mdina. In early September, relief forces arrived on Malta. On September 11, the Ottoman forces had given up the siege and abandoned the island.

Balbi reports that in the siege, the Ottomans suffered between 25,000-35,000 casualties, while the Knights lost 2,500 soldiers of all nationalities. Balbi reports also that 7,000 Maltese men women and children were killed, as well as 500 galley slaves killed or wounded.

The grand hall of the Palace of the Grand Masters in Valletta is decorated with 13 frescoes by Matteo Perez d' Aleccio showing the events of the great siege.

Aftermath

Malta remained under the rule of the Knights Hospitaller until 1798. The siege along side with the Battle of Lepanto was a turning-point in European history as it managed to control the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in Europe.

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.

The Siege in Recent Historical Fiction

Modern authors have attempted to capture the desperation and ferocity of the siege with varying degrees of success. in Iron by Nicholas C. Prata remains faithful to the historical narrative and tells the story from a distinctly Catholic point of view. Ironfire (British edition called,"The Sword and the Scimitar") by David Ball takes a somewhat less sympathetic view of the Catholic Knights of St. John and maintains a more romantic approach.

Also, there was a refference to the Siege of Malta in Age of Empires 3, where John Black, supposedly one of the Knights of Saint John battles the Ottomans and later travels to the New World to fight them there among other enemies. His grandchild and great great grandchild continue the plot later on.

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The siege

Aftermath

References

The Siege in Recent Historical Fiction