the site of malt by the Turks in 1565 was one of the largest sieges of the 16th century, both because of the scale of the attack undertaken by the ottoman empire as well as for the special circumstances that surrounded it and the attention that Europe paid to its development. The once powerful Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem was not going through its best moment but it will have the support of the Hispanic Monarchy.
Background
The crusades have passed into the collective imagination as an exclusive phenomenon of the Middle Ages, but it is worth asking to what extent their spirit sustained the initiatives and the ideological apparatus of the Papacy and the Hispanic Monarchy. During the decades prior to the events narrated here, the unstoppable Ottoman advance had consolidated its dominance in Anatolia and the Balkans. The threat of the Grand Turk then looms over a small island in the heart of the Mare Nostrum now saracen.
After the fall of Rhodes in 1522, the Hospitallers asked Charles V for help, who gave them the islands of malt, Gozo and Comuno, as well as the North African square of Tripoli. Malta was considerably less prosperous than the previous seat of the Order, both because of its smaller size and because of the scarcity of its resources, to the point that the Hospitallers were tempted to abandon it. On the other hand, the island had a privileged position that gave it great strategic importance.
The latter did not prevent the decision to carry out the company from being exempt from debate. Although the Knights of Malta were a constant stumbling block to Barbary piracy (acting as pirates themselves, one might say) the Pashas feared that such an action would unleash a grand coalition of Christian princes with Spain and the Pope at the helm. The Sultan’s Seraglio was divided into two factions: on one side were the military chiefs and on the other a motley group of courtiers that included the Mufti of Egypt, the Capi Aga (leader of the white eunuchs), and Roxelana. The interest of the Slavic wife of Suleiman for the destruction of the Maltese knights is due to the fact that both she and her daughter were kidnapped by them when traveling to Mecca.
Ignoring the advice of the military faction, Solimán the Magnificent prepares for a campaign that will be much more bitter than those of his youth. The first soldiers to be mobilized were the 6,000 Janissaries of his personal guard, a ruthless elite infantry recruited from the sons of Christian serfs. In addition to these, 6,000 espahíes or sipahis were mobilized as a cavalry unit, the so-called iayalás or killer (name given to their oath never to flee the battlefield until they have killed seven opponents) and an indeterminate number of Azab irregulars, dervishes, Barbary pirates and all kinds of adventurers. In total they added 28,900 soldiers for the expedition. A total of 130 galleys, 30 galleots, 9 mahonas (transport ships), 10 large ships and 200 caramuzales (merchant ships) departed from Constantinople.
Meanwhile, the Knights of Malta were preparing their defenses as best they could. The imminent attack on the island was an open secret that circulated through renegades, deserters and various upstarts, paradigmatic characters on the border between Christianity and Islam who constituted a valuable source of information. Slaves and other inhabitants of the island had already been working tirelessly for several weeks to reinforce walls and ravelins when the Turkish fleet was sighted on May 18, 1565.
As regards the strength of the defenders, the Italo-Spanish mercenary Francisco Balbi, whose diary of the siege is one of the main sources on it, gives the reduced figure of 550 knights. It should be said that to these were added the contingents of troops provided by the Hispanic Monarchy, in addition to the population of the island that participated in the defense and slaves who had been promised freedom if they did what was expected of them (a very common thing that the Turks also did). In total, we can speak of about 6,000-9,000 defenders between Italians, Greeks, Spaniards and locals.
Days before the siege began, two large iron chains had been laid to close the port to enemy ships. The first linked San Telmo with Punta de las Orcas, while the second linked the towns of San Miguel and San Ángel. Identical stratagem to the one used by the defenders of Constantinople in 1453. One of the main problems on the Ottoman side will be the duplicity of some commanders who, to make matters worse, hated each other: the sultan had entrusted the command of the navy to Pialí Pasha, but the army was by Mustafa Pasha.
As soon as they disembarked, the first skirmishes took place in front of Burgo, which will set the guidelines to be followed by both sides. The Grand Master of the Order, Jean Parisot de La Valette, seeing the cost of these first fights, will want to limit the exposure of the defenders and not go too far in the exits while they are in an inferior position.
An artillery train of 21 pieces will be unloaded the next day to beat the first objective of the besiegers: San Telmo. It has been said that the Turks made a crucial mistake by focusing their efforts on this fort, but the decision was not without disagreement.
Mustafá, as general of the army, will be in favor of spreading out across the island and occupying the city of Medina before launching the siege of the Burgo and San Miguel bastions. For his part, Pialí prioritized the need to establish a base in Marsamuxeto in order to safeguard his fleet. The need to take San Telmo is explained by the imposition of the strategy advocated by the latter. In any case, both commanders rushed into forceful military action without waiting for the third commander to arrive, Dragut, even though they had orders not to do anything without him.
The siege of San Telmo
San Telmo was a small fort in a four-pointed star that barely had 100 knights and 500 old soldiers for its defense. The Turks hope to take this position in a matter of a few days, although they have the rocky terrain of Mount Sceberras against them, which makes any attempt to dig trenches or undermine the walls difficult.
On May 24, the legendary Ottoman siege artillery begins to beat the walls of San Telmo, beginning the siege. That same day news arrives from García Álvarez de Toledo, Viceroy of Sicily, who asks La Valette for time to gather the promised reinforcements. Alerted by the vulnerability of the square, the Grand Master will send another 50 knights and 200 soldiers to defend him. The On May 27, the Calabrian corsair Uluj Ali will join the besiegers, along with four vessels and 600 leventes.
Despite attempts to rebuild the defenses, the constant bombardment will reduce the square to rubble in less than a week, but it continues to resist thanks to the fact that at night La Valette sends boats that bring reinforcements and take away the wounded. In one of their departures, the garrison manages to cause the Ottoman front line to flee, occupying their own trenches, but they will be contained by the Janissaries.
On May 30, the arrival of the famous corsair and admiral of the Ottoman fleet, Turgut Reis, better known as Dragut, takes place. His seniority was respected by all, because he knew Malta very well, in fact, among his exploits was having taken as captives the entire population of the neighboring island of Gozo, about 5,000 inhabitants.
He brought with him 2,500 men divided into 13 galleys, two of his own galleys and 30 vessels belonging to other corsairs. They were received by Pialí’s fleet, who, taking out 80 galleys, directed a salvo towards San Telmo, with the misfortune of ending up bombing their own trenches, causing serious damage. Dragut was not at all satisfied with the haste with which the siege had been launched, but it was already too late to abandon it. One of his first actions will be to install new artillery platforms, send out patrols around the harbor and direct the cannons towards the area where the Christian reinforcements were landing.
The situation becomes even more complicated for the exhausted defenders when the Turks take possession of a ravelin and place two pieces of artillery on top of it, with which they punish the inner wall, which is at the same height. During the following days the Turks intensified the work in the trenches to place the expert Janissary sharpshooters, although they were repulsed in numerous assaults. After this they will try to build several bridges to cross the moat, without much success since the Christians burned them all in the various skirmishes that occurred throughout the month. It is worth mentioning the use of Greek fire and other incendiary devices as something constant by both contenders.
On June 8, a small crisis takes place on the Christian side, when the resigned garrison sends a letter to the Grand Master announcing their desire to return to the Burgo or, if denied, to obtain permission to make one last exit, hoping to die. sword in hand. The letter was signed by 53 hospitallers, with the abstention of their captains. It was at stake to lose the entire fortress together with his men.
Faced with this situation halfway between blackmail and mutiny, La Valette decides to send emissaries to recognize the state of the place. These will think that the fort can still hold out for a few more days. One of them, the Neapolitan Castriota, even volunteers to take his place if he is given 600 fresh men. It is then that the defenders, ashamed, expressed their desire to remain and die in San Telmo.
On the 16th the Turkish armies attacked San Telmo from all fronts in a general assault. Piali Pasha’s army positioned itself in front of the fortress, while 4,000 arquebusiers stood ready to fire from the trenches. Enemies with ladders, bridges, and Greek fire also awaited in the moat. Both the naval artillery and that of the platforms distributed in the surrounding area bombarded the square non-stop for an hour. Next to the reconstructed bridge Mustafa Pasha unfolds several waves of iayalás and dervishes, reserving his janissaries for another time, but none manages to penetrate the fort.
The Christian captains had ordered that a knight be placed between every two common soldiers and an arquebusier between every two pikemen, dividing all available men into three squads to make up for their numerical inferiority. That same night the Grand Master sent Friar Lorenzo Iarnieu together with 30 knights, 150 soldiers and a large number of spenders with supplies and provisions. It will be the last reinforcement that those from San Telmo will receive.
Dragut will be able to interrupt communication through the port, leaving the knights of San Telmo completely isolated, although he will die without being able to see the outcome of the siege as a result of friendly fire. On June 17, a shot from his own artillery hit a trench located behind him and shredded it…