Preceptory

The event of the greatest importance to Malta in connection with the Knights was the great siege of 1565.

​

There was little doubt that the Turks would eventually attack Malta again. Malta was of immense strategic importance to the Ottoman’s long-term plan to conquer more of Europe, since Malta was a stepping stone toward taking Sicily. In 1560, Jean de Valette sent a dispatch to all the Order’s priories ordering that their knights prepare to return to Malta as soon as a summons was issued.

​

In the meantime the Hospitaller navy continued to prey on Turkish shipping.

​

Expecting another Ottoman invasion within a year, the new and upgraded forts were built in 1552.

​

By early 1565, the Grand Master’s network of spies in Constantinople had informed him that the invasion was imminent. De Valette set about raising troops in Italy, laying in stores and finishing work on Fort St Angelo, Fort St Michael and Fort St Elmo.

 

The same year, Suleiman sent an invasion force of about 40,000 men to besiege the 700 knights and 8,000 soldiers intending to expel them from Malta and gain a new base from which to launch another assault on Europe.

​

Before the Turks arrived, de Valette 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.

 

At first the battle went as badly for the Hospitallers and most of the towns on Malta were destroyed and about half the knights killed. After the Turks were able to place their guns, they commenced a bombardment. The Turks turned their attention onto Fort St Elmo. The Grand Master de Valette sent reinforcements and concentrated half of his heavy artillery within the fort. His intent was for them to hold out for a relief promised by Don Garcia, Viceroy of Sicily.

 

The fort was reduced to rubble within a week. At night the wounded were with dawn from the fort, and supplies sent in.

As the siege wore on, the position of Fort St Elmo became more desperate and the Knights sent a message requesting pulling back to Fort St Angelo. However, the Grand Master refused, expecting help from the Viceroy of Sicily, and knowing that he needed to hold out against the Turks for as long as possible as they would not last to the end of the year. The knights therefore resolved to hold St Elmo to the last man, but the help from Sicily did not come, as Don Garica dithered.

​

The Turks eventually were able to assault the damaged walls of St Elmo, where it was reported that even the native Maltese soldiers fought and died bravely. The wounded knights fought on.

​

Two days later, a cannon fire ricochet killed Dragut.

​

Finally the Turks seized what was left of Fort St Elmo, executing the remaining defenders. Mustafa had the bodies of the knights decapitated and their bodies floated across the bay on crucifixes. In response, de Valette beheaded all of his Turkish prisoners, loaded their heads into his cannons and fired them into the Turkish camp.

​

The plight of the Turkish forces, however, was becoming desperate. With the exception of Fort St Elmo, all fortifications were still intact. Working night and day the garrison had repaired the breaches in the walls, and the capture of Malta seemed more and more impossible. Many of the Ottoman troops in crowded quarters had fallen ill and their ammunition and food were beginning to run short. The Ottoman troops were becoming increasingly dispirited by the failure of their attacks and their losses. The Turkish fleet was also idling by and made no attempt to watch for or intercept Sicilian reinforcements.

​

Because a panic over the Turkish invasion had spread across Europe, soldiers and adventurers continued gathered in Sicily for Don Garcia’s relief efforts.

​

Next 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, in order to launch a sea attack against the promontory using about 1,000 Janissaries, while the Corsairs attacked Fort St Michael on the landward end.

 

A defector warned de Valette about the impending strategy and the Grand Master had time to construct a palisade along the Senglea promontory, which successfully stopped the attack. Further, a sea-level battery of five cannons constructed at the base of Fort St Angelo would also wipe out 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 Fort St Michael across a floating bridge, with the result that Malta was saved.

​

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. Having largely destroyed one of the town’s crucial fortifications, Mustafa ordered another massive double assault, 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, on his daily sortie from Mdina, had attacked the unprotected Turkish field hospital, killing everyone and had beheaded more than sixty Turks. The Turks, thinking the Christian relief had arrived from Sicily, broke off their assault.

​

After the attack, the Turks resumed their bombardment of St Michael and Birgu, mounting at least one other major assault against the town.

​

At the climax of the siege a mine exploded with a huge blast, breaching the town walls and causing stone and dust to fall into the ditch, with the Turks charging even as the debris was still falling. The 70-year-old de Valette saved the day by leading about a counter-charge of one hundred troops that had been waiting in the Piazza of Birgu.

​

The situation was sufficiently dire that, at some point in August 1565, the council decided to abandon the town and retreat to Fort St Angelo. De Valette, however, vetoed this proposal. The Turks were losing their will. Although the bombardment and minor assaults continued, the invaders were stricken by an increasing helplessness and desperation.

 

Towards the end of August, the Turks attempted to take Fort St Michael, first with the help of a small siege engine covered with shields, then by use of a siege tower. In both cases, Maltese engineers tunnelled out through the rubble and destroyed the constructions with point-blank salvos of chain shot.

​

As the weather began to turn, Mustafa ordered a march on Mdina, intending to winter there. However the attack failed to occur. The Christians in the poorly-defended town deliberately started firing its cannon at the approaching Turks at pointlessly long range; this bluff scared them away by fooling the already demoralised Turks into thinking the town had ammunition to spare.

​

The Turks made their last effort, but the morale of the Ottoman troops had deteriorated seriously and the attack was feeble, to the great encouragement of the besieged, who now began to see hopes of deliverance. The perplexed and indecisive Ottomans heard of the arrival of Sicilian reinforcements in Mellieħa Bay. Unaware that the force was very small, they broke off the siege and left.

​

At last Don Garcia landed about 8,000 men at St Paul’s Bay on the north end of the island. The relieving forces positioned themselves on a ridge awaiting the Turkish assault.

​

It is said that when some hot-headed knights of the relief force saw the Turkish retreat and the burning villages, they charged without waiting for orders. Della Corgna, seeing the troops in such spirits, had no choice but to order a general charge which resulted in the massacre of the retreating Turkish force, who retreated from the islands.

​

The Turks embarked their artillery and were preparing to leave the island, having lost perhaps a third of their men to fighting and disease. Malta had survived the Turkish assault, and throughout Europe people celebrated what would turn out to be the last epic battle involving Crusader Knights.

​

The invaders lost tens of thousands of men. The knights lost a third of their number, and Malta lost a third of its inhabitants. Birgu and Senglea were essentially levelled. Still, 9,000 defenders had managed to withstand a siege of more than four months in the hot summer, despite enduring a bombardment of some 130,000 cannonballs.

​

Jean de Valette, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, had a key influence in the victory against the Ottomans with his example and his ability to encourage and hold together people.

 

Such was the gratitude of Europe for the knights’ heroic defence that money soon began pouring into the island, allowing de Valette to construct a fortified city, Valletta on Mt Sciberras. His intent was to deny the position to any future enemies.

 

Many heroes perished in the siege. As to the state of the besieged it is recorded that of the 8,000 men of all arms under Valetta at the beginning of the siege, barely 600 able to bear arms remained at the close. When the Ottomans departed, the Hospitallers had but 600 men able to bear arms. Another estimate puts the number of the Ottoman army at its height at some 40,000 men, of whom 15,000 eventually returned to Constantinople.

 

After the siege a new city had to be built: the present capital city of Malta, named Valletta in memory of the Grand Master who had withstood the siege.

​

The victory day of the 8th of September is still celebrated every year in Malta.

​

BELOW: The great victory.