Back in the 1520s, Suleiman’s success in Rhodes had forced the Knights Hospitaller to flee their
home base and eventually make their way to Malta. Over time, the Knights began to shift Malta into
a respectable naval base, which turned out to have been a crucial decision by 1551.
In the earlier decades, the Barbary Corsairs had been inching further and further into
the Western Mediterranean, and eventually began to eye Malta in particular. In 1551,
the increasingly problematic corsair Dragut and Ottoman admiral Sinan Pasha decided that they
would simply take Malta for themselves, and invaded the Knights’ new home base with
10,000 troops. The Knights Hospitaller were no pushovers, however, and after only a few days,
Dragut called off the siege, recognizing that he had more to lose than gain. As a result,
the Ottoman fighters withdrew and headed instead for the nearby island of Gozo. Nevertheless,
this would only be the first time that Malta came under Ottoman fire…
The Knights had been lucky this time. Lucky to have prepared, and lucky that the invasion was
on a fairly small scale. But now, they knew that there would be a next time and that this next time
would not be so easy to resolve. Subsequently, the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller,
Juan de Homedes, insisted that Malta’s defenses be bolstered immediately. This
led to the construction of two new forts, Fort Saint Michael at Senglea and Fort Saint Elmo
at Mount Sciberras, as well as improvements being made at Fort Saint Angelo in Birgu.
Clashes between the Ottoman and European sides would continue over the following years,
though nothing too drastic for some time. But, a failed naval campaign by Philip II of Spain had
crumbled at the Battle of Djerba off the coast of Tunisia, reaffirming Ottoman superiority and
securing the fear for the Hospitallers that the Turks would, surely, be back in Malta very soon…
After the catastrophic loss by Spain, the Knights Hospitaller lept into preparation for the
inevitable attack on the horizon. If the Ottomans could take Malta, they’d have a better chance at
next seizing other Christian territories such as Sicily and Naples, and the Knights knew this.
According to England’s Queen Elizabeth I, “If the Turks should prevail against the Isle of Malta,
it is uncertain what further peril might follow to the rest of Christendom”. A focus was thus put
on finishing the construction and enhancements to Malta’s forts whilst gathering any and all troops
available. The Hospitallers also continued to harass nearby Turkish ships, which may have
actually backfired as it would eventually give the Ottomans a justification for an invasion.
Nevertheless, the Knights saw the incursion as a guarantee anyway,
and the goal was not to prevent it, but to win the fight…
By the spring of 1565, an Ottoman fleet of about 200 vessels was nearing Malta,
and the Knights Hospitaller had already been warned. In preparation,
they began throwing dead animals and whatever else they could into the wells to poison them,
while additionally harvesting all local crops to prevent any food supplies from falling into
the enemies' hands. As they readied their defenses, the invaders came within sight…
On May 18, the Ottoman fleet arrived at Malta, but due to internal disputes among
their commanders as to what to target first, the ships didn’t actually anchor until two days later,
finally stopping at Marsaxlokk Bay. The siege officially began shortly…
The first target of the Ottoman attack was Fort Saint Elmo as it was conveniently positioned
between two harbors and the Ottoman supreme naval commander, Piyale Pasha, had won the dispute with
the commander of the land forces, Kizilahmedii Mustafa Pasha, who instead wanted to wipe out
the other two forts and the old Maltese capital of Mdina. The contemporary Grand Master of the
Knights Hospitaller, Jean Parisot de Valette, on the other hand, had anticipated that Saint Elmo
would likely be the initial point of bombardment and had already sent additional men and heavy
artillery to defend it. Nevertheless, the Ottomans wildly outnumbered the Knights, and only a week
after the start of the siege on May 27, the fort itself had taken serious damage. Despite constant
efforts to keep up defenses and hold the Turks off, the Knights Hospitaller were losing hope.
With Dragut now arriving to support the Ottoman side, it seemed more and more impossible to stop
them. As a result, the Knights informed de Jean Parisot that they were not going to be
able to keep Saint Elmo in their possession and would need to retreat despite promises of
reinforcements being on their way from Sicily. Parisot, on the other hand, refused to accept
the loss of the fort and demanded that his men stay and fight even before help arrived.
The Knights subsequently carried on the fight, as did some locals, but it was now mid-June
and there was scarcely much left of the fort. Luck fell partially on the side of the Knights
by June 18th though, when Dragut was killed either by a lucky shot from Fort Saint Angelo,
per Giacomo Bosio, or by a freak accident within the Ottoman ranks. Still, less than a week later,
the Turks had taken the remains of Saint Elmo and the over 1,500 defenders were massacred. However,
the Ottomans had also lost roughly 6,000 men in the siege of Saint Elmo alone, and this was
only the start of their invasion. Next was Fort Saint Angelo, and as Mustafa pensively pondered,
“If so small a son has cost us so dear, what price shall we have to pay for so large a father?”...
In a bid to demoralize the enemy, it is said that Mustafa had the headless bodies of his
Hospitaller victims floated across the harbor on mock crucifixes. The Knights, however,
took this quite differently than the Ottomans had anticipated. Instead of being demoralized, they
were instead even more fired up now, and responded by launching the heads of their own Turkish
victims in cannons, aimed right at Mustafa and his fighters. Furthermore, by mid-July, the Sicilian
reinforcements had finally arrived, giving the defenders an extra boost as the Ottomans looked
to capture Fort Saint Michael, hoping to avoid Saint Angelo’s steely defenses for the time being.
Beginning the launch of a land and sea campaign against Fort Saint Michael,
the Ottomans looked to have the upper hand as Mustafa sent almost a dozen ships filled
with Janissaries into the fight, requiring them to sail past Fort Saint Angelo. Which,
unbeknownst to the Turks, had been outfitted with a sea-level five-cannon battery and a commander
with impeccable timing. As the vessels sailed by, they were blasted at point-blank range,
sinking the ships themselves and sending the few men who survived the cannon fire
into the water to either drown or be executed by the waiting defenders.
By August, an angered and determined Mustafa ordered what is said to be the heaviest sustained
bombardment to have occurred to date, aimed at both Fort Saint Angelo and Saint Michael.
It was bloody and brutal, but somehow, the Knights Hospitallers and their local allies
managed to hold out. More reinforcements had been promised from Philip II of Spain,
though they were yet to actually arrive. However, Mustafa mistakenly assumed that they had landed
when a Hospitaller commander and a handful of his men aggressed an Ottoman camp and field hospital
on their trip back from Mdina, massacring the wounded and ill and raiding the tents. With the
assumption that this was the reinforcements, the Ottomans pulled back and temporarily paused the
siege. A few days later, the bombardment would recommence, but still, the Hospitallers would
not fall. Though reliable details of what happened next are scarce, it’s clear that by September, the
struggling Turks were losing morale and patience. As winter began to approach, Mustafa decided that
they would seize Mdina and winter there, but the Knights had a brilliant plan to stop that.
As the Ottomans marched toward the city, the defenders, knowing that they were in fact low on
ammunition and supplies, began firing all cannons at the attackers before they had even come into
range. This gave the Ottomans the impression that the city had somehow been resupplied,
and actually had ammunition to spare. Already exhausted, battered, and ready to go home, the
Turks called it quits the day after the additional European reinforcements had, in reality, arrived.
By September 13, the Ottomans were on their way out. It’s believed that some of the
retreating forces were stopped by members of the reinforcements and subsequently massacred
at the order of Ascanio della Corgna, which would have only boosted Maltese enthusiasm further. The
Turks, however, had little left in the form of morale. Reports say that anywhere from
25,000 to 35,000 Ottomans perished due to warfare or disease during the war, and any
Ottoman hopes of using Malta as a launching pad to Sicily had been dashed - although some
historians argue that the Turks never would’ve had the resources to keep pushing regardless.
Either way, the failed Ottoman siege of Malta proved to be a magnificent victory
not just for Malta, but for Christian Europe as a whole. And for the Turks,
it was a reminder that no one, not even the Ottoman Empire, was invincible…