"The Great Siege Had Ended" ~ The year that September 11 brought tidings of victory

The Flight of the Turks by Matteo Perez d' Aleccio, early 17th century.

September 11 is known in our times as the date of a cowardly suicide attack by Islamic radicals which resulted in the massacre of over 3,000 innocents in New York City in 2001.

But on September 11 nearly five hundred years ago, another Islamic attack was coming to its ignominious conclusion for the invaders. For on this date in AD 1565, the Great Siege of Malta was drawing to a close. The Turkish army, under the command of Mustapha Pasha, was making preparation to withdraw after a stunning defeat by the Knights of Saint John after a four month long siege.

Worn down by the ironclad resolve of the Knights whose fortifications he could not take, Mustapha decided to evacuate his still-superior forces upon the arrival of a relief army from imperial Spain. With the Turks on the defensive, the combined Catholic forces attacked. Here is how the scene is described in Angels in Iron, a brilliant novel by Nicholas C. Prata:

A Knight raised his sword into the sky, his powerful voice carrying over Naxxar.

“Attack!”

With that the mounted Knights thundered down the ridge toward the Turkish infantrymen. Many foot soldiers followed.

De la Corna decided it wiser to harness the emotion than to attempt a recall. He ordered a charge and his men responded with cries of delight. They descended on the Turks even as Don Mesquita’s cavalry arrived from Mdina to worry the Moslem flank.

The Hospitaller horsemen smashed through Mustapha’s lines like hammers through glass. Many Turks, dejected by the endless siege and overmatched by the fresh enemy, broke and fled.

“Saint Elmo!” the Knights cried as they bathed their swords in blood.

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It took only a short while for Mustapha to see that the islands reinvestment was ill-planned and potentially disastrous. He ordered a retreat north toward St. Paul’s Bay and, all that day, conducted a difficult rearguard action. Finally, after untold carnage, the Turks reached St. Paul’s Bay and found Piali waiting. The maddened Knights, who outdistanced their foot soldiers, pushed the Turks into the sea. Moslems were killed on the beach, struck down in the shallows, crushed beneath the hooves of angry warhorses.

“Saint Elmo!” the Knights bellowed.

Not all Mustapha’s army wilted, however. A daring counterattack by Hassem’s Algerians saved the Turks from obliteration. Hassem, eager to redeem his disastrous assault on Senglea, arranged arquebusiers in the hills around the bay and directed heavy shot at the Knights. The Hospitallers, still without their infantry, were obliged to fall back.

The Turks abandoned many wounded in the frantic surge to reach the anchored ships and Piali wasted no time sailing to safety. The fleet was on the move long before the Christians could bring up artillery. Three thousand Turks floated dead in narrow St. Paul’s Bay.

The Great Siege had ended.

Mustapha watched Malta shrink on the horizon. He had said nothing since his flagship had got under oar. A physician tugged his robe. “Lord, Pasha,” he said. “May I dress your injuries?”

Mustapha had been wounded in numerous places. His had been a desperate, valiant effort on the long retreat from Naxxar to St. Paul’s Bay and his old body had paid the price. Two horses had been shot out from beneath him and, when the Knights had killed his bodyguards, only the Janissaries had prevented him from falling into Christian hands.

“Lord Pasha, you’re bleeding,” the physician said.

Mustapha leaned against a rail, regret blurring his vision. “Two years for nothing,” he whispered.

“Pasha?”

Mustapha drew his jeweled scimitar and dropped it into the water. It barely left a ripple as it disappeared into the blue sea. He turned and walked away from the surgeon.

I posted another excerpt from Angels in Iron about the beginning of the siege here.

And here is another one about the surrender of Rhodes which precipitated the siege.

 If you haven’t experienced Angels in Iron yet, do yourself a favor and read it. You'll thank me later.

The Great Siege of Malta Begins, May 18, 1565

 A portrait of Grand Master Jean de la Valette by Antoine Favray.

Given the current tribulations of the Knights of Malta in our own time, it is well to remember that there were magnificent heroes among them in past days--men who did not shrink from combat even in their old age.

When the Turks attacked Malta with an armada of nearly 200 ships and 40,000 soldiers in May of 1565, about 1,000 knights of St. John (later the Knights of Malta) from all over Christendom had already assembled to repel them. These men arrived at Malta with the full knowledge that many of them would never leave the island alive.

The following is taken from the excellent historical novel, Angels in Iron, and describes the happenings on May 18, 1565 when the Turkish fleet appeared off Malta:

18 May

Suleiman’s armada was spotted shortly after dawn. The galleys materialized on the hazy horizon fifteen miles east of Malta. A Knight in St. Elmo roused the garrison to action, crying: “There they are!” Within moments men crowded the east walls and squinted toward the ships.

Di Corso stared at the gigantic fleet, eyes wide. Heavenly Father! It’s a wonder the sea can hold them!

Captain De Guaras and Governor Broglia scrambled up the steps and gazed toward the armada, their faces grim.

“God help us,” Broglia sighed, then told De Guaras: “Fire a shot to warn Birgu.”

“A volley!” De Guaras cried to the batteries on the cavalier. “Three shots!”

Cannon roared and iron whistled over water. White foam pillared skyward as shot plowed the lazy sea. Birgu’s guns echoed the alarm. 

Another volley thundered toward the distant Turks.

“Hold!” De Guaras shouted.

He and Broglia went back down the steps and disappeared into the governor’s chamber, flanked by three Knights Commanders.

“How far off?” Di Corso asked a scarred Spanish gunner.

“A few hours, sir.”

“Time enough for the chapel, then.” 

Oliver Starkey burst into La Valette’s quarters to find the Grand Master at his desk. 

“Master, they’re here!” he cried.

La Valette signed a document, blotted it. “Oliver?”

“My lord?”

La Valette rolled and sealed the scroll, pressed the wax with his signet ring and offered the letter. “Take this.”

Starkey accepted the parchment.

“This is my quint,” La Valette said, referring to the twenty percent of his belongings a Knight could bequeath outside the Order.

“I see, my lord,” Starkey said, studying the sealed will.

“Keep it safe.”

La Valette rose from the chair and placed a white-plumed helmet on his head, saying, “Let us go to St. Angelo.”

As they left the room they heard warning shots from inland Mdina, and Gozo to the north, where the respective garrisons had guessed Mustapha’s arrival.

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“They certainly didn’t catch us napping,” La Valette said.

In the dockyard between Birgu and Senglea, Mathurin d’Aux Lescout-Romegas, General of the Galleys and the greatest Christian seaman of the age, readied four small ships. Romegas had no intention of engaging the huge Turkish force; rather, he would reconnoiter Suleiman’s navy.

La Valette saluted Romegas and proceeded toward St. Angelo.

Drums, trumpets and shouts rose from Birgu and St. Angelo as men sprang hastily to arms. La Valette strode confidently into the chaotic fort. A group of knights surrounded him.

“The time is at hand,” he told them. “Let us acquit ourselves as knights of Christ.”

Thus begins the story of the epic battle, one of the most harrowing and bloody sieges in all of recorded history. To read the tale in the epic prose of Nicholas C. Prata, go ye and purchase a copy of Angels in Iron here or here.