Siege of Malta (1565)
The Siege of Malta - Arrival of the Ottoman Fleet (Matteo Perez d'Aleccio)
| date | Arrival of the fleet on May 18th until departure of the same on September 8th, 1565 |
|---|---|
| place | Malta , Mediterranean |
| output | Defeat and withdrawal of the Ottomans |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
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| Commander | |
|
Mustafa Pascha |
|
| Troop strength | |
| Defenders: 9,350 men. Relief army: 8,000 men |
40,000 men |
| losses | |
|
10,300 dead |
24,000 dead |
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The siege of Malta (Maltese l-Assedju l-Kbir , the great siege) by an Ottoman army began with the first sighting of the Turkish fleet off the coast of Malta on May 18, 1565, whereby the disembarkation of the troops did not begin until May 19, while the actual siege of the walls of Malta did not take place until May 24th. The invasion lasted until the withdrawal of the troops on September 8th ( Mary's Birth ) 1565. The island defended by the Order of Malta was able to hold its own against the invaders .
background
Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent drove the expansion of the Ottoman Empire forward to such an extent that he conquered the entire eastern Mediterranean area and, after taking Hungary in 1529, reached the gates of Vienna (see First Turkish siege of Vienna ).
The Order of St. John , settled after the expulsion from Rhodes by Suleiman army on New Year 1523, initially on Crete and in several places in Italy down to him by the Roman-German Emperor Charles V in 1530 that the Habsburg belonging sphere of Malta together with Gozo and the 1510 from the Habsburg Spain conquered Tripoli transferred. The Johanniter under their Grand Master Philippe de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam immediately set about expanding Malta into their new base. They received financial help from Charles V, which was mainly used for the construction and expansion of the fortifications . The Order of Malta's fleet played a central role in the defense of the western Mediterranean against Ottoman navies and corsairs allied with the Ottomans , benefiting from Malta's position between Sicily and Tunisia .
The fleet of the Turkish Beylerbeys of North Africa Khayr ad-Din “Barbarossa” († 1546), which mainly operated from Algiers, posed a particular threat to the Christian countries of the western Mediterranean . The establishment of a new base of operations for the Order's galleys in Malta, the best protected and largest natural harbor in the Mediterranean, hampered and endangered Ottoman operations at sea.
The Ottomans and their allies had been extremely active militarily in the western Mediterranean region since the 1540s. Khayr ad-Din plundered the Catalan coast with his fleet in 1542 , conquered Nice in 1543 in alliance with France and undertook a raid along the Italian coast in 1544 . Tripoli, defended by the Knights of St. John, was conquered by the Ottomans in 1551. Because of this development, the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Jean Parisot de la Valette , elected in 1558 , had the fortification of the Maltese port accelerated and expanded in order to be prepared for an attack.
Starting position
The Ottoman fleet under the command of Grand Admiral Piyale Pasha was enormous; Thus about 130 galleys and a large number of other warships and transport ships, a total of more than 200, were mobilized for the approximately 40,000-strong army under the command of Mustafa Pascha. The Ottoman fleet left Istanbul ( Constantinople ) on April 1, 1565 and was first sighted off Malta on May 18, 1565. It was not until June 2 that the famous pirate Turgut Reis (Dragut), the Bey of Tripoli , arrived in Malta with a small squadron; Sultan Suleyman had instructed Piyale Pascha and Mustafa Pascha to regard Turgut as the “father” (read commander in chief ) of the entire operation.
In addition to 750 knights, the Order of Malta was able to muster around 8,000 Maltese fighters and around 600 Spanish mercenaries , all of whom were subordinate to Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette. The knights were well prepared to defend their fortresses and had sent requests for help both to the Spanish viceroy of Sicily and to King Philip II of Spain, as well as to their balls and commanderies outside of Malta . The fortified part of the Great Harbor on the northeast coast of Malta comprised the parallel headlands of Senglea and, to the north of it, Birgu , the ends of which were connected by a large chain to prevent enemy ships from entering. A temporary bridge was built between the two peninsulas on the south side of the Great Harbor , while in the shallow waters west of Senglea a palisade made of pointed wooden stakes was supposed to prevent enemy troops from landing. At the top of Birgus was the great old fortress of St. Angelo , the headquarters of the Knights of the Order, while Fort St. Michael rose at the base of the Senglea peninsula . Northeast of the port, on the headland of Monte Sciberras , was Fort St. Elmo , built as an outpost , which was supposed to secure the Great Harbor and the entrance to the northern port of Marsamxett (also called Marsamuscetto ).
After the Turkish fleet appeared off Malta on May 18, the ships deposited the troops they carried on the next day and the day after that in the bay of Marsaxlokk (also known as Marsa Scirocco ) in the southeast of the island. The Turks took their guns and troops north and made their camp in the lowlands of the Marsa . The wells in this area had previously been polluted at the behest of La Valette , which meant that the Turks suffered more and more from diseases such as dysentery throughout the siege .
course
Battle for Fort St. Elmo
On May 24, 1565, the invaders began bombarding St. Elmo from the height of Monte Sciberras (today Valletta is located there ) . During the massive artillery bombardment , including a so-called " basilisk ", which fired bullets of around 160 pounds, 6,000 to 7,000 projectiles fell daily on the fort (see also Topçu ). Piali and Mustafa were convinced that the conquest would only be a matter of a few days. (Turgut Reis, who was far more experienced in fighting the knights of the order, had not yet arrived.)
Although neither Sicily nor Spain sent reinforcements, the knights as well as the Maltese offered fierce resistance. The besiegers worked their way closer and closer to the fort by digging trenches, and on June 3, on the instructions of Turgut Reis, who had arrived in the meantime, they posted another battery of guns north of the fort, which immediately sheltered St. Elmo across the entrance to Marsamxett harbor Took fire. The location of the battery at the tip of the Tigne Peninsula is still sometimes referred to as Dragut's Point today. He also had another battery installed at "Punta delle Forche" , the gallows square , so that the fort could also be set on fire from the south. ( Fort Ricasoli is located here today .)
The next morning, more by chance, the defenders of the fort were snatched from the Ravelin protecting the northwest corner . During an inspection, pioneers of the attackers found the crew asleep and exhausted from the bombing and killed them. Since the start of the attacks on St. Elmo, the Maltese had realigned the guns of Fort St. Angelo on Birgu and inflicted heavy losses on the attackers with cannonades across the "Great Harbor" .
During this artillery bombardment Turgut Reis suffered a head injury from a stone splinter on June 18, which he died shortly after the conquest of St. Elmo on June 23.
On June 23, the last major attack on St. Elmo took place, which led to the conquest after extremely heavy fighting. Of the original 1,500 defenders of the fort, only nine knights survived the storming, while the Ottomans lost around 8,000 soldiers in the fighting. Mustafa Pascha beheaded the nine surviving defenders , crucified their bodies and drifted them across the water towards Birgu and Senglea. In return, La Valette ordered the killing of Turkish prisoners, had their heads loaded into the cannons and fired at the enemy.
Fight for Senglea and Birgu
After the conquest of St. Elmos, the Ottomans switched to aiming their guns at Fort St. Angelo at the northern end of Birgu over the course of several days (today the place is called Vittoriosa in memory of the victory of the knights , but the name is not practical used). Heavy gunfire followed on the positions of the Maltese.
On July 15, the Ottoman troops launched an assault on St. Michael's Bastion on Senglea. Although a powder magazine exploded on the fortress, the attackers managed to repel them and inflict heavy losses on them again. In the end, Valette had concentrated on the defense of Birgus, where he had gathered the Maltese troops and blew up the bridge to Fort St. Angelo. “There is no going back, only victory or death!” He is supposed to have said. In the meantime, the Turkish commanders had brought some of their ships overland from Marsamuscetto via the base of the Sciberras peninsula to the "Great Port". On the same day they undertook a sea attack on Senglea, which was also carried out by Janissaries , but failed because of the gunfire of a previously undiscovered battery under St. Angelo.
From August 2nd to 7th, the besiegers tried to shoot the Maltese fortresses with a massive cannonade ready for storming. After the end of the gunfire, they launched another major attack, which was now directed against the Castilian bastion on Birgu. After initial success, this attack was shot down by the defenders. More successful for the Ottomans on the same day was an attack on St. Michael's Bastion, which they temporarily captured. When the wall at St. Michaels Bastion collapsed and attackers came in droves, Valette, who was then 70 years old, is said to have personally led the counterattack. The knights and allies of the order were so motivated by this act and the attacking Turks were equally shocked and discouraged that the attack could be successfully repelled and the breach closed again. You can still visit the St. Michael's Bastion (Senglea) today. During the major offensives against the fortresses of the Maltese, the Order's cavalry, posted in the interior of Malta, penetrated the Ottoman camp, killed numerous sick and wounded Turks and set the camp on fire. Mustafa Pascha feared that he was dealing with a relief force, whereupon he had the attack, which was already successful despite heavy resistance on the part of the Maltese, canceled in order not to get between the supposedly advancing relief army and the fortresses.
Attack on Mdina
Since the knights of the order had gathered almost all of the able-bodied men from the interior in the three fortresses, the hinterland with the capital Mdina was unprotected and vulnerable. Mustafa Pascha knew that too. He ordered a general to take the hinterland with a small force of 1,800 soldiers. As expected, the Ottomans marched through the villages without encountering any resistance. However, the commander of Mdina, Don Mesquita , found out in good time that the troops were approaching. Far too little powder and cannonballs were stored in the city for an effective defense. So he decided to try a deception and dressed all the farmers and women remaining in the city in uniforms. Then he had them line up on the walls, armed with all available weapons and artillery. When the Turks tried to attack, they were faced with so many defenders and were greeted with short but so powerful defensive fire that they thought Mdina was a much stronger enemy than expected and withdrew again. This move by the city commander of Mdina went down in the island's history as "The Great Bluff".
The end of the siege
On August 21, the besiegers launched another assault on Birgu and Senglea , which was also unsuccessful. In the same month, the Ottomans learned that a supply ship that was important to them had been boarded on the way to Malta. Bad supplies and diseases decimated the Ottoman army considerably.
At the beginning of September Sicily sent the long-awaited relief army, the so-called Gran Soccorso , which only consisted of about 8,000 men. Mustafa Pascha, who was not informed about the small size of the relief army and whose own troops were already very weakened by epidemics, ordered the siege to be broken off and the island to be withdrawn. However, when he noticed how relatively small the relief was, he disembarked some of his troops again, and heavy fighting broke out, in which the men from Sicily retained the upper hand and again brought heavy losses to the Turks. They then fled, leaving behind all heavy equipment. The remaining parts of the Ottoman army embarked on September 8 and sailed away. The last ship of the Ottomans disappeared behind the horizon on September 12, 1565. When they got back to the Bosporus , Suleyman I forgave his generals Piali and Mustafa and decided to take matters into their own hands the following year. Before that happened, however, he died on September 7, 1566.
result
The siege of Malta was extremely costly for the Ottomans. Of the approximately 40,000 Ottoman soldiers involved, 24,000 were killed, 10,000 wounded or weakened by disease, and around 1,000 were captured by the Maltese. After 1565 the Ottomans made no further attempt to conquer Malta. Malta's claim weakened the Ottomans' position in the western Mediterranean, a development exacerbated by the battle of Lepanto in 1571.
On the Maltese side, around 10,300 of the 17,350 men (counting the religious and relief army) died. 1,300 people were wounded. Before the relief troops landed, Malta had only been defended by around 600 men.
In the years after the Ottoman siege, the Maltese greatly expanded the island's fortifications. To the west of Fort St. Elmo on Monte Sciberras, another fortress town was built, named Valletta in honor of the victorious Grand Master . It soon replaced Mdina as the capital. By the end of the 16th century, Malta was the most heavily fortified island in the Mediterranean. The fortifications are almost completely preserved to this day and are probably among the greatest and most impressive fortifications in the world. The inland bastions of Valletta alone rise almost 30 meters above the moat, which is particularly impressive when you look at it from the main port, i.e. from sea level.
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Fernand Braudel: The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II. Volume 2. University of California Press, 1995. p. 1019
Literature and references
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- Ernle Bradford : The Shield of Europe. The battle of the Knights of Malta against the Turks in 1565. Ullstein, Frankfurt 1995, ISBN 3-548-34912-9 (from English, title of the original edition The Great Siege, Malta 1565 ).
- Francesco Balbi di Correggio : Verdadera relacion de todo lo que este ano de MDLXV ha sucedido en la isla de Malta. Alcalá de Henares: Juan de Villanueva; 1567; translated into English: The Siege Of Malta 1565 . Penguin, London 2003, ISBN 0-14-101202-1 .
- Gerhart Ellert : The Johanniter. It started in Jerusalem. Universitas, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-8004-1385-X .
- Celio Secondo Curione : De bello Melitensi a Turcis gesto historia nova. Basel 1567; Translated into English (by Thomas Mainwaringe): Caelius Secundus Curio, his Historie of the warr of Malta. 1579; Arizona State University, Tempe 2007, ISBN 978-0-86698-387-7 .
- Roger Crowley : Decision in the Mediterranean. Europe's naval war against the Ottoman Empire 1521–1580. Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2009. ISBN 978-3-8062-2285-2 . (Pp. 96–194)
- Tade Matthias Spranger: VALETTE, Jean Parisot de la. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 17, Bautz, Herzberg 2000, ISBN 3-88309-080-8 , Sp. 1448-1452.
