Written and compiled by Jamie Seidel October 1996
In 1142 Count Raymond II of Tripoli donated the great fortress of Qalat al-Hosen to the new Knights of St. John. The Order, rapidly gaining wealth, spend an enormous sum rebuilding the castle which they renamed Krak des-Chevaliers.
It became known as "the supreme achievement of medieval military architecture" for its massive curtain-walls and bastions. It contains a cloister, a chapter house, and a magnificent chamber -- possibly the castellan's apartment -- whose delicate rib-vaulting recalls the monestaries of high France. The strictly regular design was a wonderment to all nobles and knightly pilgrims: and they took the idea of regular and concentric plans back to Europe as the prototype for a further 300 years of castle building. At the centre was a whole castle in itself, with corner towers and a small central courtyard: a plan based on Roman times. The novelty consisted in surrounding this central bastion with a second line of walls which were a wider and lower replica of the first.
These walls stand on the verge of a precipis that falls on all sides into the Valley of Boquee. Its hilltop position provides a broad view of all who approach -- giving up to a day warning. The strongest defences were placed on the southern side, as a second and higher hill faced that direction.
A moat between 25 and 50 feet wide filled the space between the inner and outer walls. While defensive in nature, it was also a valuable water supply for both the inhabitants and livestock during any siege. Wells in the central courtyard provided most drinking water, while huge hall-sized ovens were used to bake bread.
What appears to be an insignificant gateway is a lethal ruse. Behind it is Krak's most elaborate defence: an enclosed ramp that climbs past two hairpin bends to the inner walls. At successive stages were arrow slits, portcullises and rock-fall traps. Intended to house a fighting force of up to 2000 men, it rarely held more than 300. At full strength, the castle contained about 60 knights, a similar number of sergeants, and a troop of mercenaries.
In 1271, this great Hospitaller castle -- sadly undergarrisoned -- capitulated due to a ruse by the Mameluk leader Baybars. False letters and Moslems disguised as envoys convinced the castellan to open the gates. The invaders rushed through. The knights, on realising their error, retreated to a northern tower where they held out for some considerable time. But Baybars had catapults set up in the courtyard, and the tower fell into the valley.
This defeat marked the death-knell of the Order in the Holy Land, where it never recovered its strength.
Rhodes is one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean sea. Sitting only 10 miles south of Turkey, the channel between the island and Cape Alypo carried a large part of the regions merchant shipping.
Rhodes was well suited for the new tasks of the Knights of St. John. Since being expelled a few years earlier from the Holy Land, the Order needed a new base from which further Crusades could be launched and raiding missions conducted.
If the knights could no longer meet their foe on the land, they would fight them on the sea. Rhodes was to become the Order's home for 200 years. The islanders knew the sea as well as their own land, toiling on its waters from the age they were able to walk. Thus, the inhabitants were among the best sailors of the known world.
The island was about 45 miles long and about 20 miles wide at is widest point. It was rich with olive and carob trees, not to mention its bountiful vines. The island was covered with fertile plains supporting herds of sheep and cattle. The hills were covered in pine forests, and the climate was comfortable.
The island's highest point, Mt. Anavaro, was at its heart. From here, Crete could be seen on a clear day and movements on the Asia Minor mainland observed.
While there were numerous hamlets about the island, there was only one city: Rhodes, at the eastern end. Once one of the seven wonders of the ancient world had stood above its natural harbour -- a massive bronze figure of the Sun-God Helios.
The Knights of St. John were to fortify the city substantially, using the skills of stonework and masonry acquired and developed in the Holy Land.
The main harbour was completely enclosed by stone walls and chain barriers, protecting ships from all forms of attack. A natural rise was the perfect site for a citadel to overlook and defend the surrounding lands.
Grand Master Fulk de Villaret led the Order on its attack on the island. The first landings were made in the summer of 1307. But by the end of the year only a small portion of the east coast had fallen to them.
By November the fortress of Mount Phileremos had fallen. Legend claims the knights used the same ruse as Ulysses -- hiding among a flock of sheep wearing sheepskins. It took a further two years for the city of Rhodes to fall -- placing a great drain on the Order's already weakened resources. In the end, the Order had to mortgage all of the revenues of its European estates for 20 years to raise funds for the invasion.
The resistance proved the city was eminently defensible. Even before it fell, the knights were planning improvements to its walls.
Eventually the island fell through the grace of God, not through the Order's military actions.
A ship of Rhodian reinforcements had been blown off course and captured by Cypriot knights. With their reinforcements gone and supplies dwindling, the Rhodians accepted the Orders conditions of surrender and opened the gates.
The Rhodians, although defeated, were not hostile. The three years of invasion had caused little bloodshed, and the knights gave them a great deal of autonomy. The Order had other business to conduct.
Although heavily in debt, Grand Master de Villaret was happy. For the first time since they had been expelled from the Holy Land, the Order was in possession of a permanent home -- and a pretty and prosperous one at that.
Pope Clement IV confirmed the Order's possession of the island, giving them Sovereign ownership of the land and government.
The Order's first project was the construction of a new hospital in the heart of the city of Rhodes.
The Hospitallers underwent a reorganisation -- though based on its original form. The knights and sergeants were split into different divisions (Tongues) according to the language they spoke and the regions of Europe from which they came. The head of these Tongues was known as a Pilier. Together with the Bishop of the Order, the Prior of the Conventual Church, the Bailiffs of the Convents and the senior Knights Grand Cross, they formed the council to the Grand Master. From among the Piliers were chosen an Admiral, Hospitaller, Grand Commander and Turcopilier, among other positions.
Novices had to serve a two year probationary period, a year of which must be spent at sea. Upon completion of their "apprenticeship" they could be sent anywhere in Europe, to one of the many commanderies, or asked to stay on Rhodes.
Each Tongue built its own fortified hostel, or auberges. Common sleeping quarters were only used by knights of low rank or novices. Most senior knights had their own apartments.
With the abundance of the island's food, the Order's austerity was quickly relaxed. Meat, fish, eggs, cheese, wine and white bread were part of their staple diet.
The ancient Byzantine fortifications were strengthened and extended. Stocks and provisions taken in, catapults and ballista prepared. After all, they were a militant order.
Instead, a knight from Provence, Dieudonne de Gozon, slew a dragon . . .
A dragon had established its lair in a valley south of the city of Rhodes. In the manner of its kind, it was given to preying upon the local peasantry -- particularly fair maidens. A number of knights ventured out from time to time to confront this beast, but all had lost their lives.
The Grand Master ordered that the beast be left alone and that nearby residents should be evacuated.
But de Gozon was determined to free Rhodes of this menace.
He built a model of the creature according to the descriptions of those who had seen it. He then trained his dogs to attack it.
When he felt he knew enough about this creature and that his dogs were suitably trained, Dieudonne ventured forth unto the valley.
He found the dragon in its lair. As the creature fought off the attacking dogs, de Gozon approached and hacked it to death with his sword.
For his disobedience, de Gozon was expelled from the Order. However, the citizens of Rhodes were outraged that such a valiant service would be rewarded with punishment. The Grand Master was forced to reinstate him. Ever afterward, de Gozon was referred to in the Order's records as "the Dragonslayer." He went on to become Grand Master in 1346.
Later historians of the Order determined the dragon to be a were-crocodile from the Nile River. A decade earlier a large number of Egyptians had died in a flood -- filling the river with their bodies. Crocodiles do not know how to stop eating, and thus can become bloated far beyond their normal size.
This creature, grown fat on the easy pickings, had begun to wander the Mediterranean to find a source of food rich enough to sustain it. The sheep of Rhodes would have been the nearest easily available source.
The brethren's seamanship often enabled them to outsail and outfight far larger forces. In 1440 a sultan of Egypt sent a fleet after the "thieving hounds" of Rhodes. After destroying several villages on outlying islands, the 18 Egyptian galleys attacked the convent city itself.
As soon as the attacking fleet was sighted, the Marshal of the Order Fra Louis de Saint Sebastien led out the entire Hospitaller battle-squadron of eight galleys and four armed cargo vessels. Firing his guns and playing martial music, the unexpectedly aggressive sight so unnerved the Mameluk Egyptians that they ran in close to the shore and tied their boats together. Here they held-off the brethren until nightfall, when they sought to slip out of the Rhodes archipelago. Fra Louis sailed hard throughout the night, using the Order's skilled seamanship and local knowledge to intercept the Mameluks.
Again the Egyptians sought the shelter of shore and a shallow cove. Fra Lous had his men-at-arms gathered aboard the lighter galleys and launched an attack. In the battle that ensued, 700 Mameluks died in exchange for 60 Rhodians.
In 1503 a Turkish corsair called Jamali raided the Island. But strategic outposts of mounted knights forced him to turn his attention to the outlying island of Leros. This islet-rock only had two knights in its tiny keep -- an elderly, bed-ridden commander and an 18-year-old probationary brother called Paolo Simeoni. The young knight led a force of five servants in manning the defences. But the keep's walls began to collapse by nightfall of the first day of the attack.
Next morning, when the infidel awoke, they were astonished to see a large contingent of brethren ready and waiting for them in the breach. The corsairs hastily set sail.
Fra Paolo had gathered the entire islet's population and dressed them in the red surcoats of the Order stored within the keep's walls.
During the final assaults on Rhodes after the failure of the first truce, the death and despair among the rubble gave rise to another story of extraordinary defiance. The Order tells the story of an English brother's Greek mistress. The knight had crawled to her half-destroyed hut to die after receiving mortal wounds at the rubble the knights called a wall. Upon her lover's death, the woman cut their two children's throats to prevent them from a fate of rape and slavery at the hands of the Turks. She next donned his armour, took his sword and shield, and went to the walls. It is said she fought valiantly alongside the remaining knights holding the breach, where she stood against another assault and was killed.
In the summer of 1444 an Egyptian armada landed 18,000 men on Rhodes. They devastated the island before investing the city and its convent. Fortunately for the Order, a group of reinforcements had just arrived from Burgundy. After six weeks the Mameluk guns breached the massive curtain-walls and the grand Master, Jean Bonpars de Lastic, realised a general assault was imminent.
Before dawn on August 24, he assembled his troops silently in the darkness outside the ramparts. The brethren, wearing their leather coats with metal studs (brigandines) and steel hats and wielding their swords, gathered with their pike-toting Rhodian sailors and arbalestier-bearing sergeants and mercenaries.
With trumpets braying, kettledrums and cymbals clashing, the formidable little army crashed headlong into the sleeping Mameluk camp.
Despite being vastly outnumbered, it was over quickly. Hundreds were cut-down by the exulting brethren who captured all the invading force's supplies and siege equipment. The first great siege had ended as a farce.
By 1479 the Turks were so annoyed by the constant harassment of their shipping and coastal towns that Sultan Mehmet II was determined to settle his accounts.
He had a worthy opponent in Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson. Remarkable as a soldier, administrator and as a diplomat, d"Aubusson's greatest gifts were realism and leadership. He combined magnetic appeal with a magnificent appearance. Many said he was the perfect embodiment of health and chivalry.
As the storm-clouds of preparing Turks gathered on the horizon, Aubusson was only able to muster about 600 brethren with a further 1500 mercenaries and militia. Civilians were put to work deepening ditches, demolishing buildings close to the city walls, installing new artillery and laying up stocks of food and ammunition. But the Turks considered the garrison hopelessly inadequate.
In April, 1480, lookouts on Rhodes sighted the enemy warships. By May 23, about 70,000 men had been landed on the island -- supported by 50 galleys.
After pitching camp on the highest point overlooking the city of Rhodes, Mehmet determined the Fort of St. Nicholas on the promontory flanking the outer harbour was the key to the siege. Once this tower had fallen, the city could not receive any resupply or reinforcements from the sea.
Three brass "basilisks" -- the period's most modern and powerful artillery -- were positioned opposite the tower to lob it with marble balls of more than a half-metre diameter.
Shortly after the siege began, the Turk's master-gunner -- a german by the name of Meister Georg -- appeared before the walls of Rhodes begging for sanctuary and forgiveness. But he was a double agent, sent to determine where the guns would do the most damage and to spread fear through boasts of the Turkish army's size and power. But Grand Master d'Aubusson had him watched.
Eventually, he was caught attempting to fire messages over the walls attached to arrows. Tried and convicted before the senior officers of the Order, he was hung for treason. After the Turkish guns had battered a wide breach in the fort's walls, the Turkish commander, Viser Misac, ordered the first assault.
Turkish galleys sailed in to the port to land troops on both sides of the prominentory. Wading ashore, their feet were impaled on ships' nails and old knives set in timber and laid on the sea bed by the knight's and Rhodians. Halting in pain and confusion, they became easy targets for the hand-gunners and arbalestiers on the walls. Others in the breach were decimates by a pre-prepared cross-fire of batteries before having to face a counter-attack led by the Grand Master. His helmet knocked off by a cannon ball, Fra Pierre d'Aubusson joked about the improved prospects of promotion for the Order's senior knights before returning to the fight.
Eventually, the Turkish ships fled before a flotilla of fire-ships sent out by the Order and the thoroughly demoralised assailants of the wall were called back from the slaughter-house that had been thought to be a breach.
The Turks next tried to build a pontoon between the shore and the Tower of St. Nicholas. But an English sailor for the Order dived into the sea one night and removed the pontoon's anchor. The Turks awoke to see the pontoon being smashed against the rocks by the morning tide.
On June 18 an all-out night assault was tried. The Turks attacked all along the mole in a swarm of light craft and a towed pontoon, supported by galleys which provided naval bombardment. The darkness was lit by a weird glow of naphtha and molten lead, flickering gunfire and the flames of incendiary ships. Several enemy galleys were set alight and the city's artillery sank at least four.
The battle raged from midnight until 10am the next morning. It was reported that the Turks lost 2500 men, including the son-in-law of the Sultan who had led the attack on the fort.
Viser Misac was so depressed by the failed attack that he sat brooding in his tent for three days straight.
The siege was a vicious one. The Grand Master's palace had been demolished by the bombardment -- and the destruction of the Order's wine cellar upset many knights. The relentless bombardment and the undermining of the wall's foundation by sappers eventually had the desired effect. The walls began to crumble.
Grand Master d'Aubusson had a ditch dug behind the main wall, and a second wall hastily erected behind it -- made from demolished dwellings and inns, as well as from timbers of damaged boats. Knight, chaplain and civilian took part in the desperate work -- led by their Grand Master.
A rain of incendiary arrows and grenades set the city alight. But women and children were organised into rapid-response fire-brigade teams and were able to keep the flames from spreading.
Old-fashioned catapults were built to supplement the surviving artillery. These catapults, considered museum pieces at the time, devastated the timber and earth bunkers protecting the Turkish artillery and engineers.
Some Italian Knights despaired at Rhodes prospects. They approached d'Aubusson, begging him to negotiate with the enemy. The Grand Master offered them a galley to run the blockade if they wished. With a mix of bullying and coaxing, he restored the Italians' spirit and sent them back to the walls.
Two Turkish "deserters" claimed Mehmet himself was on the way with 100,000 troops. But d'Aubusson did not believe it. The deserters then tried in turn convince the Italian knight Filelfo to murder the Grand Master. The knight immediately reported the incident and the garrison lynched the spies before d'Aubusson could have them hauled off to prison.
After six weeks of bombardment the south-east wall was little more than rubble. An envoy was sent to the Hospitallers congratulating them on a good defence, offering generous terms for surrender. Misac offered the knights their freedom, but as allies of the Turks. Further resistance would result in their complete annihilation, he said. Grand Master d'Aubusson sent the envoy back with the answer that attackers could only expect the same reception they had received at the Fort of St. Nicholas, and that the sultan had an odd way of making friends and allies. Anyway, the brethren were ready for his assault, he claimed.
Misac had the city bombarded non-stop for an entire day and night. A hour before dawn on July 28, scaling parties crept forward silently.
The exhausted garrison was asleep. The guards were easily rushed. The breach and a suburb was easily captured.
But Fra Pierre d'Aubusson's personal example and determination caused the defenders to rally. Despite taking severe wounds, he led his knights in a successful push to expel the invaders.
Vizer Misac, his standard captured, took little comfort from the news that half the garrison's defenders had died in the attack. He had lost 3500 killed and 30,000 wounded. News that the Grand Master's own wounds were not fatal proved to be the final straw. In despair, he gave up and abandoned the island.
Gripping a half-pike, shouting to his brethren that they must save Rhodes or be buried in its ruins, he led an impromptu counter-attack.
First on the ladder climbing the now captured wall, he was knocked down by bullet and blade twice. But he climbed back up.
Soon knights and Turks were at each others throats all along the shattered rampart. But the knights were virtually dropping from exhaustion.
Elbowing his way forward in his gilt armour (still preserved by the Order as a relic), followed by three standard bearers and a handful of brethren, the Grand Master used himself as a human barrier to stem the advancing Turks and as a living banner to rally the knights behind him.
Misac was so frustrated that he ordered an entire company of his best troops to stop at nothing but to kill d'Aubusson.
The Grand Master went down, wounded in three places. But all the brethren, mercenaries and civilian militia that were left standing abandoned their posts to rescue him. Before they could reach him, d'Aubusson was down again -- this time with two terrible wounds including a punctured lung.
The desperate brethren hurled themselves upon the startled Turks. The Turkish soldiers were convinced the glinting armour reflecting the blood-red rays of the setting sun was a host of vengeful angels sent to administer divine punishment. They broke and ran. The knights followed -- shouting their old battle-cry St. Jean! St. Jean! -- storming the Vizer's camp and capturing his standard.
The breach was left behind them, unguarded, but quiet -- peaceful.
"Nothing in the world was so well lost as Rhodes"
Fra Philippe Villiers de l'Isle Adam, Grand Master of the Hospitallers, learnt in 1521 that the Turks were building a massive invasion fleet in preparation of invading Rhodes. Villiers immediately set about strengthening his own defenses and calling in the brethren from all over Europe.
Among those recruited to help defend Rhodes was Gabriele Tadini de Martinengo, the greatest military engineer of his day. Despite frenzied attempts by Turkish agents to prevent him from arriving, he was so impressed by the Order that he asked to become a member. He was accepted. Martinengo immediately set about strengthening the defenses -- including many ingenious devices that could help fill a breach or strengthen a weakened wall.
Despite this preparation, Villiers' forces were only slightly larger than those of d'Aubusson's in the siege 40 years earlier. Villiers had mustered 500 brethren, 1000 men-at-arms and a small force of local militia. However, the city's fortifications were now much stronger and its firepower immeasurably superior.
On June 26, 1522, two days after the feast of St. John, the Turkish armada of some 600 vessels was seen approaching the island.
After leading the citizens of Rhodes in sermon, Villiers rode through the streets in his gilt armour -- inspecting the brethren standing at attention before their posts. The people of Rhodes were encouraged to see that, once again, the Order's Grand Master was going to lead the defence from the front.
Contemporaries believed the Turks had amassed a force of 140,000 men and 60,000 labourers. It was led by Suleiman's brother-in-law, Mustafa Pasha. But the Grand Vizer himself arrived on July 28 to personally oversee the defeat of this ancient thorn in his empire's side.
The Turks settled down to a steady bombardment of the wall of Aragon on the sea's edge. Engineers swiftly began to dig under the wall's foundations. But Fra Martinengo had set up drums with little bells and carefully placed bowls of water to detect any subterranean activity. Once located, he would set the Order's own engineers to dig counter-tunnels to stop the Turkish sappers.
However, one Turkish mine succeeded. A huge explosive charge was set off under the bastion of England and a large portion of the wall came crashing down -- filling the moat. The Turks immediately attacked and soon captured the breach. By chance Grand Master Villiers had been leading a service in a nearby church. Seizing his half-pike like d'Aubusson had done almost half-a-century before, he rushed out to see seven horsetail Turkish standards waving from the ruined wall.
Fortunately for Rhodes, the English brothers were valiantly holding an inner barricade established only days earlier by Fra Martinengo.
Brethren came rushing from nearby bastions and followed Villiers and his standard bearer in a crushing counter-attack.
The Turks abandoned their standards and the breach, fleeing before the on-rushing knights. Frustrated, Mustafa Pasha slashed at his fleeing soldiers with his own sword. The knights mourned the death by mortal wounds of the magisterial standard bearer, though his precious standard had not been lost. The Turks had lost many men, including 5 sanjak beys (horse-tail banners).
Twice more Mustapha led his men on the badly damaged bastion of England. Thousands of troops swarmed over the barricades, but the Turcopolier Fra John Buck counter-charged from the rubble. The Turks gave ground, but Mustapha rallied them about his standard. The Order too received help, this time from the nearby German bastion led by Fra von Waldner.
The Pasha fought like a lion until his own men dragged him away. The Turks losses were high, but so were the garrison's -- including Buck and von Waldner.
On September 24 Mustapha decided to risk everything and ordered an all-out assault as the Sultan Suleiman looked on from the hills. Artillery pounded the walls mercilessly, then from out of the smoke rushed thousands of troops.
But Grand Master Villiers came up to the walls with 200 fresh troops -- hurling back the assault. Suleiman himself was forced to order the retreat. More than 2000 Turkish corpses were left behind.
Burning with shame, Suleiman ordered his entire army into parade formation to have his brother-in-law Mustapha Pasha shot to death with arrows. Only after his most senior general begged for Pasha's life did he relent.
After appointing a new general, Ahmed Pasha, Suleiman ordered the siege to continue. Turkish slaves, led by a young slave girl, revolted and attempted to set fire to the city. But they were caught and executed by the knights.
But most seriously, the servant of the Order's Grand Chancellor was captured trying to shoot messages over the wall to the Turks. Fra Andrea d'Amaral, who had lost the election to Grand Mastership to Villiers and held a personal grudge against him, was found guilty of treason. He was formally stripped of his habit, degraded from his vows and then publicly beheaded.
Another disaster occurred when the invaluable Gabriele Martinengo was shot through the eye while attempting to shore-up the bastion of Aragon during a general assault. Severely wounded, he was out of action for weeks.
The Grand Master moved his headquarters into the crumbling tower and stayed there for five weeks, sleeping on a straw mat among the rubble.
Reinforcements of 12 knights and 100 men-at-arms ran the blockade to offer some relief.
Once Martinengo was back on his feet, he and the Grand Master appeared everywhere -- urging on their exhausted troops.
For a time it seemed to the knights that their prayers had been answered. Rain had turned the Turkish camp into a sea of mud and the city was spared attack for several days. Suleiman despaired. He had lost thousands of men to the brethren, and many more to plague and the cold weather.
A Turkish officer was sent to the walls to offer good terms for surrender, telling the garrison it was doomed. A knight-commander shouted back: "The brethren of St. John only do business with their swords".
". . . most of our men were slain, we had no powther nor . . . manner of munycone nor vitalles, but all on by brede and water; we wer as men desperat determyned to dye upon them in the felde rather than be put upon the stakes, for we doubted he would give us our lyves considering ther wer slain so many of his men . . . "
After an approach by the civilian mayor of Rhodes and Sulieman's offer for peace, Grand Master Villiers summoned his senior council.
Though determined to die fighting, Villiers was prepared to accept the majority decision of this council of representative. As each Bailiff made their report of disastrous losses, it became clear the garrison could not hold out much longer.
"Having seen and considered the great pounding the town has suffered, having seen how large the breach is and how the enemy's trenches are inside the town to a depth of 100 feet with a breadth of more than 70 feet, having also seen thy have broken through the wall in two other places, that the greater part of our men-at-arms -- both knights and all others -- are dead or wounded and supplies exhausted, that mere workmen are taking their place, it is impossible to resist any longer unless some relief force comes to make the Turk strike camp". Thus stated Fra Gabriel Martinengo who had become the popular de-facto Grand Marshal of the defence.
The excited debate that followed centred upon the theme "die to the last man or save the people of Rhodes."
Suddenly, the Greek bishop and a delegation of weeping citizens appeared at the doors of the council chambers, begging the brethren to capitulate.
"Fra Philippe fell downe and allmost ded" recorded Fra Jacques, Bastard of Bourbon. After Villiers recovered, he and the Bailiffs finally agreed "it would be a thing more agreeable to God to sue for peace and protect the lives of simple people, of women and children.
A truce was established, but within a week it was broken by the Turks. On December 16 Fra Nicholas Fairfax ran the blockade with a cargo of wine and 100 Cretian men-at-arms. It was all he could find.
By now the walls and buildings were all rubble, the brethren were living in muddy holes where they attempted to find shelter from the snow and sleet.
On December 17, the Turks launched another general assault.
Again, the knights somehow managed to hurl them back.
On December 20, Grand Master Villiers asked for a new truce. Suleiman's terms were generous: in return for Rhodes, the brethren were free to leave with all their goods. The Turks even offered ships.
After Villiers was entertained by Suleiman in his grand pavilion, the Grand Master offered the Sultan the hospitality of the city. Disdaining an escort, Suleiman accompanied Villiers on a tour of the city and observed the pathetic barricades that had held out against his troops for so long.
Suleiman was so moved by Villier's courage and ability that he offered him command of the Turkish armies. "A great prince would be dishonoured by employing such a renegade," Villiers is said to have replied.
On the night of January 1, 1523, a single trumpet sounded the retreat from the highest standing point in the city. To the amazement of the Turks, the brethren marched out in parade order with burnished armour, banners flying and drums beating.
The knights abandoned their city and their Hospital with the honours of war. Oxen dragged the cart-loads of archives, carularies, deeds and benefactions to their waiting ships. The Grand Master stepped off Rhodes in full view of the respectful Turks in the middle of a snowstorm.
Later, Suleiman remarked how sorry he was to make "that fine old man" leave his home.
Strategically situated at the centre of the Mediterranean, Malta has always attracted the attention of maritime powers. At the cross-roads of the Mediterranean, the small Maltese archipelago commands the trade routes, not only between east and west, but between north and south.
Its Grand Harbour and other ancillary harbours and anchorages the finest fleet base in the central Mediterranean -- making it even more strategically important.
It possesses as a result a wealth of history out of all proportion to its small size.
In A.D. 60, the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked off Malta and the Islands were gradually converted to Christianity. Held by the Cartheginians, Phonecians, Romans and European monarchs, no power influenced the Maltese as much as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
It was the Knights whom in effect put Malta on the map. It was the knights whom have left, not only their physical marks on Malta, but their psychological mark on the Maltese.
It was the knights who brought the "Golden Age" upon Malta, and it was the with the Knights that the Maltese were able to throw back the armies of the Ottoman empire in 1565.
The heroic resistance of the Islands during the Turkish attack of brought the island great fame -- and a reputation that it upheld during the desperate days of World War II.
"Don't you see" Valette responded, "The whole island is a natural fortress! We can only improve upon it." At first, the unfertile, unpromising island at the centre of the Mediterranean was looked upon with disdain by the Knights of St. John. How could it compare with the lush paradise of their lost island??
It was a small island of 95 square miles with a few pine trees and some fresh water springs. It was unable to feed itself, and it was far from the homelands of the enemies of Christendom. But it offered a deep water anchorage -- a perfect natural harbour. The terrain was ideal to defend the waterways from both sea and from land. Fortification was to prove well sighted and effective. Charles V's offer was the knights only hope. Virtually given the island for the nominal tithe of one Maltese falcon per year, it provided an opportunity to continue the fight against the Ottomans.
Between May and September he spent an estimated 30,000 lives in an attempt to take the island from the recently arrived Knights of St. John. The Siege was one of the most fierce of history.
The very barrenness that the knights had initially looked upon with such disdain assisted them. The invaders had no shelter and little clean water. Its isolation also helped -- being far from any source of resupply.
At the beginning of the siege the Order had about 540 knights and sergeants dispersed through its three main fortifications -- St. Angelo, St. Michaels and Fort St. Elmo. There were also 1000 Spanish foot soldiers and about 3000 Maltese militia.
The army of the ageing Suleiman is estimated as between 30,000 and 40,000 men strong. A further 4000 Iayalars -- Moslem religious fanatics -- were used as suicide shock-troops. The force was transported to Malta in over 250 ships.
On May 18, 1565, the fleet of the Grande Turke was sighted by watchmen in Fort St. Elmo. A small message boat was immediately dispatched to Sicily, announcing "The siege has begun. The Turkish fleet numbers 200 vessels. We await your help."
Within days mounted scouting parties of the Order were establishing the size and nature of the army. No attempt was made to stop the establishment of a beachhead.
Small forts of St. John closed their gates all around the island. The main harbour -- later to be called Valetta -- was at this time really only a cluster of forts and fortified peninsulas.
This chain of forts always enabled the Knights to maintain contact with each other and foreign governments. Not all could be besieged at the same time.
A captured knight of St. John, Adrien de la Riviere, was tortured to reveal the weakest point of the island's defence. Under the hot iron, he told the Grande Turke to attack the bastion of Castile first -- as it was the most exposed of the defenses.
The Sultan's army attacked -- and hundreds died in a humiliating defeat. The bastion was the most heavily defended because of its exposed position, and Riviere knew this. The Turkish commanders had him beaten to death.
This embarrassment sowed seeds of discontent between two of the Sultan's principal commanders. Their inability to reach consent led to poor planning and conduct of attacks. The Fort of St. Elmo, at the head of one of the peninsulas forming Grand Harbour, was chosen as the main focus of the attack. This left smaller forces to assault the main body of the Knight's in their fortified towns on the other side of the harbour.
St. Elmo was not expected to hold out for long against the massed firepower of the Turkish cannons. But it did. It lasted 33 days. In the process, it bought the remaining knights much valuable time.
After St. Elmo fell, the main bulk of the Sultan's army was brought against the Birgu peninsula and the Fort of St. Angelo it contained.
The defence was led by Grand Master La Valette. The Turkish fleet now freely sailed Grand Harbour, harried only by St. Angelo's guns. The Order's own navy was safely tied up under its walls.
On July 15 an all-out assault was launched on the position, by land and sea. The Turkish boats were snarled and impaled upon half-sunken snares and stakes. Gunners and arquebusiers opened up a withering fire as the boats approached. Maltese swimmers upturned boats and fought hand-to-hand at the base of the walls. The attack was routed. A few days later, a force of Turks attempted to sail under St. Angelo to land troops on the unexposed and weakly defended side of the peninsula. A hidden battery had been prepared for just such a move and 800 of the Sultan's crack troops were massacred on the water. At dawn on August 20, Turkish guns opened up on the fortifications for most of the day. When the guns fell silent, the Turks attacked en masse. For six hours the battle raged and some Turks even managed to establish themselves in a breach of the walls. But a rallying charge of knights expelled them from their hard-won position.
A second attack swarmed onto the Order's tiring defenders. The outer walls fell, but the advancing Turks found themselves under a murderous crossfire from well-placed secondary walls and revertments.
The Turkish victory seemed to hang suspended in the air. La Valette had committed all his resources, and had nothing left in reserve. As the knights slowly gave ground and more Turks massed through the breached walls, a trumpet call rang out. The Turkish began to retreat!
To the amazement of the defenders who felt sure their last hour had come, the whole Turkish army was seen in full-scale retreat -- running toward their base camp. They could thank their brother knights of a small cavalry fort at Mdina. The local Knight Captain, hearing the massive cannonade in the morning, realised a major assault was in progress. In an attempt to create a diversion, he led his small band of mounted knights to attack the Turkish base camp. Finding it undefended, they killed most of the camp's inhabitants (cooks, prostitutes, guards and skilled workmen), set fire to the tents and supply dumps, hamstrung the horses and burst water barrels. By the time the retreating army arrived, the knights had disappeared back to Mdina.
The Turkish cannon assault soon continued. La Valette had the bridges between the bastions blown up. He knew the next assault would be the last.
On August 18 a mine exploded underneath the main bastion of the defensive wall - opening a breach through which the Turks were already pouring.
The Grand Master himself led a countercharge into the breach. The 70 year-old man wore only a light helmet and no breastplate. Knights, Maltese militia and townspeople rallied to his side -- and approached the breach at a run. Wounded in the leg by a grenade burst, La Valette stayed to spur the defenders on.
Urged by his officers to retreat, La Valette pointed his sword to some Turkish standards and said: "Never will I withdraw so long as those banners wave in the wind."
The fight continued well on into the night. The town resembled a scene from Dante's Inferno. But the conditions were similar for the Turks. During the long hours the knights managed to regain their lost ground, pushing the Turks back outside the walls. On September 6, 1565, the shattered Turkish army was seen to withdraw. Their army was tired, sick and poorly provisioned. Their support and comforts had been destroyed. So had their spirit.
When the sails of a fleet appeared upon the horizon, raised by European monarchs who finally agreed that the island could not be allowed to fall, the Ottomans were already leaving.
September 8 marked the lifting of the siege.
The victory of Grand Master Jean de la Valette made the Knights of Rhodes into the Knights of Malta and established them once again as a formidable Mediterranean power. Suleiman determined that an attack would be successful only in his own hands. But he died before the invasion could be launched.
The results of the siege were to last a further 135 years, and the glory of the victory was maintained by the Order until they were expelled from the island in 1798.
Difficulties were encountered by the Turks from the start. The rugged peninsula had very little earth that could be formed into embankments to protect the artillery being massed against the small fort. This left them exposed to cannon from St. Elmo itself. As the Turks prepared their position, so did the small contingent of knights and Maltese. Night and day was spent reinforcing the ramparts, producing gunpowder and positioning cannon.
The Hospitaller Grand Master La Valette knew the fort could not hold out for long. But he also knew the longer it held out, the more chance the island had to survive. By late May the little fort was under constant bombardment: the flares and explosions in full sight of the main body of knights on the other side of the harbour. Within days parts of St. Elmo's walls were starting to crumble.
La Valette received a delegation of knights from St. Elmo who had secretly slipped across the harbour to tell him that the fort was untenable. La Valette bent icy scorn upon the knights, who, in their shame, begged to be allowed to return to their bastion.
After they left, La Valette told the council he knew full well that the fort was doomed, but stated no ground should be given up without the maximum cost to the enemy. Fresh troops were ferried across the harbour every night in small boats and the wounded evacuated. This nightly transfusion helped the fort hold on.
Smoking under the hot midday sun and ringed with fire at night, St. Elmo looked like a volcano rising out of the dry limestone rock.
To the Turks it seemed incredible that such a small fort could hold out for so long. But their best engineers were then brought into the fray.
Early in June the defensive pit and outer counterscarp were in turkish hands. The main defences of the fort were being continually probed. The nightly resupply was cut-off by Turkish patrol boats.
On June 21 the Knights of St. John dressed in their formal robes and celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi as they had always done. Knights around the island prayed for their brothers in St. Elmo not to perish utterly under the merciless sword of the Infidel. The following day saw a massive assault launched against the fort -- led by the fanatical Layalars. St. Elmo disappeared under a swirling cloud of dust and smoke. Yet to the astonishment of the watching knights and to the Turks, the fort emerged with the Cross of St. John still flying above its crumbling ruins.
La Valette was so astonished at the fort's endurance that he endeavoured to send relief across the harbour under cover of darkness. But the fort was totally surrounded. On June 23, a large force of Turkish ships massed about the base of St. Elmo's peninsula. They opened fire on the fort at the same time as the main land battery. This last, fatal, cannonade went on for hours. In the awesome silence that followed, La Valette could hear the cry's of the Turkish Imams calling upon the faithful to conquer or die in the name of Islam.
By now there were no more than 100 defenders left alive in the fort, nearly all of them wounded.
Two of the crippled knights, De Guaras and Miranda, had themselves carried in chairs into the breach so that they could confront the enemy to the last.
Wave after wave of the finest troops in the Sultan's army hurled themselves against the "small and weak star fort."
To the astonishment of the Turkish commanders, it took a further hour for St. Elmo to die.
When all was over, the last standing knight lit the coloured signal beacon that told La Valette that the Turks were within St. Elmo's walls.
Despite orders that all of the defenders were to be put to death, a few were captured and sent into slavery. Some of these were later rescued or escaped, and told the story of the fort's last hours.
The Turkish commanders had the bodies of the knights decapitated and then nailed to wooden crosses in mockery of the crucifiction. These were set adrift in the harbour. Four of these bodies were washed up at the foot of St. Angelo: two of them recognised by their own brothers.
La Valette responded to the intimidation: "You see, there can be no turning back. We either survive in Malta or we all perish to a man!"
But it was a poor victory. The commander of the Turkish assault, the famous Dragut, had been struck on the head by a splinter of rock thrown up from a counter-battery from St. Angelo. He is said to have survived until word reached him of St. Elmo's fall when he "raised his eyes to heaven as if in thankfulness and immediately expired."
The siege had bought valuable time. On the very night St. Elmo fell, a relief force of 1000 knights, mercenaries, and most importantly, skilled gunners, covertly landed on the island.
Thousands of Turkish soldiers had died in the attack, including many irreplaceable commanders. The master gunner of the army had fallen to St. Elmo's cannon, as had the leader of the Iayalars.
While the Turks had bought passage to one of the best sheltered docks on the island, the price had been too high. St. Elmo had proven the key point in the defence. During the 33 days that the small fortress had held out, the Turks had incurred immense losses -- and it was now high summer.
The army was thirsty, and the limestone terrain of Malta was blindingly bright and hot. Morale plummeted as the army had to move a large and difficult distance to attack the main bastions of the knights on the other side of the harbour.
The surviving commander of the Turkish invasion and veteran of Rhodes, Mustapha Pasha, is said to have looked out from the ruins of St. Elmo, across the harbour toward the thundering guns of fort St. Angelo and said: "Allah! If so small a son has cost so dear, what price shall we have to pay for so large a father?"
Commanding one of the Order's warships became a symbol of great status throughout Europe. All knights had to serve a "caravan" as part of their novitiate, consisting of a six month cruise raiding the Islamic coast and suppressing the pirate nations.
It was this naval role that ensured the Order's survival. First, the knights did a valuable job in keeping the waters clear. Secondly, the navy of the Order provided a first-rate training ground for a number of potential officers in the navies of the Christian powers. Thirdly, and probably most important, Malta's strategic value meant that if she were held by any other non-neutral nation, war would result.
The Knight's of St. John had spent 130 years turning Malta into an almost impregnable fortress of stone, sea and barren terrain -- creating a reputation for invulnerability from foreign invasion.
But the defeat of the Hospitallers came from within.
The Order had not been tested seriously for almost a hundred years. The pirates had been silenced and the Islamic nations of Palestine and North Africa were signatories of peace with much of Europe.
But Malta's strategic importance shifted -- it was now seen as a balance of power between the Imperial ambitions of France and England.
The middle years of the 18th century were marked by mismanagement, internal dissent and the virtual abandonment of the vows of Poverty and Chastity.
Grand Masters and the Pilier's of the different Tongues frivolously spent the Order's money on festivals, feasts, and non-stop partying. Rich ornamentation and displays of over-generosity were rife.
With the French Revolution of 1780, much of the Order's income dried up. But the spending went on.
Defenses were neglected, canons were left to rust, military exercises were abandoned and Knight Commanders spent so much time away from their units that little or no discipline was present.
The last Grand Master of Malta and only German to ever attain that rank, Ferdinand von Hompesch, 54, was a popularist -- making decisions that pleased people in the short term.
Despite his previous disputes with the Order's hierarchy, von Hompesch was still an honourable man. While he did little in his short reign to reimpose the Rule upon his knights, he realised the moral rot had destroyed any chance of putting up a fight. Instead he placed his faith in his God and in his diplomatic ministers -- seeking treaties and support from other nations. His call for financial and military support from the remaining European Hospitaller commanderies went unheeded.
Von Hompesch was overwhelmed in the face of treachery, disobedience and disloyalty. He offered little leadership in the face of increasing uncertainty and defections among the knights. A strong 5th column among French knights actively sought to destabilise the Maltese population.
However, it is doubtful the Hospitallers would have resisted firmly even if they could. The very core of the Order's existence was to fight the enemies of Christendom. This was also the core of von Hompesch's problem: France and England were Christian nations. By the time Bonaparte's vast fleet arrived off the shores of Valetta, demanding provisions and water, von Hompesch had lost all ability to lead. He sat in his chambers, listening to all appeals, but saying little. The French attacked and met minimal resistance.
The 1798 capitulation to Napoleon Bonaparte, and the subsequent French occupation, was brief.
The Maltese rose in rebellion and with British naval help defeated the French garrison. Despite desperate attempts to regain the island for the Order, the British and the Maltese refused. The Knights had become an anachronism.
During the 1970s and 1980s the Maltese Government returned several properties to the Sovereign Militant Order of St. John, including their famous church and mausoleum. The Order was also given back Fort St. Angelo as an official residence on the Island with access to the Chapel of St. John.