Speaker 1:

In the dawn of 1565, two great armies met in the heat of battle on a small, barren island in the middle of the Mediterranean. Victory could go either way. Defeat would mean disaster. The war came to be known as the Great Siege of Malta. The defenders were the Knights of the Order of St. John, the last of the crusaders. The aggressor was the greatest military force the world had ever known, the Ottoman Empire.

Two events altered Malta's history dramatically. First, ship builders learned to build boats capable of crossing large stretches of open water, rather than hugging the coastline. Second, the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem arrived in 1530.

The origins of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem stretched far back into the early stages of Christian history when pilgrims started travelling to the Holy Lands. For years the area was stable and Muslims and Christians lived peacefully side by side. Then Caliph al-Hakim came into power and he expelled all non-Muslims from the Holy Lands. This led to outright hostility and the wars that followed were called the Crusades. Adventurers and soldiers from every part of Europe soon arrived to liberate the holy places.

The First Crusade was in 1099 and one of the spoils of victory for the Christians was Jerusalem. The local hospital was run by a group of Benedictine monks who had nursed the wounded crusaders.

These monks took St. John as their patron and were the founders of the order. By 1291, the Muslims finally expelled the crusaders and the knights were forced from their home. For a brief but uneasy period, they were the guests of the King of Cyprus until 1310. Then they took over the poorly defended island of Rhodes spending the following 200 years there.

During its stay in Rhodes, the order was organised along linguistic lines forming auberge, or hostels, for each of the important langues, or tongues. They also elected one of their member to be Grand Master. He reigned as sovereign monarch over the order for life.

Their mandate to return to Jerusalem eventually led to the loss of Rhodes. For 200 years, the order harassed the Ottomans. In 1521, the young sultan, Suleiman, assembled a vast army and for months battered the walls of Rhodes. Finally, the knights surrendered.

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During this era, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, was a very powerful man. His empire and those of his allies stretched from Europe to the Americas. If the order wanted a new base in the Mediterranean, he was the man most likely to help.

There was no love lost between the order and the emperor, so he benignly offered the order the barren islands of Malta and Gozo. This offer was hardly acceptable to the order after their beloved Rhodes. Grand Master L'Isle-Adam hesitated only slightly before accepting. The order, by now facing disintegration, was desperate for a new home. The Grand Master had little choice.

L'Isle-Adam and the main body of the order arrived in Malta from Sicily on October the 26th, 1530. The Ottoman Empire wasn't a naval power in its own right. It relied on a group of pirates called the Barbary Corsairs to give them supremacy on the seas. The admiral of the corsair fleet was Dragut, a character who was to play an important part in the siege. His master plan to dominate the central Mediterranean was not unsuccessful. Only Malta and Sicily were his stumbling block.

Malta's defences had to be improved. The main entrance to the Grand Harbour was undefended on its northern side, so it was decided to build a fort on the tip of Mount Sceberras. This fort would not only command the entrance to Grand Harbour, it would also protect the entrance to Marsamxett Harbour on the northern side. Thus Fort St. Elmo was built.

Yet for all that planning, there was no overcoming its weakness. It stood on low ground. From the slopes of Mount Sceberras, it could be dominated by artillery.

The second fort was built on Senglea Point to provide cover for the east flank of Fort St. Angelo. The fort was named after St. Michael.

Birgu and Senglea were effectively converted into one massive defensive position. To complete the scene off the area, a great chain was slung across the narrow neck of water to ward off any sea born attacks.

Enter Grand Master Jean Parisot la Valette. He was an extraordinary individual. He joined the order when he was 20 and was typical of the driven, single-mindedness encouraged by the order. In 1541, he had been captured and for a year he lived and survived in the terrible world of the galley slave. In 1564, la Valette was 70 years old.

In 1564, Suleiman the Magnificent was also 70 years old. His was a life of unparalleled distinction. Known to his countrymen as the Law Giver, he was more commonly referred to as the Magnificent by the people of Europe. Suleiman had reformed and improved the government of Turkey and made her the greatest military state in the world.

His empire stretched from Austria to the Persian Gulf and all of the North African coastline. But that wasn't enough for Suleiman. He still wanted to expand. All that stood in his way was a tiny dot in the middle of the Mediterranean. Any dream of further conquest was thwarted by Malta. If Suleiman took it, then Malta's harbours could shatter his fleet and he would have a base from which to take Sicily and Southern Italy. In October 1564, Suleiman summoned his counsel and announced that preparations should begin for a spring campaign.

News of the impending campaign soon reached la Valette. The Grand Master appealed to the viceroy of Sicily for reinforcements. The sultan split command of the campaign. He give command of the army to Mustafa, his foremost general, and command of the navy to Piyale, his son-in-law and admiral of the fleet. Sensing the probability of a power struggle, the sultan suggested they include [Dragut Dryese] in their counsel.

Look April, the Turkish fleet left Constantinople. It was an impressive sight. 190 vessels, including 138 galleys, reinforced by pirate ships from Algiers and Tripoli. Conservative estimates of the number of Turkish troops was 30,000. The Ottoman armada arrived on Friday, May the 18th, 1565. The fleet first landed off Marsaxlokk, but soon moved on to [Injar] Bay. Because of this manoeuvre, the Maltese concluded that the first objective was Mdina. La Valette posted 2,300 men there.

La Valette's resources were much smaller than the Ottoman's. Under his direct command, he had only 6,100 men, 4,300 Maltese, 500 knights, 500 galley soldiers, 200 Greek and Sicilian familiars of the order, and 600 Italian and Spanish infantry. He was taking a great risk by sending so many men of the Maltese militia to Mdina.

The scene was set for the great siege of Malta.

Mustafa Pasha chose to attack St. Elmo. His reasoning was simple. The fort was an easy target and should fall within 10 days. After that, he could move his fleet into the safety of Marsamxett Harbour and turn the attack to St. Angelo, Birgu and Fort St. Michael, sealing the knight in the harbour area and preventing any reinforcements arriving by sea.

A calvary detachment that had been following the Turkish fleet along the coast ran into advance patrols. A French knight and a Portuguese novice were captured and interrogated about the island's defences. Under torture, they claimed their weakest point was the post of Castille.

La Valette had better sources than his counterparts. He had a good idea of the number of men marching against him thanks to a network of Christian spies.

The Turkish army made ready for its first major encounter. La Valette ordered all his soldiers to stay inside the walls and hold their fire, but a few younger knights were itching for their first taste of battle.

As the sun set, Mustafa ordered his troops to withdraw. The attack proved to Mustafa that the post of Castille and the langue defences were strong and well defended.

His captives had lied. The penalty was death. Mustafa thought Mdina, Birgu and St. Michael should be his primary targets and St. Elmo could be ignored. He envisaged half the fleet vacating Grand Harbour and half to the north to intercept any reinforcements. But Piyale didn't agree. His main responsibility was the safety of his fleet. His first priority was to harbour the fleet in Marsamxett. The only way he could do this was to neutralise St. Elmo. Mustafa gave in. For the first, but not the last time, Piyale unwittingly came to the defender's aid.

The Grand Master was pleased with the news. He knew that the Ottomans could not take St. Angelo before the fall of Birgu and Fort St. Michael. And in order to get those, they would have to take St. Elmo.

La Valette strengthened St. Elmo's original garrison of 800. Colonel Mas led 200 of his men and 64 knights to the fort. On Friday, May the 25th, the Turks began to transport their heavy artillery from the ships anchored offshore. The next day, they began digging trenches on the Marsamxett side of the fort. It was a laborious task. But in spite of heavy sniper fire, they eventually reached the [inaudible].

The Turkish artillery far exceeded that of the Christians.

They raised two siege batteries of the promontory of Sciberras Hill. One opposite Fort St. Michael and another opposite St. Angelo.

The bombardment began the morning of May the 27th.

The garrison was also harassed by snipers who had taken up positions on the Marsamxett side.

On the evening of May the 29th, the fort commander sent a Spanish knight, Juan de la Cerda, to inform the la Valette that St. Elmo could only hold out if there was a constant flow of reinforcements.

[crosstalk]

His description of the garrison and its defences was grim. After de la Cerda had left, la Valette outlined the unspoken strategy to the Grand Council. Fort St. Elmo was doomed, but the whole campaign hinged on the length of time it could hold out. Every day was vital.

At daybreak of May the 30th, Colonel Mas and Chevalier de [Madra] made a sortie against the Turks.

Mustafa called in his Janissaries. The defenders fell back as these supreme warriors advanced. When the dust and smoke settled, the defenders could see what had happened. The Janissaries had recaptured their trenches and were in a stronger position.

On June the 2nd, Dragut arrived with 2,500 volunteers from Algiers and Tripoli. He was now 80 years old and was well acquainted with Malta having raided it six times between 1540 and 1565. His assessment was swift. St. Elmo's strength lay in the fact that reinforcements were being sent over every night.

Unwittingly, Piyale came to the knights' aid once again when he refused the land the guns from his ship until Marsamxett Harbour had been secured.

The long coveted ravelin fell into Dragut's hands by accident. A group of Turkish engineers were sent out to inspect the outbuilding. No one challenged them. It seemed deserted. One of the party peered through and saw a few exhausted soldiers lying asleep.

Roused by the cries of the Janissaries, the garrison manned their guns. The Janissaries had taken the outbuilding and turned their attention to the fort. They swarmed across a bridge linking the outbuilding to the fort ignoring the gaps torn in the ranks by the musket shots from above.

The defenders were also ready with an ingenious array of firepower.

One was wildfire, an ancient warfare technique.

Trumps were as deadly as they were ingenious.

Worse than wildfire and trump was the hoop. Hoops were made out of light wood dipped in flammable solutions.

The impact on them was those with their loose flowing robes was devastating.

When Mustafa finally called off his troops, he had lost nearly 2,000 men, most of them Janissaries. The defenders lost 10 knights and 70 men.

On Monday, June the 4th, Captain Miranda, a seasoned soldier sent by the Viceroy in Sicily, reported back to the Grand Master that the fort would not hold if the Turks started a massive assault.

La Valette took Miranda's advice seriously and asked him to take command of St. Elmo.

Miranda crossed the harbour in a supply boat. On arrival, he was warmly welcomed by the troops and he immediately issued several orders aimed at raising morale.

On June the 7th, the Turks prepared for their attack with a barrage of intense artillery fire. It seemed as if this was St. Elmo's last hour.

Yet, incredibly, when the Ottoman troops attacked, they were met with a hail of bullets and incendiary weapons. The next day, the Grand Master received another message from the garrison sent by the Italian knight, [inaudible]. It was devastating. 53 young knights had signed a petition describing the situation at St. Elmo as hopeless. La Valette needed an independent opinion of the state of the fort so he ordered three knights to cross over, assess the situation and report back to him that night.

When the trio entered St. Elmo, they were immediately surrounded by the members of the garrison. The commissions refused to discuss a withdrawal. The garrison was astonished. One knight, Constantino [inaudible] trusts them boldly saying that the situation was not hopeless at all. All that was needed was fresh men and a fresh approach.

The council decided not to abandon the fort. Instead, it would be reinforced. On Sunday, June the 10th, the first great night attack began.

The assault was redoubled on June the 16th. For the besieged, it seemed like the end of the world.

Many died during this assault, including the valorous Captain [Madrad].

The Turks were puzzled. How could this mound of rubble still defy them? Dragut decided to build a wall to screen Turkish troops from the guns on St. Angelo. Safe from the cannon fire, the Turks could thus prevent the knights from sending daily reinforcements. It was the last bit of advice the old pirate was to give. On June the 18th, Dragut who was supervising the building of the screen was killed by an errant shot from his own troops.

La Valette was relieved by the news that Dragut was dead.

Ships from Piyale's fleet attacked from the sea. Turkish guns stood between St. Elmo and Grand Harbour. Any reinforcement was lost. It was sheer cruelty to send any more men to die.

The Turks continued the bombardment the next day. 2,000 Turkish troops lost their lives and a frustrated Mustafa realising that St. Elmo would not fall, once again ordered the recall.

That night, the remnants of the bedraggled garrison realised they were alone. They resigned themselves to their fate but they did not surrender.

At sunrise, the Turks began their final assault. The handful of defenders resisted for four hours. Then Captain Miranda called a parlay. The siege of St. Elmo was over.

(singing)

The Janissaries were the first to enter the fort. Only nine knights survived the slaughter. When the Turks counted the bodies, they were dismayed to find that only 60 men had help up their advance.

Humiliated, Mustafa ordered the bodies of the slain knights mutilated and thrown in the harbour. La Valette was furious by the desecration of the bodies of the dead knights. He had all the Turkish prisoners decapitated, aimed his canons and fired the heads back to St. Elmo.

Mustafa built trenches from Carradino to Bighi, which effectively circled all of Birgu/Senglea positions.

While the Turkish army prepared, la Valette received news that a small relief force of four galleys had arrived. The force, numbering 70 men, was known as the Piccolo Soccorso.

Their arrival injected new life into the defenders.

Not knowing the numbers of the relief force and fearing the worst, Mustafa Pasha decided to attempt a negotiation.

A messenger carrying a white flag arrived at the gates of Birgu. His message was, "Surrender with full honours of war."

La Valette was furious. The messenger was shown the massive bastions and fortifications. He soon realised the impossible task the Ottomans faced. La Valette said that he would certainly surrender the ditch provided Mustafa filled it with the bodies of the Janissaries.

Now that his fleet lay safely at anchor, Mustafa brought every available cannon for the attack on Senglea and Birgu. In a few days, the Turks transported 80 light boats across the neck of land that divides the Grand Harbour from Marsamxett.

La Valette had another important card up his sleeve. He had been getting advice from a deserter named Lasearis, who urged him to strengthen the defences on the southern side of Senglea. As soon as all 80 boats were afloat, Mustafa intended to attack by land and sea.

The Grand Master built a palisade strong enough to prevent the Turks from breaching it with their boats and to hinder their soldiers from swimming ashore.

By the end of the first week of July, some 70 guns on Mount Sciberras, Gallows Point, Mount Salvatore and the Carradino Heights began heavy crossfire.

On Sunday, July the 15th, the defenders noticed the Turks launching their boats and embarking the troops. The boats rode full speed against the whole front hoping the chain would break. It didn't. The post of the popular daredevil knight, Francisco de [Zenguerra], lay in wait.

The musketeers on the wall of Senglea began shooting. Horrified to see Turkish banners above the breach, Zenguerra led a counterattack. Fra Roberto of Eboli, a Capuchin friar, was at his side with a cross in one hand and a sword in the other calling upon the defenders to die the men and to perish for their failure.

A stray shot kills Zenguerra. His death caused a near panic among the defenders. The Turks cheered and redoubled their attack. Meanwhile, Mustafa decided it was time for his master stroke. While the southern border of Senglea was under siege, it sent in 10 boats with 800 Janissaries to take the great chain that barred the entrance to the creek.

But he failed to notice a battery with guns trained along the length of the chain. The Janissaries rode right into the mouth of the primed guns. Before they had time to realise the danger, they were blown to pieces. The battery saved Senglea. Hundreds of Turks drowned in the narrow stretch of water.

Mustafa, still unaware of the fate of his Janissaries, did not order a retreat. The recently arrived Algerians continued to hurl themselves at St. Michael and engaged in hand to hand fighting along the walls.

The assault lasted five hours. By the end, the Turks had retreated with an estimated loss of 4,000 dead. Aside from the wounded, the Christians lost only 200 men.

Mustafa put a new battery on Bighi. By late July, the attack was renewed.

It was now the 1st of August and there was still no sign of reinforcements. The Grand Master expected a large scale assault at any time. It came at dawn of August the 2nd. All the Turkish batteries opened fire at once. It was the heaviest bombardment of the siege and Mustafa was convinced that no one could live through it.

After over six hours of continuous assault, the Christians still held out. Reluctantly, Mustafa ordered his troops to withdraw.

On August the 7th, the thunder of the guns ceased and the Ottomans launched an attack on Birgu and Senglea simultaneously.

Piyale's troops swept over the ditch in front of the ramparts of Castillo. They surged forward in what appeared to be undefended space only they come up against a further inner wall.

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These inner walls ran around the landward side of Birgu.

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Caught in a narrow enclave, the Turks were slaughtered by the hundreds. The Grand Master was in the thick of it throughout this rout.

The attack on St. Michael was no less severe. Mustafa's forces had stormed the wall and managed to climb the ramparts. It looked as if they would succeed. Then, suddenly, with no warning, the Turks were given the signal to retreat.

The Janissaries could not believe their ears. Victory was within their grasp. They were as hard to call off as a pack of wolf hounds. Only when they had learned that their injured brethren at the base camp were being slaughtered did they relent.

The Christians were also puzzled by the withdrawal. For nine hours the Turks had fought. Just when they had made some real gains, they left. For a moment the Grand Master thought the long awaited relief force from Sicily had materialised.

Mustafa too had received news that a large Christian force was massacring everyone at the Turkish base camp.

In fact, it was a calvary detachment of barely 100 horse and 200 men station at Mdina who had attacked Marsa. Convinced that Marsa would be only lightly guarded, they decided to attack. When he returned, Mustafa found the camp destroyed and the dead littering the ground. There lay the dead and there the ruined camp, but there was no sign of a large Christian relief force.

A handful of men had snatched victory from Mustafa's grasp. Time was running out for the Turks. Malta could not support a winter campaign. Over 10,000 of Mustafa's men had already been killed or incapacitated since the first landing and nothing to show for it but the small ruined shell of St. Elmo. Mustafa now pinned his hopes on his infernal machine to breach Fort St. Michael. It was shaped like a long barrel, circled and bound with iron hoops and chains. It was filled with gunpowder, nails and grape shot. A slow match was attached to delay its explosion.

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But this explosion was not to be. Four brave Maltese at great personal risk hoisted it over the top and hurled it into the ditch putting pain to Mustafa's final hopes and causing great carnage.

These were important victories, but did nothing to alleviate the Christians' desperation. It was nearing the end of August and there was still no sign of a relief force. The Turks were no happier. Mustafa was in favour of wintering in Malta, but once again he was superseded by Piyale who would not endanger his fleet.

However, in Messina, Sicily, la Valette's calls for reinforcements were finally being answered. Knights were amassing from every corner of Central Europe. On August the 25th, Don Garcia with 10,000 men embarked in 28 vessels and galleys, the Gran Soccorso was on its way.

Mustafa weighed his options. Wintering in Malta would mean sheltering in Mdina. Was it as poorly defended as rumoured? A few well aimed shots and the sight of thousands of soldiers on the ramparts soon convinced Mustafa to call off the invasion. Little did he realise that the crowds he saw were only the village folk dressed in soldiers uniforms.

Because of rough seas, Don Garcia's force only reached Malta on the evening of September the 6th. They escaped the notice of the Turkish navy and under the command of Ascanio della Corgna, they landed at [inaudible] and marched to Mdina.

The sight of Don Garcia's empty galley returning to Sicily was the last straw for the Turks. Their campaign had failed. The rock of Malta had held. They hastily destroyed their camps and made to board their ships.

The Christians watched their departure with elation. The order's flag was once again raised at St. Elmo. La Valette and his retinue were ecstatic.

The elation was short lived, however, as the newly occupied post of St. Elmo reported to the Grand Master that the Turkish army was disembarking once again further up the coast. The troops were reforming on shore. Mustafa Pasha had changed his mind. He had discovered that the relief force was not as large as he had been led to believe. He was going to fight.

La Valette knew Mustafa's forces were larger than della Corgna's and that a Turkish victory was still possible, but he pinned his hopes on the fact that the relief force was fresh and in far better condition.

The seasoned della Corgna decided to wait rather than be lured into battle on the plain. But as soon as they saw the enemy advancing, there was no holding back. The Christians poured down the ridge. It was a one sided engagement. The Turks soon broke. The fresh troops drove the disheartened Turks back to their ships. By the evening of September the 8th, the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, the siege was over.

The threat had passed. Outnumbered three to one, the defenders had accomplished what many thought impossible. Malta had withstood the heaviest bombardment known at the time.

Honours were showered on Grand Master la Valette. He thanks God for his deliverance, but he was already preparing for the future. He was dreaming of a series of impregnable fortifications and of a city that would last as long as time.

La Valette did not live to see his dream realised. Three years after the siege, in July 1568, he suffered a stroke. On August the 21st, 1568, the silent crowds in the streets heard that their hero and saviour, Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette, was dead.

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La Valette's body lies in the great crypt of the Co-Cathedral of St. John's in his city of Valletta. Beside him rests his secretary and faithful friends, Sir Oliver Starkey. The only man other than a grand master to be buried in the crypt. The inscription on like Valette's tomb was composed by Sir Oliver.

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Here lies la Valette, worthy of eternal honour. He who was once the scourge of Africa and Asia and the shield of Europe once he expelled the barbarians by his holy arms is the first to be buried in this beloved city whose founder he was.

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