The Great Siege of Malta Read online

  7. Busbecq, Legationis Turcicae, 199; Forster, Turkish Letters, 150.

  8. Cassola, Great Siege of Malta, 50.

  9. For a detailed account of the fort’s construction, see Spiteri, Great Siege, 108–19.

  10. Cirni, Commentarii, 50r.

  11. Ibid., 61v.

  12. Ibid., 41r.

  13. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 523; Cirni, Commentarii, 52.

  14. Cirni, Commentarii, 52. See also CODOIN, vol. 29, no. 2, 380.

  15. All figures are notoriously shaky in these accounts. The first comes from Bosio, vol. 3, (524), the second from Balbi (Verdadera, 34v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 50), who does not total up Christian casualties.

  16. Rossi, Documenti turchi, 318, gives the date as May 22, as does Balbi, Verdadera, 36v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 53.

  17. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 524. Cirni claims that La Rivière repeatedly said he did not know which defense was best and leaves it at that. Cirni, Commentarii, 51v.

  18. Cirni says he was sent to the galleys. Cirni, Commentarii, 52r.

  19. Peçevi wrote that Suleiman had “expressly commanded that [Mustapha and Piali] not consider nor put into execution, either on land or on water, any plan without consulting with Torgut.” Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 150.

  20. Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 150. Cf. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, 532. “Seeing how late he was in arriving, many doubted, that he was displeased and angry because the Turkish army had stopped first to besiege Malta rather than la Goletta, as he had proposed to Suleiman.”

  21. CODOIN, vol. 29, 7. The scale model is mentioned in Bosio, Dell’Istoria, 525.

  22. See Guilmartin, Galleys and Galleons and “The Siege of Malta, 1565,” in Amphibious Warfare 1000–1700, ed. D. J. B. Trim and Mark Charles Fissel (Boston: Brill, 2006), 148, for more on this subject.

  23. Balbi, Verdadera, 35v. Bradford, Siege of Malta, 52.

  24. Rossi, Documenti turchi, 318. Cf. Curionis, Warr, 57.

  25. Balbi, Verdadera, 37r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 55; Bosio, Dell’Istoria, 525.

  10. PREPARATIONS FOR A SIEGE

  Epigraph: Don Garcia de Toledo to Philip II, May 31, 1565, in CODOIN, vol. 29, 165.

  1. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, 516.

  2. Carmel Cassar, “O Melita Infelix: A Poem on the Great Siege Written in 1565,” Melita Historica 8, no. 2 (1981): 149–55. Heu patrianque [sic] fugimus solanque relinquimus urbem / Dispersi veluti sors sua cuique datur / Mesta vale bis terque vale lacrimisque relicti[s] / Et gemitu similis non erit illa vale.

  3. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 527. Gente pagata, in Bosio’s phrase.

  4. Cassar, “O Melita Infelix,” 151. Armenia is likely to have been one of the few to have remained in the city that long hot summer. The following year, when fear of another invasion was at its height, Valette allowed each household in Mdina to send one able-bodied man to accompany each household of women abroad. All others were to do their bit for the island, which, presumably, they had failed to do in 1565. See Giovanni Bonello, “Great Siege, Small Morsels,” in Histories of Malta, vol. 9, Confessions and Transgressions (Malta: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, 2007), 24.

  5. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 527–28.

  6. Viperano, De Bello, 29r.

  7. Balbi, Verdadera, 36v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 54.

  8. CODOIN, vol. 29, 365.

  9. Cirni, Commentarii, 52r.

  10. Viperano, De Bello, 11.

  11. Anthoine de Cressy to Grand Prior of France, September 11, 1565, Malta, in Nicolas Camusat, Mélange Historique, ou recueil de plusieurs actes, traités, lettres missives, et autres mémoires qui peuvent servir en la déduction de l’histoire, depuis l’an 1390 jusques à l’an 1580 (Troyes, FR: N. Moreau, 1619), 52r.

  12. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 529. Other chroniclers are silent on whether La Cerda spoke for himself alone or for all those at Fort St. Elmo.

  13. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 529.

  14. Colección de libros españoles raros o curiosos, Tomo Decimoquinto, 98.

  15. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 529.

  16. Cirni says 150 men. Cirni, Commentarii, 52v.

  17. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 529.

  18. Ibid. Balbi has Valette extending to all Christian prisoners (but not slaves) unspecified benefits for those who “fought like good and brave Christians.” Balbi, Verdadera, 37r; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 54. Truth may lie in the middle; Valette needed to extract the civilians at St. Elmo quickly, and this was a good way to inspire trained oarsmen.

  19. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 530. Bosio quotes a letter to Don Garcia written the day after, in which Valette refers to Medrano by his given rank alfiero (lieutenant), which raises the question of whether he had formalized the promotion to captain. Valette also expresses his great confidence in Medrano, and interestingly, in La Cerda.

  20. Vertot, Histoire, vol. 3, 452.

  21. Don Garcia to Philip, May 23, CODOIN, vol. 29, 205.

  22. CODOIN, vol. 29, 266 .

  11. A FATAL OVERSIGHT

  Epigraph: Vella Bonavita, “Parere di Gian Giacomo Leonardi,” 9. Leonardi, a talented architect, was commissioned in 1557 to consider improving the defenses of Malta.

  1. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 532.

  2. Çelebi, History of the Maritime Wars, 159. Eugenio Alberi, Relazioni, vol. 9, ser. 3, 291–95, in Niccolò Capponi, Victory of the West: The Story of the Battle of Lepanto (New York: Da Capo, 2007), 35.

  3. Cressy, in Camusat, Mélange Historique, 53r.

  4. Cassola, Great Siege of Malta, 17.

  5. Peçevi, quoted in Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 150.

  6. Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 150. Bosio writes that he would have preferred to attack La Goletta, as “he had proposed to Suleiman.” Bosio, Dell’Istoria, 532.

  7. Cirni, Commentarii, 53v.

  8. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 539; Quentin Hughes, “How Fort St. Elmo Survived the Siege for So Long,” Treasures of Malta 8, no. 1 (2002): 109–15.

  9. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 539. In 1567 Girolamo Cataneo published Opera Nuova di fortificare, offendere, et difendere (Brescia, IT: Gio. Battista Bozola, 1567), in which he states that a thirty-pound half-cannon could use up 2,200 pounds of gunpowder to deliver 110 shots daily. Larger guns required more powder and more time between firings, but with twenty cannons ringing Fort St. Elmo, it is clear that the Muslims were taking their time.

  10. Cressy, in Camusat, Mélange Historique, 52r.

  11. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 540.

  12. Ibid. Bosio says Mustapha was consulted; Cirni suggests they acted on their own. Cirni, Commentarii, 54v.

  13. Curionis, Caelius Secundus Curione, 45.

  14. Balbi, Verdadera, 41r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 65.

  15. For more on this, see James Riddick Partington and Bert S. Hall, A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).

  16. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 540.

  17. Balbi, Verdadera, 41r; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 65–66.

  18. Rossi, Documenti turchi inediti, 318.

  19. Cirni, Commentarii, 54v.

  12. THRUST AND PARRY

  Epigraph: Vendôme, Della Historia di Malta, 28.

  1. Bosio refers to him as Giovanni (Juan), Balbi as Andres. Viperano, Cirni, and Curionis skirt the issue by dropping his Christian name altogether.

  2. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 543.

  3. Balbi, Verdadera, 43v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 68.

  4. CSPFS, Elizabeth, vol. 17: January–June 1583 and addenda (1913), 705.

  5. Curionis, Warr, 53.

  6. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 545.

  7. Balbi, Verdadera, 45v–46r; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 73. Of course, La Cerda had to have been aware that his lieutenant was still in chains for having shown up wounded in Birgu. Cirni, however, says that he was ferried back to Birgu at this time (Cirni, 57v).

  8.
Balbi, Verdadera, 46r; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 73.

  9. Balbi, Verdadera, 46r. Bradford, Siege of Malta, 73.

  13. FRESH RESOLVE

  Epigraph: Balbi, Verdadera, 48r., 48v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 78.

  1. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 550. Cirni writes that he was sent back to Birgu on June 8 to recover from his wounds (Cirni, Commentarii, 57v.).

  2. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, 550.

  3. Balbi, Verdadera, 45r; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 72.

  4. Marco Amarelli, “Costantino e la casa Castriota, Nuovi contributi sulla biagrafia e gli scritti di ‘Filionico Alicarnasseo,’” Critica Letteraria 40, no. 1 (154): 128.

  5. “Castriota,” in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, vol. 22 (1979).

  6. Balbi, Verdadera, 47r; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 72; cf. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 551; Cirni, Commentarii, 58v.

  7. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 521.

  8. Ibid., 553. His rhetoric had moved two newly converted Jews to come as well (ibid.). After inspiring the men on St. Elmo, the Friar accompanied Broglio back to Birgu (Balbi, Verdadera, 48r; Bradford Siege of Malta, 76). For more on this remarkable man, see Francis Azzopardi, “The Activities of the First Known Capuchin in Malta: Robert of Eboli,” Melita Historica: Journal of the Malta Historical Society 4, no. 2 (1965): 96–110.

  9. Spiteri, The Great Siege, 195.

  10. Balbi, Verdadera, 48r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 76.

  11. Balbi, Verdadera, 48r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 76.

  12. Balbi, Verdadera, 48v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 78.

  13. Balbi, Verdadera, 48v. Bradford, Siege of Malta, 78.

  14. BULLETS WRAPPED IN SMOKE AND FIRE

  Epigraph: Valette to Don Garcia, in Vendôme, Della Historia di Malta, 25.

  1. Cirni, Commentarii, 65r.

  2. Viperano, De Bello, 11–12.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 562. Tattoos are forbidden under Islamic law.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid., 560.

  8. Viperano, De Bello, 14.

  9. Rossi, Documenti turchi, 318.

  10. Balbi, Verdadera, 51r; Bradford translation, 82.

  11. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 564. Medrano was buried among the Knights of the Grand Cross, than which Valette could think of no greater honor.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Curionis, De Bello Melitensi, 57.

  14. Ibid., 60.

  15. Balbi, Verdadera, 52r; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 83.

  16. Bosio tells a simpler story of gunners firing from Fort St. Angelo and getting lucky. Bregante (ASG I.2169), however, who was in the Ottoman camp, affirms Balbi’s version. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 566.

  15. A PLEA TO GOD

  Epigraph: Liturgies and Occasional Forms of Prayer Set Forth in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, ed. William K. Clay (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1847), 519. The siege of Malta was one thing on which both Catholics and Anglicans could agree. Prayers for the safety of the island came even from the sternly anti-Catholic Bishop Jewel of Salisbury.

  1. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 566. Balbi (p. 52) claims that he was killed in the same strike that wounded Turgut. He refers to him as maestro de campo general.

  2. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 566.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Balbi, Verdadera, 52v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 85. Cf. also Gábor Ágoston, Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 108. The weight ascribed to a kantar varied according to the place or commodity weighed.

  5. The charge was pending for the duration. Bonello, Histories of Malta, 23.

  6. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 568.

  7. Ibid., 569.

  8. Balbi, Verdadera, 53r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 87.

  9. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 569.

  10. Ibid., 570.

  11. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 571.

  12. Balbi, Verdadera, 54r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 88.

  13. Balbi, Verdadera, 54r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 88. Bosio writes that Miranda held on until the twenty-third (Bosio, Dell’Istoria, 572).

  14. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 571.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Cirni, Commentarii, 69v.

  17. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 573.

  18. Ibid., 571.

  19. Ibid., 572.

  16. THE END OF THE BATTLE

  Epigraph: Phayre to Cecil, July 31, 1565, in CSPFS, Elizabeth, vol. 7: 1564–1565, 418.

  1. Bosio writes that Medrano (not the same Medrano killed earlier) tried to call for a parley, which attempt failed and led to the inrush of overeager Turks. The Turks, duplicitous as ever, took the opportunity to call out from the tower to the spur that there was no one left to defend the structure. All the soldiers then ran (he writes) to the church to join the nine wounded men. The Turks were then observed executing those who surrendered, which encouraged the survivors to fight to the death. It sounds unlikely. Besieged forts and cities might be surrendered at any time before the actual breaching of the walls, and terms arranged—but this was generally done before the assault was launched, not in the middle of a fight. Besides, the Turks were by now perfectly well able to take the fort without this kind of cheat. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 572. See also Balbi, Verdadera, 54v.–55r. Bradford, Siege of Malta, 91.

  2. Rossi, Documenti turchi inediti, 319.

  3. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 573.

  4. Balbi, Verdadera, 55r; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 90.

  5. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 573.

  6. Cassola, Great Siege of Malta, 64.

  7. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 573.

  8. Balbi, Verdadera, 55r; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 90.

  9. Five, according to Cressy (Camusat, Mélange Historique, 52r).

  10. Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 148.

  11. Rossi, Documenti turchi inediti, 319.

  12. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 576. Ottoman historian Peçevi claims that, “During the conquest of Saint Elmo the greater part of weaponry and powder was consumed.” Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 151.

  13. Cirni, Commentarii, 70r.

  14. Rossi, Documenti turchi inediti, 318–19.

  15. Bregante, ASG, busta I.2169.

  16. Cirni, Commentarii, 70v. See also Bonello, “The Two Lanfreducci Knights of Malta,” in Histories of Malta, vol. 1, 23; and Bonello, “Gambling in Malta under the Order,” in Histories of Malta, vol. 6, 44–45.

  17. Natale Conti, Commentarii Hieronymi Comitis Alexandrini (Venice: Stellae Iordani Ziletti, 1566), 27. Melchior Robles, a veteran of the siege, claimed that the Ottomans “chewed on living hearts with their teeth” (et corda palpitantia dentibus admorden). “Melita a Turcis obsessa et Roblesiorum virtute liberate,” in H. A. R. Balbi, “Some Unpublished Records,” 26).

  18. Çelebi, History of the Maritime Wars, 148.

  19. Cassola, Malta Campaign Register, 339.

  20. Cirni, Commentarii, 71v.

  21. Phayre to Cecil, July 31, 1565, Madrid, in CSPFS, Elizabeth, vol. 7: 1564–1565 (1870), 401–19. Two cannonballs reputed to be those which chipped the rock that killed Turgut were later recovered and taken to Sicily, where they were offered to our Lady of Valverde. They can still be seen there, mounted on the walls. (See Bonello, “Great Siege, Small Morsels,” 27.)

  22. Petremol to M. du Ferrier, July 15 and 23, 1565, Constantinople, in Charrière, Négotiations, vol. 2, 797.

  23. Cassola, Great Siege of Malta, 29.

  24. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 579. The Ottomans periodically shot off powder for no other purpose than to demonstrate how much of the stuff they actually had.

  25. Viperano, De Bello, 15ff. He follows this observation with a long speech by Valette.

  26. Balbi, Verdadera, 58v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 92. Mustapha effectively said that he was only following orders.
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  27. Vertot, Histoire, vol. 3, 492: “par le moyen du canon, et en place des boulets, il en fit jetter les têtes toutes sanglantes jusque dans leur camp.”

  28. Laurentius Sirius, Commentarivs Brevis Rervm in Orbe Gestarvm, ab anno Salutis millesimo quingentesimo, vsq; ad annum LXVI (Cologne: Calenius and Quentel, 1566), 795.

  29. Porter, Knights of Malta, 449. Porter (1827–1892) was a major general in the British army, with service in the Crimean War.

  17. PICCOLO SOCCORSO

  Epigraph: Balbi, Verdadera, 54v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 88. “Buena mano han dado los de sant Ermo a los Turcos.”

  1. CODOIN, vol. 29, 417. “La poca guardia che fanno i nemici.” Two weeks earlier, Turgut had made sure a fleet of sixty ships heading north was visible from Fort St. Angelo. Balbi suggests that this was a feint to unnerve Valette; if so, it didn’t work. Balbi, Verdadera, 49r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 79.

  2. Phayre to Cecil, July 31,1565, Madrid, in CSPFS, Elizabeth, vol. 7: 1564–1565 (1870), 418.

  3. Ibid. Possibly this is what Viperano is referring to when he mentions that Uludj Ali took a few extra days getting back from Algiers: “missus ad componendos Afrorum tumultus” (Viperano, De Bello, 24v.).

  4. “The King is very poor and has taken up 200,000 ducats of Nicolo Grimaldi”; Robert Hogan to the Earl of Leicester, in “Elizabeth: June 16–30, 1565,” CSPFS, Elizabeth, vol. 7: 1564–1565 (1870), 399. Don Garcia was also having trouble raising money for some troops and was forced to turn to the local clergy. Cirni, 66r.

  5. “Instrucciones de Carlos Quinto a Don Felipe su hijo,” in Charles Weiss, Papiers d’Etat du Cardinal de Grenvelle, vol. 3 (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1842), 292.

  6. Philip to Don Garcia de Toledo, July 27, 1565, in CODOIN, vol. 29, 312.

  7. Giovanni Battista Adriani, Istoria de’ suoi tempi di Giovambatista Adriani (Florence: Nella Stamperia de i Giunti, 1583), 734.

  8. Don Garcia de Toledo to Philip II, June 2, 1565, in CODOIN, vol. 29, 174, 203.