The Great Siege of Malta Page 38

  21. Busbecq, Legationis Turcicae, 274 (Foster, Turkish Letters, 218).

  22. CODOIN, vol. 29, 445. Bosio makes it sound as if Chiappino was a happy-go-lucky fellow ready to give in to the greater good: “Chiappino Vitelli was content to travel in that company as a simple adventurer rather than undermine (Sande’s) claims.” Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 688.

  23. “Because in these circumstances it is also desirable that there is a Field Master whose office has overall charge of the aforementioned people . . . we name Ascanio della Corgna.” Curiously, Don Garcia also decreed that, should Don Álvaro be killed, Don Sancho de Londoño should take over. A. G. S. Estado, Sicilia, leg. 1, 129 folio 118. Don Garcia de Toledo to Philip, August 24, 1565, in Don Álvaro de Sande y la Orden de Malta, 62.

  24. Viperano, De Bello, 32.

  25. Vendôme, for example, describes Della Corgna as Maestro di campo general and Sande as in charge of Spanish foot (Generale della fanteria spagnuola) (Vendôme, Siège de Malte, 107). Conti refers to Ascanius Cornis Magister exercitus, Alvarus Sandes, Hispanis cohortibus praefectus (Natale Conti, Commentarii Hieronymi Comitis Alexandrini de acerrimo, ac omnium difficillimo Turcarum bello, in insulam Melitam gesto, anno MDLXV [Venice: Zileti, 1566], 58), as does Viperano, at least as far as limiting Sande to Spanish troops only (Alvarum Sandeum clarum inter hispanos ducem, atque Ascanium Corneum castrorum magistrum, Viperano, De Bello, 32). See also Cirni, Commentarii, 115r. For a contemporary discussion of rank order at that time, see Francesco Feretti, Della Osservanza Militare del Capitan Francesco Ferretti D’Ancona (Venice: Borgomineri, 1576).

  26. “We order the said Don Álvaro that, if a difference of opinion should arise among the above-cited in the resolutions, then what appears to be the consensus of the above-named should always be executed.” A. G. S Estado Sicilia leg. 1.129 fol. 118. Don García de Toledo to Felipe II, August 24, Syracuse, Italy, in Aguareles, “Don Álvaro de Sande y la Orden de Malta,” 62. Don Garcia tried to put the best possible spin on it—“As to decision making, I have thought to give [Don Álvaro] a companion because it seemed to me that such important matters should not rest entirely in one single head.” Ibid.

  27. Viperano, De Bello, 32. Cirni puts it at one Janissary (Cirni, Commentarii, 114r.).

  28. Balbi, Verdadera, 103v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 166; Cirni, Commentarii, 104r. This was something of a turnaround; earlier there had been enough grain in Birgu that it was sold freely. Adriani, Istoria, 741. For an English translation of relevant passages, see Giovanni Bonello, “Giovanni Battista Adriani’s Great Siege of Malta, 1565,” in Histories of Malta, vol. 9, Confessions and Transgressions (Malta: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, 2008), 39–57.

  29. Balbi, Verdadera, 102v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 164.

  24. MUSTAPHA’S LAST HAZARD

  Epigraph: Francesco Laparelli, “Codex of Francisco Laparelli of Cortona,” in Quentin Hughes, “How Fort St. Elmo Survived the Siege for So Long” (forthcoming).

  1. Balbi, Verdadera, 103v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 166.

  2. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 647.

  3. Balbi, Verdadera, 104r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 167.

  4. Grain from Ragusa en route to Djerba to be baked into biscuit was seized by the Gran Soccorso, and Mustapha had asked for more. Adriani, Istoria, 743; Charrière, Négotiations, vol. 2, 802.

  5. Cirni, Commentarii, 119v.

  6. Balbi, Verdadera, 104v; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 168.

  7. Balbi, Verdadera, 117r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 181. Armchair generals may make judgments without knowledge of “orders generals may have had from their princes, nor their plans, which they are not obliged to make public.”

  8. The source is a contemporary volunteer, Pallavicino Rangone, who for reasons best known to himself later wrote a poisonous account of the siege for Pope Pius V. He was at least bipartisan in his views, ripping into both Don Garcia, whose bad planning and pusillanimity nearly ruined the Grand Soccorso, and Valette, whose greed and foolishness brought the siege about in the first place. For his unusual account, see Lib. Ms. 1184 Archivum Melitense, vol. 8, no. 1 (April 1929): 35–42; Bonello, “Pallavicino Rangone,” in Histories of Malta, vol. 9, 58–66.

  9. Adriani, Istoria, 743.

  10. CODOIN, vol. 29, 520.

  11. Balbi, Verdadera, 118v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 183.

  12. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 699. Figures, alas, are notoriously unreliable in contemporary historians.

  13. Balbi, Verdadera, 117v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta,182.

  25. THE GRAN SOCCORSO AT WAR

  Epigraph: Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 701.

  1. Valette to Don Garcia, September 11, 1565, in CODOIN, vol. 29, 513.

  2. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 697. Della Corgna had an uphill climb on this request. Unlike Don Álvaro, he had not met the grand master, nor fought on his behalf, nor even fought the Ottomans. Worse, until recently he had been imprisoned by the pope, Valette’s direct superior. Even absent the written commission, there was no incentive for the grand master to change the order of command. Viperano notes delicately that the two men, Ascanio and Sande, were “not of the same mind” (Viperano, De Bello, 38).

  3. CODOIN, vol. 29, 514. Cf. Balbi, Verdadera, 118v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 183 (Bradford’s translation is missing a line). Bradford writes that they should do as appeared best to them to secure victory “if they should come to blows with the Turks.” Rangone put the number of Ottoman troops at eighteen thousand (Bonello, “Pallavicino Ragone,” in Histories of Malta, vol. 9, 65).

  4. Viperano, De Bello, 38; cf. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 698.

  5. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 698; Viperano says that he “leapt out of his tent and gathered 300 Spanish fusiliers, seeking to take a dominating hill. Della Corgna protested that he had not been consulted.” Viperano, De Bello, 38.

  6. Viperano, De Bello, 38.

  7. Cirni, Commentarii, 121v.

  8. Ibid., 123v.; cf. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 699.

  9. Balbi, Verdadera, 119v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 184; Cirni, Commentarii, 123v.

  10. CODOIN, vol. 29, 514.

  11. Ibid., 521.

  12. Cirni, Commentarii, 123r.

  13. Selaniki, in Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 149.

  14. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 701.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Valette to George von Hohenheim, prior of the German order, October 9, 1565, Malta, in Sebastiano Pauli, Codice Diplomatico del Sacro Militare Ordine Gerosolimitano oggi di Malta (Lucca, IT: Marescandoli, 1737), 220–21; and Curionis, De Bello Melitae, 503.

  17. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 701; cf. Cirni, Commentarii, 122v.

  18. “Más vale aquí, señor Ascanio, que en la cara.” Aguareles, “Don Álvaro de Sande y la Orden de Malta,” 71.

  19. Balbi, Verdadera, 120v.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 185. In his report to Philip, Sande puts the number at “more than a thousand barrels” (CODOIN, vol. 29, 524). Valette seems to have thought that the barrels were the only reason for the overland trip to St. Paul’s Bay (“para acabar de hacer la aguada,” CODOIN, vol. 29, 513), since they had been unable to get water at the Marsa.

  20. Cirni, Commentarii, 123v.

  21. “[A] Mostafa Bajá herido de dos arcabuzazos le salvaron con gran trabajo Avisos de Constantinopla para el Duque de Alcalá.” October 13 and 19, 1565, Constantinople, AGS Estado, legajo 1054, doc. 215, in Sola, Despertar al que dormía, 77.

  22. Selaniki, in Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 149.

  23. Cirni, Commentarii, 123v.

  24. Selaniki, in Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 149.

  25. Cirni, Commentarii, 124r.

  26. Ibid., 124v.

  27. CODOIN, vol. 29, 524. Cirni claims that Mustapha bemoaned a loss of two thousand (Cirni, Commentarii, 124v.).

  28. Adriano, Istoria, 193. See also Bonello, An Overlooked History, 54.

  29. Cirni, Commentarii, 124r.

  26. FRO
M THE ASHES

  Epigraph: Schermerhorn, Malta of the Knights, 50. Her quote, though compelling, comes through something like a game of telephone. She is quoting from Jurien de La Gravière (Les Chevaliers de Malte et la Marine de Philippe II), who is in turn quoting from Brantôme (Œuvres complètes), who loved nothing better than a good story. Made up was close enough for the sixteenth-century historians, so long as the basic intent was in keeping with the truth. See Viperano, De Historia Scribendi, 39.

  1. Anthoine de Cressy to Grand Prior of France, September 11, 1565, Malta, in Camusat, Mélange Historique, 52v., 53r.

  2. Cirni, Commentarii, 124r.

  3. Balbi, Verdadera, 121r; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 184.

  4. Cirni, Commentarii, 124v. In his initial report, Sande puts the figure at closer to fifteen hundred—one can hardly expect Mustapha to have been precise at just that moment. (CODOIN, vol. 29, 524).

  5. Cirni, Commentarii, 121v.

  6. Valette appears to have had a genuine affection for the Dorias. There is a dual portrait of him and the old admiral.

  7. The value assumes one ounce of gold is US$1,200; a gold ducat contains 3.5 grams of gold. Silver reals varied considerably in value even then. This kind of black marketeering was investigated after the siege. Bonello, “Great Siege, Small Morsels,” in Histories of Malta, vol. 9, 23.

  8. Cassola, 1565 Ottoman Malta Campaign Register, 349.

  9. Braudel, Mediterranean, 1019; cf. Charrière, Négotiations, vol. 2, 801–7.

  10. Raimond de Beccarie de Pavie Baron de Fourquevaux, Dépêches de M. de Fourquevaux (Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1896), 8.

  11. Bartolomeo Foresti to Cosimo de’ Medici, December 15, 1565, Medici Archives, Florence, MdP 518, Doc ID22229, Folio Start 767. (Three days later, he was reportedly seeking diggers from Sicily. Giuseppe Cambiano to Cosimo de’ Medici, Medici Archives, Florence, MdP 518, Doc ID22255, Folio Start 784.)

  12. Toledo to Philip, November 26, 1565, Messina, in CODOIN, vol. 30, 13.

  13. Braudel, Mediterranean, 1022. Philip was, however, more concerned with Goletta in 1566. Rafael Vargas-Hidalgo, Guerra y diplomacia en el Mediterráneo: Correspondencie inédita de Felippe II con Andrea Doria y Juan Andrea Doria (Madrid: Ediciones Polifemo, 2002), 464.

  14. Charrière, Négociations, vol. 2, 806. A Spanish report goes further, noting that locals mourning their husbands, sons, and brothers threw stones through the windows of Christian houses. Garci Hernandez to the King, November 13, 1565, Venice, AGS Estado, legajo 1325, doc. 123, in Sola, Despertar al que dormía, 82–83.

  15. Charrière, Négociations, vol. 2, 805.

  16. Notices from Constantinople for the Duke of Alcalá, October 13 and 19, 1565, Constantinople, AGS Estado, legado 1054, doc. 215, in Sola, Despertar al que dormía, 76–80.

  17. H. A. R. Balbi, “Some Unpublished Records on the Siege of Malta, 1565,” 5–6.

  18. Imber, Navy of Suleiman the Magnificent, 259.

  19. Çelebi, History of the Maritime Wars, 120.

  20. DiGiorgio, in Spiteri, Fortresses of the Knights, 264.

  21. Paula S. Fichtner, Emperor Maximilian II (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 121ff.

  22. Christine Isom-Verhaaren, “Suleyman and Mihrimah: The Favorite Daughter,” Journal of Persianate Studies 4 (2011): 74.

  23. William Stirling Maxwell, Don John of Austria, vol. 1, 469; von Hammer, vol. 6, 434.

  24. Alberi, Relazioni, ser. 3, 1863–1893, vol. 1, 67, 18–19; vol. 3, 151–52, 153, 191.

  25. Andrew C. Hess, “The Battle of Lepanto and Its Place in Mediterranean History,” Past and Present 57, no. 1 (1972): 65.

  26. Michel Fontenay, “Corsaires de la foi ou rentiers du sol? Les Chevaliers de Malte dans le ‘corso’ méditerranéen au XVII siecle,” Revue d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine (1988): 361–84.

  27. For more on this topic, see Thomas Freller, The Cavaliers’ Tour and Malta in 1663: One Journey and Two Accounts (Malta: Pietà, 1998).

  28. Fontenay, “Il mercato maltese degli schiavi al tempo dei Cavalieri di San Giovanni (1530–1798),” Scheda Rivista, no. 2 (August 2001): 394.

  29. Emir Mehmet ibn-Emir es-Su’udi, 1580, quoted in W. E. D. Allen, Problems of Turkish Power in the Sixteenth Century (London: Central Asian Research Centre, 1963), 30.

  27. VERDICT

  Epigraph: Voltaire, Annales de l’Empire depuis Charlemagne, vol. 13 of Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire (Paris: Garnier Frères, 1878), 536. The same phrase was used by Viperano in his De Scribendi Historia: “Hoc bellum, quo nullum acrius neque nostra neque maiorum nostrorum memoria gestum fuisse uidebatur,” 4.

  1. Raimond de Beccarie de Pavie Fourquevaux, Dépêches de m. de Fourquevaux, ambassadeur du roi Charles IX en Espagne, 1565–1572, vol. 1 (Paris: E. Leroux, 1896–1904), 7–8. This belief may have precipitated Philip’s decree against all things Moorish in 1567, which indeed precipitated revolt—but absent outside aid, a failed revolt.

  2. “A Form to be used in common prayer every Wednesday and Friday within the city and Diocese of Sarum: to excite all godly people to pray unto God for the delivery of those Christians that are now invaded by the Turk.” In Liturgies and Communal Forms of Prayer Set Forth in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, ed. William Keatinge Clay (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1847), 519.

  3. Fourquevaux, Dépêches, vol. 1, 6.

  4. Hess, “The Battle of Lepanto,” 70–71.

  5. Battista Mantovano, De Calamitatibus Temporum, bk. 5, fol. 25 (Paris: Georg Wolff and Johann Philippi, 1494–1495).

  6. Hess, “The Battle of Lepanto,” 70–71.

  28. THE SURVIVORS

  Epigraphs: Adriani, Istoria de’ suoi tempi di Giovambatista Adriani, 744–45. Selaniki, in Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 148.

  1. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 936.

  2. Giovanni Bonello, “Grand Masters in the Cinquecento: Their Persona and Death,” Malta Medical Journal 15, no. 2 (November 2003): 47.

  3. Scicluna, L’Assedio di Malta, 35–42. See also Giovanni Bonello, “Pallavicino Rangone: Intemperate Critic of Valette,” Histories of Malta, vol. 9, Confessions and Transgressions (Malta: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, 2008), 58–67.

  4. Malia-Milanes, “Frà Jean de la Valette, 1495–1568: A Reappraisal,” 125.

  5. Bonello, “Grand Masters in the Cinquecento,” 47.

  6. Ibid., 48.

  7. Peçevi, in Rossi, “L’Assedio di Malta,” 151. Petremol’s last letter from Constantinople ends on the subject of Mustapha and Piali: Petremol to du Ferrier, October 15–25, 1565, Charrière, Négociations, vol. 2, 806.

  8. Richard Blackburn, Journey to the Sublime, 171. He should not be confused—though he all too often is—with Lala Kara Mustapha Pasha (1500–1580), who figured prominently in the battle for Cyprus, 1570.

  9. “Instrucciones de Carlos Quinto a Don Felipe,” in Papiers d’Etat du Cardinal de Grenvelle, 292.

  10. CODOIN, vol. 29, 559.

  11. Charrière, Négociations, vol. 2, 808.

  12. Cesare Caporali, “Sopra la liberazione di Malta dall’Assedio de’ Turchi del 1565 al Signor Ascanio della Corgna,” in Poesia di Cesare Caporali (Perugia, IT: Reginaldi, 1770), 447. Se’l duro Scita, che i due chiari segni / D’Ercole scorse, e quasi vincitore / Coperse i nostri mare con tanti legni, / Che’l mondo empì di fama e di terrore, / Non avea contra i suoi fieri disegni, / Signor, la vostra mano pronta e’l valore, / Avria sin oggidi, ch’ognun v’esalta, / Piantato in Traci il gran Trofeo di Malta.

  Scythia was close enough for poetry to refer to Ottoman Turks, or specifically Suleiman. Coincidentally, Hercules is said to have fathered two children with the Scythian princess Echidnea, which might lead other Scythians to imagine a proprietary interest in their ancestors’ twin pillars.

  13. Joseph Galea, “Vincenzo Anastasi [sic] Knight of Malta: Biographical Notes on His Career in the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” Annales de l’Ordre Souverain Militaire de Malte 18, no. 2 (April–June 1960): 26–31.

 
; 14. Giovanni Bonello, “The Murder of El Greco’s Knight of Malta,”in Histories of Malta, vol. 2, Versions and Diversions (Malta: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, 2002), 115–23.

  15. Brantôme, Œuvres complètes, vol. 6 (Paris, 1878), 245.

  16. “Avignon M. de Sevre prayed him in behalf of Oliver Sterley [sic] Knight of Rhodes, who is in Malta. He is desirous to return into England, and be a faithful subject to her. He is in credit amongst them of the Council of Malta, and has the watch of the isle. He is chief of the English there.” CSPFS, Elizabeth, October 4, 1564, 218.

  17. Bonello, “Sir Oliver Starkey, Paragon and Victim,” in Histories of Malta, vol. 2, Versions and Diversions, 42–53.

  18. Vendôme, Le Siège de Malte, 50.

  19. Balbi, Verdadura, 62r.; Bradford, Siege of Malta, 100.

  20. CSPFS, Elizabeth, 1565, 520.

  21. Ibid., 518–19.

  22. Ibid., 533.

  23. Bonello, “Pallavicino Rangone,” in Histories of Malta, vol. 2, Confessions and Transgressions 58–66.

  24. Brantôme, Œuvres complétes, vol. 2, Grands capitaines estrangers (1866), 45ff.

  25. Gravière, Les Chevaliers de Malte, passim.

  26. Guilmartin, Gunpowder and Galleys, 137–47. Bosio, Dell’Istoria, vol. 3, 554.

  Bibliography

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

  Ágoston, Gábor. Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

  Aguareles, Eugenio Serrablo. “Don Alvaro de Sande y la Orden de Malta.” Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos 61 (1955): 53–79.

  Alberi, Eugenio. Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al senato, ser. 3 vol. 9. Florence: Clio, 1863–1893.

  Alberti, Leon Battista. Libri de Re Aedificatoria Decem. Paris: Berthold Rembolt, 1512.