Great Siege of Malta
Ottoman Empire's invasion of Malta in 1565
The Great Siege of Malta (Maltese: L-Assedju l-Kbir) occurred in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer the island of Malta, then held by the Knights Hospitaller. The siege lasted nearly four months, from 18 May to 8 September 1565.
The Knights Hospitaller had been headquartered in Malta since 1530, after being driven out of Rhodes, also by the Ottomans, in 1522, following the siege of Rhodes. The Ottomans first attempted to take Malta in 1551 but failed. In 1565, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Sultan, made a second attempt to take Malta. The Knights, who numbered around 500 together with approximately 6,000 footsoldiers, withstood the siege and repelled the invaders.
This victory became one of the most celebrated events of sixteenth-century Europe, to the point that Voltaire said in 1753: "Rien n’est plus connu que ce siége, où la fortune de Soliman échoua." (Nothing is more known than this siege, where the fortune of Suleiman failed)." It undoubtedly contributed to the eventual erosion of the European perception of Ottoman invincibility, although the Mediterranean continued to be contested between Christian coalitions and the Muslim Turks for many years.
Knights of Malta
By the end of 1522, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Sultan, had forcibly ejected the Knights from their base on Rhodes after the six-month siege of Rhodes. Between 1523 to 1530, the Order lacked a permanent home. They became known as the Knights of Malta when, on 26 October 1530, Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Grand Master of the Knights, sailed into the Grand Harbour with a number of his followers to lay claim to Malta and Gozo, which had been granted to them by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in return for one falcon sent annually to the Viceroy of Sicily and a solemn Mass to be celebrated on All Saints Day.
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