Arrival of the Ottomans Before the Turks arrived, de Valette ordered the harvesting of all the crops, including unripened grain, to deprive the enemy of any local food supplies. Furthermore, the Knights
poisoned all wells with bitter herbs and dead animals. The Turkish armada arrived at dawn on Friday, 18 May, but did not at once make land. The first fighting broke out on 19 May. A day later, the Ottoman fleet sailed up the southern coast of the island, turned around and finally anchored at
Marsaxlokk (Marsa Sirocco) Bay, nearly 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the Grand Harbour region. According to most accounts, in particular Balbi's, a dispute arose between the leader of the land forces, the 4th
Vizier serdar Kızıl Ahmedli Mustafa Pasha, and the supreme naval commander,
Piyale Pasha, about where to anchor the fleet. Piyale wished to shelter it at
Marsamxett Harbour, just north of the Grand Harbour, in order to avoid the
sirocco and be nearer the action, but Mustafa disagreed, because to anchor the fleet there would require first reducing Fort St. Elmo, which guarded the entrance to the harbour. Mustafa intended, according to these accounts, to attack the poorly defended former capital
Mdina, which stood in the centre of the island, then attack Forts St. Angelo and Michael by land. If so, an attack on Fort St. Elmo would have been entirely unnecessary. Nevertheless, Mustafa relented, apparently believing only a few days would be necessary to destroy St. Elmo. After the Turks were able to emplace their guns, at the end of May they commenced a bombardment. It certainly seems true that Suleiman had seriously blundered in splitting the command three ways. He not only split command between Piyale and Mustafa, but he ordered both of them to defer to Dragut when he arrived from Tripoli. Contemporary letters from spies in Constantinople, however, suggest that the plan had always been to take Fort St. Elmo first. In any case, for the Turks to concentrate their efforts on it proved a critical mistake. While the Ottomans were landing, the knights and Maltese made some last-minute improvements to the defences of Birgu and Senglea. The Ottomans set up their main camp in
Marsa, which was close to the Knights' fortifications. In the following days, the Ottomans set up camps and batteries on
Santa Margherita Hill and the
Sciberras Peninsula. The attacks on Birgu began on 21 May, while Senglea was first attacked a day later.
Capture of Fort St. Elmo In the initial weeks of the siege, prior to the arrival of the small relief sent by
Garcia de Toledo, two companies of veteran soldiers from the
Tercio of Sicily faced the Ottoman forces, led by three Spanish captains. These companies were dispatched from Sicily to Malta in the spring, anticipating the imminent Ottoman attack reported by spies. The companies included those of Captains Andrés Miranda and Juan de la Cerda. However, Captain Miranda was not present at the siege's outset, as he remained in Sicily, serving as a courier and military adviser for García de Toledo. His company was temporarily commanded by his
second lieutenant, Gonzalo de
Medrano. Both companies played a crucial role in the early skirmishes against the Turks at the gates of
Birgu. During one such engagement, Ensign Gonzalo de Medrano notably distinguished himself in front of his arquebusiers, gaining the attention of Grand Master La Valette. When the Ottomans targeted Fort Sant Elmo to secure their fleet in
Marsamxett harbour, the Grand Master's first action was to send the two Spanish companies to Sant Elmo. Utilizing his authority as Captain General of the Island of Malta, granted by the King of Spain, he promoted Gonzalo de Medrano to
captain and assigned him to lead Captain Miranda's
company. His intent was for them to hold out for a relief promised by Garcia de Toledo, Viceroy of Sicily. The unremitting bombardment of the fort from three dozen guns on the higher ground of Mt. Sciberras began on 27 May, and reduced the fort to rubble within a week, but de Valette evacuated the wounded nightly and resupplied the fort from across the harbour. After arriving in May, Dragut set up new batteries to imperil the ferry lifeline. On 3 June, a party of Turk
Janissaries managed to seize the fort's
ravelin and ditch. Still, by 8 June, the Knights sent Captain Gonzalo de Medrano with a message to the Grand Master that the Fort could no longer be held but were rebuffed with messages that St Elmo must hold until the reinforcements arrived. (although according to Bosio, it was a lucky shot from Fort St. Angelo that mortally wounded him). Finally, on 23 June, the Turks seized what was left of Fort St. Elmo.
Panic By this time, word of the siege was spreading. As soldiers and adventurers gathered in Sicily for Don Garcia's relief, panic spread as well. There can be little doubt that the stakes were high, perhaps higher than at any other time in the contest between the
Ottoman Empire and Europe.
Queen Elizabeth I of England wrote, "If the Turks should prevail against the Isle of Malta, it is uncertain what further peril might follow to the rest of Christendom." All contemporary sources indicate the Turks intended to proceed to the Tunisian fortress of
La Goletta and wrest it from the Spaniards, and Suleiman had also spoken of invading Europe through Italy. However, modern scholars tend to disagree with this interpretation of the siege's importance.
Henry Sire, a historian who has written a history of the Order, is of the opinion that the siege represented an overextension of Ottoman forces, and argues that if the island had fallen, it would have quickly been retaken by a massive Spanish counterattack. Although the Spanish council was gathered, some members still deemed a relief of Malta too dangerous, and proposed attacking
Tunis in an attempt to force the Turks to divide their forces. However, their captain-general,
Álvaro de Bazán, also called for relieving the siege, proposing to and eventually this decision was adopted. The land force would be carried in
barges and led by
Álvaro de Sande, a veteran who had passed two years as prisoner in Constantinople.
The Senglea Peninsula On 15 July, Mustafa ordered a double attack against the
Senglea peninsula. He had transported 100 small vessels across Mt. Sciberras to the Grand Harbour, thus avoiding the strong cannons of Fort St. Angelo, in order to launch a sea attack against the promontory using about 1,000 Janissaries, while the Corsairs attacked Fort St. Michael on the landward end. Luckily for the Maltese, a defector warned de Valette about the impending strategy and the Grand Master had time to construct a
palisade along the Senglea promontory, which successfully helped to deflect the attack. Nevertheless, the assault probably would have succeeded had the Turkish boats not come into point-blank range (less than 200 yards) of a sea-level
battery of five cannons that had been constructed by Commander Chevalier de Guiral at the base of Fort St. Angelo with the sole purpose of stopping such an amphibious attack. Just two salvos sank all but one of the vessels, killing or drowning over 800 of the attackers. The land attack failed simultaneously when relief forces were able to cross to Ft. St. Michael across a floating bridge, with the result that Malta was saved for the day. The Turks by now had ringed Birgu and Senglea with some 65 siege guns and subjected the town to what was probably the most sustained bombardment in history up to that time. (Balbi claims that 130,000 cannonballs were fired during the course of the siege.) Having largely destroyed one of the town's crucial
bastions, Mustafa ordered another massive double assault on 7 August, this time against Fort St. Michael and Birgu itself. On this occasion, the Turks breached the town walls and it seemed that the siege was over, but unexpectedly the invaders retreated. As it happened, the cavalry commander Captain Vincenzo Anastagi, on his daily sortie from Mdina, had attacked the unprotected Turkish field hospital, killing everyone and beheading more than sixty Turks. The Turks, thinking the Christian relief had arrived from Sicily, broke off their assault.
St. Michael and Birgu After the attack of 7 August, the Turks resumed their bombardment of
St. Michael and
Birgu, mounting at least one other major assault against the town on 19–21 August. What actually happened during those days of intense fighting is not entirely clear. on 21 August 1565 Bradford's account of the climax of the siege has a mine exploding with a huge blast, breaching the town walls and causing stone and dust to fall into the ditch, with the Turks charging even as the debris was still falling. He also has the 70-year-old de Valette saving the day by leading towards the Turks some hundred troops that had been waiting in the Piazza of Birgu. Balbi, in his diary entry for 20 August, says only that de Valette was told the Turks were within the walls; the Grand Master ran to "the threatened post where his presence worked wonders. Sword in hand, he remained at the most dangerous place until the Turks retired."
Fort St. Michael and Mdina The situation was sufficiently dire that, at some point in August, the Council of Elders decided to abandon the town and retreat to Fort St. Angelo. De Valette, however, vetoed this proposal. If he guessed that the Turks were losing their will, he was correct. Although the bombardment and minor assaults continued, the invaders were stricken by an increasing desperation. Towards the end of August, the Turks attempted to take Fort St. Michael, first with the help of a
manta (similar to a
Testudo formation), a small siege engine covered with shields, then by use of a full-blown
siege tower. In both cases, Maltese engineers tunneled out through the rubble and destroyed the constructions with point-blank salvos of
chain shot. At the beginning of September, the weather was turning and Mustafa ordered a march on
Mdina, intending to winter there. However the attack failed to occur. The poorly defended and supplied city deliberately started firing its cannon at the approaching Turks at pointlessly long range; this bluff scared them away by fooling the already demoralised Turks into thinking the city had ammunition to spare. By 8 September, the Turks had embarked their artillery and were preparing to leave the island, having lost perhaps a third of their men to fighting and disease. File:Malta Mdina BW 2011-10-05 09-28-08.jpg File:Mdina fortifications map 1565.png|View of
Mdina (above) and map of the
city's fortifications as they were in 1565 (below)
Gran Soccorso On 7 September, García Álvarez had, at last, landed Sande and about 8,000 men at St. Paul's Bay on the north end of the island. The so-called
Grande Soccorso ("great relief") positioned themselves on the ridge of San Pawl tat-Tarġa at
Naxxar on the 13th of September, waiting for the Ottoman assault. They consisted mainly of Spanish and Italian soldiers sent by the
Spanish Empire, the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the
Republic of Genoa, the
Papal States, and the
Duchy of Savoy. Mustafa Pasha, believing the relief to be much bigger, ordered the army to reembark, only to interrupt the evacuation and call out land troops again when he realized he still outnumbered Garcia's forces. During the subsequent fights, however, the relievers routed the Ottomans, after which Mustafa called for final retreat, leaving behind their heaviest baggage. It is said that, when some hot-headed knights of the relief force saw the Ottoman retreat and the burning villages in its wake, they charged without waiting for orders from
Ascanio della Corgna. Della Corgna, seeing the troops in such spirits, had no choice but to order a general charge, which resulted in the massacre of the Ottoman force, who retired from the islands on 13 September. ==Aftermath==