The Great Siege of Malta 1565 & GM. Jean Parisot De La Valette

† Ave Crux Alba †
† Hail, thou White Cross †

A Tribute to the Heroic Defence of The Knights Hospitallers of St.John, the Grand Master Jean Parisot De La Valette, the brave Maltese people & all those who Valiantly Defended Malta during the Great Siege of 1565. Greatly Outnumbered by menpower & equipment, just 500 Knights of St.John, some 2,000 mixed Knights, Soldiers & Mercenaries from Spain, Italy, Sicily & Greece, 6,000 Maltese soldiers & men-at-arms, all numbering 8,500 defenders, made an unbeievably heroic defence during the Great siege of Malta 1565 & defeated an Muslim Ottoman invading force of 48,000 men, including 30,000 Ottomans & 18,000 Algerians, Tripolitans, other muslim volunteers from the east & outlaws pardoned by the sultan in exchange for service, all sent by Suleiman the Magnificent to wipe out once & for all the Order of st.John, which had harassed, captured & sunk many Ottoman & Corsair ships, & to take Malta for its ports as a stepping stone to invade Italy & furthur into Europe. Suleiman appointed Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha as Commander of the army while Piali Pasha was to Command the Imperial fleet, but it was also his wish that Turgut Reis, aka Dragut, should join them & they should do nothing untill he arrives with his fleet & his men, for he was well aquainted with Malta, having raided it at least 6 times & for his great experience as a great corsair on both land & sea. Later during the siege they were joined by Ochiali the Greek, Cortucoli, Hassem viceroy of Algiers & Candelissa Reis, each with their men & ships from Algiers, Tripoli & other men from the levant. The Brilliant 71 year old Grand Master La Valette had been fighting muslims all his life, even his family has, so he was undoubtedly experienced, he knew what he was doing & knew his enemy well enough. The siege lasted nearly 4 months & with no quarter given or accepted on both sides, excpet for renegades with information, the fighting was ferocious & bloody. Full scale assaults were repulsed one after the other. Each time the Turks threw themselvs against the crumbling bastion walls with evrything they had, each time they were driven back with horrible casualties. Bombardments by the Turks went round the clock & they fired some 150,000 cannonballs, which at one point, it was heard from a 100 miles away in Sicily. The 'Piccolo Soccorso' 1st small relief force, no doubt although few, they were very crucial & were greatly welcomed. It consisted of 700 Knights & Soldiers from the Order of st.John, from Spain, from Italy & few from the Spanish holy Order of Santiago, all commanded Don Juan de Cardona & by the Marshall of the Order of Santiago Melchior de Robles, whom both were dedicated, brave & curagous leaders especially Marshall Robles, sadly he was killed later on during the siege after repulsing many Turkish assaults, his loss was deeply felt by the whole island. Finally, With God's help, with the brilliant thinking & self courage of La Valette, with extreme bravery from the Knights of st.John, the Spanish & Italian Knights & men-at-arms, the Maltese people & with the long awaited 2nd relief force of 4,000 Spanish & the other members of the order of st.John, the Turks were defeated, broken & not much fight was left in them, after all their best efforts failed due to swift stubborn respons & great bravery in fighting, the Turks took whatever was left & started retreating. The newly arrived reinforcements of Don Garcia althaugh it was almost too late, they still played a part, they waited for them on Naxxar highgrounds & charged the Turks without orders, they were led by Ascanio de la Corna, the knights of Mdina did the same, charged & flanked the retreating Turks while they fighting their way through la Corna's men, then they chased them all the way to the sea to board their ships, cutting down as many as they can. During the siege, Dragut Reis, the Aga (General) of the Janissaries, the Master General of Turkish Ordinance Soli Aga, Candelissa Reis, Cortucoli, Ochiali the Greek & other high ranking officers were killed. Its estimated that the Turks lost between 28,000-35,000 men. Commanders of the Christian Knights, mercenaries & the Maltese men-at-arms were, GM. Jean De La Valette, Chevalier Mathurin Romegas, Colonel Mas †, Marshall of the Order of Santiago Melchior De Robles †, Chevalier Don Juan De Cardona, Chevalier De Lugny, the Governor of Mdina Chevalier Don Masquita & finally the viceroy of Sicily Don Garcia. On the Christian side many distinguished knights & Commanders were also killed, some 2,500 Europeans from different nationalities & 7,000 Maltese men, wemen & children were killed. By the end of the siege la Valette had no more than 600 men capable of bearing arms.

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[peyiots]

Oh, please. Don't be so defensive. I just don't find this film either very informative, nor illuminating. I wasn't commenting on, or taking sides in a historical battle; nor do I feel sorry for the Ottomans. But if you want to play with your toy soldiers, part-time historical enactors, and (to my mind) rather bombastically loud music, please go ahead. It's a free world but if you post a film and invite comments why are you so defensive if someone is not so impressed by it? It's narcissism.

[Suppressingfire]

@peyiots if u would spend more time thinking & less time being a total asshole maybe u would fucking notice that THIS IS NOT A DOCUMENTARY U FUCKING IDIOT, this is a music tribute vid, now if ur so stupid that u don't even know such vids exist then just shut ur fucking mouth, if ur gonna act like a total dickhead. If u want info on history go buy some books or read history accounts on history sites not on some yt tribute vid. TO YOUR MIND? unfortunatly for u i don't give a shit of u or ur mind.

[Suppressingfire]

@peyiots now fuck off

[peyiots]

This is not really a documentary. It has no text, it is accompanied by a rather tiring, strident, pseudo, and overblown music which is also too loud and comes across as a bit of post-historical staging with diisneyworld extras. Sorry mate; too bombastic. Stick to commercials for toy soldiers and airfix models.

[Suppressingfire]

@peyiots WHO THE HELL TOLD YOU THIS IS A DOCUMENTARY??? you just tried to make a fool of others but overlooked the fact that you'r making a fool of yourself only. For text all you needed to do is read the freakin text in the discription. If u feel sorry for the ottoman dickheads cos they got humiliated by a handful of knights & farmers its fine, but don't try to paint it as something else especially when u got nothing to prove. IDIOT.

[newcamper]

@Suppressingfire The siege of Malta, or perhaps more fitting; The embarassment of the Ottomans despite odds of almost ten to one in their favour, remains fact forever. Don't be bothered or get irritated by the rantings of someone quoting authors that are obviously biased. "Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words." Proverbs 23:9 from the source pre-dating all other claims of "Christhood" and contact with God. If that isn't satisfying, compare the contenders.

[Suppressingfire]

@newcamper well said mate, i couldn't have said it any better :)

[1225MAGNA]

@CommonPurpose1 i think la vallette at one time was also a galley slave

[CommonPurpose1]

Military training was immediately imposed on the Maltese population. Some old people and women were encouraged to go to Sicily to be safe. Measures were taken to ensure adequate supplies of corn from Sicily. The defence force consisted of some 9,000 men, which included some 600 Knights and 8,000 local military force.

[CommonPurpose1]

In 1557 La Valette was elected for Grandmaster of the Order of St. John. His experience was going to prove useful to the Order and the Maltese during the Great Siege. La Vallette was the first one to start urging for preparation for the coming Siege. His intuition was proved correct!

[CommonPurpose1]

La Vallette, who had become a Knight at eighteen years of age, was a courageous soldier. He could speak Italian, Spanish, Greek and Turkish. This was obviously too the Order's advantage. When La Vallette became the Admiral of the Order's fleet, he caught Kust Ali in 1554, and sent him to row in the galleys. La Vallette was a powerful leader in battle. When the ships under his command used to attack they always would win

[CommonPurpose1]

In October 1564 rumours reached Malta from the Ottoman Empire of a planned attack on Malta. The French Grandmaster Jean Parisot De La Vallette recalled to the Convent (the headquarters of the Knights in "Birgu") all the Knights who were living abroad and appealed for help in the preparations for the coming siege.

[CommonPurpose1]

For the attack on Malta of 1565, the Turkish Sultan Soleyman sent again his general Dragut. However, this time he was to be helped by two admirals: Admiral Piali Pasha was to be in charge of the fleet, while Admiral Mustapha Pasha was to be in command of the army. On the other hand, the Order of St. John was to be led by Grandmaster Jean Parisot De La Vallette, with the backing of the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor.

[CommonPurpose1]

Turkish Sultan, had let the Order leave peacefully from Rhodes; after the Knights settled in Malta in 1530, they still continued attacking Turkish ships around the Mediterranean. Therefore, Soleyman was getting very annoyed with the losses his empire was suffering. Moreover, he was also unhappy about the fact that when one of his best generals, Dragut, attacked the Maltese Islands in 1551, he did not succeed in invading Malta and defeating the Knights

[TheJasonking]

We Maltese are proud we defeated the muzlim rats the ottoman empire, we then gave another lesson to hitler, HAHAHAHAHAHA. THK U GOD OF ISRAEL

[DaniLeeRideoutCasha]

AWESOME!

Loved it! The soundtrack is perfect, too!

[MegaMikss]

GREETINGS FROM SERBIA

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