Dan Snow's History Hit - Knights vs Ottomans: The Great Siege of Malta

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

The fate of the Mediterranean hung in the balance during this bloody battle between the Knights of St John and the armies of Suleyman the Magnificent in the summer of 1565. The Ottoman Empire had carved its way across three continents and now turned its sights to the tiny island of Malta. Tens of thousands of Ottoman troops descended. What followed was one of the most ferocious sieges of the 16th century: relentless bombardments, desperate hand-to-hand fighting and assaults on seemingly impregnable forts. Both the attackers and defenders were pushed close to breaking point. Dan is joined by Heritage Malta curator Kirsty Grech at Fort St Angelo - the Knight's headquarters during the siege - to tell the extraordinary story of bloodshed, resistance and survival. Made in collaboration with VisitMalta and Heritage Malta. If you'd like to visit Malta and see the history discussed in this episode, you can find out more at https://www.visitmalta.com Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Matthew Wilson. With thanks to Jeffrey Powell, Liam Gauci, Patricia Ebejer, Priscilla Civelli, Jeremy Nikolai Amaira, Annie Woodman and Giles Jagger.Dan Snow's History Hit is now available on YouTube! Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcastSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.You can also email the podcast directly at [e-mail] Snow's History Hit is a History Hit podcast.History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Sign up to join us in historic locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit history hit.com slash subscribe. From the east came the fleet of the mighty Ottoman Empire, the one ruled over by Suleiman the magnificent. A formidable assault force, 180 ships strong, carrying 40,000 men aboard, looming on the horizon to take control of Malta. It was 1565, and the fate of the Mediterranean hung in the balance. Standing in their way here were the Knights of St John, just 500 of them and a few thousand Maltese soldiers. and civilians. The knight's leader was Jean de Vallette, a battle-hardened warhorse, a veteran,

a grand master in his 70s. And there'd be nothing gentlemanly about this fight. For four brutal months, harbours around me now became killing grounds. Cannon fire shook the island day and night. Time and again, the Ottomans launched assault after assault, particularly on Fort St Elmo, which is standing behind me now across the harbour. Again and again, the defenders refused to break. They fought back and they stopped the Ottomans in their tracks. This is one of history's greatest David and Goliath stories. And today on Dan Snow's history hit,

I'm in Malta to tell you all about it. It's a beautiful summer's evening. The air is balmy. The sun is setting over the letter. I'm standing underneath the massive ramparts of Fort St. Angelo. And that's where I'm meeting Kirstie Grech, a curator with Heritage Malta, because this is where everything reached,

crisis all those centuries ago. So join us for this tale of clashing empires as we discover how this little island shaped the fate of Europe in the 16th century. Kirstie, good to see you. Good to see you as well. It's so exciting doing a podcast right here where it all happened. Give me a sense just quickly what was going on at the height of the siege here in 1565. What would you have seen around us now? It would be complete madness, to be honest. Soldiers running around, preparing all the provisions, all the supplies, the Grandmaster here at the very top, giving all the instructions and all the orders, and just the sea filled with boats of people crossing the harbour.

Enemy really all around us, 360 degrees? Yes, yes, for sure. And going to the top and being able to have a perfect clear view of what's happening at St Helmo and being able to redirect all the orders to the troops here and over there. Let's go back to the beginning. Malta, it's a very small place, and yet it plays a big part of history.

We seem to hear about it a lot. Why, talking about the geography. Why does Malta matter? Because we're sitting right at the center of the Mediterranean. So it's always been, throughout history, everyone has always wanted to take over Malta because its strategic value is immeasurable. So we've got Sicily 80 kilometers to the north, North Africa. Very close as well.

Very close. And then it's amazing. It's almost the same distance, is it? From Gibraltar to, well, Gaza to the Suez Canal today. It's pretty much exactly in the middle. isn't it? Yes, and so that has always been the goal for a lot of empires and a lot of people that they wanted to make sure they have more, that they could control the trade routes.

And then Valletta, which we're looking out on now, the harbour is an amazing natural harbour, which is quite a, something is quite a rare thing. You can get sailing here and no matter which direction the wind's coming from, you're going to be okay. Yes, and it's a very deep harbour as well. So that's what, that was one of the reasons why the Order of St. John wanted it as well. made out of sense for them. Tell me about these knights.

Who are these people and why are they running Malta? So the order of St. John was originally a hospitaler order. They started out by helping out the sick and the injured in the Holy Land when the Crusades were taking part. So people have heard the Knights Templar, the Knights who were providing security for pilgrims. The Knights Hospital are doing the same thing, but particularly around healthcare? Yes, yes. That's how they started out.

And they created the order in 1099. and then the second Grandmaster chose to sort of create the military side of it and they became a military order as well and when they were kicked out of roads by the Ottomans because they kicked out of the Holy Land Yes, yes at the famous Siege of Acre amazing that we've covered on the podcast

but then and then they end up in roads but then they're kicked out of roads as well by the Ottomans Yes and they spend about six years looking for a new home and they just can't seem to settle anywhere and then Charles the Fifth tells them why not have Malta? So the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Spain is such a powerful man. Is Malta his to give? He just gives us, okay.

Yes, that was how it was back in the day for us. And they didn't want it at first. People say, as in the sources say, that the order was very reluctant to have Malta at first, purely because we didn't have any fortified areas here or any good resources, so they didn't want it. And then Grandmaster Lel Adam, the first one, said, We need it. We need a place to stay. So let's go for it.

We've got to put some roots down somewhere. And Malta at the time was a frontier, right? Because North Africa is Islamic. There's North African piracy attacking the coast of Europe and enslaving Europe. They would have had to hang. Were they busy here the minute they arrived? They were busy with preparing the fortifications, including this one. This was the first one.

They were very busy basically prepping because they knew that a siege was very close on the horizon. It's going to be contested. So there are these fingers, these peninsulas that stick into the harbour, and on the tip of each one, the order of the knights, they build a fort on the tip of each one. Yes, they try to strengthen practically every area where they think that the Ottomans could land. So they start, of course, with St. Angelo, because there has quarters.

That's where we are now. Yes, where we are now. And then to the left of Fort St. Angelo, where there is Senglia, the other city. And that's another sort of promontory that comes out. Yes, that one is further into the harbors. and that is also fortified by a new fort for St. Michael and then at the entrance of the Grand Harbor, there's Fort St. Elmo.

So if you are entering the harbor from sea, the first thing you will see is Fort St. Elmo. And then slowly you will start seeing these small peninsulas. So you've got to go one, you've just got to attack them and take them one after the other. Yes. I cannot overstate people who are listening to this just how powerful this fortification is.

I mean, massive ramps leading up to huge walls, really, really high, incredibly thick, just brilliantly set up for defence. How much of what we're sitting now dates back to that period of the night? A big chunk of it, so this goes back even further than the knights. And then when the knights came, they started fortifying it. They fixed up the palace, as you can see, and they made it larger because this became the residence of the grandmaster. And basically, they introduced the military architecture of the Italian style.

More Renaissance. So less the sort of medieval tall castle, more the sloping. walls, diamond, start off shape, for, to be designed for artillery as well as... Yes, yes, because Campowler was introduced in Europe and so they had to obviously keep up with the times and in fact they built the first bastion here in Fort St. Angelo because this was the first place they settled in. So they brought with them this architecture style which was known as the Trachetaliana and they create these bastions like you're saying, you know, protruding outwards with an angle, strong ramparts and also tick because now Campaulner could

actually infiltrate pretty well so they had to build bastions that are strong low of course and filled with earth so that the impact of the gunpowder wouldn't be as intense so one of the grandmasters doma des to whom we have the bastion actually dedicated to he was the one who really pushed for the construction of these forts because they realized by then by 1552 that they were practically doomed so they needed to really start you know pushing for things to get done Did they imagine they'd be able to get to the other forts by land, or did they think an enemy army might control the land? They'd have to just go in little boats between the forts.

It's a kind of strange way of organizing yourself. They worried from both sorts of ways. So they had to construct the bastion because they were fearing that they would be attacked from the land. In fact, they were. But they also, from Fort St. Angelo to Fort St. Michael in Senglia, they had a chain running beneath the water. to sort of like the boom defense of the Second World War.

To block it off the boats. Exactly. So they had that and it's visible in one of the paintings found at the Grand Master's Palace. That's how we know about it. Okay, so you're fortifying the seaward end, the land would end, you're putting chains between them. Just, it's a massive operation.

Sounds very expensive. Yeah, very expensive and definitely a headache for the Grand Master to plan. And the build up to the seas, you've got constant building work, just local people being conscripted and just building these massive fortifications. Yes, and to think of being a Maltese living here

and seeing all this construction taking place, that must have been crazy at the time because suddenly, you know, the things that you're familiar with, they're no longer there, they're changing. So that must have been strange for the people living here as well. In the late 1550s, the knights of St. John were right to build their fortifications high and their defences strong. The Ottomans were tearing across Europe and the Mediterranean.

The forces of Suleiman the magnificent, fearsome on both land and its sea. They'd been locked in an arduous campaign against the Habsburgs in central Europe. They'd been fighting the Persians. They'd rampaged across the Mediterranean and the Near East, taking control of Greece, the Balkans, Western Anatolia, Egypt and much of the Red Sea. The fleets of the Spanish, Venetians and Genoese were locked in fierce battles with the great Ottoman commanders, like the infamous Dragut,

one of the most feared corsairs of the 16th century. It was only a matter of time before they arrived at war. Malta. But the Knights of St John also had a formidable leader of their own. The battle-hardened Grandmaster, John Lavellette, whom the capital city of Valletta is now named after. Tell me about the Grandmaster that is elected in 1557, this new Grandmaster. Grandmaster La Vallette. So, well, he is, I think, I think it's safe to say he is one of the most popular ones, if not the most famous one for the order, because he actually led the Order of St. John's. and Mozart during the siege.

He had actually been a slave for the Ottomans as well. He was captured, wasn't he? In a naval battle? Yes, yes. And was put to work as a galley slave? And yes, he led the order during the siege and

he did a phenomenal job because he kept pushing through even when the knight at St. Elmo were telling him to back down. He kept on going and he was already past the age of 70. He's a very effective commander for the knights. Yes, yes, 100% sure. But also the Ottomans had very good leaders as well.

So that also played a big part, especially when Draghout came over then. So you can imagine the sort of 10,000 defenders, including multi-civilians and knights and hired mercenaries from Italy, things like that. What's the first sign that the Ottomans are in fact coming that summer, 1565? So they see them from the horizon when they are at St. Elmo on the 18th of May and they see a massive fleet approaching the horizon. And even just to think of that, that's a terrifying moment. That's something crazy.

And they immediately alerted and sent a signal from the fort and that's when things started rolling. And we should remember that people would be expected, if they're defeated in battle, if they hold out in the defeat in battle, they could be killed, enslaved. This is an existential threat. So it's a fight to the death, really. Yes, yes.

And it really was for some knights. There were knights who were ready to die for their religion, and they didn't hesitate. And at that time, the Ottomans have been pretty dominant, haven't they? They've marched across Southeast Europe. They've marched across the Mediterranean. A lot of people would have thought they were unstoppable.

Yes, yes. And I think that was also the mindset that they had. And that's why they went to attack St. Elmo, because they believed that in a few days they could win and move on to the next thing. So is that the first fort they attacked? So it's on the tip of what is now Valletta. Probably the closest really to the open sea, isn't it?

Yes, yes. And at the time, there wasn't Fort Recarcy like there is today, because that came about a century and so later. So it was the first fort they saw, much smaller than it is today. It was just a small star-shaped fort. This is also the beginning of the gunpowder age. You mentioned earlier, like the ships carrying cannon, they've got cannon to put on the land.

So is artillery a big part of this siege? Yes, yes. Malta didn't have enough, actually, to keep up with the Ottomans. The Ottomans were far better in terms of Artele. They were equipped much better than us, so we struggled a lot. So the Ottoman fleet of around 190 ships arrived in the Grand Harbour, carrying an estimated 35,000 soldiers. They didn't strike immediately at Fort St. Angelo,

the Knights' stronghold, their headquarters. They turned their sights instead to Fort St. Elmo, a small strategically-placed fort that guards access to two of Malta's men. harbors. Whoever controls that fort controls access to those harbors. On the 27th of May, the Ottomans opened fire. Contemporary sources describe hundreds of cannon firing almost continuously. Day after day, forts and Elmo took a pummeling. Walls were smashed apart into a little more than piles of rubble. But every night, the knights inside did their best to rebuild their defences. They repaired the breaches. They hauled fresh ammunition. They treated the wounded.

They were ready for another onslaught the following day. I think due to sort of through the way that the Grand Master was able to give out the orders, I think that's what really made the difference because for him he wanted to tire out the Ottomans by letting them fight and fight. So the Ottoman army is spending weeks just battering the walls with its cannons and trying to create breaches in the walls that they can attack through? Yes. So because they built the fort in such a short time and about, six months only. They didn't build it as well as they should have. So when the Ottomans were here,

they found quite easy to actually climb up and demolish certain walls. And that's how they gained access into the fort. And then, you know, they were able to slowly, little by little, take small parts until eventually there were about eight nights left in the fort and they just surrendered. So at times there were, there would have been hand-to-hand fighting in those breaches and they're just taking, they're just advancing just a few meters at a time. Like First World War, they're kind of fighting we think about in the First World War. Yes, yes. And in fact, people, in some sources, they record that people from Fort St. Angelo and from this side of the harbour, they could actually see Fort St Elmo up in flames. And they say that was a really scary thing to see.

And of course, I mean, I can imagine. But St Elmo does its job and it holds out for a month? For a month, yes, for a month exactly. By the night of the 22nd of June, Fort St. Elmo was in ruins. The handful of surviving defenders knew the end was coming. They gathered in the fort's tiny chapel to celebrate mass. They prepared themselves not for victory, but for death. Hours later, as the Ottoman troops poured through the shattered walls,

the knights were driven back once again to the chapel, where it now became their final refuge. In that chapel, one by one, they were slain. As the sun on the 23rd of June reached at zenith, all the remaining knights were dead. and Fort St Elmo had fallen. This is Dan Snow's history here, more after this. As this is going on, what's the attitude like between the two armies?

Is there a really big religious divide? Is there a particular viciousness to this warfare? Yes, they were constantly trying to show each other how cruel they were, in fact. So when the last defenders of Fort St. Elmo gave out and they were killed immediately, what they did was they cut their heads and they stuck their bodies on wooden rube and.

raft in the shape of a cross and they threw them out into the sea as a warning to the Grandmaster that this is what's going to happen to you. And funny enough, the Grandmaster, it is said that he reported back to them by firing the heads of the Ottomans from the cannons from Port St. Angelo. So this is, there's no surrender, no quarter given. It's everyone knows the fight to the death. Everyone knows what's at stake. Yes, yes. They try to carry out an attack against Senglia but from 4 St. Angelo they are able to practically almost drown all the boats. Right so any Ottoman boats trying to get further into the harbour have to come past where we're sitting now. Of course yes. And all those boats can be sunk by cannon fire. Yes, yes.

Because the thing is that there's a very small battery right on the sea level. Where we are now just down here. And the Ottomans didn't realize that there was a battery with a commander and you know soldiers lined up with cannon and then when they started firing of course they were taken by surprise. And that was already July. That was 15th July. So now we're about a month and so into the siege. And the Ottomans are trying to capture the strong points

just over here to the south and the one we're on now. Are they also trying to put troops ashore and attack from the landward ends of these peninsulas? Yes, but from the landfront, from the other side, because that part, I'm sure you've noticed, sitting at a higher ground than for St. Angelo is. So they knew that if they didn't have that best chance to defend them, they would completely sort of fall to that.

So they had to protect the land front as well. Okay, so yeah, so the knights are building. They've got the fight against the Ottomans at sea at this end, and they're also fighting them in sort of entrenchments and barricades at that end as well. Yes, yes. What are conditions like in that through July? What are conditions like where we're sitting there? Were they had enough food and water or things getting pretty tough?

For the order, I think they were doing fine. It was for the Ottomans. That was the issue, because what the order and the Maltese were doing, they were practically using the scorched earth tactic, where they would just be everything behind them. And so the Ottomans couldn't find any foods, nothing. And that's how they started losing their morale and panicking. Because keep in mind, it's the middle of summer.

It's really intense for them. It's incredibly hot. What is the tactics? of the Grand Master. Does he just want to try and delay them, delay them and hope they have to return home before the winter? Yes, he just wanted to completely let them lose as many people as they could and practically lose all their morale until they give up. And in fact, it is said that one of the leaders said that if 4 St. Elmo took so long to take, what's price do we have to pay to win over for St. Angelo?

And what about the Maltese? Because they're just just caught up in this enormous fight between these two, in some ways these two foreign powers. Are they taking part in the defence? Yes, yes, they did take part because actually a big number of defenders were actually Maltese who were taking part, especially in Medina where they had a whole cavalry there and people were willing to sign up and fight, keeping in mind that the order had only been here for about 30 years. So it wasn't... something they were completely familiar with.

It weren't bought in yet entirely. Exactly, exactly. And even the women took part. They helped out nursing them. They also went out to fight as well. So quite, they were quite. I guess they knew that whatever happened the nights, it wouldn't be great for them

had the Ottomans won. So after that summer they must have been suffering from, well, they've lost loads of casualties. Yes. Food, illness. It must have been grim. Yes, especially because they are running out. out of supplies now, out of food, out of water.

The heat is insane, it's horrible. And when you actually keep in mind the stuff that they're wearing as well, that doesn't really help. So by then, they start to just slowly, slowly give up. July and August were brutal for both sides. The endless pounding of thousands of cannonballs on the walls of Fort St. Angelo, destroying the churches, the hospitals,

the houses of the Maltese town of Burgu behind the fort. In return, Otter, Ottoman ships were smashed to pieces by the Knights' firepower from the fort's batteries. The invaders made what would be really their last serious assault in early August, when they attacked Bergu and the nearby town of Senglia simultaneously. The Ottomans, amazing, they did breach the walls, and there was bloody hand-to-hand combat in the streets.

It seemed for a while they'd got the upper hand, but the knights retaliated with cunning. A commander at the inland Maltese fortress capital of Medina sent a very small Maltese cavalry force to raid an Ottoman field hospital and supply camp. Rumors spread quickly through the Ottoman ranks that a large relief army had arrived. The Ottoman commander, Mustafa Pasha, broke off the assault, and the Ottomans retreated on the very verge of victory. As August drew to a close, the Ottomans and knights were fighting war of attrition, both struggling with disease, food shortages, and mounting casualties.

The Ottomans were also on the back foot because they'd lost some of the most experienced field commanders, like the formidable Dragood. It seemed neither side would be able to force a war. decisive breakthrough. Then, on the 7th of September 1565, relief arrived. Eight thousand Spanish, Italian and Sicilian troops sent by Don Garcia under the auspices of Philip II of Spain, landed on Malta from nearby Sicily and marched towards the exhausted Ottoman army. The knights had been begging for reinforcements for weeks, but it was better late than never. So the release force arrives right at the beginning of September and that must have been a devastating blow to the Ottomans

for sure and that was I think that was the final point for them and that's when they officially surrendered to Malta so they've lost their commander the other side of being strengthened do they just abandon the siege or do they surrender what what happens to the Ottoman forces as far as I know I think they surrender they surrendered what do you think that meant at the time well it definitely meant that Christianity was prevailing and in fact the order received a number of letters from kings in Europe congratulating him for this triumph and it went down really really well but definitely didn't reduce the Ottoman's power or legitimacy so it wasn't a decisive defeat for them exactly I think today we do

tend to give it a bit more of a push sort of because it's the great siege of Malta. But on a more European level, the Osamaans still remained as an empire for quite a long time. Yeah. So still a powerful force. Exactly. And what about the changes in Malta? Because the letter, the capital now, named after Valet. I mean, was that city built in the aftermath of the siege?

Yes, yes. So the idea of building a city had been there for quite some time. And then as soon as the siege ended, they started working on that immediately and on fixing St. Alma, of course. And unfortunately, Grand Master Laval did not live to see the city finished because he passed away. So the city that we see today is a sort of planned Renaissance city built after the destruction of the siege. Yes, yes. It is often been told, been said that it is a city by the gentleman for the gentleman. Oh, okay. to check it out. But he dies, what, just two or three years after the siege?

Yes, yes. And the order moves to the capital city in about, I think, 1571. Okay. Or 75, yes. And that's when they shift everything from Birgul to Aleta. So where we are now? Yes. So this stops becoming their sort of headquarters. Yes. And is the siege still remembered him all today, or is it seen as somebody else is fine? Today. Oh no, it's still well remembered and I think people feel very proud of the great seas despite happening despite the fact that happened so long ago. Is it commemorate? Are there annual commemorations? Yes, here. We carry out on 8th September, which is a public feast actually for us. We carry out a mass

in one of the chapels in the fort and we create a whole event out of it to mark this important occasion for us. Malta regards it as a kind of Maltese victory because I think traditionally it was seen as like de Vallette and the knights of the order but actually it was the majority of the... it was Maltese who probably made it the majority of the troops who did the building, who did the fighting, who kept the army supplied.

So actually it's their victory. Yes, yes, 100%. I agree, definitely. And I think it's good to remember it as well because it's definitely part of our history and if things went the other way and if the Ottomans won and we became part of the Ottoman Empire.

our history would have been incredibly different than it is today. So it's definitely a big part of our identity, I would say. Did the Ottomans ever try and come back? They did, yes. They tried in the 17th century, but they weren't successful either. Right. I mean, you're going to Valletta Harbour staying. It's an awesomely fortified position.

Yes, and a lot of visitors who would travel to Europe at the time, they would comment on how heavily fortified the city is. and the harbour actually because today I mean you don't see any guns placed anywhere but at the time it was filled with cannon and guns so it was very intimidating for anyone who would enter the harbor it feels like you're on a on the frontier town I mean it's like this is the front line in this great clash yes yes for sure so if people want to come to Malta and and see the places where this siege happens what is there left today well all their fortifications still there yes still there

still a remnant to the past basically. And all the oberges that they've built, everywhere that they've touched, I mean they've made Malta, the country as is today. So everywhere you will turn, you'll see something from the period of the nights. So just where we are now,

we've got a fortress, then there's a beautiful sort of community just beyond it, very narrow alleyways and squares and churches. Lots of that would have been as it was at the time of the siege. Yes, yes. They created a large community there in Birgo

and basically, Basically the harbour area of Malta is as great as it is thanks to the order of St John because they fortified it, they created a lot of jobs. People moved from the north and centre of Malta to the south to find jobs and to find a home. And it's really created a good example of what they've left for us. So actually for you it's quite easy to visualize this siege because so much of the infrastructure is still here today. Yes, for sure. And a lot of those big, powerfully built buildings proved very useful in the Second World War when the Brits and allies were trying to protect Malta against the Axis powers.

Yes, and they were successful again. Well, thank you very much, Kirsty. If you want to come and check out the sites that Kirsty's been talking so beautifully about, come and see the places where the great siege played out, then you can do so. This podcast has been supported by Visit Malta and Heritage Malta for our first on-location filmed podcast, which you can watch on your... YouTube. If you want to come, just go to www. Visit

Malta.com. We're going to put that link in the show notes. Come and check it out. Have you been enjoying my podcast and now want even more history? Sign up's history and watch the world's best history documentaries on subjects like how William conquered England. What it was like to live in the Georgian era.

And you can even hear the voice of Richard the 3rd. We've got hundreds of hours of original documentaries, plus new releases every week, and there's always something more to discover. Sign up to join us in historic locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit history.com slash subscribe.