From May 18, 1565 to September 11, 1565, the great siege of
the Christian Hospitaller controlled Malta happened. The Hospitallers only
numbered about 6,000 knights in all three forts of Malta which was a puny force
compared to the 40,000 Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire brought forces of such
great number by boat, attacking Fort Elmo first. Ft. Elmo was shaped like a
star, making it difficult for siege towers and canons to have much effect. The
siege for Fort Elmo was long and hard. The Hospitaller’s inside Fort Elmo asked
Sir Valet of Fort Saint Angelo, “Could we surrender?” To which, Valet, the
leader of Malta, answered, “If you will not stay and fight then I will send
knights who will”.

After the long hard siege of Fort Saint Elmo, it was overtaken
and most of the knights inside were killed. The Ottomans nailed the dead knights
to crosses and sent them across to Fort Saint Angelo. Valet replied with the
biggest bombardment recorded in medieval history from their massive canons that
could kill numerous Ottomans with one cannonball.

The Ottomans went across to Fort Saint Angelo and began to
siege it. Valet would not run, though he was so outnumbered.

The Ottomans attacked
hard. The Hospitallers made rings about three feet tall, covered them in
leather and oil, lit them on fire, and rolled them down into the breaches in
the wall where the Ottomans were packed tight. This created destruction across
the lines of the Ottomans. Both sides made jars, filled them with gun powder,
lit a rope on fire that was sticking out of the jars, and threw them into the
enemy like handheld grenades. The Hospitallers would put pikemen in front of
the men with guns, known as musketeers, while they loaded. Then when the musketeers
were ready to fire, the Hospitallers with pikes stepped back and the musketeers
would let off a volley of metal balls into the Ottomans. In a breach in the
wall, the hospitallers faltered and began to fall. 70-year-old Valet and other
knights ran to the breach. With pikes in hand and swords at their sides, they
fought the Ottomans back. Valet had an explosive blow-up by his ankle, but he
refused to leave the breach. The knights reclaimed the breach in the wall. The
Ottomans had one last trick up their sleeves. They made a giant siege tower.
Valet ordered his men to start digging out the bottom of the part of the wall
the siege tower was coming for. Then as it was about to hook to the wall, Valet
ordered them to hit the weakened wall with a canon at the bottom. The wall fell
onto the siege tower destroying it and likely killing everyone on the inside.
At this, the Ottomans ran away from Malta in terror. The few brave Christian
knights won, holding Malta.

Number of hospitallers 6,000 casualties 3,000

Number of Ottomans 40,000 casualties 20,000