Great Siege of Malta

Great Siege of Malta
Part of the Ottoman–Habsburg wars
Dimostrazione di tutte le batterie, fresco by Matteo Pérez d'Aleccio at the Grandmaster's Palace in Valletta
Date 18 May – 8 September 1565 (3 months and 3 weeks) Location Grand Harbour, Malta 35°53′31″N 14°31′06″E / 35.89194°N 14.51833°E / 35.89194; 14.51833 Result Christian victory
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Ottoman Vassals: Regency of Algiers	Malta: Knights Hospitaller / Order of Malta Maltese militia Spanish Empire[1] Relief force:[2] Spanish Empire Kingdom of Sicily Republic of Genoa Duchy of Savoy Grand Duchy of Tuscany Papal States
Commanders and leaders
Dragut † Mustafa Pasha Piali Pasha Hasan Pasha Occhiali	Jean Parisot de Valette Jean de la Cassière Mathurin Romegas Gonzalo de Medrano † Melchor de Robles † Relief force: García Álvarez de Toledo Álvaro de Sande Giovanni Andrea Doria Chiappino Vitelli
Strength
35,000–40,000	2,500 (6,100, including militia, servants, and galley slaves) 900 soldiers from the Spanish Empire 800 soldiers from Italian states outside of the empire 600 Knights Hospitaller 200 unaffiliated soldiers from Sicily and Greece
Casualties and losses
25,000[3]–35,000 killed in combat and from disease[4][5]	At least 2,500

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: "Nothing is better known than the siege of Malta." 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.^[6]