The Siege Of Rhodes

: The Strange Story Book

When you are reading the history of the sixteenth century, you will

notice that in Europe nearly the whole of that period was occupied by

two struggles: the struggle of the Reformed religion against the

Catholic Church, and that of the Christian world with the Sultans of

Turkey.



When the century began, the Turks had been lords of Constantinople for

fifty years, and were for a while busy with establishing
hemselves

firmly in the capital of the Emperors of the East. Then, as in the days

of Mahomet's successors nine hundred years before, they proceeded to

look about for fresh worlds to conquer, when the Crescent should trample

underfoot the Cross. In 1521, Solyman, accompanied by a vast host,

marched northwards to Hungary, and after a two months' siege captured

the town of Belgrade. This expedition was undertaken by the Sultan in

obedience to the wishes of his father, who died before he could march

there himself; but what the young man really longed to possess was the

beautiful Island of Rhodes lying at a short distance from the coast of

Asia Minor.



His councillors shook their heads when he told them of his plan. The

city of Rhodes was the stronghold of the Brotherhood of St. John of

Jerusalem and the Knights had seen to its fortifications. It might be

taken, of course; still the loss of life was sure to be tremendous and

the Sultan possessed other islands as lovely and fertile as Rhodes. No

doubt he did; but it was Rhodes he wanted, so Solyman turned from his

old councillors and listened to the advice of his brother-in-law,

Mustafa Pasha.



The first step was to discover something about the town and its

defences: how many men could be mustered on the walls, and what means

the Knights had of providing against a long siege. For this purpose he

despatched a Jewish physician greatly trusted by his father, to the

island, with orders to pretend himself ready to become a Christian so as

to find favour with the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, and to

lose no opportunity of making friends with the people by trying to cure

their sick. These instructions were faithfully carried out by the Jew,

who sent word to the Sultan that an important part of one of the city

walls was being rebuilt, and that if an army could be landed before the

work could be completed, the men would easily be able to enter the

breach.



Now the Jew, of course, was fulfilling the task given him, and was

risking his own neck in the accomplishment of it. But what can be said

of the treachery of one of the Knights themselves who out of jealousy

had bidden Solyman to besiege the town? This man, Sir Andrew de Merall,

was a Portuguese and so highly thought of among his fellows that he had

been named Chancellor of the Order. He expected, however, to be the next

Grand Master, and when, on the death of Fabrice of Cacetto, Sir Philip

de Villiers was chosen in his place, de Merall's rage at being passed

over was such that he could not control himself. The Knights did not pay

much heed to his words; it was natural, they thought, that he should be

disappointed, but he would soon calm down again. And so de Merall did,

to all outward appearance, and no one guessed how black were his

thoughts.



A pretext for his treason was soon found: it was easy for him to send

over a Turkish prisoner to Constantinople, on the plea of the man

raising money for his ransom, and instructing the Turk beforehand

exactly what he was to tell the Sultan as to the condition of the city.



'He will never find a better time,' said the traitor, 'seeing that the

wall is now partly down and there is mischief among some Italian

Knights. As to help from without, the Christian princes are busy warring

each upon the other, and, if this should last, the town will be his

without fail,' which thing came to pass.



The Sultan took the counsel given him, and assembled a great fleet in

all haste to bear his army through the AEgean Sea. In order to keep

everything as secret as possible, he forbade his subjects to enter

Rhodes on any pretence whatever. But the return of the Turkish spy and

his friendship with de Merall was noted by all, and the Grand Master's

own men reported that a large army was being assembled in Turkey. Yet,

in spite of these rumours, Sir Philip de Villiers did not disquiet

himself. No Turkish host had ever captured Rhodes, and when the wall was

repaired the defences would be stronger than before. And it was far more

likely that the fleet was intended for the Adriatic, and meant either to

attack Venice herself or some of her dependencies on the opposite coast.

Still, in order not to be caught unawares, the Grand Master heightened

the walls and deepened the trenches beyond them while he filled the

storehouses with food, and the magazines with powder.



His precautions were received with scorn by the larger number of his

Knights and most of the citizens. 'Why, the town was already provisioned

for a year or more,' they said, 'and no siege would last as long as

that.' But the day came when they lamented that the granaries had not

been twice the size, and the magazines three times bigger, for a month

before the surrender of the town food was hardly to be had, and

ammunition had almost failed them.



* * * * *



Though no help was to be expected from the great nations of Christendom,

and the Governor of Candia or Crete forbade his men to serve under the

Grand Master of the Knights in Rhodes, Sir Philip de Villiers contrived

by his energy to get in a large quantity of wine from the island.

Besides this, he was greatly cheered by the kindness of a private

gentleman from Venice, who not only brought over a ship laden with 700

butts of wine for their use, instead of selling his cargo at

Constantinople as he had meant to do, but stayed and fought for them

himself, and put all he had at their disposal. Night and day the Grand

Master worked; he seemed to be everywhere at once, and to think of

everything. Now he was in the powder magazine watching the officers

serving out ammunition to the soldiers; now he was on the walls testing

the strength of the repairs; now he was in the fields examining the corn

and deciding what was ripe enough to be cut and brought in. When this

was done he gathered into the city the people of the neighbouring

villages.



Hardly was this accomplished when news arrived that the Turks were near

at hand. Then the Grand Master ordered a muster of all the men capable

of bearing arms, and began with the Knights, the flower of many races;

and a splendid sight they were, in their scarlet tunics with a large

white cross on the breast. To each he appointed his place, with his

special duties, and next proceeded to the citizens and the strangers,

giving them separate colours and mottoes, and forming them into

companies. But at the most the defenders did not number more than 6,000,

and who could tell how many the Turks might be?



On June 18, 1522, the Turkish fleet was sighted, and for the next

fortnight it moved from place to place in the neighbourhood of Rhodes,

till it finally cast anchor about six miles from the town and remained

there till the end of the siege. Four hundred ships, large and small,

were said to be assembled, and for a fortnight some of the galleys went

to and from the mainland, returning with fresh supplies and more

soldiers. Meanwhile the Grand Master left his palace and took up his

abode near the part of the walls where he expected the fight to be

fiercest. He had need of vigilance; for more to be dreaded than the

enemy without were the traitors within, though as yet none suspected de

Merall of treason. But many of the women slaves serving in the houses of

the rich were Turks, who sought to help their countrymen. This was to be

done by setting fire to their masters' houses at the moment of the first

assault, in order to tempt the soldiers to leave their posts at the

defences, to put out the flames. Luckily the plot was betrayed and the

leader executed before any harm was done. The Turkish male slaves, on

the contrary, were faithful throughout, and as they numbered 1,500 were

of great importance, working hard in the trenches. The walls were

divided into different portions, called sometimes after the kingdoms and

sometimes after provinces of countries. There was the 'gate of Italy,'

the 'gate of Almaine' or Germany, the 'gate of Auvergne,' the 'gate of

Provence,' the 'Walls of England and Spain'; and it was at these two

walls that the first assault was directed. The Turks shot huge stones

from their guns, and their engines cast them upwards into the air, so

that they fell down with tremendous force into the street, but strangely

enough they did little damage to anyone. Soon there arrived in Rhodes,

from Candia, Captain Gabriel Martinengo and two other captains, all

skilled in war, while the following day the young Sultan himself joined

his fleet.



His presence inspired the army with fresh energy. The soldiers now began

to take aim with harquebuses and 'hand-guns', and to erect mounds nearer

the town as cover for their marksmen. They worked under a heavy fire

from the besieged, and though many of them were slain, the hill they

made grew steadily higher till at length it overtopped the wall of Spain

and the gate of Auvergne by ten or twelve feet. The Christians, in their

turn, rebuilt the walls with boards and trenches for cover, but not

before numbers who could ill be spared had fallen victims to the fire of

the Turks.



In spite of the hosts encamped before them, the courage of the defenders

never failed, and for a time it seemed as if their strength would never

fail either. Vainly did the besiegers build screens or 'mantelets' of

wood or stones, behind which their soldiers could shoot in safety; a

well-directed fire beat on them with such persistence that at length

they got weary of constantly repairing, and moved their mantelets away

to some other place. But though the Knights had won the day here, the

number of the Turks was beginning to tell, as it was bound to do in the

long run. It did not matter to them how many were killed, there were

always plenty more to take their places, and at the end of a month the

wall of England was cast down, and a breach was made in the wall of

Spain. Gabriel Martinengo did his utmost to make use of these disasters

and his guns fired through the breaches into the trenches, while he

stationed men with harquebuses on the roofs of the houses. To this the

enemy answered by throwing hollow stones into the town filled with that

terrible Greek fire which it was said could only be put out by burying

it under earth. Some of the wooden buildings caught, but on the whole,

not much harm was done.



So passed August, and September brought a new terror to the besieged.

The Turks were undermining the town, and countermines had to be

prepared. The mine under the wall of England, however, was so well laid

with gunpowder that when it exploded all the town felt the shock, and

part of the wall fell into the trench, whereat the Turks leaped into the

breach waving their banners and poured forth an incessant fire from

their hand-guns. For three hours the battle raged; then the victory

remained with the Grand Master, and the enemy retired, leaving a

thousand dead upon the ground.



Again and again the assault was renewed upon one or other of the walls

and gates. The fire of the besieged was so fierce that, brave as they

were, the Turks often recoiled before it and had literally to be driven

forward by their officers. Their loss was always much greater than that

of the Christians, as must invariably happen in a siege; but, on the

other hand, some of the best and most useful of the Christian Knights

were killed by the enemy.



Throughout September the mining continued, and explosions were frequent.

Sixty thousand Turks were now in the trenches all well armed, and it was

easy for them to attack the walls in various places at once. On the 24th

the famous Turkish band of Janizaries, led by their chief, fought their

way into the bulwark of Spain, and planted their standards on the top.

It seemed as if the capture of the town was inevitable, but the Grand

Master on hearing of the peril hastened from his post at the gate of

England, and put himself at the head of the combatants at the bulwark of

Spain. The struggle lasted for hours, but at length the Turks gave way,

and so many of them lay dead that you could not see the ground for the

corpses.



From his tent Solyman had watched it all, and 'was very sore

displeased, and half in despair.' He laid the whole blame of defeat on

Mustafa Pasha, his brother-in-law, because, he declared, without his

advice the siege would never have been undertaken. The Sultan even

wished in his anger to put the unfortunate man to death, but was

dissuaded from his purpose by the other pashas, on the ground that 'it

would comfort their enemies and give them courage.' So Mustafa's life

was spared, and 'that he might do something to please the Turk, as well

for his honour as for to save his person, he was marvellously diligent

to make mines at the bulwark of England.'






* * * * *



Had it not been for the traitors in the town who sent letters to the

Sultan showing that it was impossible for the defenders to hold out much

longer the siege would now have been raised. After three months of

almost hand-to-hand warfare, in spite of mines that threw down the

houses and breaches that had been made in the walls, the Turks did not

seem any nearer their end. Even the Janizaries declared they would fight

no more, and from the walls the Christians noted bodies of stragglers

making their way towards the Turkish fleet.



Then one night an Albanian captive stole out to the enemy's camp,

bearing letters from de Merall and the other betrayers of their land and

their religion, and the next morning the fire of the enemy was hotter

than ever.



Early in October three successive assaults were made on the bulwark of

England, but were beaten back at the cost of many lives, the Turkish

soldiers vowing at last that no one, not the Sultan himself, should

induce them to make another attack on a place so obstinately defended.

Indeed, a mutiny nearly broke out among the troops. Some of all this was

perceived by the Christians, and their hearts beat with joy. By command

of the Grand Master a body of men went outside the walls while the guns

above played upon the enemy, and cleared away the earth from the ditch

beyond, bringing it back into the town where they flung it down inside

the wall. And this, though they did not guess it, proved later one of

the causes of their undoing. So busy were they, that they did not

perceive that the Turks, having covered their trenches with boards,

worked hard at boring a passage which came out on the other side of the

wall under the barbican--a sort of small fortification--by which means

they were able to gain the foot of the wall.



Therefore now, on October 17, the fighting began on the inside. In vain

the Christians tried by every means to drive the Turks from the

barbican; they could never be dislodged. Then Sir Gabriel Martinengo

ordered, as a last resource, that the wall should be broken down so that

these might be reached face to face, but when this was done the

Christians were no nearer success. Three days after, the Turks fastened

strong ropes, weighted with anchors, to the walls which had already been

undermined; but the artillery, placed on the bulwark of Auvergne, cut

the ropes and sent away the besiegers.



By this time all the slaves in the Christian army and many of the

soldiers had fallen, and there was hardly anyone left to do the repairs

or to carry the wounded to the Hospital within the city. It was evident

to everyone that the end was not far off, and it was then, when things

could scarcely be worse, that the sorest blow of all was dealt to the

courage of the Grand Master. Hitherto the treachery of Sir Andrew de

Merall had been totally unsuspected by him, but one day a servant of the

Portuguese Knight was caught in the act of firing a cross-bow into the

Turkish camp, with a letter tied to the shaft. Taken before the Grand

Master the man confessed that it was not the first occasion by many

that, at the command of his master, he had in like manner sent the enemy

information of the condition of the town, warning them not to leave, as

men, powder, and provisions were rapidly failing.



But cut to the heart though he was, the Grand Master had no leisure as

yet to attend to de Merall; he ordered the servant to be locked up

securely, and went back to the walls, which he scarcely ever left. The

bulwark of England was now in the hands of the Turks, who were arranging

a fierce assault on the wall of Spain. The last great battle took place

on November 29, and for the last time the Christians were victorious.



* * * * *



A few days after this a native of Genoa--probably a prisoner--came out

of the Turkish camp to the gate of Auvergne and demanded to speak with

someone in authority. When his request was granted, he inquired why the

town, which could hold out no longer, was not surrendered, while there

was yet time to get good terms from the Sultan. Thrice he made attempts

to prevail on the Knights to listen to his proposals, but they would

not, preferring rather to die at their posts. The townspeople, however,

thought otherwise, and whispered together secretly at first, and then

openly, that they would fain save their own lives and that of their

children, seeing there was no further hope of driving away the enemy.

And these murmurings soon came to the ears of the council, who laid them

before the Grand Master.



While the assembled lords were talking over this weighty matter, some of

the citizens knocked at the door of the chamber and, being admitted,

'meekly besought the said reverend lord the Grand Master to consider the

piteous and sorrowful state the town was in', and to pray that if he

would not surrender it, at least to send away their wives and children,

or otherwise they would become slaves or be slain. 'And the conclusion

was, that if the said lord would not purvey, they would purvey for it

themselves. That is, they would see to the placing in safety of their

wives and children.'



The Grand Master heard them with a gloomy face, and dismissed them,

saying, they should know shortly what was in the minds of the council to

do. He then inquired of the Knight who had charge of the gunpowder how

much there was left, and received for answer 'not more than was needed

to withstand two assaults.' At that the Grand Master turned to Sir

Gabriel Martinengo, who was Captain of the soldiers, and asked if the

town might hold out or not, or if there were any means to save it.



'Scarcely are there folk enough to move a piece of artillery from one

place to another,' answered he, 'and it is impossible without folk to

set up the repairs which every day are broken and crushed by the great,

furious, and continual shot of the enemy.'



Very unwillingly the Grand Master was convinced that his cause was

hopeless and that, as it was the wish of the people and of many of the

lords also, a treaty must be made with the Sultan. 'He took it most

heavily and was more sorrowful than any of the others,' writes the old

chronicler, 'for the business belonged very near to him.'



So a 'sign' was set upon the tower of the abbey outside the walls, and

the two Turks who came from the camp in answer bore with them a letter

from Solyman to the Grand Master, offering, in case of surrender, to let

all the Knights and the people leave the town with their 'goods and

jewels without fear of harm or displeasure of his folks. But that if the

Grand Master would not accept the treaty none of the city should think

to escape, but they all, unto the cats, should pass by the edge of the

sword.'



The die had been cast by the council, yet even so the Grand Master could

not bear to deliver up his trust, and seems to have sought to delay

matters. Therefore he sent two of his Knights into the Turkish camp to

beg an audience of the Sultan and to ascertain without a doubt that

faith would be kept with the Christians.



The ambassadors were received courteously by two high Turkish officials,

and a truce of three days was agreed upon, during which 'the enemies

came to our repairs and spake with our folk, and drank with one

another,' as enemies should after the battle is over. When the Christian

Knights saw the Sultan, he repeated his terms, and informed them that at

the end of the truce he must have an answer. He then dismissed them,

giving each a garment of velvet and cloth of gold as a present.



* * * * *



Thus all was arranged for the yielding up of the city, when a most

unexpected thing happened. Some of the very citizens who had been most

urgent for the surrender now appeared before the Grand Master and the

council, and declared that as they had not been consulted they would

not consent to ceding the town, and they might as well die while

defending it, for they were sure to be put to death anyhow.



In fact, they behaved more like a set of pettish children than like men,

whose lives were at stake.



However much these words of the citizens may have chimed in with his

secret wishes, the Grand Master's reason told him that he had no right

to take advantage of their folly, and all he would agree to was to send

two fresh ambassadors to the Turkish camp, begging the Sultan once more

to repeat his conditions and give them renewed guarantees.



Not unnaturally Solyman declined to be played with like this, and his

only answer was to order an attack to be sounded at once. Refreshed by

the three days' truce the Turks fought harder than ever, and hour by

hour pressed nearer into the town. Then the Grand Master summoned the

citizens who had prevented the surrender, and said that as they were

willing to die he was well content to die with them, and that a

proclamation would be made throughout the town that every man should be

at his post at the gates day and night, and that, if he left, instant

death would be the penalty.



For a day or two the Rhodians were most zealous at the walls--especially

after one had been hanged for desertion--but soon their hearts failed;

they slunk away, and as it was not possible to hang everybody the

Knights were left to defend the walls themselves. At length the Grand

Master sent to inquire of the citizens why they had broken their word

and abandoned their duty, to which they made answer that 'when they had

gainsaid the surrender of the town, they had been wrongly informed of

many things. But that now the Grand Master might do whatever seemed good

to him, only they prayed him to grant them the favour of sending two

among them as ambassadors to the Great Turk.'



This time the negotiations took longer than before, and after rejecting

the excellent terms Solyman had offered them in the first instance, the

Christians were not in a position to demand anything more than their

lives. The Sultan, however, was generous, and though his soldiers

cannot be said to have kept completely to the conditions of the treaty,

they confined themselves to pillaging the town, and offered violence to

nobody.



Thus ended on Christmas Day 1522 the famous Siege of Rhodes, after it

had lasted six months.



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