Suleiman The Magnificent 1520 1566 (9 page)

pp. 17-18.

would appear that, despite the continuous clash of arms, there was a certain amount of traffic between them and the Moslems. But the official Ottoman attitude of bitter hostility to the Knights remained unchanged; indeed, in the reign of Selim the Terrible, it was greatly intensified. Their stronghold was directly on the line of communication between the capital of the Empire and its newly acquired province of Egypt. 10 They intercepted the ships from Constantinople to Suez, which carried pious pilgrims to Mecca. Their most recent offence was their support of the rebellion of Ghazali. It was enough to stir the wrath of any good Moslem.

Under all the circumstances Suleiman was in no need of justification for an assault on Rhodes. But it was not an enterprise to be lightly undertaken. The Belgrade campaign in the previous year had shown him, indeed, that effective aid to the garrison was unlikely to arrive from the West. On the other hand the bravery and military skill of the Knights were unquestionable, and their fortifications, already strong, had been strengthened still more since the attack of Mohammed II. In fact Rhodes was probably the strongest of all the fortresses of the early sixteenth century. Opinion in the Divan was sharply divided as to the wisdom of assaulting it again. Some of the older writers on Turkish history, among them the Elizabethan Oxonian Richard Knolles, strive to show that the Sultan sought at once to resolve these doubts and to test the mettle of the Knights by entering into a correspondence with the newly elected Grand Master, Philip Villiers de L'Isle Adam, in the winter of 1521-22. They give us the text of a series of letters which are said to have been exchanged between them, letters which begin on both sides with compliments, congratulations, and boastfulness, and finally terminate

10 Jacobus Fontanus, De Bella Rhodio Libri Tres (Roma, 1524), fol. B recto.

with challenges and abuse. But it seems probable that this correspondence is apocryphal. 11 The Sultan fulfilled the obligation, prescribed by the Koran, of summoning his enemy to surrender before he attacked him; 12 but it is doubtful if he did anything more. The considerations which finally determined him to attack were, first, the demands of his favorite corsair, Kurtoglu, who had been roughly handled by the Knights and passionately called for revenge, and, secondly, the information conveyed to him by two spies, a Jewish doctor and the Grand Chancellor of the Order, that Rhodes had not enough provisions or powder, and that there were certain places where the fortifications were in bad repair.

The die was now cast, and both sides prepared with all their might for the impending struggle.

The Grand Master had by this time been considerably strengthened by the arrival of contingents from the different commanderies of his Order in Europe. A larger portion of its forces than ever before were now assembled at Rhodes. He could count on at least 700 Knights, and 4000 to 5000 men-at-arms, besides volunteer battalions of the inhabitants of the town, and a naval brigade of sailors from the fleet. Both of the latter contingents must have been able at least to render good service in defensive construction, and in mining and countermining, even if they could not fight. There was also a valuable body of some 500 archers who had been recently brought over from Crete. The statements of the older historians that the garrison counted only about 5000 men are doubtless an underestimate, though far less in degree than their exaggerations of the numbers of the Turkish forces who attacked them. Particularly useful to the besieged were the services of Martinengo, a Brescian engineer, who on his arrival was

11 Hammer, V, 27, 415.

12 Negotiations de la France dans le Levant, ed. Ernest Charriere (Paris, 1848-60), I, 91-92.

so much impressed by the enthusiasm of the Order that at his request he was admitted to its ranks. All the houses outside the walls were razed to the ground, and their inhabitants with all available foodstuffs were brought into the city. The mouth of the harbor was blocked with massive chains. Two things alone were lacking for a successful defence; first, an adequate supply of powder and ammunition for a protracted siege; secondly, and vastly more important, effective aid from outside, which for six months had been awaited in vain. The moment of Rhodes's peril coincided with that phase of the contest between Charles and Francis in the west which ended in the defeat of the latter at Bicocca (April 27, 1522), but it was obvious that the struggle was soon bound to flare up again. While the Emperor repeatedly expressed his concern over the fate of the Knights he could do nothing for the moment to help them. Pope Adrian VI, the successor of Leo X, declared that the state of his finances made it impossible for him to contribute anything to the aid of the soldiers of Christendom, though he could not speak of the subject without tears. The Venetians, who had never been on very good terms with the Knights, equipped a strong squadron for purposes of observation; for in spite of their friendly relations with the Sultan, they were by no means convinced that the Turks had not designs on Cyprus. They feared that it was

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To keep us in false gaze. When we consider Th' importancy of Cyprus to the Turk; And let ourselves again but understand, That, as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes, So may he with more facile question bear it, For that it stands not in such warlike brace, But altogether lacks th* abilities That Rhodes is drest in; ... ,**

18 Othello, Act I, scene 3.

The Venetian fleet, however, had strict orders to avoid any act that might irritate the Turks. As soon as it should become evident that no attack was intended against Venetian territories, it was immediately to return home. Europe still clung to the comfortable belief that, since Rhodes had defended itself successfully before, it could unquestionably do so again.

On June 18 the Ottoman fleet set sail from Constantinople. It seems probable that it numbered about 300 sail, though the estimates vary; it carried 10,000 men, under the orders of the vizir Mustafa Pasha, who had been appointed seraskier, or commander-in-chief of the expedition. The wind was favorable, and five days later the Knights could watch the enemy approach; but, curiously enough they made no effort to prevent a landing; all the defence was concentrated within the city walls. On June 24—the feast of St. John, particularly sacred to the Hospitallers, who possessed precious relics of the Baptist—the Turks began to disembark their troops on the western side of the island, 14 and the Turkish engineers usefully employed the next four weeks in discovering the most advantageous sites fo^ their batteries; not a shot was to be fired until Suleiman himself should arrive. The Sultan had left his capital, two days before the fleet, at the head of an enormous army which he led along the western shores of Asia Minor; it seems safe to estimate its total forces at 100,000 men, though the contemporaneous Christian authorities make it much larger. Its progress was comparatively slow, though Suleiman was encouraged by the receipt of all sorts of good news on the way. Not till July 26 did he reach the port of Marmarice, at the head of the bay opposite Rhodes. Two days later he landed on the island, where he was welcomed by salvos of artillery, and

14 Jacques de Bourbon, La. grande et merveilleuse et tres cruelle oppugna-tion de la noble cite de Rhodes (Paris, 1527), fol. B ii recto.

established his headquarters on the high hill of San Stefano, overlooking the sea, a little more than a mile distant from the western bastions of the city. 15 The troops he brought with him promptly occupied the positions that had been prepared for them, encircling the fortress to the southward, from sea to sea. His fleet commanded the adjacent waters, and the investment was complete. On July 29, the siege began. It was to last one hundred and f orty-five days. The besieging forces were divided into five great groups or army corps, each under a commander of its own, though all were subject to the general direction of the seraskier, who always kept closely in touch with the Sultan. Beginning on the westward, these army corps were drawn up, respectively, opposite the bastions of France and Germany; of Auvergne, Castile, and Aragon; of England; of Provence; and of Italy. Contemporary authorities estimate them at 50,000 men apiece, which is probably an exaggeration. Moreover, it must always be remembered that the Turkish armies of this period were by no means exclusively composed of fighting men in the literal sense of the word. On this occasion, a very considerable portion of the Sultan's forces was made up of wretched peasants from Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Wallachia, most of them probably Christians, who had been conscripted to perform the thankless and dangerous task of digging trenches and parallels under fire. It was indeed on these unfortunates that the heaviest work devolved; for any hopes that Suleiman may have cherished that the fortress could be speedily taken by assault were rudely shattered in the first days of the siege. From the beginning of August it was plainly evident that persistent and furious bombardment of the walls was the indispensable preliminary to success, and that the cannon and the men to man them would have to be brought close, through ditches dug in the stony soil. The size and num-

15 "Beyond danger of artillery," says Jacques de Bourbon, fol. B iv verso.

ber of the Turkish artillery were the wonder of all beholders. The "Bastard" Jacques de Bourbon, the best of the contemporaneous authorities, gives a number of interesting details. 16 There were apparently six brass cannon firing stone balls three and a half "palms" 1T in circumference; fifteen iron and bronze guns which threw stone projectiles half as large again; twelve "bombards" firing stones of nine to ten palms, .and two others with balls of eleven. We also hear of twelve bronze mortars which threw hollow shot—apparently a sort of primitive shell 18 —over the tops of the walls into the city itself; and there were small guns and "sakers" innumerable. The cannon fired 1713 stone projectiles against the walls during the month of August alone, the mortars 1721. We read, however, in the Sanuto Diaries, that the Knights gave their opponents quite as good as they sent, and their fire must have been rendered terribly effective by the care with which the engineer Maranengo had measured the distances to all potential emplacements before the siege began. But the most important and effective of all the means used by the Turks against the fortress was their mining operations. These could not be employed on any extensive scale till the beginning of September, for it took the besiegers all the month of August to get men enough to the ramparts to burrow under them; the Knights, moreover, under the direction of Martinengo, proved unexpectedly skilful in detecting and foiling the efforts of their foes. Nevertheless, on September 4 and 10 two mines were successfully exploded under the English bastion and brought down considerable

16 Oppugnation de Rhodes, f ols. B iv verso—B v recto.

17 The Roman palm of 8% inches is doubtless meant, rather than the modern one of 3 or 4.

18 Jacques de Bourbon, foL C ii verso, etc. It is probable that these "shells," & they were used at all, were launched from some kind of catapult. The first explosive shells to have been fired from mortars seem to have been invented in 1543. C£ C. W. C. Oman, Art of War in the Sixteenth Century, p. 35i-

portions of the wall. On both occasions the Turks attempted to follow up the advantage they had won by launching strong infantry assaults. Though both were repulsed with heavy loss, the Turks were encouraged to continue. Between September 13 and 23, all infantry attacks were indeed countermanded, and the bombardment slackened; but the mining operations were continued with redoubled vigor.

On September 23, a number of the newly established mines were sprung. Those under the Spanish and Italian bastions proved particularly effective; and "from midday to midnight," as the Sultan's journal puts it, "the heralds announced an assault on the next day." The entry conveys no real idea of the extent and magnitude of the ensuing attack, probably because it was destined to be repulsed; but we know that it was delivered on all sides at once, and the Christians estimated the numbers who participated in it—doubtless with the usual exaggeration—at no less than 100,000 men. There were terrific hand-to-hand conflicts, perhaps the most desperate in all the annals of the warfare between Christians and Ottomans. The fighting was especially furious on the Spanish bastion, where the Agha of the Janissaries succeeded temporarily in planting his standard; but in the end the assailants were everywhere driven back. Their losses are said to have reached a total of 15,000 men. 19 A number of the Turkish leaders were demoted, either temporarily or permanently, in consequence of the defeat. Suleiman's diary mentions only one of them—"The Sultan in his anger ordered the arrest of Ayas Pasha" (who commanded the Turkish left), but on the following day there was a Divan, and "Ayas Pasha was reestablished in his functions." 20 We know, however, that a few days later

19 Jacobus Fontanus, Ad Adrimum Pont. M. Epistola misso. e Rhodo (Tubingae, 1523), fol. a iii recto, says 10,000. 30 Quoted in Hammer, V, 421,

the seraskier Mustapha Pasha was seat off to be governor of Egypt, and was replaced in the chief command by Ahmed Pasha. The admiral of the fleet was also disgraced for having failed to render due support, and we are told that the corsair Kurtoglu, who accompanied him, was bastinadoed and expelled from the forces.

The defeat had been so decisive that the Knights cherished hopes that the Sultan might abandon the siege, but they were doomed to disappointment. Suleiman knew that the eyes of all Europe were on him and that failure would be the worst possible blow to his prestige. To show that he intended to persevere he gave orders that his pavillion be replaced by a building of stone, and sent for the Janissary garrisons in Syria and Mesopotamia to fill his depleted ranks. On the other hand he risked no more general attacks for the time being; in October he resumed mining operations. Whenever these were successful and the walls were breached, he ordered local assaults—as on October 12 against the English bastion, and again on the twenty-ninth against the French one; but each time they were repulsed with heavy loss. On the last day of November another and far greater assault, a veritable storming operation, in fact, was launched in a drenching rain against the Spanish and Italian bastions. It was by far the most serious attack since the great onslaught of September 24; but, like its predecessor, it failed, and cost the Turks upwards of 3000 men. The morale of their soldiers was rapidly deteriorating; they often had to be beaten forward with sticks to the attack. Winter was coming on; their sappers could do nothing with frostbitten fingers; there was always the chance, however remote, that the West might be able to send re-enforcernents. Of course the Sultan could not think of giving up the great enterprise on which he had staked so much, but he was beginning to hope that he might possibly be able to accomplish his object without further shed-