Thibault Serlet
  • Home
  • Book Reviews
  • Contact

Articles

​

Great Siege: Malta 1565

10/23/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Great Siege: Malta 1565
By Ernle Bradford
Published in January 1961
256 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 4/5

This book is an early 1960s pop history account of the siege of Malta. The book was written by WW2 British veteran Ernle Bradford. Later, he spent 30 years sailing across the Mediterranean, and studying the history of naval warfare and maritime trade. As a result, this book is way more interesting than if it had been written by some historian who never accomplished anything in the real world.

The book is a fast-paced hour by hour account of the mind-blowingly epic siege of Malta. This battle constitutes Christianity’s most epic stand against Islam. A small group of Catholic knights defeated an Ottoman army roughly twenty times larger than their garrison, stopping the Turkish advance.

Had the knights lost the siege of Malta, the Ottomans would have likely been able to invade Spain and Sicily. Instead, it marked the second major Ottoman defeat after the earlier failed attempted siege of Vienna.

The knights were a group of old crusaders who had been forced to abandon their last Eastern outpost on the island of Rhodes several decades earlier after the Ottomans successfully captured it. They came from a variety of backgrounds - French, German, Spanish, English, etc… Assisting them was a group of ragtag Maltese Catholic peasants who hated the knights. The Maltese, although Catholic, spoke a dialect of Arabic and prayed to a God they called “Allah” (albeit in Catholic masses).

The crusaders were able to win the siege thanks to the charismatic leadership of 70 year old Hospitaler grandmaster Jean Parisot de Valette. He was able to unite the fragmented Catholic forces, and crush the Ottoman attack - despite getting almost no outside assistance.

This is one of the most epic battles in history, and this book does it justice. If you want to read a fast-paced historical account of a battle, this is the book for you.

​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Thibault Serlet

    Most of my articles are book reviews, but I also write about many other topics.

    Archives

    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Book Reviews
  • Contact