History of Rhodes Part 2

Before we continue, let's get some political weirdsies out of the way real quick. Rhodes was still under control of the Byzantines at this time. You might be wondering why Christians are fighting Christians here. Are they not on the same “team”? Well, just like an asshole, Christianity can split. A fissure formed between east and west, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. This was some petty-ass shit if you ask me, and arguments centered around whether the Nicene Creed should say the holy spirit proceeds from the father or from the father and son, and if the eucharist bread should have yeast or not. Underlying this difference of opinion was a power struggle for control over Christianity.

This fissure was briefly rectalfied by the threat of the Muslim world encroaching on Christendom, the first crusade being led in response to Byzantine pleas for help against the Turks. By the fourth Crusade, though, a Venetian plot to take control of Byzantine land ended with the sack of Constantinople by crusaders. Byzantium never quite recovered, and with alliances dwindling, the Hospitallers decided to take a shot at the Byzantine-controlled Rhodes. Remember, the Knights Hospitaller owes their allegiance to the Pope alone, and they can pretty much do whatever they want and act as their own semi-nomadic government.

The Plan

It was in 1306 AD that a Genoese pirate named Vignolo de’ Vignoli arrived at Cyprus. The pirate had, by Byzantine imperial grant, obtained control of the islands Kos and Leros in the surrounding Dodecanese. He disclosed that Venetians in Rhodes had begun to trade arms and slaves with the Islamic world, including Egypt, the very empire that had expelled the Knights from the holy land. Vignoli confirmed that Byzantine control of the islands was insufficient to repel an assault. Taking Rhodes would be a two-fold victory for the Knights, establishing a new stronghold and wresting hold of trade with the Islamic world.

The pirate Vignoli vowed to aid the Hospitallers in exchange for just a “wittle bit” of land, power, and one-third of the taxes collected on islands other than Rhodes. They agreed, and six Hospitaller ships, bolstered by Genoese pirate ships, sailed out of Cyprus.

Templar of Tyre, p170 Anonymous 14th century historical account

Conquest of Rhodes

In 1306, Grand Master Foullques de Villaret, with a retinue of 500 soldiers, 6 horsemen, and 35 knights, landed on the shores of Rhodes, swiftly taking the fortress Feraklos on the east coast of the island. From here they would establish a base of operations in preparation of a siege of the City of Rhodes.

Their first attempt on Rhodes was a failure and, demoralized, they returned to the fortress of Feraklos. At the fortress, a Rhodian man arrived at the gates. Standing before Villaret, the man spoke. He was a sergeant at Philermo, a Byzantine fortress inland. The sergeant hated the commander of the fortress, who frequently subjected his men to beatings and had employed 300 enemy Turkish warriors to aid him against the Hospitallers. The sergeant offered the Knights a way into the fortress, a secret known only to him.

Templar of Tyre, p171 Anonymous 14th century historical account

With the fresh victory under their belt, they again attacked the fortress of Rhodes. The besieged city held on, and the siege was broken again. Villaret would eventually leave Rhodes to take counsel with the pope in France in 1307. There he gained the pope's blessing for a new crusade against the Mamluks. Villaret amassed a force of 200–300 Knights and 3,000 soldiers. Boarding 26 ships they set sail, not for the Holy Land to fight the Mamluks like the Pope thought, but to Rhodes

It seems that the reinforcements were not needed, as a ship carrying provisions crucial to the besieged people of Rhodes was blown off course. This ship landed on the coast of Cyprus and was captured by a knight who shared allegiance to the Hospitallers. The ship’s captain was brought before Grand Master Villaret outside of Rhodes, where the captain warned the Rhodians on the walls that no food would be coming. In response, the Rhodians surrendered the city and control passed to the Hospitallers without bloodshed.

Excerpt from Ad Providum Papal Bull decreed by Pope Clement V,1312.

The wealth of the now-defunct Knights Templar fell into the hands of the Hospitallers, and with it, the majesty of Rhodes came into focus. The former Byzantine Citadel was converted into a palace for the Grand Masters; they built towers and forts, fortifying the walls in the process. An effort to encourage immigration to the island increased the population and bolstered the economy.

The Knights Hospitaller swiftly began policing the region, enforcing a ban on trade with the Islamic world and slapping around the Venetians in the islands. Successive naval victories quelled piracy in the Dodecanese islands.

One hundred and thirty three years of relative peace followed, until the Mamluks, angry with the trade blockade, sieged the city in 1444. Eighteen thousand men attacked the walls for naught and, after incurring heavy casualties, fled in their ships.

A new threat arose from the east. The burgeoning Ottoman Empire had stomped out the last vestige of Byzantium, the great city Constantinople. Its Theodosian walls, thought to be unassailable, crumbled under the great barrage of Ottoman cannons.

Account of Sultan Mehmed II entering the fallen city of Constantinople. The Siege of Constantinople by Kritovoulos 1453

The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaeologus, lay dead. His remaining nephew, a boy of ten, was converted to Islam and raised in Mehmed's court, though it should be noted that Mehmed allowed the people of Constantinople to keep their Eastern Orthodox faith as long as they accepted Ottoman rule. In actuality, the people of Constantinople preferred the Ottomans over the Venetians.

The Hospitallers remained a plague on the Ottomans, sinking many Ottoman ships off the coast of Anatolia. After 30 years of constant harassment, Mehmed assembled an army to take Rhodes.

To lead the assault, Mehmed assigned his Grand Vizier, Mesih Pasha. A convert to Islam at the age of ten who was raised in Mehmed's court, he was the very same nephew of the last emperor of Byzantium.

On May 23rd, 1480, Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson looked out from his balcony at the Palace of the Grand Master. One hundred and sixty Ottoman ships spanned the breadth of the sea before him.

The Siege of Rhodes, 1480

Account of a speach by Pierre d'Aubusson 1480, Cod. Dipl. Geros., ii., Num. cxxv.

Great chains were pulled taut beneath the waters of the harbors, impeding any ships from invading from the waters edge. Seventy thousand Ottoman soldiers surrounded the walls of the city. (The exact numbers are debated; I picked the largest of the numbers for funzies.) Swiftly they prepared their batteries, unleashing a terrible barrage: immense bronze cannons belching stone nine palms wide(they are all over the place in Rhodes, look for them in my photos).Siege cannons vomited their fury without respite, raining their terror down upon the city. Towers toppled, homes laid to rubble, streets turned to stretches of impassable ruin. The great palace shook, losing great chunks on the gardens below.

Five hundred knights and two thousand soldiers readied themselves for war. Women, children, the old and infirm were whisked away, sheltered in caves beneath the city. The people of the city united to quell the flames that leaped up in the chaos. Grand Master d'Aubusson donned his armor, mounting a white steed. He was seen moving between the harbor and the city, shouting words of encouragement.

Account by Pierre d'Aubusson 1480

The Tower

The Ottomans set their sights on the Saint Nicholas Tower, a fortress that guards the harbor. Positioning three of their greatest cannons, they set to dismantling the post with vicious determination. d'Aubusson sent reinforcements to the tower and, determined to keep the fortress standing, they continually patched the damage incurred.

Realizing the limited range of the cannons, the Knights taunt the Ottomans, even feasting atop the tower just out of cannon range. d'Aubusson could be seen astride his white steed in the harbor.

The Ottoman Pasha, nephew of the last emperor of Byzantium, formed a plan. Through genius and cunning, he stripped a great many flat-bottomed ships, lashing them together. The Knights watched with wonder.

At midnight, when all was quiet, the lashed ships swung out from the coast, creating a bridge that spanned the harbor, reaching the Tower of Saint Nicholas. The stunned Knights leapt to their feet as shots rang out across the water.

A torrent of Ottomans rushed across the floating bridge, four men abreast. There, at the water's edge, they met the Knights in pitched battle. The Knights of Saint John held back the flood of Ottoman soldiers.

Fighting was fierce, yet the Ottomans in their light armor, wielding slashing swords, were ill matched for the seasoned Knights adorned with shining plate armor. d'Aubusson, with reinforcements from the city, strode into the fray, lance in hand.

Masses of dead and dying filled the waters. As dawn broke, d'Aubusson was wounded, yet fought on. At 10 a.m. a cannonball struck the bridge, sundering it. The Ottomans, with no retreat, melted beneath the Hospitaller's swords. No Ottomans touched the soil that day; 2,500 Ottoman bodies floated back to Anatolia.

Final Stand

After losing the day, the Ottomans moved camp, positioning themselves at the section of wall they deemed the weakest: the walls of the Jewish Quarter. I don't think it is a coincidence that the Jewish Quarter had the weakest walls. Let this be a reminder that neither of the armies here were to be idolized. For example, the Jewish people of the city did everything they could to help during the siege, and d’Aubusson would reward this later by expelling all of them from the city. These Knights are extremist militant Christians.

The bombardment resumed, with the walls of the Jewish Quarter the focus of their wrath. The Ottomans filled the moat with stones and bodies, endeavoring to make passage of the piled rubble. Thirty-eight days it took, but they amassed the required stones to pass over the walls. In a horrible rush they overwhelmed the men on the wall, erecting their standard in victory. d’Aubusson hastened to their position, engaging the greatest of the Ottoman forces, the Janissaries.

d’Aubusson was knocked from the wall, but was imperturbable, returning to the crush. Bodies piled; Janissaries tumbled from the wall to be slain on the grounds below. The Knights fought like dragons. Only death awaited their failure, the stakes erected in the Ottoman camps a reminder of what that failure would mean: torture and impalement.

d’Aubusson, bloodied and unbridled, struck down the Ottomans before him. The standard of the Ottomans, ripped from the ground, was thrown off the castle walls. The Ottomans turned to run as the banner of the Knights of Saint John stood again, the inimitable ward of this city of Rhodes.

Obsidionis Rhodiae Urbis Descriptio Gulielmus Caoursin, vice-chancellor of the Knights Hospitaller

d’Aubusson knelt in supplication before collapsing from blood loss. The Knights of Saint John harried the Ottomans back to their camp, taking the standard of the Pasha as a symbol of the Ottoman defeat.

Aftermath

Defeated, Mesih Pasha returned to Constantinople to meet an irate Mehmet the Conqueror. Mesih Pasha was lucky to keep his head and was instead demoted from Grand Vizier. Mehmet II planned another campaign against Rhodes, but would never carry it out. He became ill and died in 1481.

Grand Master d’Aubusson was wounded five times during the siege, one of which was deemed mortal by his doctors. He would recover and would eventually become a Cardinal.

Oh yeah, and you might be wondering about the Jewish people he exiled from Rhodes. Don't worry, it was just the adults, he enslaved all the children, who were then forcibly baptized.

Next time, on The History of Rhodes Part Three: the Ottoman sultan Sulieman the Magnificent enters the fray, the Hospitallers say bye-bye, and Benito Mussilini wears a speedo. Cheers!