1551 Amphibious Ottoman invasion of Gozo
|
---|
Hungary and the Balkans
Mediterranean
|
The
Invasion of Gozo
took place in July 1551, and was accomplished by the
Ottoman Empire
against the island of
Gozo
, following an unsuccessful attempt to conquer nearby
Malta
on 18 July 1551. It was followed by a victorious campaign with the
siege of Tripoli
.
[4]
Attack
[
edit
]
Malta
[
edit
]
The Commander of the Ottoman fleet was
Sinan Pasha
, accompanied by
Salah Rais
and
Dragut Reis
.
[4]
[5]
The Ottomans initially landed on Malta, at Marsamxett, and a force of 10,000 men marched upon
Birgu
and
Fort St Angelo
, but they realised that these were too well fortified to be conquered easily. Therefore, the Ottomans turned their attention to
Mdina
, looting and burning the villages on the way. Meanwhile, the Knights in Mdina, under the command of
Fra Villeganion
, asked the people living in the villages to seek refuge in the city and to help defend it. When the Ottomans arrived they discovered a large garrison defending the city so they decided against the plan of attacking the city since they did not want to fight a long siege. Meanwhile, a relief fleet attacked the Ottoman ships anchored at Marsamxett.
Gozo
[
edit
]
The Ottoman then decided to attack nearby
Gozo
, which was under the command of Governor Gelatian de Sessa. After a few days of bombardment, de Sessa attempted to negotiate with Sinan Pasha, however the latter rejected the terms. A few days later the citadel capitulated. About 300 people escaped from the citadel by climbing down its walls and hid from the Ottomans. The other 6,000 people, including Governor de Sessa and the Knights, were taken captive and ended up in slavery, being sailed to
Tripoli
on 30 July. The Ottomans only spared a monk and forty elderly Gozitans.
[4]
According to legend, one of the defenders named Bernardo Dupuo (also known as Bernardo da Fonte or de Opuo) fought bravely when Ottomans breached the city walls, and killed his own wife and two daughters preferring death over slavery before he himself was killed by the invading forces. A street in the citadel is named after him, and outside his house lies a plaque commemorating his death.
Consequences
[
edit
]
Since few Christians remained on Gozo, families from
Malta
were encouraged by the
Order of Saint John
to repopulate the island. However it took about 150 years for the population to reach pre-1551 levels. A few Gozitans managed to redeem themselves from slavery, such as the notable Reverend Lorenzo de Apapis, who returned to Gozo in 1554.
[6]
Following the attack the Order set up a commission made up of Leone Strozzi and Pietro Pardo, who were engineers, to examine the Maltese Islands' fortifications and make suggestions for further improvements. The Grandmaster,
Juan de Homedes
, increased taxation and strengthened the coastal guards, the
Dejma
. Following Strozzi and Pardo's commission,
Fort Saint Michael
and
Fort Saint Elmo
were built to better defend the
Grand Harbour
. Bastions at
Mdina
and
Birgu
were strengthened, and the fortifications of
Senglea
were built.
The failure to take all of the
Maltese Islands
was also one of the causes of the
Great Siege of Malta
in 1565. Two other unsuccessful attacks were made on Gozo in 1613 and 1709.
[4]
During the sacking of Gozo, the archives of the Universita were destroyed by the Ottomans. The only surviving pre-1551 records relating to Gozo are a few documents in the
Notarial Archives
as well as some records in the archives of
Palermo
,
Sicily
.
[6]
Legacy
[
edit
]
A re-enactment of the invasion was made by Grade 5 students of
San Andrea School
in 1997, and a video entitled
A Tale of a Gozitan City
was released. The students played the roles of Turkish invaders, Knights, or Maltese peasants and filming was done on the schooner
Charlotte Louise
.
[7]
Din l-Art Ħelwa
produced a musical account of the invasion at Saint Michael's Bastion in the Citadel on 31 July 2009. This was centered on the legend of Don Bernardo de Opuo.
[8]
In 2013 a memorial to the siege was set up at the gardens of Villa Rundle in
Victoria, Gozo
.
The siege of Gozo features in Marthese Fenech's book Eight Pointed Cross (2011), part of her historical fictional series set in Malta.
The invasion of Gozo features prominently in
Dorothy Dunnett
's book The Disorderly Knights (1966), part of her fictional series
Lymond Chronicles
.
Notes
[
edit
]