see Part 1
Imperial Spanish Flag
The Ottoman Turks had been besieging the Island of Malta since May of 1565. That September, Felipe II’s Imperial Army was in Sicily ready to lift the siege. Don Garcia de Toledo has been retraining the Spanish Tercios after their arrival from Netherlands. The terrain on Malta was vastly different than those of Holland and Flanders. Sicily was similar in terrain to the Island of Malta. The soldiers of this relief force were not all Spanish. Of the 10,000 that were preparing to relive the Island, 3,000 were Italian. In the Spanish Empire Italians were considered equal partners. The Spanish Empire claimed it was a restoration of the Roman Empire. Italians and Spanish are linguistically culturally close, both are Latin people who claim descent from Romans. The Spanish trusted the Italians more so than they did Flemish or Austrians. Italians were extremely loyal to the Spanish Monarchy.
Imperial Spanish Army
The Spanish relief forces landed on Malta on September 8th. News had reached the Turks that the Spanish had arrived. The Turkish commander Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha, who actually was Albanian decided to engage the Spanish in battle. The 2 forces met at Mdina on September 11th, 1565. The Spaniards were anxious for battle. They were fanatical Catholics who loved death and to take on the enemies of their faith. The Turks wanted a victory to tho redeem their honor from the failed siege. The 2 best warriors of the 1500’s were about to face off.
To Mustapha, still unable to confront the possibility of defeat, this information offered a chance to salvage something from the wreckage. He decided on one last throw of the dice. Before daybreak on Tuesday, September 11, he disembarked ten thousand men from the galleys in the dark, so that his intentions could not be detected, and started to march north in battle formation with the aim of defeating the relief force before it could recover from the voyage.
[….]
In the early morning, the ten thousand men of the relief force were drawn up on the high ground beyond Mdina. They had had two days of rest and something more than ship’s biscuit to eat: each company had been given a cow or an ox. Many of the men were Spanish veterans from Philip’s Italian possessions, pikemen and arquebusiers, accustomed to open field warfare and experienced in fighting in organized formations. The troops were drawn up for battle. The Spanish banners were unfurled, and the kettledrums beat a battering tattoo. The bristling squares of steel-helmeted men waited for the Ottoman charge.
As the Turks approached, the Spanish and Italian commanders found their men increasingly difficult to control: “Not even at the point of the sword could they restrain their men, so great was the desire of all to come to blows with the Turks.” Both sides realized the advantage of the high ground and rushed to command a hillock beyond Mdina surmounted by a tower. The Spanish won the race, raised their banners, and started to force the enemy down the hill. The Ottomans tried to stand and fight but were driven back; the fighting was fierce—men were shot down by arquebuses or by arrows—and the sun, now at its zenith, was intensely hot, “so great that I maintain I never knew it so hot in all the siege as on that day,” wrote Balbi. “Christians and Turks alike could hardly stand from exhaustion, heat and thirst, and many died.” Mustapha’s decision to attack was now shown to be a terrible error of judgment. The Christian force was larger than the Morisco had claimed—and they were far fresher than the Muslims, who had been in the field for four months. The Ottomans started to waver. Mustapha’s arquebusiers held the line for a short while, but the onward momentum of the Christians proved unstoppable. The impact of the Spanish pikemen led to a rout. Mustapha, brave to the last, tried to halt his men’s flight. He killed his horse to demonstrate there would be no retreat and ran forward to place himself in the front line. It was to no avail; his men were fleeing in disorder down to the sea before the rapidly advancing enemy, flags flying, drums beating, the knights in their red-and-white tunics, the Spanish levies stabbing and jabbing with their pikes. Ascanio was wounded; Don Alvare had his horse shot from under him, but the forward momentum of the Christians was now irresistible. The Ottoman officers were unable to control the men at all; they turned in disorderly flight. Mustapha dispatched an urgent order to the fleet to bring their ships in close to the shore, prows forward with their guns ready to cover the retreat. The arid plains leading down to the sea became a scene of slaughter. It was so hot that men from both sides collapsed under the weight of their armor and died; but the Spanish relief force was stronger and fresher. Shouting “Kill them!” they swept forward with the force of vengeance. With the memory of Saint Elmo still vivid, the order was given to take none alive. Some of the Turks fell to the ground and could not, or would not, get up. They were killed where they lay.
Spanish victory over the Turks at Mdina.
It was a decisive Spanish victory. The cream of the Spanish Empire met and defeated the cream of Ottoman Empire. On September 11, 1565 the Spanish Tercios had once again triumphed. They had defeated an army that up that point was considered invincible. The vaunted Turkish Janissaries were no match for the Spanish infantry. The Supremacy of Spanish arms over the Turks was without question. Never again would the Ottomans fight the Spanish in a land battle. This was the Stalingrad of its times. 2 Empires clashed and one emerged triumphant.
The Turks and Spanish would again face off at the sea battle of Lepanato in 1571. Once again the Spanish soldiers would prove too tough for the Turks. The Islamic Turks finally met an enemy more fanatical and more fearless than them.
When the news arrived in Madrid at news of the Spanish victories, King Felipe II was overjoyed. The defeat of Djerba has been avenged and he can rightly claim to be the most powerful man on the Earth. He was truly an heir to the Roman Caesars. Malta had been saved and Spanish dominance of the Western Mediterranean was secure. Spain was the undisputed top power on the Earth.
