Siege of Rhodes 1522 - Ottoman Wars DOCUMENTARY

[Music] by 1517 the Ottoman Empire had successfully annexed the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and thus had secured control over Egypt Syria Hejaz and the Levant the Empire nearly doubled in size at this time but the descendants of the House of Osman would soon hunger for further expansion a number of events would make the Ottomans vie for naval dominance in the Mediterranean Sea taking roads was the crucial first step for gaining this dominance and that made a war with the Knights Hospitaller inevitable this video is made possible thanks to our sponsor Wix Wix is a free platform that you can use to create your own website customized to your liking for any purpose from business to personal Wix is technologically advanced platform offers hundreds of unique templates and various unique apps that you can add to your site Wix is innovative editor tool gives the users total design freedom and it allowed us to build a new website our site is a one-stop shop to our content you can watch and subscribe to our YouTube videos see our Facebook feeds access our merchandise and connect with us on all of our social media Wix allows us to have another outlet to continue to produce great historical content and share it with our followers support our channel and build your own site by clicking on the link in the description or by entering the URL Wix comm slash kings and Generals the Ottoman takeover of Egypt changed the situation in the Mediterranean Basin as European merchants lost their spice trade routes it was also crucial in terms of Islam as the last adversity caliph Alberta were killed the third was captured and forced to surrender the title to Selim the first which meant that the Ottoman Sultans now claimed over all leadership over the Muslim world according to Ottoman sources that forced the Safavid Shah Ismail the first to sue for peace with Selim but that is not confirmed by Iranian sources however we know that a large garrison was left by the Ottoman Sultan in eastern Anatolia on his way back to the capital during this period the ottomans became eager to build a sizeable Navy both to defend against the superior European naval powers and to gain new lands in the region the expansion of Spain in northern Africa created another opportunity as the Emir of Algeria decided to invite the ottoman privateers ulraj and harridan who would later be known as Barbarossa to help him against the Spaniards in 1516 by 1518 hayraddin made algeria and ottoman province and although spain continued to fight him for a few years the ottomans now had a springboard to attack both Italy and Spain in 1520 Sultan Selim the first passed away succeeded by his son Suleiman today known as Suleiman the Magnificent the new Sultan's desire was to gain more lands in Europe as the hungarian kingdom was going through a period of crisis in 1521 Suleiman restarted the war against it his goal was the most important fortress on the Danube Belgrade we have limited information on the siege but it started on the 25th of June and it seems that there was a few hundred strong garrison defending by the end of August Belgrade was captured opening the heart of Europe to Ottoman conquest at the same time Suleiman continued his naval preparations he wanted to conquer the island of Rhodes in order to strengthen his position in the Mediterranean the owners of this island were the Knights of st. John also known as the hospitalist they had been a thorn in the Ottoman side for more than a century and a failed attack on them had already been made in 1482 understand the Knights of st. John we must go back a few centuries to their origin the Knightly order begun in the time of the First Crusade as the Knights Hospitaller operated hospitals in the Holy Land for Christian pilgrims later they transitioned into a military order and by the time of the Third Crusade they had become one of the most formidable fighting forces in the Levant however in 1291 the Knights were pushed out of their last bastion on the mainland when the city of Acre fell to the Mamluks by 1310 they had managed to conquer the island of Rhodes from the declining Byzantine Empire and turned it into their new base of operations by 1521 the Knights of st. John had become notorious pirates skilled seafarers that were the scourge of Ottoman merchant ships in the Mediterranean they had been a constant drain on Ottoman resources and an obstacle in the Ottoman attempt to control the Mediterranean Sea first it is not surprising that after Belgrade had been taken Suleiman decided that the Knights of st. John had to be expelled from Rhodes for good [Music] the fortress in the city of Rhodes was the most fortified bastion in Christendom designed by the best Italian engineers money could hire it was easily defendable from all sides and protected in most areas by three rings of thick stone walls with protruding bastions which defenders could use to harass attackers from multiple angles the battlements were divided up into national segments with bastions defended by the French English German Lavanya provençale Spanish and Portuguese chapters of the Knights of st. John taking a fortress such as that would require a massive cost both in materials and human lives yet Suleiman remained adamant in his resolve the Grand Master of the Knights Villa air Delilah Dom knew that a siege upon his fortress was soon to come he sent messengers Percy Qing European leaders to come to the aid of Rhodes but this bore no fruit part of the venetian garrison on cyprus joined the hospitalist but that was all the help they were getting by June of 1520 - the 400 ship strong Ottoman Navy was ready to set sail led by the Sultan's brother-in-law mustafar Pasha the massive Navy sailed from its base in Gallipoli down to the island of Rhodes the entire island was blockaded isolating it from the world on July 28th the Ottoman army arrived upon the island led by sultan suleiman himself 100,000 strong it was made up of labourers engineers infantryman and the Sultan's elite Janissary Corps in contrast the defenders of Rhodes commanded by Philip Philly a Dalila Don numbered only six thousand seven hundred and three only seven hundred and three of which were the actual Knights have sent John with the rest being the Venetians and the native Latin and Greek population of the island the Knights were prepared for a siege by the time the Ottomans had arrived all the wheat on the island had been harvested and stored ensuring the Turks would not be able to live off the land a giant iron chain had been lifted across the city's harbour mouth ensuring no access into the city by sea they were prepared to see this battle out the Sultan had set himself up in a ceremonial tent outside of gunshot range and only then did the siege officially begin in early August Ottoman artillery began to bombard the fortress walls the Turks were at the peak of military technology and used everything from great bombard that cracked open stone walls with massive cannon balls to incendiary fire bombs fired into the city to sow chaos and death to its denizens despite this the masterfully designed walls of the Christian fortress held firm during the shelling the Ottoman forces had dug in and had created a network of protective trenches and wooden Palisades surrounding the fortress in order to undermine the fortresses defenses the Ottoman general set their sappers to dig their way under the walls and set explosive mines these sappers were mainly Christians recruited from the Ottoman Balkan territories and had a treacherous job they inched along yard by yard digging trenches towards the city walls and protecting themselves with wooden planks and animal hides despite this many sappers were killed by the defenders precise gunfire many more were blown up as the nights had set up an ingenious system by tying a sheet of animal membrane tightly between two wooden stakes with bells so that any vibration below the earth would cause ringing this would alert the defenders to sappers below who would detonate any nearby counter mines the defenders managed to collapse over 50 Ottoman tunnels they had also bought spiral-shaped vents into the walls of their fortress so the mines that did detonate had their blast force vented out and the structural damage reduced despite the best efforts of the defenders on September 4th two Ottoman mines beneath the English bastian detonated collapsing an 11 meter long segment of the wall and filling in the moat beneath it with an opening Ottoman inventory charged into the bastion and managed to drive off the Rodian defenders they planted banners on the battlements to celebrate their victory but were promptly driven off by a counter-attack led by the English knights and the Grandmaster Lila Dawn himself twice more the Ottomans attacked the breach but each time the English Knights aided by their German brothers held the line both sides took heavy casualties in this exchange it is said that the Sultan's master Gunners legs were blown off by a Rodian cannonball while the Knights had three major commanders killed by late September Ottoman morale had begun to decline yet on the 19th of that month ottoman spies manage to inform Suleiman that the Spanish and provençale bastions were less protected than they originally thought with no inner wall or protective dick with new resolve the Sultan ordered a renewed full assault on these portions of the fortress walls the Grand Vizier Mustafa Pasha led the attack the bombardment took the Knights by surprise and the Ottoman forces managed to get over the walls of the Spanish Bastian a fierce melee ensued with elite Janissaries dueling disciplined Knights the Spanish Bastian changed hands twice but ultimately the Ottomans were repulsed from the walls furious at this failure the sultan demanded that Mustafa Pasha be executed yet relented upon the pleading of his high-ranking officials to do otherwise nevertheless Mustafar was shipped off to Egypt and replaced with Ahmed Pasha an experienced military engineer back-and-forth fighting continued throughout the month of October mostly around the collapsed wall of the English Bastion the Knights and their Rodian subjects managed to keep the Janissaries at bay but each sortie would cost precious lives lives that's the highly outnumbered defenders could not afford to lose by December both the Ottomans and Rodian defenders were thoroughly demoralized the Ottomans had experienced a massive loss of life and disease ran rampant through their ranks killing many more meanwhile the Knights and Rodin's had few living defenders remaining and with no help on the way they knew they could not hold out much longer on December 11th peace talks between the two sides began Suleiman offered the citizens of Rhodes food and protection if they surrendered but death and slavery if he had to take the city by force negotiations would soon derail when the Latin and Greek citizens pushed too hard for assurances from the Sultan who ordered his men to resume embodying the city once more on December 17th Ottoman forces once more over ran the Spanish bastion and killed its defenders this time it remains permanently in Ottoman hands it was the end for the Knights there were simply not enough soldiers left to defend the city and the walls had been all but reduced to rubble after months of constant shelling a peace was made on the 20th and the terms were fairly amicable the surviving Knights would be spared their lives and be provided ships by the Sultan and to sail to Crete the citizens of Rhodes were promised safety from Massacre and the desecration of their churches and freedom from Ottoman taxation for five years the Knights departed from their fortress with honor wearing their full regalia and beating their drums they embarked on the ships provided to them after a valiant defense and sailed away from the island at this point the Ottoman and the Western sources differ with the latter claiming that a massacre followed and the Church of st. John was converted into a mosque immediately the sources are also conflicted on the number of the Ottoman losses ranging from a thousand to 20,000 casualties as a result of the conquest of Rhodes the Ottoman Empire secured total domination of the eastern Mediterranean Sea but the Ottomans would have to meet the hospital is in battle yet again for now sultan Suleiman was able to turn his attention towards the core of Europe his invasion of Hungary and the famous Battle of mohács would be soon to follow thank you for watching another episode in our series on the Ottoman Wars new videos in this series are on the way so make sure you are subscribed to our channel and half past the Bell button we would like to express our gratitude to our patreon supporters and channel members who make the creation of our videos possible now you can also support us by buying our merchandise via the link in the description this is the kings and Generals channel and we will catch you on the next one

Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 792,438

Keywords: Rhodes, 1522, Ottoman, Wars, Siege of Rhodes 1522, DOCUMENTARY, animated Documentary series, Hospitallers, knights of st john, Suleiman, Mohac, Magnificent, Belgrade, ottoman empire, history channel, knights john, siege malta, ottoman history, kings and generals, history lesson, full documentary, documentary film, animated documentary, decisive battles, world history, history documentary, Ottoman-Mamluk War of 1516-1517, Chaldiran, Otranto, Krbava, Kosovo, Constantinople, Nicopolis, Ankara

Id: wWFGzri4HOo

Length: 16min 20sec (980 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 20 2019