On 19 May 1571 74 Ottoman siege guns fired
a thunderous barrage at the sturdy walls of Famagu-sta, the last stronghold of the
Venetian republic on the Island of Cyprus. An invasion army of almost 100’000 men,
led by the experienced Lala Mustafa Pasha, had already taken the inland capital of Nicosia
and by now had been camping outside Famagusta for more than eight months. The town was cut
off completely and supplies began to run low, but the defenders put up a fierce fight,
firing back at the Ottomans and meeting them in the trenches whenever possible. All the
more, the Ot-tomans were determined to finish the job and bring the formidable fortress to
its knees – and with it the whole of Cyprus. Before we continue, we’d like to mention that this
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Risk-free thanks to 30-day money back guar-antee. Chapter 1: Breach of Peace
A little more than a year earlier, in March 1570, a messenger read the
following words to the senate of Venice: “We demand of you Cyprus, which you shall give
us willingly or per force; and do not awake our horrible sword, for we shall wage most cruel war
against you everywhere […]. Beware, therefore, lest you arouse our wrath...” With this ultimatum
Sultan Selim II broke the long-lasting peace between the Ottoman empire and the powerful city
state of Venice. The two had been at peace for almost a quarter of a century and only recently,
in 1567 the peace had even been re-newed. But like his father Suleiman the Magnificent before him,
Selim pursued an expansionist policy. Suleiman had secured control of much of the Mediterranean. In
1565 he attempted to con-quer the island of Malta, the home of the Knights Hospitaller and a
steppingstone to mainland Eu-rope – but he failed. In 1567 Selim II laid eyes on Cyprus. This was
an obvious target for further ex-pansionist ambitions not only because of its strategic
value, but also because of its rich resources. However, Cyprus had been under Venetian rule
for almost a century, and it was one of the major overseas possessions of the republic.
Venice would clearly not just cede Cyprus. When Selim ended his campaigns in Hungary and
made peace with Emperor Maximilian II in 1568, he was free to devote all his resources to this new
enterprise and he indeed made it his prior-ity. He built up his navy, mustered additional
troops and sent an embassy to Cyprus – an explorato-ry mission poorly concealed as a
courteous visit. This agitated Venice although the Sultan’s inten-tions really only became
fully clear when he informed the senate that he considered Cyprus to be historically part
of the Ottoman Empire and demanded its return. Venice still hoped to avoid war, but
immediately began to prepare for the worst. The republic sent reinforcements to
the island and appealed for help to the Pope, King Philip II of Spain, and
various other Princes of Europe. When the aforementioned ultimatum reached
Venice in March 1570, there remained no doubt: The Ottoman empire would go to war. According to
the historian Caroline Finkel, this was the only occasion the Ottomans would break a peace treaty
in 16th century. The war Venice want-ed to avoid for so long was finally here.
Chapter 2: Preparations It was obvious for everybody, that Cyprus couldn’t
resist on its own for long. The island was very exposed and depended on all sorts of supplies from
the outside, for example gunpowder. In addi-tion, its location at the doorstep of the Ottoman
empire made it very difficult to support it from the west. There was no time to lose
since any help from Venice had to cross 2400 kilometers of largely Ottoman-controlled waters.
The freshly appointed captain General of the Sea, Girolamo Zane, immediately set out with a fleet of
seventy galleys, while the senate did his best to gather money and men. However, the response from
the states Venice had appealed to for help was not very generous. The Holy Roman Empire, Poland,
France and Portugal all found an excuse and the Knights of St. John sent only five ships of which
four were intercepted just after leaving Malta. Only pope Pius IV and King Philipp II of Spain
offered real support. Pius equipped 12 ships and Philipp promised to send the Genoese admiral
Giannandrea Doria with a fleet of 50 ships. However, he also instructed his commander not to
intervene and let the Venetians do the fighting. Venice itself produced a war fleet of 150
ships of which about 125 were galleys. Due to a misunderstanding, the Captain-General
of the sea, who was 79 years and very old for his post, waited for the Spanish and Papal Squadrons
at Zara. There, several epidemics and waves of desertion decimated Zane’s numbers even before he
sailed to Corfu on 12 June. There he learned that the Papal squadron under Marcantonio Colonna
was waiting at Otranto. Giannandrea Doria on the other hand had simply remained in Sicily,
claiming he had no orders to go any further. A Genoese, Doria had no love for the Venetians and
of the forty-nine galleys he commanded twelve were his own property. It took the pope’s personal
intervention for him to finally set sail. He reached Otranto on 20 August. There it again took
quite a bit of persuasion on the part of Colonna until Doria submitted to his command and followed
him to Crete as had been previously agreed. In the meantime, the Ottomans had finished
their preparations. On 27 June 1570, a van-guard of 22’000 Infantry and 12’000 cavalry with an
extensive artillery train boarded some 150 ships and set out for Cyprus. This force was led by two
experienced commanders. The same command-ers, in fact, who had led the attack on Malta five years
earlier. Lala Mustafa Pasha was in command of the land forces, Piale Pasha – as principal aide of
Grand Admiral Müezzinzade Ali Pasha – com-manded the navy. After a few days, the Ottoman invasion
force landed at Limassol, sacked it and then set ashore the land army and artillery in Larnaca bay.
The defenders were very nervous about the arrival of the Ottomans and heatedly debated their
strategy. In the end, they decided not to attack the Ottoman army in the field but to withdraw into
the two major fortresses of Nicosia and Famagusta. There they wanted to wait for the relief fleet.
Both strongholds had been improved recently, as the fear of the Ottoman siege capabilities
had caused an epidemic of fortress-building in the Mediterranean, as the historian Christopher
Duffy calls it. The medieval walls of Nicosia, the inland capital of Cyprus, had been pulled-down
completely and replaced by a three-mile wall, fortified with eleven strong bastions. Famagusta’s
defenses weren’t really uniform as several engineers had worked on it but Duffy stresses
the fact that Famagusta too had been modernized. Both were formidable fortresses and
the defenders believed that holding them and winning time would be their best chance.
However, this cautious strategy also benefitted the Ottomans who could land and make camp at
Salines without any opposition. From there, Lala Mustafa sent a blind monk who had been captured
to Nicosia with another an ultimatum. Either the Venetians would cede Nicosia voluntarily or the
Sultan’s wrath would destroy the city’s defenders. He received no answer and when more Ottoman
reinforcements arrived from the mainland on 22 July, the conquest of Cyprus began.
Chapter 3: Disaster When Lala Mustafa and his army arrived
at Nicosia, they numbered some 70’000 men. The Pasha set up the artillery south and
southeast of the city (opposite the bastions of Tripoli, Davila, Cos-tanzo, and Podocataro).
The sheer size of his army shocked the defenders. Their commander was the lieutenant Nicoló
Dandolo, a man not suited for this task at all. He switched back and forth be-tween frenzy
of activity and petrified paralysis. He was such a bad leader in fact,
that suspicion arose he was under Ottoman pay. Dandolo‘s biggest fear was to run out
of gun powder so that he rationed it right from the beginning. Or as the historian Kenneth Setton,
an expert on Ottoman-European relations puts it: “He had in miserly fashion doled out gunpowder
to his bombardiers as though it were gold.” As could be expected, the attackers made good
progress. Within six weeks they had driven their siege trenches to the walls, installed
breaching batteries and exploded several mines. Despite all this, the defenders held out
successfully against 14 waves of all-out infantry assaults branding against their walls.
The defenses only became dangerously close to being taken when Lala Mustafa was informed of
the delay of the relief fleet in late August and convened all the troops securing the fleet and
the island to join the siege. 20’000 fresh Ottoman soldiers took part in the last assault. Against
this force, the depleted defenders were helpless. The Janissaries, the Ottoman elite infan-try,
broke through at the Tripoli and Costanzo bastions and although resistance continued in the
city, Nicosia finally fell on 9 September 1570. Dandolo, hoping to negotiate special terms, came
out of his hiding in the palace in a velvet robe, but was beheaded by an Ottoman officer before he
could even plead for mercy. As was cus-tomary in all sieges of the time period, Nicosia was
sacked for three days after its surrender. The Ottoman soldiers allegedly found the richest
spoils since the conquest of Constantinople over 100 years earlier. All Venetian soldiers
who had defended the city were put to death. In the meantime, the Venetian relief fleet had
finally met the Spanish and Papal ships on Crete. But the negotiations about how to proceed had been
dragging on for weeks. Again, it was Doria who opposed any action. This time he was apparently
concerned about the battle-worthiness of the Venetian ships, and then suddenly reminded his
allies of the fact that he had orders to re-turn to Spain before the end of the month while also
bickering over several minor issues. Com-bined with a general discord about the strategy,
Doria’s reluctance caused negotiations to drag on until mid-September. Only then the fleet
of now more than 200 ships departed for Cyprus. When they replenished their reserves on the island
of Kastellorizo, however, devastating news reached them: The Ottomans had already landed, and
Nicosia had fallen to a vicious assault. Those com-manders who genuinely wanted to support
Cyprus gave in, and the fleet turned around. The relief attempt ended in a disaster.
Before any dust could settle on Nicosia, the Ottomans continued their offense. They sent
a message to Famagusta, informing its defenders that all soldiers in Nicosia had been cut to
pieces and that the same fate was waiting for them if they were not going to give up their
town. At first the people in Famagusta doubted that the formidable fortress of Nicosia really
had fallen that quickly. But when Dandolo’s head arrived in a basket some hours later, people got
the message: Their shoulders would be relieved of some weight next.
Chapter 4: Famagusta After a long march across the Island the Ottomans
arrived at Famagusta on 17 September. Lala Mustafa knew the town would be a tough challenge. About
8’000 experienced men defended it and this time they were led by very capable leaders, namely
Marcantonio Bragadin and Astorre Baglioni. They were supported by a formidable
militia of about 2’200 men and had prepared their defenses very well. When the
Ottomans arrived, the siege began at once. Lala Mustafa Pasha knew the main concern of the
defenders was hunger. He thus ordered his men to camp south and west of the city, opposite the
great Ravelin, the Gate of Limassol, the bastions of S. Napa, Andruzzi, Camposanto, and the Tower of
the Arsenal. From these positions they patrolled the region to prevent supplies from being brought
to the town. This worked quite well: supplies were melting away slowly yet steadily. Still,
the garrison pursued a very active de-fense, covered the Ottomans with a constant barrage and
frequently launched sorties, more than once even carrying the fight into the siege camp.
This went back and forth all winter long. In the meantime, Venice made every effort to get
help to Cyprus as quickly as possible. But the war with the Ottomans had plunged the republic into
severe supply issues. There was a serious lack of grain, the fleet was in disorder, and there was
also a shortage of money. On the diplomatic front, the Christian alliance that was proposing to
reconquer Cyprus was still far from concrete. Be-cause of the general frailty of the situation,
they ordered Zane’s successor, Sebastiano Venier, who was also already 74 years old and had
little experience in Naval warfare to send help from Crete. He immediately had Marco
Querini, the Venetian captain of the gulf, prepare a squadron of four sailing ships with
men and supplies and a 12 galleys escort. Once the fleet approached Famagusta in January,
Querini set up a trap for the Ottoman ships which were blocking the harbor. He had the sailing
vessels head directly for the port, while he stayed close to the shore with the galleys.
When the seven Ottoman vessels assailed the trans-ports, he emerged from cover and ambushed
them. The cannons of his galleys damaged three of the enemy ships so badly that they had to retreat.
At nightfall the sailing ships entered the harbor and delivered 1’700 soldiers, food and powder.
Querini stayed in Famagusta for about three weeks. During this time the adventurous commander
“ranged like a corsair through the neighboring wa-ters, destroying some Turkish forts and
capturing several ships”. When he left on 16 February the town was amply provisioned and both
ranks, and morale of the defenders were filled. In spring 1571 Lala Mustafa picked up the pace.
By now the besieging army numbered al-most 100’000 men and the Ottomans had ferried everything they
needed to the island to begin the next phase of the siege. At the end of April, Mustafa Pasha
moved parts of the Ottoman camp to the south of the town, requested additional artillery from
Nicosia and ordered his workers, about 40’000 in total, to the shovels. They dug approaches
and saps, that is trenches running in a zigzag line which would allow his men to get closer
to the walls safely. At the end of the month, they also began to build artillery platforms.
On 19 May they finished several of them and began their bom-bardment in earnest. 74
cannons thundered against the town. At first, most of their shots were not aimed at the walls
but at the city itself to demoralize the people. This happened quite often in sieges,
as it was much more effective than pounding against the sturdy walls designed
exactly to withstand such bombardments. The defenders’ answer was very similar and
very effective. They shot several artillery plat-forms to pieces, destroyed a lot of Ottoman
guns and killed many an Ottoman soldier. In fact, their artillery fire was so effective, that
it impacted the morale of the attackers. Lala Mustafa had to dial it down a notch
and pull his men back, while his artillery continued the bombardment of Famagusta for
three more days. After this the Pasha sent an envoy to the town offering terms. Braglioni
de-clined and the envoy turned around under the mockery and insults of the men on the walls.
However, their confidence didn’t match the situation at all. The ongoing barrage had
indeed demoralized the defenders and despite the additional supplies brought by Querini
they were run-ning out of powder and food by June. On 8 June the attackers reached the
counterscarp and began to fill in the ditch. They focused their attack on the southern wall
and despite the rocky ground dug several mines. The defenders had no choice but to take to the
same hard labor and dig counter-mines. But despite all efforts, the Ottomans came ever closer.
Chapter 5: Under Assault The first major assault came on 21 June,
when the Ottomans exploded a mine under the tower of the Arsenal. After the explosion
the Janissaries assailed the resulting breach for more than six hours. The defenders held them
back thanks to the fact that they were defending a bottleneck, but the fight wore hard on them.
By now the townspeople were starving. All cats, dogs, donkeys, other pets and working animals had
been eaten. Only mice, snails and some fish caught from the tainted water of the har-bor were left.
In addition, hope for relief was petering out. The Ottomans gave them no break. On 29 June they
blew up a part of the Ravelin and attacked it. Amidst the ruins the defenders fought
bravely and again threw the attackers back. Lala Mustafa was consternated by the bad
perfor-mance of his men and again had them rest while his artillery put up a dense barrage
to further weaken the town, now from new platforms just outside the ditch. This time, the fire
focused on the walls, especially the parapets. On 9 July the third assault finally brought some
degree of success. The Ottomans assailed the Santa Nappa bastion and again the ravelin. This
time they took it by storm. Having secured this advanced position, they targeted the Limassol
gate behind it and in a fourth assault on 14 July charged it. The defenders commanded by
Baglione met them in the ditch where fierce hand to hand combat ensued. The heavily armed
Venetians were outnumbered but they stood their ground. The Janissaries, armed more lightly
but battle-hardened assailed them mercilessly. Mean-while, the miners of Famagusta used the
distraction of this battle to make the finishing strokes on a countermine under the ravelin. When
it blew up, it destroyed what was left of the structure and killed about 400 Ottoman soldiers
who had taken position on the ruins. Nevertheless, the Otto-mans kept up the pressure and
exploded additional mines during the next days. They rebuilt the ravelin, installed a breaching
gun right on top of it and built a huge artillery platform opposite the tower of the arsenal.
Within the city every hand was struggling to keep together the crumbling defenses and
put out the fires set by the attackers. All but hope was running out fast and hope was
fading too. A mere 500 professional soldiers were left, the militia had been decimated and
the survivors were deprived of sleep and food. When Lala Mustafa again invited the Venetians
to capitulate on 22 Sep-tember, Bragadin called a council of war. The deliberations were
characterized by the thought of the massacre at Nicosia and the fact that the defenders no
longer had the means to maintain themselves. They certainly didn’t take the easy way
out, but surrender was their only option. Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to contact the
pasha. They had taken so long to make a decision that the next assaults were already incoming.
It would have been insane to send an emis-sary through the thick of battle. The letter was handed
over only after three additional attacks – in a tunnel under the tower of Camposanto where an
Ottoman mine and a countermine were so close that one could talk to the enemy. On 1 August a white
flag flew over the walls of Famagusta after all. Chapter 6: Betrayal
The terms of the peace were surprisingly generous given that the garrison
had resisted so long and caused Lala Mustafa so much trouble. The defenders were granted safe
conduct to Crete and were even allowed to leave under arms and with flying colors. This also
went for the natives of the island who had the choice of leaving or staying and keeping their
property. On the next day preparations for handing over the city began. Those who wanted to
leave, gathered their belongings and em-barked on some galleys made available by the pasha.
According to Kenneth Setton at this point many Ottoman soldiers had already entered
the town to plunder and it was thus a mere formality when Bragadin and Baglioni
set out to hand over the keys to the city. Lala Mustafa welcomed the embassy courteously
but then came up with a request not agreed on in the capitulation. He wanted hostages to guarantee
that his ships were returned to him after taking the Venetians to Crete. In addition, he accused
the Venetians of having betrayed him. Bragadin and Baglioni denying both his request and his
accusations, tried to soothe the increasing anger of Lala Mustafa – in vain. The situation escalated
and the pasha ordered the embassy to be arrested and had their escort killed on the spot. Then he
had the ambassadors executed one after the other, except for the native Cypriots and Marcantonio
Bragadin. The Venetian soldiers who had already embarked were put in chains and led away as
galley slaves. But the worst fate had been reserved for Marcantonio Bragadin. He was
tortured and then flayed alive on the main square. Only when the executioner reached
his waist did the poor man finally expire. With Famagusta the whole of Cyprus fell to the
Ottomans. Lala Mustafa who knew some-thing was in the making in the west, had the captives work
day and night to restore the defenses. And indeed, the efforts of the Pope and Venice had finally
achieved something. After months of tedious negotiations, they had found an agreement and in
May 1571 formed an alliance with sever-al major Catholic powers - the Holy League. The intention
was no longer just to relief Cyprus but to jointly face the Ottoman threat and stop their seemingly
unstoppable advance westward. When Famagusta fell, the Holy League was already preparing to get back
at the Ottomans. At the end of August, a fleet of more than 200 ships met at Messina. Soon, it
would confront an even larger Ot-toman armada in what is probably the most famous sea battle of
the early modern period – the battle of Lepanto.
