Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of theWorld

If you are going to read this book, you'd better like slaughter. It features lots of blood. Mostly, this occurs during sieges of fortified towns, but sea battles claim their fair share of victims too. All of it is described with great gusto, skill and narrative flair by the author, who clearly loves a good battle and knows how to recount it. In this, the book is similar to his previous work, 1453, which was largely devoted to the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmet the Conqueror. Fast forward three-quarters of a century to Mehmet's great-grandson Suleiman the Magnificent (known as "the Lawgiver" to the Ottomans), and once again the story and the carnage resume with Empires of the Sea. Crowley begins his story begins with the taking of Rhodes in 1522. Suleiman had been on the throne for only two years, and the tradition was that a sultan consolidated his authority early in his reign with a series of victories. He had already conquered the fortress of Belgrade, in what is today Serbia. Rhodes was next. Since it lay just off the coast of Turkey, and was a stronghold of the crusading Knights Hospitaller who had kept their toehold in the Eastern Mediterranean ever since being booted out of the Holy Land upon the failure of the Crusades, Rhodes was an obvious target. The Turks were very adept at siegecraft, and along with their massive advantage in manpower, took the Knights' key fortress after a prolonged siege and great loss of life. Suleiman generously allowed the defeated Knights to leave the island, thinking that would be the last of them. He was wrong. The balance of power in the sixteenth century in Europe and around the shores of the Mediterranean was mainly contested by two great powers: the Ottoman Empire and the Hapsburg Empire. The Ottomans' territories stretched across much of North Africa, and then from the Middle East through Turkey and the Balkans, all the way to Hungary. Their expansion into Central Europe was largely checked by the Hapsburgs, whose territories were a patchwork quilt across Europe, and included parts of Central Europe, Austria, parts of Germany, parts of Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. Suleiman the Magnificent was to enjoy a long reign of almost half a century, from 1520 to 1566, the longest serving sultan of the Ottoman Empire. His main opponent, the Hapsburg King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, had a similarly long reign from 1516-1556. Both monarchs had other worries than just each other. Suleiman was regularly engaged in wars in the Balkans as well as against the Persians, fighting a war against the Safavid Persian Empire that lasted nearly a quarter century. Charles V had to deal with the very combative Kings of France and with rebellious subjects in the Netherlands. At various times, the French would even go so far as to ally themselves against the Ottomans to counter the power of Charles V. In the Mediterranean, the Ottomans expanded across North Africa, absorbing the Barbary States of Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers. Autonomous provinces of the Empire, they were still an important part of the Ottoman military presence in the Western Mediterranean because of their fleets of corsairs. The corsairs functioned partly as free-lance pirates and partly as instruments of Ottoman naval power, seizing shipping and mounting coastal raids in Spain, the Balearic Islands and along the coast of Italy. However, strategically situated in the middle of the Mediterranean was the island of Malta, off the coast of Sicily. The Knights Hospitaller, after their defeat in Malta, had roamed homeless for some years, before eventually being given lordship over under the island, under the leadership of the Grand-master La Valette. Here, they became the Knights of Malta, and carried on their war against Islam, mainly through imitating the tactics of the corsairs. The Knights seized shipping wherever they good, roaming throughout the eastern Mediterranean under the noses of the Turks. After they seized one ship too many -- to be precise, the galley of the Sultan's Chief Eunuch -- Suleiman decided to put an end to the Knights once and for all. A massive invasion fleet was dispatched in 1565, and the fortresses of Malta were besieged. Tens of thousands died, but just as the fall of Malta seemed imminent, a Spanish relief force was landed and put the Ottomans to flight. The capital of Malta, Valletta, is named in honor of the commander who successfully defended it against near-impossible odds. Not long after, Suleiman died on campaign in Hungary -- though his death was kept secret, by using a double to conceal his death, until his retinue could return with his cold body to Istanbul. His successor and sole surviving son, Selim, was determined to follow in his father's conquering footsteps. He immediately set out to take the Venetian possession of Cyprus, with a much larger force than the one which had attempted to take Malta. After a couple of very bloody sieges -- of Nicosia and Famagusta -- the island was taken. These sieges are described in graphic, sometimes gruesome detail by Crowley. The new and aggressive Sultan was the proximate cause for the Christian powers of the Mediterranean, principally Philip II of Spain, Pope Pius V, and the Venetians to form a new alliance. Assembling a massive fleet, they set out to hunt down the Ottoman fleet. Amazingly, in October of 1571, they did so. What followed was the bloodiest naval battle in history, at Lepanto just off the west coast of Greece, as two massive fleets of oared galleys collided with one another in a spectacular cataclysm. The superior firepower of the Christian fleet prevailed, mainly due to the Venetians whose heavily armed gun platforms, known as "galleasses", destroyed most of the Ottoman fleet and killed 40,000. Through all of this, Roger Crowley's gift as a story-teller shine through. He focuses mainly on the military events and the personalities of the major military leaders, using his great narrative powers and his eye for interesting detail and anecdote to enliven the story. Yet he sketches in enough of the background grand strategy of the major powers involved to provide wider understanding. Even if you know nothing of this era of history or its war-making techniques, Crowley manages to make the story both clear and compelling.

In his notes and acknowledgements at the end of Empires of the Sea, Professor Crowley describes his book as a "short, general work". This is a good criterion for reviewing his work, and modest in terms of his achievement. In clear language and with a fine eye for detail, Prof. Crowley recounts the most dramatic events of a key time in western and Middle Eastern conflict. Between 1521 and 1571 the Ottoman Empire would effectively reach the limits of its effort to bring the last of the Roman Empire into "the House of Islam". For their part the European powers would employ marginally superior technical advantages to stop Ottoman encroachment, and having done so, loose interest in the Mediterranean theater. With the power of a huge unified empire, and centuries of military planning, the Ottomans under able leaders like Suleiman could add to Muslim holdings almost at will. It is made clear to the reader that The Ottomans' could amass huge quantities of men and material, organize the complex problems of logistics and execute siege plans detailed down to sanitary requirements. Failure to provide supplies or victory in accordance with imperial edict was a matter of life and death. Hence failure was rarely an imperial problem. Against this unity of effort, the Europeans were poorly organized, in the main lead by a capable if bureaucratic King Philip of Spain. He would have regular support from the Pope, but would have among his allies the self -interested Venetians and a mix of heroic and unreliable field commanders. His logistic support would never be reliable and much like his decision-making never timely Both sides would claim exclusive possession of the THE True religion. Troops on both sides would be led by chivalric ideals and fought in the fine balance between lust for loot and fear of slow death. In some cases the support of the local population would be critical to military success, in others the locals would be valued as little more than sacrificial. Given that the Ottoman's consistently had the advantage in manpower, siege skills, the supply train and unity of purpose, Crowley could have spent more time making clear the technical advantages the west had in the building of defensive positions, plate armor and ultimately in heavy ships. These topics are mentioned and mentioned more than once. What is missing is a more systematic comparison. This may represent a decision to emphasize the dramatic over the prosaic. That is, to go into too much technical detail can be boring and can reduce the fact that the in the main battles, the European defenders were more than heroic in fighting against greatly superior numbers. Not getting any more technical than he did means that the book is decidedly not boring. The reader gets a vivid appreciation the fear suffered by coastal dwellers in the face of piratic and government directed raids. Life inside a besieged fortress is one of surviving as your enemy systematically encroached on your walls, reduces them to rubble then murders the last defenders, even as those unfit for battle are taken as slaves. The contrast with the speed to decision, that is a sea battle could not be more dramatic. Leplanto, one bloody day at sea, would produce as much death as months of siege. It would prove more decisive than years of warfare over island and coastal outposts. Professor Crowley is able to provide reasonable outlines of the various problems diverting the time and resources available to King Philip. There are general references to the Turks having similar problems with the Persians or elsewhere in their empire. I would have wished more information in this area. Over the years I have read that the tem "crusader" is violently resented in much of the Middle East. Locals still hate the fact of and the stories of the invading Christian Armies. It has also be proposed that the failure of the Ottoman Turks to roll over Europe before the locals there began to see themselves as a unified culture, was that Muslims did not find much worth the conquest. Empires of the Seas helps to fill in that period between the previously unstoppable march of Islam and a Turkic power no longer competitive with a newly ascendant Europe. As such it is can assist the reader seeking to understand the historic context of events from Egypt to Afghanistan. It is well researched. Professor Crowley skillfully presents a history accessible to the general reader and valuable to the student of history.

Well-written, is both informative and interesting. You can hardly visit the Greek islands, Malta, Rhodes etc. without being touched by the history and events covered in this delightful book.

Libro molto interessante, scritto in maniera avvincente quasi fosse un romanzo. Interessante anche la descrizione dei caratteri dei personaggi, rende più comprensibile l'evoluzione storica dei fatti narrati. Al pari di City of Fortune, È un peccato che non sia stato tradotto in italiano.

Et une lecture passionante.

Empires of the Sea by Roger Crowley covers the time period between 1520 and 1580 when Ottoman naval forces fought for suzerainty over the Mediterranean with the Spanish and the Venetians. The story starts with the honourable surrender of Rhodes by the Knights of St John under L'Isle Adam to Suleiman (the Magnificent) after a longer siege in 1522 and their later moving to Malta in 1530 with Charles V's permission. During that time the two Barbarossas (Oruch and Hizir - later Hayrettin) terrorize the Mediterranean. Hayrettin enters into Suleiman's service and becomes admiral of the sultan, Andrea Doria his adversary in the service of Charles V. 1565 Suleiman's fleet (Piyale Pasha) and army (Mustapha Pasha) attack Malta. After initial successes of the Ottomans (the taking of St Elmo) and a lengthy and brutally fought siege, the defenders under grandmaster Jean de la Valette repulse the massive invasion force with the help of a ten thousand man strong relief force sent by Philip II (the Prudent). 1570/71 the Ottomans take Nicosia and Famagusta from the Venetians with an eighty thousand man strong force. The holy league created under Pius V (Spain, Venice and the Papacy) comes too late to rescue Cyprus from the Ottomans but faces the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto. With luck (the Ottomans seek open naval confrontation) and under the command of Don Juan of Austria the holy league prevails. The battle left and estimated forty thousand dead. Later in 1580 Spain and the Ottoman Empire conclude a peace treaty and set out the spheres of influence of both maritime powers. Nothing less than brilliant!

One of the best history books I have read! While writing history Roger Crowley can conjure images of the past as only few others can. Master storyteller! Thank you!