An Christmas Eve it was all over. Philippe Villiers de L’Isle Adam, the Grand Master of the Order of Saint John, entered the Sultan Suleiman’s tent outside the city walls of Rhodes and capitulated on behalf of the defenders. Young Suleiman, later to be called the Magnificent, was touched by the sight of the haggard old man who bowed his knee before him. It saddens him, Suleiman is said to have said to his vizier, that he was forced to drive this brave man from his home. Then he gave the order to occupy the city.
For half a year, the Ottoman army had attacked the walls of Rhodes – first with little success, then with growing success. The fortifications of the island’s capital, which had been systematically expanded for four decades after the first Turkish siege in 1480, were among the strongest in Europe; their bastions, towers and curtain walls were state-of-the-art in Italian engineering. But even they could not long withstand the onslaught of an army of eighty thousand men armed with heavy artillery. In September, part of the southern wall collapsed after several explosive mines were detonated, and in October the attackers made another breach in the western section. By November it was clear that the besieged would no longer receive any outside support. But even the besiegers were exhausted. The handover negotiations were concluded shortly before Christmas. On the first day of the New Year, January 1, 1523, the defenders boarded their ships and sailed west. Of the six hundred Knights of St. John who had holed up on Rhodes with their local auxiliaries, one hundred and eighty men were still alive.