On this day, Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan and leader of the Ottoman Empire, made his second attempt to conquer the island of Malta in a siege that lasted almost four months. Having driven the Knights Hospitaller out of their island stronghold in Rhodes in 1522, Suleiman was determined to drive them out of Malta and to use the island as a strategical stepping stone in his long-term plan to conquer more of Europe. The islands of Malta and Gozo had been granted to the Knights in 1530 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and they had quickly turned the island of Malta into an important naval base, renaming themselves the Knights of Malta. Although heavily outnumbered by the Ottoman troops during the ‘Great Siege of Malta’, the Knights and their Spanish, Greek, Italian and Sicilian allies managed to fight off the invaders who eventually retreated on the 8th September.
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