Siege of Rhodes (1480)

In 1480, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, conqueror of Constantinople, sent a large fleet and army under the command of Mesih Pasha to capture Rhodes, stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller. The Knights, led by their Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson, had only a few thousand defenders, including knights, mercenaries and local Greek inhabitants, against an Ottoman force that may have numbered tens of thousands. The Ottomans bombarded the city with heavy cannons for weeks, particularly targeting the Tower of Saint Nicholas guarding the harbor and the Jewish quarter walls. The defenders repeatedly repaired the damaged walls and threw back attacks. In late July, the Ottomans launched a massive final assault and broke through the walls, but the knights counterattacked fiercely, and the attackers were driven back with heavy losses. Mesih Pasha abandoned the siege in August. D'Aubusson, wounded several times, became a hero across Christian Europe. The victory was one of the few major Ottoman defeats of the time. The Knights strengthened the fortifications, but Rhodes fell in a second great siege in 1522.