The Great Siege of Malta

This superb new account of the siege emphasises the crucial importance of the siege while at the same time putting it in a far wider context. While since mistakenly recast as a climactic battle between the West and the East, it was also much more interesting and nuanced than that - both sides had many other interests and priorities beyond Malta. Suleyman the Magnificent had conquered and subsumed regions from Hungary to the Persian Gulf; Philip II was building an empire in America and Asia.

Drawing on a wide range of eyewitness stories, Marcus Bull gives a vivid sense of the period''s technologies, values and assumptions. It was a grim world built on the labour of many thousands of disposable galley-slaves, shockingly brutal forms of warfare and religious absolutism. But it was also a world filled with the most extraordinary new discoveries and ideas. Both these worlds come together in the siege and in this book.<>

Product details

• Authors: Marcus Bull, Bull Marcus
• Publisher: Penguin Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Release: 29.01.2026
• EAN: 9780141997759
• ISBN: 978-0-14-199775-9
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 35 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Malta, European History, Ottoman Empire, HISTORY / Europe / General, military history, HISTORY / Modern / 16th Century, Middle Eastern history, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, Mediterranean countries, Battles & campaigns, c 1500 to c 1600, Specific wars and campaigns, Early modern warfare (including gunpowder warfare), c 1560 to c 1569, HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / General