Speaker 1: It is The Jesse Kelly Show. Another hour of The
Speaker 1: Jesse Kelly Show. On an amazing Tuesday. We had a
Speaker 1: rip roar in first hour. If you missed any of that,
Speaker 1: including the Crappiest Country in the World Championship, you gotta
Speaker 1: go download the podcast. iHeart Spotify iTunes. We don't have
Speaker 1: any time for anymore of that right now. In fact,
Speaker 1: we don't even have any time for politics. Now. I
Speaker 1: should remember I have to keep this in mind. This
Speaker 1: is something that's easy to forget. Not everybody has been
Speaker 1: listening for the seven years we've been on the air.
Speaker 1: In fact, most have not. People come along relatively recently.
Speaker 1: So I need to explain something about me before I
Speaker 1: derail the show. I love history, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1: It's my favorite thing in the world. I love it.
Speaker 1: It is what I do in my spare time. I
Speaker 1: read history books. I gobble up all the history information
Speaker 1: I can. You want to hear the biggest old Man
Speaker 1: Jesse thing in the world. I love museums. I'm don't
Speaker 1: roll your eyes, Chris, I'm a museum guy. And occasionally
Speaker 1: on The Jesse Kelly Show, I try to do it
Speaker 1: every three or four weeks I would say, we take
Speaker 1: time and I tell a history story about some sort
Speaker 1: of historical event, battle, expedition of some kind, whatever happens
Speaker 1: to interest me. And yeah, we take requests for them
Speaker 1: and things like that. But I love it. I enjoy it.
Speaker 1: If we if you and me, if we could right
Speaker 1: all the wrongs in this country, get rid of all
Speaker 1: these dirty comies, I'd probably do history every single day.
Speaker 1: That's how much. That's how much I genuinely enjoy it.
Speaker 1: I'd quit and go just start a history podcast. But
Speaker 1: we got work to do now. Again. This is just
Speaker 1: in case you are new. I do not always fit
Speaker 1: it all in one show. This show is three hours long.
Speaker 1: It depends on the history tale. I've had these things
Speaker 1: stretch out three or four days. I'm just gonna go
Speaker 1: in and tell you right now, the chances I'm able
Speaker 1: to finish this entire thing tonight are It's almost zero.
Speaker 1: It's probably zero. We'll come back and do some more
Speaker 1: politics next hour. There's just so much background I want
Speaker 1: to go into, and then the siege itself. It's a
Speaker 1: little more complicated than some other things we've done. I
Speaker 1: have a lot a lot of reasons, but it's gonna
Speaker 1: take a little bit and I'm gonna talk history. If
Speaker 1: you don't like it, change the channel. I'll see you
Speaker 1: next hour or tomorrow. I love it. Now, I want
Speaker 1: you to imagine something. I want you to imagine that
Speaker 1: you are manning a cannon and obviously you are firing
Speaker 1: cannon balls at the other side, and the other side
Speaker 1: is firing cannon balls back at you. Not an ideal situation,
Speaker 1: obviously a little bit frightening. Only you see their cannons
Speaker 1: go off one day and you're thinking, uh, oh, I
Speaker 1: better take cover. There's a cannonball come in my way.
Speaker 1: Only after you duck down, you hear the cannon ball
Speaker 1: land and it doesn't sound like the other cannon balls
Speaker 1: at all. In fact, it made a kind of funny splat.
Speaker 1: So you poke your head up to see what the
Speaker 1: problem is, and you find out they didn't fire a
Speaker 1: cannon ball this time. They fired your best friend's head
Speaker 1: at you. We are about to talk about one of
Speaker 1: the nastiest sieges and most important sieges in human history. Honestly,
Speaker 1: you can say this siege probably affects the world we
Speaker 1: live in today, and the world we live in today
Speaker 1: possibly would have been radically different. What time period are
Speaker 1: we in now? The Siege of Malta is in the
Speaker 1: fifteen hundreds, and I'm about to give a bunch of
Speaker 1: background on the two different sides. So just hang with
Speaker 1: me for a moment. But it's important to understand just
Speaker 1: some basics about the technology and the world we live
Speaker 1: in in the fifteen hundreds, right, So this is post
Speaker 1: Christopher Columbus. You got that fourteen ninety two and all that.
Speaker 1: This is the era where there still have sailing ships.
Speaker 1: Ships still have sales in them. So there's no engines
Speaker 1: and things like that. But it's not all bows and
Speaker 1: arrows and sores words. However, there are crossbows, bows and
Speaker 1: arrows and swords and they are employed a lot on
Speaker 1: the battlefield. There are cannons, As I just pointed out,
Speaker 1: each every major country will have cannons at their disposal,
Speaker 1: and they have i'm gonna call them guns muskets, you know,
Speaker 1: old single shot things that they are the most basic
Speaker 1: thing you have ever seen, gigantic, heavy, cumbersome, not very
Speaker 1: accurate at all. We're look, you're not going to square
Speaker 1: up against a guy who's two hundred yards away and
Speaker 1: have a snowballs chance, and you know where of hitting
Speaker 1: him with these things. So yes, gunpowder and shot and
Speaker 1: those things they do matter. It is important. But I
Speaker 1: wanted you to understand we're still talking swords here, okay, lords, cannons,
Speaker 1: old old guns. Now, before we get to Malta, I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about two different sides Jerusalem. We're gonna
Speaker 1: go way, way, way, way way back. This is about
Speaker 1: the year one thousand, and in fact, very close to
Speaker 1: being exactly a thousand years ago. Jerusalem. You are well
Speaker 1: aware Jerusalem is considered a holy land for the three
Speaker 1: largest religions on the planet, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. That
Speaker 1: is the case today. If you go to Jerusalem today,
Speaker 1: you will see all three represented there. And it was
Speaker 1: very much the case back in this era. And the
Speaker 1: Muslims and the Christians both have laid claim to it.
Speaker 1: They want it to be theirs, and they're fighting over it.
Speaker 1: This is the era of what is known as the Crusades.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do a bunch of Crusades history.
Speaker 1: But you've heard of a pilgrimage, right you at least
Speaker 1: understand what a pilgrimage is. Christians at this time will
Speaker 1: make pilgrimages and the same way you would do today.
Speaker 1: I guess you could argue what we did as a
Speaker 1: show a couple of years ago was a pilgrimage. You
Speaker 1: are going to visit the holy sites of what you believe.
Speaker 1: Muslims make pilgrimages there as well. Christians would make pilgrimages
Speaker 1: to Jerusalem. While there, and remember there's all kinds of
Speaker 1: fighting going on and ugly things. An order has been started.
Speaker 1: What is an order exactly? I want you to think
Speaker 1: of the Knights of Columbus. You've heard of the Knights
Speaker 1: of Columbus. My father in law is a member of
Speaker 1: the Knights of Columbus. What do they do well. They
Speaker 1: serve the community in various ways. They'll give back, they
Speaker 1: do fish fries. It's an order. Orders were a little
Speaker 1: different back then. Now they did a lot of that
Speaker 1: as well. But they could be they could be orders
Speaker 1: of service, they could be military orders. An order begins
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem in the year one thousand and It is
Speaker 1: known as the Knights of Saint John, or the Knights
Speaker 1: Hospitaller or the Knights Hospitaler, depending on how you want
Speaker 1: to pronounce it. I'm going to tell you right now,
Speaker 1: I picked the one that I thought was the coolest sounding,
Speaker 1: and so it's the what I'm sticking with. The Knights
Speaker 1: of Saint John is the one I'm sticking with. But knights,
Speaker 1: hospital or hospitalery is a very very common way. It's
Speaker 1: an order. It was not a military order. When it began.
Speaker 1: You know the name hospitaler, hospital er, depending on your accent.
Speaker 1: It was a hospital. They started a hospital in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: They did not only treat Christians or Jews or Muslims.
Speaker 1: All were welcome. They started a hospital there. Hospitals. We
Speaker 1: are used to hospitals being everywhere today, even if you're
Speaker 1: in a rural area, there are hospitals twenty thirty minutes
Speaker 1: from you. If you're in an urban area, you're probably
Speaker 1: ten minutes from a hospital. That is not the case
Speaker 1: in the ancient world. They started a hospital to care
Speaker 1: for the sick. But like I said, this was an
Speaker 1: era where there was quite a bit of com It
Speaker 1: still is, but there was quite a bit of controversy
Speaker 1: over this chunk of ground. Wholly to the Muslims, holy
Speaker 1: to the Christians. The Jews are not gonna they're not
Speaker 1: going to play a major role in our story here.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna set them aside right now. And they
Speaker 1: were fighting over it, the Christians and the Muslims were
Speaker 1: fighting over it. And if you were a Christian making
Speaker 1: a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, remember flying in on United you
Speaker 1: have to walk, ride a horse, ride a camel, and
Speaker 1: it was a dangerous affair. We'll continue in a moment.
Speaker 1: It is the Jesse Kelly Show on a wonderful Tuesday,
Speaker 1: doing some history right now on the Siege of Malta.
Speaker 1: If you're just joining us, don't worry. You just missed
Speaker 1: a touch of background on one of our two sides.
Speaker 1: The Knights of Saint John or Nice Knights Hospitaller. They
Speaker 1: start a hospital in Jerusalem around the year one thousand.
Speaker 1: But Christians making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem at this time
Speaker 1: they kept getting attacked, attacked by robbers, attacked by Muslims.
Speaker 1: It was a problem. So the Knights and I should
Speaker 1: pause real quick. Jewish producer Chris said something during the
Speaker 1: break about the Knights Templar. There's a very famous this
Speaker 1: is not them, this is not them. It's a no.
Speaker 1: I wasn't insulting you, Chris, but a lot of people
Speaker 1: would think are these the same nights. The Knights of
Speaker 1: Saint John were a Catholic order very similar to the
Speaker 1: Knights Templar. These are not them. This is a separate group,
Speaker 1: all right. So they expand and they go from being
Speaker 1: just a hospital just giving medical care to a military order.
Speaker 1: Now they are a strict military order. They are funded
Speaker 1: by various sources, and they are well trained, very very
Speaker 1: good fighters. Eventually, during those crusades, the Muslims are led
Speaker 1: by a man named Saladin. If you are ever, if
Speaker 1: you are a history buffet, all know anything about the crusade,
Speaker 1: you will have heard of the name Saladein. Saladein was
Speaker 1: a famous Muslim general, very very talented, and he won.
Speaker 1: It became his And after he won, he took this
Speaker 1: military order of knights and he kicked them out. He
Speaker 1: kicked them out to a place called roads. Now we're
Speaker 1: going to pause for just a moment. The Knights of
Speaker 1: Saint John are on a place called Roads. In case
Speaker 1: you're wondering where this is. This is important for our story.
Speaker 1: Like I said, there's going to be a lot more
Speaker 1: background in location here to try to explain who's who
Speaker 1: and what's what and where we are and I know
Speaker 1: you're listening, not looking at it. So the Mediterranean, you
Speaker 1: know about the Mediterranean, you're at least aware of it.
Speaker 1: That's where Greece and Italy and all that. The southern France,
Speaker 1: Southern Spain, that's where all those things are. But Italy,
Speaker 1: Southern Spain, Southern France, that is the Western Mediterranean. The
Speaker 1: Eastern Mediterranean is Greece, and this is where Turkey is located,
Speaker 1: all right, So that's the Eastern Mediterranean. The Mediterranean has
Speaker 1: always since boats have gotten onto the water, the Mediterranean
Speaker 1: has been prized choice territory. You want the Mediterranean to
Speaker 1: ship goods and men, and you want to be able
Speaker 1: to ship things to and fro. The Mediterranean is prime
Speaker 1: real estate, and it is still prime real estate to
Speaker 1: this day. You want to be able to own the waves,
Speaker 1: own the shores on those waves. By the way, I
Speaker 1: should note northern Africa. This is all part of the Mediterranean.
Speaker 1: Now that brings us to the Ottoman Empire. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to go into the whole background on the Ottoman Empire.
Speaker 1: We've done a bit of them before, and we'll probably
Speaker 1: do a bit of them again because they're a fascinating,
Speaker 1: powerful empire. They rose up and they began to conquer
Speaker 1: the world around them. Very very powerful, very very smart,
Speaker 1: science heavy, really sharp empire that was run in a
Speaker 1: really sharp way. And they're Muslim. What was Europe? Europe
Speaker 1: was Catholic slash Christian. Honestly during the era we're in,
Speaker 1: that's when Protestantism and the Catholics were starting to kill
Speaker 1: each other. We're not going to go in any of that.
Speaker 1: I'm going to dumb this down and just say Europe
Speaker 1: was Catholic at this time. Okay, Europe's Catholic, Europe's Christian
Speaker 1: or whatever. The Ottomans are Muslim. That may mean nothing
Speaker 1: to you, maybe you have no belief system or whatever,
Speaker 1: but that is not at all important to our story.
Speaker 1: What is important to our story is it meant everything
Speaker 1: to both sides. For the Ottomans as they rose up
Speaker 1: and they began to conquer really the Muslim world. They
Speaker 1: were conquering much of the Muslim world, pulling them under
Speaker 1: the Ottoman umbrella. They were selling themselves and viewed themselves
Speaker 1: as we are the protectors of Islam. We are the
Speaker 1: ones who will spread Islam, we will protect the people
Speaker 1: of Islam. And for a very very, very long time.
Speaker 1: The Ottomans saw themselves that way, and many people in
Speaker 1: the Islamic world saw themselves that way. Now, as the
Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire, this Islamic Empire was rising, Christian Europe, Catholic
Speaker 1: Europe was afraid, and understandably so. It wasn't an ungrounded fear.
Speaker 1: The Ottoman Empire was spreading and conquering and spreading and conquering.
Speaker 1: And there was an event which we've done before. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to go into it, the Byzantine Empire or
Speaker 1: the Eastern Roman Empire, depending they would have called themselves Roman.
Speaker 1: They had Constantinople. It was really the center of Christianity
Speaker 1: at the time, and in the fourteen hundreds, the Ottoman
Speaker 1: Empire took the center of Christianity at this time. Whatever
Speaker 1: your belief system is, I want you to picture what
Speaker 1: you consider to be maybe your most holy or cherished place.
Speaker 1: Imagine it falling to what you consider to be your
Speaker 1: religious mortal enemy. The fall of constant Antinople rocked and
Speaker 1: brought a whole lot of fear into Christian Europe. These Muslims,
Speaker 1: are they gonna come kill us all? Are they gonna?
Speaker 1: Are they gonna come bring Islam and force it into
Speaker 1: all of Europe. They're so powerful, how do we stop them?
Speaker 1: So this happened in the fourteen hundreds. Now something else
Speaker 1: had happened then. Remember I said that the Knights of
Speaker 1: Saint John were sent to Rhodes, and we'll get to
Speaker 1: that in a moment. Jesse Calishow dot Com. We're doing
Speaker 1: a little history on the siege of Malta and I
Speaker 1: realize they're a bit a bit a thousand of them.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about the one in fifteen sixty five. Okay,
Speaker 1: just to spoil it, but we're not quite there yet.
Speaker 1: The Knights of Saint John get kicked out of Jerusalem
Speaker 1: when the Muslims conquer it, and they get sent to Rhodes.
Speaker 1: But they don't just sit around on roads. They fortify roads.
Speaker 1: Now here's the important part. I just talked about the
Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire expanding and growing, spanning and growing. They are
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Mediterranean at this time. Rhodes is over
Speaker 1: there in Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean. They attack roads,
Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire does. The Knights of Saint John were
Speaker 1: not chumps, as we will continue to find out. They
Speaker 1: were hard as nails, and for them this was a
Speaker 1: deeply religious conflict. They saw themselves as being the protectors
Speaker 1: of Christenedom, the protectors of the Catholic Church, the protectors
Speaker 1: of people who believe in Jesus. In the same way
Speaker 1: the Autumn saw. Ottomans saw themselves as you know, the
Speaker 1: sword of Islam, all those things they attacked roads. The
Speaker 1: Knights fight so valiantly that the big cheese of the
Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire says, hey, by the way, his name is Suliman.
Speaker 1: I probably should go ahead and name him. I try
Speaker 1: not to give you too many details and names, but
Speaker 1: Suliman the Magnificent, I'm sure he nicknamed himself. Suliman the
Speaker 1: Magnificent is so impressed by how valiant the Knights fight
Speaker 1: he does not wipe them all out. When he defeats
Speaker 1: them at Rhodes, he says, you know, you guys fought
Speaker 1: like lions. I respect that, so you may go. He
Speaker 1: grants them clemency and safe passage for their bravery. So
Speaker 1: anyone he hadn't already killed, he says, you can go. Well,
Speaker 1: now you have the Knights of Saint John, this religious order,
Speaker 1: and they don't have a home, so they are given
Speaker 1: a home by Christian Europe. Their home is a place
Speaker 1: known as Malta. Where is Malta. Here's where it is.
Speaker 1: You know, I told you there's an Eastern Mediterranean and
Speaker 1: a Western Mediterranean. Don't worry if you don't have it memorized,
Speaker 1: it's not important. There's an eastern half and there's a
Speaker 1: western half. You know, Italy, that boot that comes down,
Speaker 1: and then there's that huge island, Sicily that's right off
Speaker 1: the toe of that boot. Right to the west of
Speaker 1: that boot. Right below Sicily, there is a frankly, pretty desolate,
Speaker 1: crappy piece of rock called Malta. So when the Knights
Speaker 1: of Saint John were given Malta, you should understand a
Speaker 1: couple things. This was not exactly a luxurious post. But
Speaker 1: they were people without a home at this time, and
Speaker 1: there were Maltese people on Malta who weren't necessarily given
Speaker 1: a choice in this whole thing. The knights were given
Speaker 1: this place, and the knights stepped in and they made
Speaker 1: it their home. Now, I already told you the Ottomans
Speaker 1: were expanding. They were coming. They were coming west towards Europe.
Speaker 1: They were moving from the east to the west. They
Speaker 1: were already taking over places like Hungary. Christian Europe is
Speaker 1: not only divided in fighting itself, they are deathly afraid
Speaker 1: of the Ottomans who are coming the Ottomans. The Ottomans
Speaker 1: as they seize more and more control of the Mediterranean,
Speaker 1: they are taking over. I already told you how important
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean is today and was in yesteryear. They are
Speaker 1: taking over valuable sea lanes, and they're now getting stupid
Speaker 1: wealthy shipping goods and services back and forth across the Mediterranean.
Speaker 1: So you're a knight, you're in Malta. What do you do? Well,
Speaker 1: you're on an island. You're there to protect Europe. The
Speaker 1: Ottomans are the Muslims are your sworn enemy. You need
Speaker 1: to build up the fortifications of the island and then
Speaker 1: get your butt on a boat and you need to
Speaker 1: go make life very very miserable for the Ottomans. And
Speaker 1: they do. The Knights essentially, they kept calling them, They
Speaker 1: call them corsairs. You've ever heard that term corsair? Corsair?
Speaker 1: You know what a corsair is. It's a pirate's it's
Speaker 1: a pirate. When you don't want to call somebody a pirate,
Speaker 1: The Knights sail forth and they start creating nightmares for
Speaker 1: the Ottomans, raiding ships, raiding goods, kidnapping people. They are stealing,
Speaker 1: essentially stealing now, I already said Sulaiman, the magnificent big
Speaker 1: Cheese of the Ottoman Empire. He had previously let the
Speaker 1: Ottomans go, or let them sorry, he had previously let
Speaker 1: the Knights of Saint John go. He had given them clemency.
Speaker 1: He was displeased, to put it mildly, to find out
Speaker 1: that the Knights of Saint John, who he had let go,
Speaker 1: we're now raiding his ships and making his life miserable.
Speaker 1: He thought that was completely out of line. And frankly,
Speaker 1: he probably has a pretty good point, but that's not important.
Speaker 1: What is important is this Suliman not only goes down
Speaker 1: to Northern Africa and takes over the portion of Northern
Speaker 1: Africa the Knights had. Word gets back to the knights.
Speaker 1: You see, this is every era is an era of
Speaker 1: intelligence gathering and spying. I already said. The Ottoman Empire
Speaker 1: had taken over Constantinople, it's known today as Istanbul. They
Speaker 1: had taken over Constantinople, that was the capital of the
Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire. Word got back to the Knights on Malta
Speaker 1: that Suliman the Magnificent was building a large fleet. The Knights.
Speaker 1: It didn't exactly take a genius to figure out what
Speaker 1: he was planning on doing with that fleet. They figured
Speaker 1: out he was coming, and they knew it was going
Speaker 1: to be large. They knew that he was going to
Speaker 1: be coming to take Malta from them. So now I
Speaker 1: have to do something, and I'm probably gonna have to
Speaker 1: do this a couple of times, but I try to
Speaker 1: make sure you can visualize what we're dealing with here,
Speaker 1: and this is probably the most complicated thing I will
Speaker 1: ever have you visualize. So I'm going to simplify it. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know what pac Man looks like. Everybody knows what
Speaker 1: pac Man looks like. He got it, pac Man. If
Speaker 1: you don't know what pac Man looks like, I can't
Speaker 1: help you. Okay, pac Man. I want you to picture
Speaker 1: pac Man and his mouth is open to the right,
Speaker 1: all right, His mouth is open to the right. For
Speaker 1: simplicity purposes, this is going to be our Malta. Okay,
Speaker 1: you have your pack pat Man, pac Man pictured in
Speaker 1: your head. Now, pac Man on his lower jaw towards
Speaker 1: the back of his lower jaw. He has two teeth.
Speaker 1: They're close to each other. They're both coming out of
Speaker 1: his lower jaw. He has two teeth. You with me.
Speaker 1: There are four locations that are going to matter for
Speaker 1: the siege of Malta. The siege of Malta is not
Speaker 1: one gigantic fortress. It's a big, desolate, crappy island. It
Speaker 1: is four locations. There is one. Don't worry about memorizing
Speaker 1: all this. I'll keep covering it again. There's one on
Speaker 1: pac Man's nose, up by where his nose would be.
Speaker 1: This is going to be the site of a lot
Speaker 1: of nastiness. This is called the Fort of Saint Elmo.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about memorizing the names the teeth down to
Speaker 1: the teeth. The teeth have names, which we'll get to.
Speaker 1: That's not important. I'll get to those in a little
Speaker 1: bit now. The fourth location is his tonsils, way back
Speaker 1: in the back of his mouth. And again I'm making
Speaker 1: this very simple. M Dina is what it's called. So
Speaker 1: you have his nose, two teeth, and his tonsils. That
Speaker 1: those are the four locations of the four fortifications on Malta,
Speaker 1: and the Ottomans are coming and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: them and the Knights have to get ready. We'll continue
Speaker 1: in a moment. It is the Jesse Kelly's Show on
Speaker 1: a Fantastic Tuesday. Remember you can email the show Jesse
Speaker 1: at Jesse kellyshow dot com. As we as we go
Speaker 1: over the Siege of Malta. So that was a little
Speaker 1: bit of the background. The Knights of Saint John are
Speaker 1: digging in on Malta. They know the Ottoman Empire is
Speaker 1: coming with the massive invasion fleet, and so they begin
Speaker 1: to fortify the island. The four locations I already discussed
Speaker 1: just for your reference in case you're interested, it is
Speaker 1: the Fort Saint Elmo, Seglia, Burgo and m Dina. Don't
Speaker 1: worry about those four locations. Don't worry about the names.
Speaker 1: Just know there are four locations. For now, we're going
Speaker 1: to focus on a couple different things. How are they
Speaker 1: planning on fighting this? What are the Ottomans bringing first?
Speaker 1: The Knights of Saint John on Malta. They understand there's
Speaker 1: very little chance for them to win without help. Now,
Speaker 1: I already said Europe it was not a unified place then,
Speaker 1: it's not a unified place now. But back then it
Speaker 1: was really really not unified. The Knights were sending out
Speaker 1: essentially help wanted letters. They were reaching out to the pope,
Speaker 1: they were reaching out to kings. Hey I need troops,
Speaker 1: I need help, I need boats that the Ottomans are coming,
Speaker 1: the Muslims are coming. Help, please send help. They are
Speaker 1: not getting rejected. I should clarify. But everyone they're asking
Speaker 1: for help from, they're most definitely dragging their feet. Oh hey,
Speaker 1: you need some help. Yeah, well, you know, I got
Speaker 1: to move some things around. We'll get on that at
Speaker 1: some point in time. Keep in mind, they're desperate, they
Speaker 1: need help. Now, what kind of numbers are we talking
Speaker 1: about here? About seven hundred knights. That number will be
Speaker 1: disputed no matter what source you read, but traditionally it's
Speaker 1: thought to be about seven hundred knights. There are some
Speaker 1: civilians on the island, as I pointed out, and there
Speaker 1: are some other troops a few thousand who aren't knights.
Speaker 1: Remember the Siege of Malta is normally it's sold as
Speaker 1: seven hundred Knights versus thirty thousand Ottomans, and the Knights
Speaker 1: had some help, but the Knights were most definitely the biggest, strongest, toughest.
Speaker 1: They were the leaders of this whole thing. So that's
Speaker 1: what they had. Now I gave the game away a
Speaker 1: little thirty thousand ottomans. They're crossing the sea. They have
Speaker 1: these gigantic galleys. Picture this, This is a galley. Is
Speaker 1: a big ship. Eight hundred people on one ship. Even
Speaker 1: if you picture old sailing ships as large, that's amazingly large.
Speaker 1: They not only have sails, they have oars. Who mans
Speaker 1: the oars slaves? Remember slavery. I know your history professor
Speaker 1: told you that America was the only person, the only
Speaker 1: country that ever participated in it. No, it has always existed,
Speaker 1: will always exist, exists to this day as well. And
Speaker 1: some of the worst slavery I've ever read about are
Speaker 1: galley slaves. You are down in the bows of a ship.
Speaker 1: It is nasty, it is smelly, Disease is every where.
Speaker 1: The work is absolutely brutal. So anyway, these huge ships
Speaker 1: are coming across the ocean. There are two different commanders
Speaker 1: on this ship. Before they even get to Malta, they
Speaker 1: are fighting with each other. They end up in a
Speaker 1: nice little squabble. Generals have egos too, so that's already
Speaker 1: a problem. But shouldn't be a big issue, right because
Speaker 1: they obviously outnumber the Knights. There aren't that many of them.
Speaker 1: In case you're wondering, pause, what were they arguing about.
Speaker 1: Where They argued about a lot, but one of the
Speaker 1: main things they were arguing about is, Okay, we have
Speaker 1: these four locations on Malta. We have pac Man's nose,
Speaker 1: his tonsils and the two teeth, and his bottom jaw.
Speaker 1: What do we attack first? The guy who was in charge,
Speaker 1: the guy who won the argument, he wanted to attacks
Speaker 1: Fort Saint Elmo, w to attack pac Man's nose. So
Speaker 1: they show up, they land their ships on there, and
Speaker 1: they start bombarding this fort. Now, maybe you think this
Speaker 1: fort is completely impregnable. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Speaker 1: This fort is not impressive at all. It is not.
Speaker 1: It is a fort, and the Knights have known they
Speaker 1: are coming, so they're building it up. But this is
Speaker 1: not some gigantic, impregnable fortress. The Ottoman's land right around
Speaker 1: pac Mans i'd say, his forehead. They land their boats,
Speaker 1: they land their troops, they put all their cannons out there,
Speaker 1: and they start firing their cannons at Fort Saint Elmo
Speaker 1: while the cannons are firing. They are digging trenches. In
Speaker 1: case you're wondering, historically this is one of the most
Speaker 1: ways to take a fortified city, not just tunnels, but trenches.
Speaker 1: How does this work. Here's an example of how trenches work.
Speaker 1: You obviously cannot just get in the ground with a
Speaker 1: shovel and start digging in a straight line towards a
Speaker 1: fort because then they're going to take their cannons and
Speaker 1: their guns and they're just gonna shoot it down the
Speaker 1: trench and murder everybody. So you instead you have to
Speaker 1: zigzag back and forth, back and forth, essentially keeping the
Speaker 1: trench always as a wall between you and the guns
Speaker 1: that are on the fortification. Well, right away we are
Speaker 1: seeing a problem the Ottomans are going to have. I
Speaker 1: already pointed out that Malta is crappy, it's wind swept,
Speaker 1: it's a rock. We're not talking about a lush place
Speaker 1: before the Ottomans got there. The man in charge of
Speaker 1: the knights, it's the last name I'm going to give you,
Speaker 1: dave Lette is his name. He is the top knight, Davallette. Yes,
Speaker 1: in case you're wondering, he is French. Don't hold that
Speaker 1: against him, dave Lette, the man in charge of the knights.
Speaker 1: He goes and he finds all the houses, all the food,
Speaker 1: all the live stock around Malta, and he burns down
Speaker 1: the houses, takes down everything, takes the food, and brings
Speaker 1: all the stuff inside of the fortifications. A thirty thousand
Speaker 1: man army from the Ottoman's lands, and there's nothing for
Speaker 1: them to find to eat. They have to bring it
Speaker 1: all with them. Now we will pause right there, and
Speaker 1: we'll continue again tomorrow