Knights Surrender Rhodes: Suleiman Grants Safe Passage

After five months of siege, the last Crusader stronghold in the eastern Mediterranean fell to the Ottoman Empire. On December 20, 1522, Suleiman the Magnificent accepted the surrender of the Knights Hospitaller on Rhodes, ending two centuries of Christian military presence in the Aegean. In a gesture of chivalric respect, Suleiman allowed the surviving knights and civilians to depart with their weapons and possessions. The Knights of St. John had held Rhodes since 1310, transforming the island into a fortified base from which they raided Ottoman shipping and sheltered Christian corsairs. Their presence was a perpetual irritation, sitting astride crucial sea lanes connecting Constantinople to Egypt and the Levant. Suleiman launched his campaign in June 1522 with roughly 400 ships and perhaps 100,000 men. Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam commanded only 7,000 defenders, including 500 knights. The fortifications had been extensively modernized, and the defenses proved formidable. Ottoman engineers dug miles of trenches and tunnels, attempting to breach the walls through mining while artillery pounded from above. Multiple assaults were repulsed with heavy losses. But the defenders were hopelessly outnumbered, received no reinforcements from Christian Europe despite desperate appeals, and suffered from dwindling supplies. A Portuguese knight convicted of passing information to the Ottomans weakened the defense further. With ammunition exhausted and the population starving, L'Isle-Adam negotiated terms on December 20. Suleiman, who had lost an estimated 50,000 men, granted generous conditions. The knights sailed to Crete, then wandered the Mediterranean for seven years before Emperor Charles V granted them Malta in 1530. As the Knights of Malta, they faced Suleiman again at the Great Siege of 1565.