Posted on 07/07/2007 1:10:40 PM PDT by wagglebee
Same struggle, different day.
Their valor and ingenuity are still an inspiration today.
lol
Finally.
Arguably both the Ming Emperor and the King of Spain were contenders for this title.
Ottoman military power was based on essentially pre-modern organization of men and animals. It was largely funded by loot.
Modern military power, based on chemically-powered weapons and fiscally sound governments, was just developing. Although it was not obvious to many at the time, on either side, the Turks could just not compete on this level.
You probably know this, but the falcon in question was the one sent by the Knights to the Emperor in thanks for his donation of Malta to them after they were evicted from Rhodes.
Oh nooo, I thought that man looked familiar! Hahahaha, yeah ol’ Harry was cool :)
Are you referring to st sophia? I think that mosque was turned into a museum not too long ago.
I’m looking for a house/apartment near the harbor in Valletta, Malta.
Stunning views.
The other fun thing is that when I think of Greenstreet, Lorre and Bogart, my mind eventually swings around to "Casablanca" as well. Another great film.
The battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571.
The Christians were not greatly outnumbered, having roughly 42,000 men to roughly 47,000 for the Turks. Also the Christians had about 220 ships to about 270 to 300 for the Turks, but the Christian ships were on average larger and more powerful.
The battle was fought to a large extent between Christians armed with arquebuses and Turks armed with compound bows.
Unfortunately, the battle did not did not bring an end Turkish naval power, as they rebuilt their fleet within six months and conquered North Africa and Cyprus after Lepanto, and within a few years were again routinely raiding Sicily and southern Italy.
However, it was a portent of the future and Turkish fleets generally tried to avoid full-tilt combat after Lepanto.
Interestingly, Cervantes fought at Lepanto, was wounded three times, and had his right hand permanently crippled.
Thanks for the link. That is impressive reading, as well.
Middle Easterners teach this history to their children who are raised with the deesire to avenge these losses. Unfortunately, our children know nothing about this.
Yes, it is a National Museum now. Pope Benedict XVI and the Eastern Patriarchs visited there on his visit to Turkey last year. It is beautiful. It was the result of some very touchy negotiations to host the Pope’s visit.
OOPSIE
I’m redfaced now.
I posted that from memory. I just looked it up. In 1569 the venetian arsenal exploded. The battle was paid for mostly by spain who got the money from it’s colonies in the americas. Apparently king phillip II had as much to do with it as don juan did.
Ok, how about this then...the battle of Lepanto was the worst defeat ever suffered by the turks at sea. After this battle, the turks’ naval strategy was to avoid direct head to head battle with christian navies unless they had an overwhelming advantage over the christians. And, it was all down hill from there for the turks. Although it took a few centuries for the end to come to pass.
Better?
Sad that we have to wait for infamy to prod us into action, but that seems to be our temperment.
I agree, it is very sad. About half of this country has never learned several key life lesson's: 1) If you don't learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it, 2) As JFK said, "Ask not what this country can do for you, what can you do for this country?"
It really is shocking. As long as the gov teat is turned on, why worry about anything else. I got mine. Now I can worry about an IPod and watching Opra. The "you owe me" generation, after generation, after generation has done considerable damage to this country.
The Democratic party has been the enabler of most of this. But you could always count on the Republican party to counter / thwart most of the idiocy. No longer. And that is scary.
When the next Pearl Harbor does occur, this crowd will be the first ones to scream bloody murder. And you did, what...?
Fortunately, the other half of the country is paying attention.
Just MHO.
No need for a new script - the Victorian author G. A. Henty wrote a book about the siege of Malta entitled, “A Knight of the White Cross”. You can read it for free if you download it from the Gutenberg Project. (WWW.GUTENBERG.ORG)
Nor should there be....Evil can only be defeated by KILLING IT!
Works for me.
Well written, a little on the gruesome side. But then, gruesome describes what actually happened.
It does an excellent job of describing the events, in particular the defense of St. Elmo.
lessons to be learned
Martel knew them
Coeur de Lion knew them
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.