Monemvasia: the last straw?

In November 2016, I travelled to Greece along with my friend Mr Justice Grazio Mercieca. We drove straight from Athens down to the southernmost point of the Peloponnese. We were heading to the rock of Monemvasia, or Malvasia. We were eager to see for ourselves what could have been the last in a string of events that persuaded Suleiman the Magnificent, the Law Giver, Sultan of the mighty Ottoman Empire, to unleash with unprecedented anger his military might against Malta in 1565.

This particular episode in the history of the Order of the Knights Hospitaliers of St John in Malta consisted in a rare military expedition, a venture well beyond the naval and logistical reach of the Order, and this notwithstanding, it had the full support and approval of Grand Master Jean de Valette – a military expedition undertaken only some seven months before the start of the Great Siege on May 28, 1565.

[attach id=774669 size="medium" align="right" type="image"]Cover of book by Haris A. Kalligas, Monemvasia: A Byzantine City State.[/attach]

Monemvasia is a sizeable rock, approximately three times the size of the island of Filfla, barely habitable, which was severed from the mainland by an...