The Knights of St. John

by Augusta Theodosia Drane

The last days of L’Isle Adam were, however, clouded with fresh sorrows; he lived to see the breaking out of that great religious revolution which was to change the face of Europe. In the proscriptions and martyrdoms that took place in England, we have the names of four knights of the order[34] who gave their lives for the faith, many others perishing in prison; while scarcely a month passed without bringing fresh refugees to Malta, where the paternal tenderness of the grand master supplied them with the means of support. But the extinction of the language of England, and the gloomy cloud that hung over the Church, laid the last weight on that burden which had long been pressing down the heroic soul of L’Isle Adam to the dust. He died in the arms of his knights, on the 21st of August 1534; and over his tomb they engraved these words:

“Hic jacet Virtus victrix Fortunæ.”[35]

The effects resulting from the expulsion of the knights from Rhodes, and their temporary suspension from all active operation against the infidels, were soon felt throughout Europe. Solyman, secure from their attacks, was free to turn his attention to the northern frontier of his empire, where the recent fall of Belgrade, and the distractions of the kingdom of Hungary, seemed to hold out promise of an easy conquest.

Louis of Hungary, a prince wholly unequal to the government of his factious and ambitious nobles, rashly gave battle to the superior forces of the sultan on the fatal field of Mohacs, where he fell, with the flower of his troops, on the 28th of August 1526. The battle lasted only two hours, yet in that short space of time there perished with their young monarch 4000 knights (comprising the greater portion of the Hungarian nobility), 8 bishops, and 20,000 common soldiers. In true Tartar fashion, a pyramid of 2000 human heads was raised before the imperial tent; and, ere he resumed his march, Solyman the Magnificent had 4000 prisoners massacred in cold blood! As he advanced he ravaged the whole country with his troops, burning towns and cities, and slaughtering the inhabitants even on surrender; so that it is calculated that Hungary lost no less than 200,000 of her people in this terrible invasion; and when he withdrew his army, laden with immense booty, he dragged with him into slavery, and to all the horrors which slavery among the Turks involves, 100,000 captives.

The death of Louis increased the disorder of affairs by raising the question of a disputed succession. The crown had indeed been previously settled on the representative of the house of Austria; but Zapolya, the ambitious wayvode of Transylvania, seized the occasion to proclaim himself king, on the plea that none but an Hungarian could reign in Hungary. Finding himself unable, however, to resist the power of the Archduke Ferdinand and his party among the magnates, he had recourse to the unworthy policy of calling in the Ottomans to his aid. The year 1529, accordingly, saw the terrible hordes of the Turkish invaders again let loose on the frontiers of the kingdom. Before them marched a wild irregular force of 30,000 men, whom the Germans denominated “the sackmen,” and whose atrocities, under their leader Michael Oglou, were of the most appalling character. Hungary was soon overrun; and within five months from the day when they crossed its frontier, the vast army of the Turks, amounting to more than 300,000 men, appeared under the walls of Vienna (September 27th, 1529).

Never had the dreaded standards of the infidels been known to advance so far into the heart of Christendom since the day when the Moors had received their decisive overthrow on the field of Tours. But there seemed little chance of such a triumph to the Christian cause in the present case; for Vienna, with ruinous and inadequate defences, and a garrison of no more than 20,000 men, could scarcely look to offer more than a brief resistance to such an overwhelming force. By the first prisoners who were taken by his skirmishers Solyman had sent back a message to the following effect: “That should the city venture to resist, he would not retreat till he had reduced it; and then he would spare neither old nor young, nor the child in the mother’s womb; and would so utterly destroy the city that men should not know where it stood. He would not rest his head till Vienna and the whole of Christendom were under his subjection; and it was his settled purpose within three days, namely, on the feast of St. Michael, to break his fast in Vienna.” Nor to the terrified inhabitants did this seem any idle threat; for, as they gazed from the walls, they could behold nothing but a forest of tents stretching as far as the eye could reach; and the reports which had been brought in by fugitives from the country told of horrors which fulfilled to the letter, and even surpassed in savage atrocity, all that menace could express or imagination depict. One by one all their communications from without were cut off, and the mines and batteries of their assailants began their fatal work.

The siege may be said to have formally opened on the 29th of September; but in spite of their superior numbers, every effort of the Turks to render themselves masters of the city was unsuccessful. On three different days they assaulted the walls, which had been reduced to ruins by the explosions of their mines, but each time they were repulsed with loss; and the superstition of the Turkish troops came in aid of the heroic defence of the garrison to bring about the abandonment of the enterprise. The law of Islam commanded three attacks on an enemy, and no more; when, therefore, the third assault failed, the soldiers, yielding to the fatalism of their nation, declared their unwillingness to prosecute the attempt any further. A last desperate assault was indeed made on the 14th of October, out with the same result that had attended those which had preceded it; and Solyman, yielding to necessity, gave orders for a retreat.

An hour before midnight the army began to move, and marked its departure by one of those frightful deeds of cruelty so frequent in the annals of Turkish warfare. The Janizaries set fire to the huts they had constructed, and to all the forage and plunder they had collected but were unable to carry away. At the same time they commenced a general massacre of the Christian prisoners, of whom vast numbers had been brought into the camp by the “runners and burners” during the three weeks of the siege, reserving only the fairest youth of both sexes, whom they tied together by ropes and hurried away into an infamous captivity. The old men and women, and the little children, they threw into the midst of the burning piles, while such as were of an age to bear arms they cut to pieces or impaled. The shrieks of the unhappy beings were heard distinctly by those who thronged the city-walls; they could even see by the light of the flames the work of butchery that was going forward, and the writhing forms of their fellow-countrymen, and thus had terrible and sensible proof of the despair of the ferocious enemy and of the horrors which awaited them had that enemy been victorious. The morning showed the Ottoman army in full retreat; and a general discharge of artillery announced to the inhabitants of Vienna the realisation of hopes which they had hardly ventured to entertain. Once more the bells of the churches gave forth their joyous peals; a Te Deum was sung in St. Stephen’s, and High Mass celebrated in thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity.

Solyman’s forces retired across the Turkish frontier, and spite of the rapid success which had attended his march through Hungary, the expedition failed in its main object; for the establishment of Zapolya as tributary king of Hungary, or rather of that portion of the country which he held in occupation (a dignity he retained till his death in 1540[36]), was but a poor result for the campaign which had been undertaken with the boastful design of erecting the victorious trophies of the Crescent on the very banks of the Rhine. It is amusing to read the arrogant terms in which the sultan announces to his faithful subjects the results of the campaign, and with cool effrontery would have them believe that, in his magnanimity, he had forborne to push his conquests further than justice or the interests of the empire demanded, and had disdained to crush the foe he had humbled and chastised. One of his bulletins thus concludes: “An unbeliever came out from the fortress (Vienna), and brought intelligence of the submission of the princes and of the people, on whose behalf he prayed for grace and pardon. The padishah received his prayer with favour, and granted them pardon. Inasmuch as the German lands were unconnected with the Ottoman realm, that hence it was hard to occupy the frontier places and conduct their affairs, the faithful would not trouble themselves to clear out the fortress, or purify, improve, and put it into repair; but a reward of 1000 aspers was dealt out to each of the Janizaries, and security being established, the horses’ heads were turned towards the throne of Solomon.”[37] But in spite of these endeavours to conceal the truth even from himself, Solyman never forgot the repulse he had sustained; and it is said that he imprecated a curse upon any of his successors who should renew the attempt.