Timeline January 1522

Events in January 1522 1

• 1522 Rhodes -- the Knights expelled from the Aegean The siege of Rhodes (June-December 1522) takes Suleiman six months and cost reportedly 50,000 Ottoman casualties -- against a defending force of perhaps 7,000 Knights of St John and 4,000 Rhodian civilians. Grand Master Philippe Villiers de l'Isle-Adam negotiates a surrender with full honours: the Knights march out with their weapons, archives and relics on 1 January 1523. Suleiman, reportedly moved by the Grand Master's dignity, guarantees their safe passage. The Knights eventually settle on Malta (1530), from where they continue to contest Ottoman Mediterranean power. Suleiman later regrets his generosity: 'It saddens me to be compelled to force this old Christian to leave his home.'