The Great Siege of MaltaA major new history of the epic siege of the island fortress of Malta. Even as the great siege began, it was understood by both sides to be an epica potentially decisive encounter between an uneasy assortment of soldiers, native Maltese, adventurers, and Knights Hospitaller on a strategically crucial but near waterless island, and a vast, seemingly all powerful Ottoman armada. With three quarters of the Mediterranean's coasts already in the hands of