- 𝓝. 𝓙. ♦️ on Instagram: "Siege of Malta In 1565 the Ottoman Empire sent its great armada to wipe out a tiny Christian island and the last crusader knights who guarded it. On Malta the Knights of Saint John and the Maltese people stood as the last broken fragment of the old crusading world, a small scar of steel and faith in the path of an empire that had already swallowed half the Mediterranean. Fort Saint Elmo was pounded into rubble and still the cross did not fall. At Birgu and Senglea men