Fernsehserie Besieged Fortresses, Legendary Battles

In 1189, the siege of St John of Acre marked the beginning of the mythical Third Crusade, the 'Crusade of Kings'; this siege is one of the most decisive military operations of the Middle Ages. After the expulsion of the Crusaders from the Holy Land in 1291, the Hospitallers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem conquered Rhodes and made it their headquarters from 1310 onwards. A four-month siege punctuated by bloody assaults and destructive bombardments, the Siege of Malta pitted a Turkish battalion of 30,000 men against an understrength Maltese army. Constantinople was the jewel of the Byzantine Empire; in 1453, the Ottoman army aimed to bring it down. Constantine XI prepared against what was one of the most ferocious sieges of the age.