Tripoli, today the capital city of Libya, was ruled by the Knights Hospitaller between 1530 and 1551. The city had been under Spanish rule for two decades before it was granted as a fief to the Hospitallers in 1530 along with the islands of Malta and Gozo. The Hospitallers found it difficult to control both the city and the islands, and at times they proposed to either move their headquarters to Tripoli or to abandon and raze the city. Hospitaller rule over Tripoli ended in 1551 when the city was captured by the Ottoman Empire following a siege.
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Hospitaller Tripoli in the context of Hospitaller Malta
Hospitaller Malta, known in Maltese history as the Knights' Period (Maltese: Żmien il-Kavallieri, lit. 'Time of the Knights'), was a de facto state which existed between 1530 and 1798 when the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo were ruled by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. It was formally a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily, and it came into being when Emperor Charles V granted the islands as well as the city of Tripoli in modern Libya to the Order, following the latter's loss of Rhodes in 1522. Hospitaller Tripoli was lost to the Ottoman Empire in 1551, but an Ottoman attempt to take Malta in 1565 failed.
Following the 1565 siege, the Order decided to settle permanently in Malta and began to construct a new capital city, Valletta. For the next two centuries, Malta went through a Golden Age, characterized by a flourishing of the arts, architecture, and an overall improvement in Maltese society. In the mid-17th century, the Order was the de jure proprietor over some islands in the Caribbean, making it the smallest state to colonize the Americas.
Hospitaller Tripoli in the context of Siege of Tripoli (1551)
The siege of Tripoli was a successful Ottoman siege of the North African city of Tripoli, then held by the Knights Hospitaller, in August 1551. The attack, which was led by Sinan Pasha and Dragut, appears to have been launched in retaliation for the capture of Mahdia by the Spanish and Hospitallers the previous year.
The siege followed a brief Ottoman attack on the Kingdom of Sicily and Hospitaller Malta, during which the island of Gozo was invaded and sacked and some 5,000 to 7,000 inhabitants were taken as slaves. The Ottoman forces then sailed to North Africa, where local forces bolstered them from Tajura led by Murad Agha. Tripoli was besieged, and the city's governor Gaspard de Vallier capitulated after six days of bombardment.
Hospitaller Tripoli in the context of Spanish Tripoli
Tripoli, today the capital city of Libya, was a presidio of the Spanish Empire in North Africa between 1510 and 1530. The city was captured by Spanish forces in July 1510, and for the next two decades it was administered as an outpost which fell under the jurisdiction of the Spanish Viceroy of Sicily. The city was granted as a fief to the Knights Hospitaller in 1530, and the latter ruled the city until 1551.