ABSTRACT
It is tempting to assume that the Ottoman Turks’ ‘long’ siege on Candia (modern Heraklion, part of the Venetian Empire) is a relatively forgotten conflict, overshadowed by the geo-politically significant siege of Vienna in 1683. After all, Candia was a defeat for the forces of Christendom, whereas Vienna, just fourteen years later, was a decisive victory that achieved a lasting halt to Ottoman expansion westward into Europe. However, Candia has received a surprising amount of scholarly attention and has found a place in most serious modern studies of the Order of St John, especially those focussing on its naval operations. The international diplomatic and military nature of the siege generated home-grown sources in Britain while contemporary interest in military siege-craft made Candia a case study for combined land/sea operations. The strident genre of seventeenth-century pamphlet literature provided a slew of source material in several languages. Candia also features in the autobiographies of several prominent military figures who gained valuable technical experience there. 1 Most importantly, it is regarded by many scholars as a key moment in Christian-Muslim interaction to which the word ‘crusade’ is applied.
