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Full Description
An extraordinary account of how one man defied the most powerful ruler of his age and in doing so changed the course of European history.
Throughout the 16th century, wars raged across Europe as kings and republics jostled for wealth and power. Yet one man exceeded all these medieval princes of Christendom: Suleiman the Magnificent. As ruler of the Ottoman Empire, he governed 25 million people from Constantinople, his realm stretching from Persia to the Atlantic Ocean. Turning his gaze to Europe, Suleiman attacked Rhodes, the island fortress of the Knights Hospitaller but was opposed by Gabriele Tadino - an Italian who had risen through the ranks thanks to his genius as a military engineer.
This is a fascinating history of crusading knights and gunpowder, of spies and tunnels, and of a crossroads in history when the medieval age gave way to the Renaissance. Delving deep into Italian source material, Edoardo Albert weaves together the story of an ordinary man alive in an extraordinary time and performing extraordinary feats of military genius. Through the lens of his life we discover how military tactics and fortifications rapidly changed thanks to the discovery of gunpowder, and how Europe, divided by power-hungry rulers and religion, almost fell to one of the greatest rulers the world has ever seen, but was prevented by a humble engineer.
Contents
List of Illustrations and Maps
Chronology
1 The War for the Heart of the World
2 A Boy's Life
3 The Tadini of Martinengo
4 Short and Ugly
5 Bringing a Cannon to a Sword Fight
6 The New Ways of War
7 The Education of a Military Engineer
8 A Peach, Ripe for Plucking
9 A Life Without Women
10 The Italian Wars Kick into High Gear
11 Why Everyone was Fighting Everyone Else
12 The Warrior Pope
13 The Patron Pope
14 First Blood at Agnadello
15 The Siege of Padua
16 Whispers and Gossip
17 The Sack of Brescia
18 A Life like Lightning 1
19 A Not-So-Romantic Interlude
20 The Dregs of War
21 A Military Engineer Abroad
22 How Venice Became Rich
23 Venice and the Ottomans
24 The World Gets Bigger
25 Suleiman
26 The Other Emperor
27 The Last Knight of Christendom
28 A Short History of the Knights Hospitaller
29 How to Get into a Besieged City
30 War Underground
31 War Overground
32 An Eye for an Arquebus
33 Facing General Winter
34 The Chancellor's Downfall
35 'Nothing in the world was ever so well lost...'
36 The Emperor's New Man
37 Long Nose Versus Big Jaw, or 'All is lost save life and honour'
38 A Famous Victory and a Forgotten Siege
39 Two Emperors is One Too Many
40 When an Old Soldier Leaves the Field
41 The Last Knight of Christendom: The First Man of the Modern World
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
