ALFEREZ DE SANTIAGO
Andreas de Mu�atones, �Il Piccolo Soccorso� �The Great Siege� Malta -4 July 1565-
ALFEREZ DE SANTIAGO
Andreas de Mu�atones, �Il Piccolo Soccorso� �The Great Siege� Malta -4 July 1565-
Company: Elite Miniatures
Sculptor: Agustin J (Augie) Rodriguez
Article: EM-7007
Material: white metal
Pieces: 12
Weight: 200 aprox.
Size: 70 mm.
REFERENCE INCLUIDED
Nothing!!, well in order to try help the rookies like me, when buy this kit, Im gonna post some references that Augie gave me.
A little over a month after the Turkish forces landed on the island of Malta, and barely a day after the fall of St. Elmo, a relief force from Sicily landed on the western shore of the besieged island in the pre-dawn hours after miraculously avoiding detection and interdiction by the Turkish fleet. Less than two days later, on 4 July, the entire force had joined the ranks of the besieged in Birgu without incident. This would come to be known as, �Il Piccolo Soccorso �.
The leader of the relief force was one Don Melchior de Robles, commander of the Spanish forces in Sicily and a Knight of Santiago. Accompanying him was a brother knight and his ensign, Andreas de Mu�atones, the subject of our sculpture.
Very little has been written about �Il Piccolo Soccorso �; even less about the men that comprised it. Fortunately, thanks to the journal of one Francisco Balbi di Corregio, an Emilian poet and arquebusier in Spanish service, we at least know of our subject and his glorious final days.
We must assume that Mu�atones was in the thick of the fighting alongside his commander throughout most of July. But he is first mentioned by name in the entry of 28 July as having distinguished himself in a counter-mining operation. In recognition, a thankful GM de Valette presented Mu�atones with a gold chain.
The sculpture is based on this paint
SELECT REFERENCES
Balbi di Corregio, Francisco. The Siege of Malta 1565 (transl. of the Spanish edition of 1568 by Ernle Bradford). London: The Folio Society, 1965.
Lochhead, Ian C., and T.F.R. Barling. The Siege of Malta 1565. London: Literary Services and Production, 1970.
National Maritime Museum. The Maritime Siege of Malta 1565. London: HMSO, 1970.
Seward, Desmond. The Monks of War, rev. ed. London: Penguin, 1995.
Text and Research � Agust�n J. Rodriguez, 2002
