The Man Who Stopped the Sultan: Gabriele Tadino and the Defence of Europe

by Edoardo Albert

An extraordinary account of how one man defied the most powerful rulers 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 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. Twice Suleiman attacked the heart of first the island of Rhodes, home to the Hospitaller Knights, and secondly, Vienna, the gateway city to the continent. Twice he was opposed by one man – Gabriele Tadino – an ordinary 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.

Genres: History, Military History, European History

304 pages, Hardcover

Published January 27, 2026

About the author

Edoardo Albert is a writer of Sri Lankan and Italian extraction based in London. He writes about history and archaeology, particularly of the early Medieval period, as well as writing historical and speculative fiction.

Find out more about him and his work at www.edoardoalbert.com. Follow him on Twitter @EdoardoAlbert or like him on Facebook.

Reviews

['Aussie Rick']

Thanks to NetGalley and Osprey Publishing for an advance copy of "The Man Who Stopped the Sultan: Gabriele Tadino and the Defence of Europe" by Edoardo Albert. 

For those who enjoy good history and tales of daring-do, then this may be the book for you. What better story is there than an account of Suleiman the Magnificent with his huge and all-conquering army coming up against the Knights Hospitaller on the island of Rhodes?

This book offers a look into the life and times of an Italian military engineer who learnt his tricks of the trade during the Italian Wars which took place between 1494–1559 when the great powers of France and Spanish Habsburg fought for supremacy in Italy. The author follows Tadino during this period of conflict and its various battles, as he learns his trade as a military engineer.

From war ravaged Italy we follow Gabriele Tadino to Rhodes to join the Knights Hospitaller in their valiant attempt to hold the island against the Ottoman forces under Suleiman the Magnificent. During the following six months Tadino was credited with defeating nearly all Ottoman attempts to mine under the defences and assisted the Knights Hospitaller in repelling various Ottoman assaults on the walls.

In the end Rhodes was surrendered to Suleiman the Magnificent and the Knights Hospitaller allowed to leave the island with honour and with their weapons and their holy relics. Shortly afterwards, after being smuggled off Rhodes so he couldn't be held as an asset for Suleiman's armies, Tadino joined in the employment of Emperor Charles V, ruler of Spain, the Low Countries, and the Holy Roman Empire, becoming superintendent of his artillery.

Tadino then toured the various posts of the Holy Roman Empire and provided his expertise in the new science of artillery fortifications. In 1525 we find Tadino under the command 0f Antonio de Leyva at Pavia where he was put to work overseeing the defences and the construction of gun emplacements. The work he engineered managed to hold back the French attackers when a breach was made in the main defences. Gabriele Tadino was involved in the final assault at the battle of Pavia that led to the French king being captured and the French forces evicted from Italy.

While we are following Tadino's career during this period the author also provides the background and context to the changing nature of warfare, both in Italy and the wider European theatre. We also get to read about the conflicts between the King of France, Francis, the Pope, and the Spanish Emperor, Charles V, along with the ongoing war with the Ottoman Empire as it advances west to Europe. 

Accounts of the various battles and sieges in Hungary, the fall of Belgrade, the Battle of Mohács, and the Siege of Buda are all covered as part of this story. There are some gaps in the history of Tadino which the author covers as best he can and provides a decent story of this man and his place in history.

Overall, this is a very good book that brings this man, lost to history, back into the light. In fact, as the author mentioned:

"On 4 June, 1543, Gabriele Tadino died in Venice. He was buried in the Church of St John and St Paul, but his tomb and mortal remains were lost in a later remodelling of the church and he has not extant memorial or grave."

[Stephen]

thanks to the publishers and netgalley for a free copy in return for an open and honest review.

overall found this very interesting in the dawn of the early modern history with many changes and the conflict between the east and west and inferrence in italian matters. author brings a forgotten man into life with his engineering skill in warfare

[Jared Detter]

If you like history in general, this book is for you. If you like medieval history, this book is for you. If you like understanding what ended the medieval world and ushered in the modern, this book is for you. If you like well-researched history that reads more like a story, this book is for you. If you root for the underdog in the face of overwhelming odds, this book is for you. If you like to hear amazing stories that have been overlooked by most historians, this book is for you. If you like the clash of empires, this book is for you.

Edoardo Albert, a writer of history and historical fiction does an amazing job telling a fascinating story that most of us have never heard. He makes an era and characters come to life. While the book focuses mainly on one protagonist, it actually tells the whole sweeping story of events that rocked the Mediterranean in the 15th and 16th century. This book is well worth your time and money!

[Lily]

In this fascinating biography about Gabriele Tadino and his military career fighting Suleiman the Magnificent and the Ottoman Empire during the sixteenth century. A brilliant military engineer who lived in the period between the medieval period and the Renaissance -- when knights, gunpowder, spies, and swords could all be on the same battlefield -- Tadino’s life is absolutely fascinating, and Edoardo Albert mixes the personal and period narratives together in a brilliant way, allowing readers to explore the military engineering innovations and transformation of Europe in the sixteenth century. Packed with detail and incredibly informative, this mix of personal and global biography pulls readers into the narrative and allows them to explore the massive military changes in Tadino’s life. Readers will really enjoy the research Albert has done and the way he mixes primary sources and contextual information into his analysis, which is thorough but readable. The complex international scope of the book offers readers a complex understanding of European politics and military strategy against the Ottoman Empire, a powerful military and intellectual powerhouse, and helps them approach this topic. Brilliantly written and packed with details, this incredible new history title is a must-read from Edoardo Albert for fans of military and scientific history.

Thanks to NetGalley and Osprey Publishing for the advance copy.

[Rina Di Raimo]

‘The Man Who Stopped the Sultan’ by Edoardo Albert is the sort of book that reshapes what you think you know about history and who gets to matter within it.
It does not simply recount a life; it excavates one, carefully and with purpose, revealing how history is often shaped by people we are not taught to notice. This past 2025 has been a revealing reading year for me. I learned, somewhat to my own surprise, that I am deeply drawn to books about military strategy. When I saw that Osprey Publishing (that also kindly gave me an ARC of this book, THANK YOU SO MUCH TO THEM and NETGALLEY!) had plans to publish a biography of a famed military engineer I had never heard of, an Italian like me, I felt compelled to request it. I am grateful I followed that instinct.

Albert has written a biography that is deeply researched and quietly thrilling, the kind that makes a true history buff sing with joy. Renaissance Europe comes alive through its many familiar figures, while Suleiman the Magnificent looms large, charismatic, terrifying, and impossible to ignore, stealing the scene whenever he appears. Yet the heart of the book lies with Tadino himself. Across more than forty chapters, we follow him from boyhood through education, training, and his life as a Knight Hospitaller, watching competence slowly harden into brilliance.

One of the book’s great strengths is how clearly it captures a world in military transition. Weapons were evolving at a relentless pace, leaving room for an entirely new way to wage war. Gunpowder changed everything. In a matter of years, it reshaped battlefields that had remained largely familiar for centuries. Training took less time, while the consequences grew exponentially more devastating, especially when destruction arrived in the blunt, unforgiving form of a cannonball. Albert shows how Tadino intuitively understood this shift, and how his engineering genius was inseparable from his grasp of this new, brutal reality.

Tadino’s presence in Rhodes during those crucial six months in 1522 feels like one of those rare moments where the course of history visibly bends. Albert makes a persuasive case that Tadino did more than design defenses: he organized, rationed, and sustained the Knights’ resources with remarkable clarity and resolve. He kept them alive long enough to matter. Long enough to resist, to retreat with dignity, and, most importantly, to negotiate survival. Without that endurance, there would have been no Malta, no second act for the Order.

The sections on underground warfare are especially compelling, reminding us that war is not fought only in open fields but also in darkness, patience, and ingenuity. Albert is particularly skilled at showing how rulers perceived one another, how power, fear, and calculation circulate. That a relative nobody from Italy could become a trusted servant of the Emperor, and in doing so alter the fate of the Knights and the balance of power in the Mediterranean, is both astonishing and deeply satisfying. This book doesn’t just inform; by the time you finish, history no longer looks quite the same.

[William Harris]

"The Man Who Stopped the Sultan: Gabriele Tadino and the Defence of Europe" by Edoardo Albert is an outstanding work of history about a man who was in the right place at the right time to thwart the ambitions of Suleiman the Magnificent and the Ottoman Empire. The book (an ARC of which was provided to me by Osprey, the publisher) is kind of framed by a series of military campaigns, specifically sieges, conducted in the Mediterranean around the time of the Renaissance. Indeed, it would not be off the mark to point to Gabriele Tadino as a model of the "Renaissance Man.." The sieges that I alluded to earlier are of Byzantium, the island of Rhodes, and finally of Vienna. Most of the events in the book surround the role of Tadino in the Ottoman siege of Rhodes, defended by the Knights Hospitaller. Tadino was a brilliant military engineer who had distinguished himself initially in the service of the Venetian Republic. His role in the siege of Rhodes was in open defiance to his national allegiance to the Venetian state, but he put his honor ahead of his loyalty to the Republic, which was, at the time, trying to conduct business with the Sublime Porte (the Ottoman Court). These events had followed almost twenty years of war in Italy and the fall of Constantinople, as the West shortsightedly failed to respond to the last Emperor's increasingly desperate calls for military assistance against Ottoman pressure. In the end, after almost a year, Rhodes was forced to surrender, but that was a result of simple bad luck as well as, again, the West's indifference. Indeed, when Rhodes fell, the Knights were allowed to leave with their banners and arms and were treated with honor, largely because of the valorous defense that Tadino had spearheaded. However, he had to be smuggled out since both the Turks and the Venetians were determined to get hold of him. So highly did the Knights, an aristocratic militant order, venerate him that he was raised to Knighthood, something unheard of at the time.. His distinguished career continued as an advisor to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. The title of the book while somewhat misleading, rests firmly on this technocrat's role in slowing down the tide of Moslem conquest, ultimately buying the time Europe needed to wake up to the risk of not confronting the Turkish threat embodied in the final campaign against Vienna. The author's choice of this particular figure allows him insights into both the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, not to speak of the evolution of modern Europe. Who better to examine such a crossroads through than a military technocrat who rose through merit to be one of the most sought after experts on military affairs in Europe? It is an excellent and well written book on a little known subject and a welcome addition to any library committed to examining the evolution of modern Europe.

[Collin Stiglbauer]

Thank you to both Osprey Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

I had a hard time rating this book, and in many cases I still want to recommend it. The book is eminently readable, and readers breeze through a tour of Gabriele Tadino's early life, the context of the political landscape of the time, and some enjoyable narratives. The tone is ideal for readers not looking for dry, academic writing, and often achieves a balance between interesting facts and humorous asides.

The problem, for me at least, is that around halfway through the book, we approach what appears to be the beginnings of our climax, the second siege of Rhodes. The scene is set, the characters introduced, and then...the tone and writing seem to lose focus somewhat. In a few short pages, the siege is already over, and aside from a few interesting facts about the knights, and some repeated lines from earlier in the book, the reader is given far less than expected in terms of actual details of the event. In short, we are given scant details, told a few anecdotes, and move on with the story, giving context for a post-siege world.

Again, this is interesting, and the author seems to pick up steam again, but it almost feels like the author was unfinished with the book. I hope that by the time it is released, a more fleshed out version is printed, because it feels like it takes so much away from a fascinating and otherwise well-written look at an under-discussed topic.

[Harriet]

This is an excellent book.

Through the life of military engineer, Gabrielle Tadino, it explains the mind set, politics and military decision making of the early 16th Century.

Albert demonstrates the power of the personality of those in power in the shaping of the lives of many. Through understanding the characters of the European kings and the Emperor Sulaiman, we are taken on a journey through the inevitable wars and suffering that unfolded.

The book is clearly and vividly written, and manages to explain the intricacies of the Italian wars which is a feat in and of itself. But the book triumphs in its portrait of Sulaimann the Great.

Albert has the ability to see through the eyes of the time. It is refreshing as the reader to be able to see clearly rather than having the past reinvented for me through the eyes of postmodernity by the author.

It is a moving read and although I have finished it, the book it stays with me still.

Highly recommend.

[Brian Dietz]

I just finished reading Edoardo Albert's compelling account of the 16th century military engineer, Gabriele Tadino and I highly recommend it readers interested in learning something about the turbulent world of 16th century Europe and enjoying a great (but true) story. Mr. Albert combines detailed historial research with a wonderful approach to story telling that breathes life into Tadino and his times. Through the lens of Tadino's life, Mr. Albert skillfully takes us into a past world similar in many ways to ours, but also vastly different. He also shows us the impact that a single remarkable person can have on the currents of history. Please consider putting this book on your must-read list.

[JournalsTLY]

Historical narrative of Gabriele Tadino - a pioneering military engineer who learnt, trained and practiced his way to to a top defence expert (instead of following his the foot steps of his father in becoming a doctor).

Covering the many wars in the 15 and 16 centuries - especially those that involved sieges anf assaults of fortified cities - this book tells of a man who designed walls, towers , dug moats and tunnels ( to lay explosives ) in Italy and the region as wars come and go with each spring time and with the changing of kings and alliances. But did Tadino really stopped the Sultan and his Ottoman army?

Makes history come alive.

[Matthew Perello-Sundra]

An engaging and fun while incredibly informative account of an interesting yet relatively unknown man. It remains an honest depiction neither over or underselling Tadino and lets his acts speak for themselves!

[Edoardo Albert]

You know, this might be the best book I've read this year or last.

[Alexandra]

Read thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.

This book is pretty great. For a reader even vaguely interested in the Europe and Ottoman Empires of the 1400 and 1500s, it provides a brilliant perspective that is often missing from other, entirely Euro-centric accounts I've read.

Did I know Henry VIII, Frances I. Suleiman, and Charles V were all around the same age?? No I did not. Doesn't that give the 1500s a slightly different complexion. (Also I love the dismissal of Henry VIII and England as not particularly relevant to the happenings on the Continent at this point....)

This is larger than JUST a biography of Gabriele Tadino, although it is also that. Tadino is himself a fascinating figure - an engineer when military engineering is completely changing in reaction to technology, basically in the centre of things because of birth (living near Venice when shit is getting real, thanks very much not-so-Holy, definitely-not-Roman Emperor) and then being persuaded to join in with the Knights of St John over on Rhodes when Suleiman and his crew are laying siege. Tadino is not perfect, and there's also bits of his life where the records completely dry up - but Albert has done a convincing job of recreating a lot of his experiences, and suggesting the whys and wherefores around them.

Alongside the Tadino exploits, though, this is also a magnificent examination of European and Ottoman relations in this key period. I don't know all that much about Suleiman, nor the Ottomans at this time more broadly - but I know more now, and my disgruntlement at writing European history of the 16th century without reference to what was going on over East, and indeed well into central Europe, is Large.

Well written and accessible for the generally historically intelligent reader - no need to have very specific knowledge of people or places - this is a really great book.