Peter d'Aubusson lived and reigned for 23 years after the Siege of 1480 until he was 70. His was one of the longest and most illustrious reigns of any Grand Master. During these years the Knights rebuilt the city of Rhodes; enlarged the island's fortifications; reestablished the farms and orchards and vineyards; constructed new fighting galleys and commercial ships; captured many Turkish galleys and even small fleets of ships flying the Crescent flag; profited from international trade; and became a great island nation again. The unconquerable Knights of Rhodes, the defenders of Christianity, the Brothers of "The Religion," were revered by Christendom and the Church herself. Gifts and money and munitions poured into Rhodes from all over Europe. The Order would be ready for the next Muslim invasion.

The Turks had been decimated at Rhodes in 1480. For forty years thereafter the Order prospered, even though Rhodes lay only a few miles off the coast of Turkey, and frequent engagements occurred.

In 1503 a Turk force of sixteen galleys attacked Rhodes, putting ashore a large raiding party. The troops were annihilated, eight galleys were sunk and two were captured. Similar battles ensued during that year, all with remarkable victories for the Knights.

In 1510 the Order received an intelligence report that an Egyptian fleet under the Mameluke Sultan Qansuh al-Guri had combined with a Turkish fleet under Sultan Bajazet to bring men and materials to Laiazzo on the Turkish mainland where they were building a large invasion fleet. A small fleet of warships under the command of the French Chevalier Philippe Villiers de L'Isle Adam intercepted the Muslims north of Cyprus near the coast of Turkey. A humiliating defeat was inflicted on the Turkish-Egyptian armada, after which L'Isle Adam put ashore a contingent of Knights which drove off the city's garrison and burned all the supplies, an immense amount of ship-building timber, and all partly constructed ships. Again all of Europe was ecstatic another invasion had been prevented. The Knights of Saint John were thought to be invincible. L'Isle Adam, the brilliant Knight Commander, was the hero of Christendom, and would later become Grand Master of the Order.

Sultan Bajazet died and was succeeded by Selim the Grim, who greatly enlarged the Ottoman empire. This Sultan was mobilizing to destroy the Knights on Rhodes, which he called a "Christian nest of Vipers," when he died in 1520. Selim was succeeded by the Sultan who would become the greatest ruler of Islam -- Suleiman the Magnificent. One year later, following a number of outstanding Grand Masters, Philip Villiers L'Isle Adam would be elected to head the Sovereign Order. He would become the greatest Grand Master in the history of the Order. These two remarkable and intrepid men -- the Magnificent Sultan and the Great Grand Master would soon decide the control of the Aegean and the Mediterranean, the future of Europe, and the fate of the Church.