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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Knights of Malta, 1523-1798, by R. Cohen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Knights of Malta, 1523-1798
+
+Author: R. Cohen
+
+Release Date: April 15, 2004 [EBook #12034]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KNIGHTS OF MALTA, 1523-1798 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Julie Barkley, Bill Hershey and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+KNIGHTS OF MALTA
+
+1523-1798
+
+BY R. COHEN LATE SCHOLAR OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD
+
+
+1920
+
+
+THE LOTHIAN PRIZE ESSAY FOR 1920 (UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD)
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SETTLEMENT AT MALTA, 1523-1565
+
+Departure from Rhodes--Residence in Italy--Settlement in
+Malta, 1530--Condition of the Mediterranean--The
+corsairs--Turkey--Fortification of Malta--Loss of English
+"Langue"--Enterprises of the Order--Solyman decides to attack Malta
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SIEGE OF MALTA, 1565
+
+Preparations--Size of opposing forces--Siege of St. Elmo--Arrival of
+Dragut--Capture of St. Elmo, June 23--Death of Dragut--Siege of main
+fortresses--Great losses on both sides--Arrival of reinforcements from
+Sicily--Turks evacuate island
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN
+
+Classes in the Order--Langues--Chapter-General--Councils--Grand
+Master--Bishop of Malta--Finances--Justice--Criminal Council--Court of
+Égard--The Hospital
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE DECLINE, 1565-1789
+
+Decadence of Turkey--Knights become anachronism--Valetta
+built--Fortifying the island--Disturbances in the Order--Quarrels
+with different Powers--Treatment of the Maltese--Buildings in
+Valetta--Papal interference--Naval operations--Independence of the
+Order
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE FALL, 1789-1798
+
+Attacks on the Order during the French Revolution--French
+estates confiscated--Poverty of the Order--Tsar Paul I.--French
+schemes--Napoleon appears off Malta--Condition of the island--Its
+capture--Dispersion of the Order
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+
+APPENDIX II.
+
+
+BOOKS CONSULTED
+
+
+NOTE ON THE AUTHORITIES
+
+
+
+
+KNIGHTS OF MALTA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+SETTLEMENT AT MALTA 1523-1565.
+
+On January 1, 1523, a fleet of fifty vessels put out from the harbour
+at Rhodes for an unknown destination in the West. On board were the
+shattered remnants of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, accompanied
+by 4,000 Rhodians, who preferred the Knights and destitution to
+security under the rule of the Sultan Solyman. The little fleet was
+in a sad and piteous condition. Many of those on board were wounded;
+all--Knights and Rhodians alike--were in a state of extreme poverty.
+For six months they had resisted the full might of the Ottoman Empire
+under its greatest Sultan, Solyman the Magnificent; Europe had looked
+on in amazed admiration, but had not ventured to move to its rescue.
+Now they were leaving the home their Order had possessed for 212
+years, and were sailing out to beg from Christendom another station
+from which to attack the infidel once again.
+
+The Knights of Rhodes--as they were called at the time--were the
+only real survivors of the militant Order of Chivalry. Two centuries
+earlier their great rivals, the Templars, had been dissolved, and a
+large part of their endowments handed over to the Hospitallers. The
+great secret of the long and enduring success of the Order of St. John
+was their capacity for adapting themselves to the changing needs of
+the times. The final expulsion of the Christians from Syria had left
+the Templars idle and helpless, and the loss of the outlets for their
+energy soon brought corruption and decay with the swift consequence of
+dissolution. All through the history of the great Orders we find
+the Kings of Europe on the lookout for a chance to seize their
+possessions: any excuse or pretext is used, sometimes most
+shamelessly. An Order of Knighthood that failed to perform the duties
+for which it was founded was soon overtaken by disaster.
+
+The Hospitallers had realised, as early as 1300, that their former
+rôle of mounted Knights fighting on land was gone for ever. From their
+seizure of Rhodes, in 1310, they became predominantly seamen, whose
+flag, with its eight-pointed cross, struck terror into every infidel
+heart. Nothing but a combination of Christian monarchs could cope with
+the superiority of the Turk on land: by sea he was still vulnerable.
+The Knights took up their new part with all their old energy and
+determination: it is but typical that henceforward we never hear of
+the "Knights" of Malta fighting as cavalry.
+
+After various adventures the fleet found itself united at Messina,
+whence it proceeded to Baiae. The election to the papacy of the
+Cardinal de' Medici--one of their own Order--as Clement VII., gave the
+Knights a powerful protector. He assigned Viterbo as a residence for
+the Order till a permanent home had been discovered.
+
+Villiers de L'Isle Adam, Grand Master of the Order, was faced with
+many difficulties. Remembering the fate of the Templars, he was afraid
+that the Order would disperse, and its present helpless condition was
+surely tending to disintegration. At this time the war between Charles
+V. and Francis I. was at its height, and the quarrel between France
+and Spain was reflected within the ranks of the Hospitallers. As the
+French and Spanish Knights formed the greater part of the members, the
+unity of the Order was threatened by the quarrels between them
+that arose out of national sentiment. The Reformation was rapidly
+spreading, and was likely to prove dangerous to the lands of the Order
+in Northern Europe, and various monarchs were meditating the seizure
+of the Hospitallers' estates now that the Order was temporarily
+without a justification for its existence.
+
+The Grand Master showed himself a skilful diplomat, as well as a brave
+soldier. From 1523 to 1530 the Order remained without a home, while
+L'Isle Adam visited the different European courts to stay the grasping
+hands of the various Kings. All this time negotiations were proceeding
+between Charles V. and the Knights for the cession of Malta. The
+harsh conditions which the Emperor insisted upon in his offer made
+the Knights reluctant to accept, while his preoccupation with the war
+against France made negotiations difficult. Further, the cause of
+the Knights had been damaged when the Pope--who had acted as their
+intercessor--joined the ranks of Charles's enemies, and Clement
+VII. was now a prisoner in the Emperor's hands. In March, 1530, an
+agreement was finally arrived at, which was the most favourable
+the Emperor would grant. One harassing burden the Knights could not
+escape: Charles insisted that Tripoli must go with Malta, a gift which
+meant a useless drain upon their weak resources, and which fell
+in 1551 to Dragut-Reis and the Turkish forces at the first serious
+attack. L'Isle Adam had insisted that he could not take the island
+over as a feudatory to the King of Spain, as that was contrary to the
+fundamental idea of the Order--its impartiality in its relations to
+all the Christian Powers. The only condition of service, therefore,
+that was made was nominal: the Grand Master henceforth was to send, on
+All Souls' Day, a falcon to the Viceroy of Sicily as a token of feudal
+sub-mission.[1]
+
+This was a splendid bargain for the Emperor. Malta had hitherto been
+worthless to him, but henceforth it became one of the finest bulwarks
+of his dominions. To understand the supreme value of the island, we
+must take a glance at sea power in the Mediterranean in the sixteenth
+century.
+
+The beginning of the century had seen the growth of the Corsairs'
+strength to a most alarming extent. While all the European Powers were
+fighting among themselves, these Barbary Corsairs (as they were later
+called) had become the terror of the Western Mediterranean. Spain, by
+its unrelenting persecution of the Moriscoes, following on centuries
+of bitter conflict between Christian and Mussulman, had earned the
+undying hatred of the dwellers on the North African coast, many of
+whom were the children of the expelled Moors. These Moors had wasted
+their energy in desultory warfare up to the beginning of the sixteenth
+century, when the genius of the two brothers, Uruj and Khair-ed-Din
+Barbarossa, had organised them into the pirate State of Algiers, which
+was to be a thorn in the side of Christendom for over three centuries.
+The Corsairs were not content with merely attacking ships at sea: they
+made raids on the Spanish, Italian, and Sicilian sea-boards, burning
+and looting for many miles inland. The inhabitants of these parts were
+driven off as captives to fill the bagnios of Algiers, Tunis, Bizerta,
+and other North African towns. These prisoners were used as galley
+slaves, and the life of a galley slave was generally so short that
+there was no difficulty of disposing of all the captives that could
+be seized. Cupidity, allied with fanaticism, gave this state of war a
+cruelty beyond conception: both sides displayed such undaunted courage
+and such fierce personal hatred as to make men wonder, even in
+that hard and bitter century. Those low-lying galleys, which were
+independent of the wind, were ideal pirates' craft in the gentle
+Mediterranean summer, and many a slumbering Spanish or Italian village
+would be startled into terror by their sudden approach. The audacity
+of their methods is illustrated by the raid on Fundi in 1534,
+when Barbarossa swooped down on that town simply to seize Giulia
+Gonzaga--reputed the loveliest woman in Italy--for the Sultan's harem:
+the fair Duchess of Trajetto hardly escaped in her nightdress.
+
+The Eastern Mediterranean, after the capture of Rhodes, was almost
+entirely a Turkish preserve. Though Venice at this period still kept
+her hold on Cyprus and Crete, the former of which was not yielded by
+the Republic till 1573 and the latter till 1669, yet the Treaty of
+Constantinople in 1479 had definitely reduced the position of Venice
+in the Levant from an independent Power to a tolerated ally. The
+growth of the Ottoman sea power had been alarming enough, but it
+became a distinct menace to the Christian Powers of the Mediterranean
+when the Corsair chiefs of the North African coast became Turkish
+vassals. All the African coast from Morocco to Suez, the coast of Asia
+Minor, and the European coast from the Bosphorus to Albania (with the
+exception of a few islands), were in Turkish hands. From 1475, with
+the conquest of the Crimea, the Black Sea had become a Turkish lake,
+and under Solyman the Magnificent the Turks had become masters of Aden
+and the Red Sea, with a strong influence along the Arabian and Persian
+coasts.
+
+Malta, then as always, was of supreme strategic importance for the
+domination of the Mediterranean. It lay right in the centre of the
+narrow channel connecting the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, and,
+in the hands of such a small but splendidly efficient band of sailors
+as the Knights Hospitallers, was sure to become a source of vexation
+to the mighty Turkish Empire. Though not so convenient as Rhodes for
+attacking Turkish merchant shipping, yet it had one advantage, in that
+it lay close to Christian shores and could easily be succoured in the
+hour of need. A small, highly defensible island, strengthened by all
+the resources of engineering, it could, and did, become one of
+the most invulnerable fortresses in the world, and of the utmost
+importance for the control of the Mediterranean.
+
+Charles V., therefore, made a splendid bargain when he handed over
+the neglected island to the Order of St. John, even had the gift been
+unconditional. The Knights rendered him valuable service by sharing in
+the several expeditions the Spaniards undertook to the African coast.
+Barbarossa, by the capture of Tunis from the old Hafside dynasty in
+1534, threatened the important channel between Sicily and Africa,
+which it was essential for Charles V. to keep open. In the next year,
+therefore, the Emperor attacked the town and conquered it without
+much difficulty. The victory was unfortunately stained by the inhuman
+excesses of the Imperial troops, and Charles's hold on Tunis was
+very short-lived. In 1541 came the miserable fiasco of the Spanish
+expedition to Algiers. Here, also, the Knights behaved with their
+usual bravery; but Charles's disregard of the advice of his Admiral,
+Andrea Doria, resulted in the failure of the whole expedition. In
+these and other expeditions the Knights took part: some--like the
+attack in 1550 on Mehedia[2]--were successful, others--like the siege
+of the Isle of Jerbah in 1559--ended in disaster.
+
+Such was the importance of Malta when the Knights took over the island
+in 1530. The first need was to put it into a state of defence. On the
+northeast of the island was the promontory of Mount Sceberras, flanked
+by the two fine harbours, the Marsa Muscetto and what was later known
+as the Grand Harbour.[3] The eastern side of the Grand Harbour was
+broken by three prominent peninsulas, later occupied by Fort Ricasoli,
+Fort St. Angelo, and Fort St. Michael. The only fortification in 1530
+was the Fort of St. Angelo, with a few guns and very weak walls. The
+intention of the Knights, even from the beginning, was to make the
+main peninsula, Mount Sceberras, the seat of their "Convent"; but
+as that would mean the leveling of the whole promontory, a task
+of enormous expense and difficulty, and as immediate defence was
+necessary, they decided to occupy the Peninsula of St. Angelo for the
+present. Wedged between St. Angelo and the mainland there was a
+small town, "Il Borgo": this, for the present, the Knights made their
+headquarters, drawing a line of entrenchments across the neck of the
+promontory to guard it from the neighboring heights.
+
+When it became certain that Malta was to be its permanent home--for
+L'Isle Adam had at first cherished hopes of recapturing Rhodes--the
+Order proceeded to take further measures for its security. Both St.
+Angelo and Il Borgo were strengthened with ramparts and artillery, and
+the fortifications of the Città Notabile, the main town in the centre
+of the island, were improved. In 1552 a commission of three Knights
+with Leo Strozzi, the Prior of Capua, at its head--one of the most
+daring Corsairs of the day--made a report of the fortifications of the
+island. They recommended strengthening Il Borgo and St. Angelo, and
+pointed out that the whole promontory was commanded by St. Julian, the
+southernmost of the three projections into the Grand Harbour. Further,
+as it was necessary to command the entrances both of Marsa Muscetto
+and of the Grand Harbour, the tip, at least, of Mount Sceberras should
+be occupied, as the finances of the Order would not allow of anything
+further being done. These recommendations were carried out, and Fort
+St. Michael was built on St. Julian and Fort St. Elmo on the end
+of Mount Sceberras. A few years later the Grand Master de la Sangle
+supplied the obvious deficiencies of St. Julian by enclosing it on the
+west and the south by a bastioned rampart.
+
+Now the commitments of the Order in Tripoli proved a constant drain on
+its resources. Time after time Charles V. was appealed to for help in
+holding Tripoli, which was very difficult to fortify because of the
+sandy nature of the soil, and difficult to succour because of its
+distance from Malta. But Charles V. was at once reluctant to let go
+his grip of any parts of the African coast, and too much absorbed by
+his own troubles to be able to render much help, however much he might
+have desired to do so. It was obvious that the first determined attack
+of the Turks would mean the fall of Tripoli. In 1551, after putting in
+an appearance off Malta, Dragut, the successor of Barbarossa, sailed
+to Tripoli and easily captured the place owing to the disaffection of
+the mercenary troops in the garrison.
+
+During this period, 1523-1565, the Order lost for ever one of the
+eight national divisions or "langues." Henry VIII., soon after the
+fall of Rhodes, had shown himself unfriendly to the interests of the
+Order, but had been appeased by a visit of L'Isle Adam in February,
+1528.[4] But Henry's proceedings against the Pope and the monasteries
+inevitably involved the Order of St. John, which had large possessions
+both in England and in Ireland. The Grand Priory of England was
+situated at Clerkenwell, and the Grand Prior held the position in the
+House of Lords of the connecting link between the Lords Spiritual and
+the Barons, coming after the former in rank and before the latter.
+There is extant a letter written by Henry VIII. in 1538 to the Grand
+Master, Juan d'Omedes, wherein conditions are laid down for the
+maintenance of the Order in England. The two main stipulations were,
+that any Englishman admitted into the Order must take an oath of
+allegiance to the King, and that no member in England must in any way
+recognise the jurisdiction or authority of the Pope. Henry was well
+aware that the Knights could never consent to terms such as these,
+which were the negation of the fundamental principle of international
+neutrality of their Order. Henry's offers were refused, and the
+English langue, which had a brilliant record in the Order, perished.
+Many of the Knights fled to Malta; others were executed for refusing
+obedience to the Act of Supremacy. A general confiscation of their
+property took place, and in April, 1540, an Act of Parliament was
+passed vesting all the property of the Order in the Crown, and setting
+aside from the revenues of such properties certain pensions to be
+paid to the Lord Prior and other members. The Grand Prior, Sir William
+Weston, died soon after, before he could enjoy his pension of £1,000 a
+year.
+
+With the accession of Mary, in 1553, negotiations were at once opened
+with the Knights for the restoration of the English langue, and during
+her reign the old Order was restored once again, though the lands
+were not returned. But Elizabeth, in the first year of her reign,
+suppressed the Knights for good and all.
+
+In North Africa, Philip II., on his accession, had taken over the
+troubles of his father, and after the Corsairs had failed in their
+attack on the Spanish ports of Oran and Mazarquivir, he carried the
+war once more into the enemy's territory. Finding themselves isolated,
+they appealed to their overlord, the aged Sultan Solyman, to help them
+against Spain.
+
+The most important seaman on the Turkish side was Dragut--Pasha
+of Tripoli since 1551--who had been the greatest of Barbarossa's
+lieutenants. In 1540 Dragut had been surprised and captured by
+Giannetin Doria, the nephew of the great Admiral, and had served four
+years chained to the bench of a Genoese galley. One of the last acts
+of Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa had been to ransom his follower in the
+port of Genoa, in 1544, for 3,000 crowns, an arrangement of which the
+Genoese afterwards sorely repented. Dragut had the ear of the Sultan
+when the appeal for help came from Africa, and his suggestion was to
+attempt the capture of Malta. It had become more and more certain
+that the Turks would not leave the island unassailed. Not only did the
+Knights lend splendid help to the various Christian Powers, but they
+were in themselves a formidable foe. Their fleet was always small, six
+or seven galleys, but they became the dread of every Turkish vessel in
+the Mediterranean. Annually these red galleys, headed by their black
+_capitana_, swooped down on the Turkish shipping of the Levant and
+brought back many rich prizes. Malta grew steadily in wealth, and
+the island became full of Turkish slaves. The generals of the Maltese
+galleys, Strozzi, La Valette, Charles of Lorraine, and De Romegas,
+were far more terrible even than the great Corsairs, because of their
+determination to extirpate the infidel. The state of war between the
+Order and the Mussulman was recognised by all as something unique;
+neither side dreamt of a peace or a truce, and only once in the
+history of the Order does there seem to have been the suggestion of
+an agreement. The fanaticism which actuated the Knights in their
+determination to destroy the infidel made them formidable enemies,
+despite their fewness in number. Solyman the Magnificent must have
+often repented of his clemency in letting the Knights leave Rhodes
+alive, and in 1564 he decided it would be a fitting end to his reign
+if he could destroy the worst pest of the Mediterranean by capturing
+Malta and annihilating the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: _Vide_ Appendix I.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The chroniclers, such as Vertot, often call this town,
+which was the ancient Adrumetum, "Africa," and it is therefore
+necessary to watch their use of that word carefully.]
+
+[Footnote 3: See map on p. 19.]
+
+[Footnote 4: This visit caused a great sensation in Europe, as De
+L'Isle Adam crossed the Alps in the depth of winter, and this haste to
+pay his respects touched the King of England.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+THE SIEGE OF MALTA
+
+1565.
+
+The Grand Master of the Knights of Malta in 1565 was Jean Parisot de
+la Valette. Born in 1494 of a noble family in Quercy, he had been
+a Knight of St. John all his life, and forty-three years before had
+distinguished himself at the siege of Rhodes. He had never left
+his post at the "Convent" except to go on his "caravans,"[1] as the
+cruises in the galleys were named. As a commander of the galleys of
+the "Religion," as the Order called itself, he had won a name that
+stood conspicuous in that age of great sea captains; and in 1557, on
+the death of the Grand Master de la Sangle, the Knights, mindful of
+the attack that was sure to come, elected La Valette to the vacant
+office. No better man could be found even in the ranks of the Order.
+Passionately religious, devoted body and soul to his Order and faith,
+Jean de la Valette was prepared to suffer all to the death rather than
+yield a foot to the hated infidel. Unsparing of himself, he demanded
+utter sacrifice from his subordinates, and his cold, unflinching
+severity would brook no hesitation.
+
+Both sides spent the winter and spring of 1565 in preparations for
+the great attack. The Grand Master sent a message to all the Powers
+of Europe; but Philip II., who sent him some troops, and the Pope,
+who sent him 10,000 crowns, alone responded to his appeal. The message
+sent to the various commanderies[2] throughout Europe brought the
+Knights in haste to the defence of their beloved Convent. The Maltese
+Militia was organised and drilled and proved of great value in the
+siege, and even 500 galley slaves were released on promise of faithful
+service. Altogether La Valette seems to have had at his disposal about
+9,000 men (though the authorities differ slightly as to the exact
+figures). Of these over 600 were Knights with their attendants, about
+1,200 were hired troops, about 1,000 were volunteers, chiefly from
+Italy, and the remainder Maltese Militia and galley slaves.
+
+The Turkish fleet at the beginning consisted of 180 vessels, of which
+130 were galleys; and the troops on board consisted of about 30,000
+men, of whom 6,000 belonged to the select troops of the Janissaries.
+Twice during the siege the Ottomans received reinforcements: first,
+Dragut himself with 13 galleys and 1,600 men, and later, Hassan,
+Viceroy of Algiers and son of Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa, with 2,500
+Corsairs. Altogether the Ottoman forces at the maximum, inclusive of
+sailors, must have exceeded 40,000 men. A small reinforcement of 700
+men, of whom 42 were Knights, contrived to steal through the Turkish
+lines on June 29; but that was all the help the garrison received
+before September.
+
+[Illustration: PLAN TO ILLUSTRATE SIEGE OF MALTA 1565]
+
+The Turkish army was under the command of Mustapha Pasha, and the
+fleet under that of Piali. Both had received orders not to take any
+steps without the advice of Dragut. It would have been far better for the
+Turkish cause had the Corsair been in supreme command, for his skill
+as an artilleryman was famous. But there had always been trouble in
+the Ottoman fleet when a Corsair was in command. The proud Turkish
+generals were unwilling to be under the orders of men who were of
+doubtful antecedents, and whom they despised in their hearts as
+low-born robbers. Even Barbarossa, acknowledged by all to be the
+greatest seaman in the Turkish Empire, could not enforce strict
+obedience in the campaign of Prevesa in 1538. The Grand Vizier Ibrahim
+had seen the folly of putting generals in command of fleets, and had
+therefore secured the promotion of Barbarossa: but Ibrahim was now
+dead, and Solyman, bereft of his wise counsel, made a compromise.
+
+On May 18 the Turkish fleet was sighted off the island, and almost
+immediately the army disembarked, partly at Marsa Scirocco, and partly
+at St. Thomas's Bay. The first misfortune was the non-appearance
+of Dragut at the rendezvous, and in his absence Mustapha and Piali
+decided to attack St. Elmo and to leave to Dragut the responsibility
+of sanctioning the operations or breaking them off. Batteries were
+erected on Mount Sceberras, in which ten 80-pounders were brought into
+action, besides a huge basilisk throwing balls of 160 pounds, and two
+60-pounder _coulevrines_. The Turks at the height of their power put
+great faith in novel and massive artillery, which, though clumsy,
+and at times more dangerous to their own gunners than the enemy, was
+terribly effective at the short distance it was placed from St. Elmo.
+The walls of the fortress soon began to crumble under the continuous
+bombardment, and the garrison, which had been increased to 120
+Knights and two companies of Spanish infantry, soon felt the position
+untenable without reinforcements. As an attack had not yet been
+delivered La Valette was incensed at the appeal for help and offered
+to go himself to hold the fort; his council dissuaded him from doing
+so, and he permitted 50 Knights and 200 Spanish troops to cross to St.
+Elmo. It was of the utmost importance that St. Elmo should be held to
+the last minute. Not only did it delay the attack on the main forts,
+but Don Garcia de Toledo, the Viceroy of Sicily, had made it a
+condition in his arrangements with the Grand Master, before the siege,
+that St. Elmo must be held if the reinforcements from Sicily were to
+be sent.
+
+At this point--June 2--Dragut arrived with his galleys and expressed
+nothing but disapproval for the Turkish operations. He pointed out
+that the besiegers should have isolated the fortifications from the
+rest of the island before proceeding to attack St. Elmo; but, as
+the siege had started, he insisted on continuing it as vigorously
+as possible. He erected a powerful battery on the summit of Mount
+Sceberras, which swept both Fort St. Angelo and Fort St. Elmo, and
+erected another on the headland opposite St. Elmo on the other side of
+the Marsa Muscetto, which was henceforth known as Point Dragut.
+
+As soon as this was done the bombardment restarted with relentless
+fury. The Knights made a sortie to destroy some of the Turkish guns,
+but were driven back, and the Turks then captured and held a covered
+way leading up to a ravelin; a few days later, taking advantage of the
+negligence of the garrison, they surprised the ravelin itself, and,
+but for the efforts of a Spanish officer, would have captured the
+fort. After desperate fighting the Knights were still holding the
+fort, but had been unable to recapture the ravelin. The next day
+another attack was made by Mustapha, but without avail; the ravelin
+remained in Turkish hands, but it had cost them 2,000 men.
+
+It was a great gain, however; two guns were mounted on it, and all the
+Turkish artillery, including that of the galleys, began to play on the
+hapless fort. It was no question of a breach; the walls were gradually
+destroyed till there was nothing left of the enceinte but a mass of
+ruins. Every part of the fort was directly exposed to the fire of
+the two guns on the ravelin, and this exposure made the strain on the
+Knights intolerable.
+
+The garrison sent a Knight, renowned for his bravery, to report these
+conditions to the Grand Master and to ask for permission to withdraw.
+La Valette, feeling it imperative that the fort should hold out to the
+last minute, sent him back with orders that it was to be defended to
+the end. The garrison, amazed by his reply, sent a prayer for relief,
+failing which they would sally forth, sword in hand, to meet their
+death in open fight rather than be buried like dogs beneath the ruins.
+The Grand Master received the request with the stern comment that, not
+only were their lives at the disposal of the Order, but the time and
+manner of their death; but to make sure that their complaints were
+justified he would send three Knights to investigate the condition
+of the fort. One of the three (probably in collusion with La Valette)
+maintained the fort could be held, and offered himself to hold it with
+volunteers, who were immediately forthcoming in large numbers; but
+when the message arrived at St. Elmo announcing that the garrison was
+to be relieved, there was consternation among the defenders, who, now
+realising the ignominy of their prayer, sent out yet another request
+to St. Angelo, this time to be allowed to hold St. Elmo to the death.
+After some delay the Grand Master granted the permission.
+
+This was June 14; on the 16th the Ottomans delivered a grand assault.
+The fort was attacked on three sides, from Mount Sceberras and on each
+flank. The guns of St. Angelo rendered great service all day by raking
+the attacking forces in enfilade, and especially by breaking up the
+flank attack from the side of the Grand Harbour. All day long the
+battle went on with unabating fury; time after time the Janissaries
+burst over the ruined walls, and each time they were repulsed.
+Attacked on all sides, the few defenders fought with dauntless
+heroism, and when the night fell the Maltese Cross still waved over
+the fort.
+
+Reinforcements were dispatched as soon as night set in, and the
+volunteers far exceeded all requirements.
+
+Now at last the Turkish commanders perceived that, to capture St.
+Elmo, it must be isolated from St. Angelo. In the course of the next
+few days a battery was constructed on the promontory at the entrance
+of the Grand Harbour where Fort Ricasoli stood in later times, and
+another was mounted on the side of Mount Sceberras to sweep the
+landing place beneath the fort. Both batteries cost many Turkish
+lives, but their construction and the extension of the investing
+trenches to the Grand Harbour meant the complete isolation of St.
+Elmo. The Turks sustained their greatest loss when Dragut, while
+superintending the works, received a wound from which a week later he
+died.
+
+For three days twenty-six guns kept up the bombardment, and on the
+early morning of June 22 another grand assault was made. Three times
+repulsed and three times renewed, the attack failed in the end, and
+the handful of surviving Knights was left at nightfall in possession
+of their ruins. All attempts during the night to send reinforcements
+failed under the fire of Dragut's new batteries, and La Valette saw
+that his men were beyond all hope of rescue.
+
+The sixty shattered survivors prepared for death; worn out, they
+betook themselves at midnight to their little chapel, where they
+confessed and received the Eucharist for the last time. Dawn found
+them waiting, even to the wounded, who had been placed in chairs sword
+in hand to receive the last onslaught. Incredible as it may appear,
+the first assault was driven back, but the attack finally broke up
+the defence, and, with the exception of a few Maltese who escaped by
+swimming, the garrison perished to a man.
+
+June 24, St. John the Baptist's Day, was one of sorrow inside the
+beleaguered fortress. The Turks had soiled their victory by mutilating
+their dead foes and throwing them into the Grand Harbour; La Valette
+took reprisals, and from that time neither side thought of quarter.
+
+Nor were the besiegers greatly elated; the tiny Fort of St. Elmo had
+delayed them for five weeks and had cost them 8,000 men and their best
+general. The Order had lost 1,300 men, of whom 130 were Knights, and
+the disparity of the losses shows the impatience and recklessness of
+the Turkish attacks.
+
+Mustapha now transferred the main part of his army to the other side
+of the Grand Harbour, and, drawing a line of entrenchments along the
+heights on its eastern side, succeeded in investing completely the two
+peninsulas of Senglea and Il Borgo. Batteries were established and a
+constant bombardment commenced, the main target being Fort St. Michael
+at the end of Senglea, on which a converging fire was brought to bear.
+Unable to bring his fleet into the Grand Harbour under the guns of St.
+Angelo, Mustapha had eighty galleys dragged across the neck of Mount
+Sceberras and launched on the upper waters of the Grand Harbour. This
+was a blow to the besieged, as it meant an attack by sea as well as
+by land, and La Valette made all the preparations possible to meet the
+danger. Along the south-west side of Senglea, where the beach is low,
+he constructed, with the aid of his Maltese divers, a very firm and
+powerful stockade to prevent the enemy galleys from running ashore,
+and he also linked up Il Borgo and Senglea with a floating bridge.
+
+On July 15 the Turks delivered a grand assault by sea and by land. The
+attack by sea, under the command of the renegade Candellissa, proved
+the more formidable. At the critical moment the defenders were thrown
+into confusion by an explosion on the ramparts, during which the
+Turks were able to make their way through the stockade and into the
+fortress, being checked with difficulty by the desperate resistance of
+the garrison and finally driven out by a timely reinforcement sent
+by La Valette. Ten boatloads of troops sent by Mustapha incautiously
+exposed themselves to the guns of St. Angelo and were almost all sunk,
+while the attack on the land side, led by Hassan, Viceroy of Algiers
+and son of Khaired-Din Barbarossa, proved an utter failure.
+
+As at the siege of Rhodes, so at Malta, a distinct part of the
+fortifications had been allotted to each langue to defend. The langue
+of Castile held the north-east section of Il Borgo, which was destined
+to be the scene of most desperate fighting.
+
+On August 7 a joint attack was made on the land side of Senglea and on
+the bastion of Castile. On that day the Turks came nearer success than
+ever before or after. Mustapha's desperate attacks on Senglea were
+at last successful: masters of the breach made by their guns, the
+assailants' weight of numbers began to tell, and slowly the defenders
+were being pushed back inside the fortress. At this moment, to
+everyone's amazement, Mustapha sounded the retreat. The little
+garrison of the Città Notabile, which had been left alone by the
+Turks, had been raiding the enemy's lines as usual, and, hearing the
+grand assault was in progress, had made a determined attack on the
+Turkish entrenchments from behind, burning and slaying all they could
+find. The confusion arising from this started the rumour that Sicilian
+reinforcements had landed and were attacking the Turkish army.
+Mustapha, in fear of being surrounded, drew off his troops in the
+moment of victory.
+
+Meanwhile,[3] farther north, the Bastion of Castile had been almost
+captured by Piali. The rock at that part of the fortification was
+extremely hard, and the possibility of mines had occurred to none of
+the garrison. Piali, however, with great labour, had dug a mine which
+had been sprung that morning and had blown a huge gap in the ramparts.
+This unexpected attack threw the whole of Il Borgo into confusion,
+and, but for the Grand Master's promptitude and coolness of mind, the
+enemy had been masters of the fortress. Seizing a pike, La Valette
+rushed into the fight, and, inspired by his example, the Knights
+succeeded in driving the enemy out of the breach. He ordered the
+garrison to remain there all night, as he expected an attack under
+the cover of darkness, and insisted on taking the command himself. His
+subordinates protested against this reckless exposure of a valuable
+life, but his precautions were justified when a Turkish attack made in
+the darkness was defeated by his prompt resistance.
+
+The bombardment continued unceasingly, and on August 18 another
+desperate assault was made, which, like the other, failed. Yet the
+position of the besieged was becoming desperate: dwindling daily
+in numbers, they were becoming too feeble to hold the long line of
+fortifications; but, when his council suggested the abandonment of Il
+Borgo and Senglea and withdrawal to St. Angelo, La Valette remained
+obdurate.
+
+Why the Viceroy of Sicily had not brought help will always remain a
+mystery. Possibly the orders of his master, Philip II. of Spain, were
+so obscurely worded as to put on his own shoulders the burden of a
+decision; a responsibility which he was unwilling to discharge because
+the slightest defeat would mean exposing Sicily to the Turk. He had
+left his own son with La Valette, so he could hardly be indifferent to
+the fate of the fortress, and Malta in Turkish hands would soon have
+proved a curse to Sicily and Naples. Whatever may have been the cause
+of his delay, the Viceroy hesitated till the indignation of his own
+officers forced him to move, and then the battle had almost been won
+by the unaided efforts of the Knights. On August 23 came yet
+another grand assault, the last serious effort, as it proved, of the
+besiegers; it was thrown back with the greatest difficulty, even the
+wounded taking part in the defence. The plight of the Turkish forces,
+however, was now desperate. With the exception of St. Elmo, the
+fortifications were still intact. By working night and day the
+garrison had repaired the breaches, and the capture of Malta seemed
+more and more impossible. Those terrible summer months with the
+burning sirocco had laid many of the troops low with sickness in their
+crowded quarters; ammunition and food were beginning to run short, and
+the troops were becoming more and more dispirited at the failure of
+their numerous attacks and the unending toll of lives. The death of
+Dragut, on June 23, had proved an incalculable loss, and the jealousy
+between Mustapha and Piali prevented their co-operation. The whole
+course of the siege had been marked by a feverish haste and a fear of
+interruption, which showed itself in ill-drawn plans. Dragut himself,
+early in the siege, had pointed out the necessity of more foresight,
+but his warnings went unheeded. The Turkish commanders took few
+precautions, and, though they had a huge fleet, they never used it
+with any effect except on one solitary occasion. They neglected their
+communications with the African coast and made no attempt to watch and
+intercept Sicilian reinforcements.
+
+On September 1 Mustapha made his last effort, but all his threats and
+cajoleries had but little effect on his dispirited troops, who refused
+any longer to believe in the possibility of capturing those terrible
+fortresses. The feebleness of the attack was a great encouragement to
+the besieged, who now began to see hopes of deliverance. Mustapha's
+perplexity and indecision were cut short by the news of the arrival
+of Sicilian reinforcements in Melleha Bay. Hastily evacuating his
+trenches, he embarked his army; but, on learning that the new troops
+numbered but some 8,000, was overcome by shame and put ashore to fight
+the reinforcements. It was all in vain, however, for his troops would
+not stand the fierce charge of the new-comers, and, helped by the
+determination of his rearguard, safely re-embarked and sailed away on
+September 3.
+
+At the moment of departure the Order had left 600 men capable of
+bearing arms, but the losses of the Ottomans had been yet more
+fearful. The most reliable estimate puts the number of the Turkish
+army at its height at some 40,000 men, of which but 15,000 returned
+to Constantinople. It was a most inglorious ending to the reign of
+Solyman the Magnificent.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: A reminiscence of the Syrian days of the Order.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The name given to the different estates of the
+Hospitallers scattered throughout Europe: they were so called because
+they were each in charge of a "commander," sometimes also named a
+"preceptor," from his duty of receiving and training novices.]
+
+[Footnote 3: Most historians make this event part of the attack of
+August 18. But Prescott (_Philip II_., vol. ii., p. 428) points out
+that Balbi, who is undoubtedly the best authority for the siege as he
+was one of the garrison, places it on August 7.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN
+
+Before proceeding to trace the history of the last two centuries
+of the Knights at Malta it will perhaps be advisable to examine the
+organisation of an Order which was the greatest and most long-lived
+of all the medieval Orders of Chivalry. The siege of 1565 was its last
+great struggle with its mortal foe; after that there is but little
+left for the historian but to trace its gradual decadence and fall.
+And, as might be expected in a decadent society, though outwardly
+the constitution changed but little in the last two centuries, yet
+gradually the Statutes of the Order and the actual facts became more
+and more divergent.
+
+There were three classes of members in the Hospitallers, who were
+primarily distinguished from each other by their birth, and who were
+allotted different functions in the Order. The Knights of Justice[1]
+were the highest class of the three and were the only Knights
+qualified for the Order's highest distinctions. Each langue had its
+own regulations for admitting members, and all alike exercised severe
+discrimination. Various kinds of evidence were necessary to prove the
+pure and noble descent of the candidate. The German was the strictest
+and most exacting of the langues, demanding proof of sixteen quarters
+of nobility and refusing to accept the natural sons of Kings into the
+ranks of its Knights. Italy was the most lenient, since banking and
+trade were admitted as no stain on nobility, while most of the other
+langues insisted on military nobility only.
+
+The chaplains, who formed the second class of the Order, were required
+to be of honest birth and born in wedlock of families that were
+neither slaves nor engaged in base or mechanical trades. The
+same regulations were in force for the third class--that of
+servants-at-arms, who served under the Knights both on land and sea.
+As the military character of the Order became less and less marked
+in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these servants-at-arms
+became fewer and fewer, but in earlier days they were of considerable
+importance. The chaplains performed their duties at the Convent or on
+the galleys; the priests at the various commanderies throughout Europe
+were a class apart, known as Priests of Obedience, and never came to
+Malta, but resided permanently in their respective countries. A number
+of commanderies was allotted to the two inferior classes.
+
+The Order, as we know, was an international one, and for purposes of
+administration was divided into sections or langues. In the sixteenth
+century there were eight of these divisions, which, in order of
+seniority, were Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, England,
+Germany, and Castile. When Henry VIII. suppressed the English langue
+in 1540, the Knights, with a reluctance to face the facts which was
+characteristic of a proud Order of Chivalry, kept up the fiction
+of its existence. In 1782, when the Elector of Bavaria secured the
+establishment of a Bavarian langue, it was united to the dormant
+langue of England and named the Anglo-Bavarian.
+
+Each langue had its own quarters at the Convent known as the
+"Auberge," presided over by a "conventual bailiff," who in all matters
+was the head of the langue. Each conventual bailiff had an important
+office in the hierarchy of the Order which was permanently appurtenant
+to the headship of that langue. Thus the conventual bailiff of the
+langue of France was always the Grand Hospitaller in charge of the
+Hospital of the Order, while that of England was Turcopolier, or
+commander of the light cavalry--a survival from the Syrian days. The
+possessions of each langue in its native land were divided into grand
+priories and bailiwicks. Thus England, which meant the possessions
+throughout the British Isles, was divided into the Grand Priory of
+England at Clerkenwell, the Grand Priory of Ireland at Kilmainham, and
+the Bailiwick of the Eagle, which was situated near Lincoln and had
+originally belonged to the Templars. These Grand Priors and Bailiffs
+of each langue, as well as its conventual bailiff, were all Knights
+Grand Cross, and, as such, entitled to seats in the Chapter-General of
+the Order.
+
+The supreme control of the Order was vested in the Chapter-General,
+consisting of all the Knights Grand Cross. Though these
+Chapters-General were often convened in the early history of the
+Order, their difficulty of assembly and their clumsy method of
+procedure made them less and less frequently summoned, as the Grand
+Master had it in his power to convoke it when he pleased, though an
+interval of five years--later extended to ten--had been sanctioned
+by custom. In the seventeenth century the institution fell into utter
+disuse, and there was no meeting of the Chapter-General from 1631 to
+1776, when its uselessness was finally demonstrated.
+
+When the Chapter-General was not sitting the government of the Order
+was carried on by the Grand Master and the Councils, known as the
+Ordinary, Complete, Secret, and Criminal. The Ordinary Council
+consisted of the Grand Master, the conventual bailiffs, together with
+any Grand Cross residing at the Convent. This Council, as its name
+indicates, transacted the ordinary business of government, which
+mainly consisted of appointing to these offices and making those
+arrangements which were not definitely assigned to the Grand Master
+himself. The Secret and Criminal Councils, respectively, dealt with
+foreign affairs and offences against the Statutes, while the Complete,
+consisting of the Ordinary Council with the addition of two Knights
+from each langue of more than five years' residence at the Convent,
+dealt with appeals from the other Councils. In the later days of the
+Order the pernicious practice of appealing to the Pope destroyed all
+semblance of authority in this Council.
+
+The election of the Grand Master was an exceedingly complicated
+affair, the intention being to prevent intrigue. Each langue solemnly
+elected three Knights to represent it, and this body of twenty-four
+chose a triumvirate, which consisted of a Knight, a chaplain, and a
+servant-at-arms. These three co-opted a fourth, and the four a fifth,
+and so on, till the number of sixteen was reached, and this body of
+sixteen elected the Grand Master. Every stage of the proceedings
+was hedged about with meticulous precautions to prevent intrigue and
+corruption, and it was a thoroughly typical medieval attempt to secure
+an honest election.
+
+The framers of the Order's Statutes had taken the precaution of
+limiting the authority of the Grand Master by a minute enumeration
+of all his rights. But, as the Order developed into a purely military
+body, even officially his powers became greater. No subject for
+discussion could be introduced at the Councils except by himself; he
+had a double vote, and, in case of an equal division, a casting vote
+also; he had the right of nomination to many administrative posts
+besides all those of his own household, and in each priory there was
+a commandery in his own gift whose revenues went to himself. But even
+such wide powers were less than the reality. While the Order was at
+Rhodes, and during the first half-century at Malta, it was obviously
+necessary that the Grand Master should possess the powers of a
+commander-in-chief. As a purely military body, surrounded by powerful
+foes, the Order was in the position of an army encamped in enemy
+territory. Further, the absolute possession of Rhodes, and later
+of Malta, tended to give the Grand Masters the rank of independent
+Sovereigns, and the outside world regarded them as territorial
+potentates rather than as heads of an Order of aristocratic Knights.
+
+But when the Order's existence was no longer threatened the Grand
+Master's position was assailed from many sides. No one, while reading
+the history of the Knights, can fail to be impressed by the numerous
+disturbances among them during the last 200 years of the Order. Drawn
+from the highest ranks of the nobility, young, rich, and with very
+little to occupy their time (except when on their "caravans"), the
+Knights were perpetually quarrelling among themselves or defying the
+constituted authorities of the Order.
+
+Charles V. had insisted on keeping in his own hands the nomination
+of the bishopric of Malta, and the custom grew up that the Bishop of
+Malta and the Prior of St. John--the two most important ecclesiastics
+in the Order--should be chosen from the chaplains who were natives of
+the island. This was intended as a compensation for an injury which
+had been inflicted on the Maltese. To prevent the Grand Mastership
+falling into the hands of a native, the Maltese members of the Order
+were unable to vote at the election. The Bishop was often engaged
+in quarrels with the Grand Master, and the disputes were generally
+carried to the Pope, who, as the Head of Christendom, was regarded as
+having supremacy over all Religious Orders. But the Pope himself often
+encroached upon the rights of the Order, not only by sending nuncios
+to Malta with large and undefined powers, but by arrogating to himself
+the patronage of the langue of Italy when he wished to bestow gifts
+upon his relatives and friends. This led to bitter resentment among
+the Italian Knights, who saw all the lucrative posts of their langue
+given away to strangers. The introduction of the Inquisition in 1574
+and the Jesuits in 1592, brought additional disputes about the chief
+authority in the island, and these different ecclesiastical personages
+had no hesitation in interfering in matters which should have been
+entirely beyond their province. Many a Grand Master of the seventeenth
+and eighteenth centuries had his time occupied in efforts to assert
+his authority.
+
+The Grand Mastership was also weakened by the practice of electing
+very old men to the post, as the short tenure of the office and
+the feebleness of its holder meant a lax control over the turbulent
+Knights. This practice became very common in the last two centuries
+of the Order's existence. But many of the Grand Masters, though over
+seventy at the time of election, disappointed expectation by living
+till eighty or even ninety.
+
+We possess detailed accounts of the financial system of the Order in
+the work of two Knights, Boisgelin and Boisredon de Ransijat, accounts
+which agree almost entirely.
+
+The average revenue of the Order before the French Revolution was
+£136,000 per annum--i.e., the revenue which definitely reached Malta.
+It is to be remembered that this sum only represented the residue
+which was sent to the _chef-lieu_. The Knights possessed over
+600 estates throughout Europe, each of which, besides sending
+contributions to Malta, maintained several members of the Order,
+gave a liberal income to its commander, and contributed towards the
+revenues of the Grand Priory in which it was situated. The chief items
+of the above sum were:
+
+1. RESPONSIONS.
+
+A proportion of the net income of each commandery fixed by the
+Chapter-General and liable to increase in case of need--£547,520 per
+annum.
+
+2. MORTUARY AND VACANCY.
+
+On the death of a commander all the net revenues from the day of
+his death to the following May 1 went to the Treasury: this was the
+MORTUARY; the whole revenue of the succeeding year was also sent to
+Malta: this was called the VACANCY--£521,470 per annum.
+
+3. PASSAGES.
+
+These were sums paid for admission into the Order, and were especially
+heavy for those who wished to enter the Order at an age earlier than
+that laid down in the Statutes--£520,324 per annum.
+
+4. SPOILS.
+
+These were the effects of deceased Knights, who were only allowed to
+dispose of one-fifth of their property by will, the remainder going to
+the Treasury--£524,755.
+
+These made up about five-sixths of the total revenue, the remainder
+being small sums accruing from various sources, such as the proceeds
+from the timber of the commanderies (which went entirely to the
+Council), rents from buildings in Malta, and so forth.
+
+At the height of their prosperity the Knights derived a very
+considerable revenue from their galleys, and just as Algiers,
+Tunis, or Tripoli throve on piracy, even so the wealth of the
+East contributed largely to the splendour of Malta. But during the
+seventeenth century various Christian Powers, such as Venice or
+France, insisted on restricting the Knights' claims to unlimited
+seizure of infidel vessels and infidel property on board ship. As
+early as 1582 the Pope had forbidden the Order to seize in a Christian
+harbour Turkish ships or Turkish property on Christian ships,
+and, despite the strenuous opposition of the Knights, enforced his
+commands.
+
+The expenditure of the Order was, on the whole, within the limits of
+its revenue. The chief charge upon the expenditure was the fighting
+forces--the fleet and the garrisons--which together absorbed about
+half the revenue. Of the other items, the most important were the
+Hospital, the Churches of the Order, and the support of its officers
+both at the Convent and in the various European countries. The Knights
+were never seriously threatened financially till the French Revolution
+wiped out half their revenues at one fell swoop. Emergencies were
+always successfully met by an appeal to the self-denial of the members
+of the Order and the generosity of Europe.
+
+The control of the revenues was in the hands of the Chambre de Commun
+Trésor, which consisted of eight officials, the most important of whom
+were the President, who was always the Grand Commander (the conventual
+bailiff of Provence, the senior langue of the Order), and the
+Secretary through whose hands all the revenues passed. In each langue
+certain specified towns were used as receiving Treasuries, under
+the control of receivers who paid the money direct to the Central
+Treasury; these towns numbered twenty-nine in all. These receivers
+obtained the revenues from each estate or commandery within their
+district. At first the Order had possessed one common chest, but with
+the growth of its possessions each Grand Prior was put in control
+of his Priory's revenues; this proving unsatisfactory, from the
+difficulty of exercising control over these powerful Knights,
+the finances of each estate were administered by the commanders
+themselves, who dealt directly with the receivers in their area. They
+paid their quota or "responsions" biennially, and were subject to
+inspection from their Grand Priors; commanderies were rewards to aged
+Knights, and good administration brought promotion to richer estates.
+
+The Criminal Council, which consisted of the Grand Master, the Bishop
+of Malta, the Prior of St. John, the conventual bailiffs, and any
+Grand Crosses present at the Convent, dealt with offences against the
+estates of the Order. The accused were brought in, the evidence taken,
+and the verdict declared. All evidence was verbal and no written
+testimony was accepted; each Knight, unless he could show good
+reason to the contrary, had to plead in person. Any English or German
+Knights, who knew only their own tongue and so had difficulty in
+being understood, were allowed advocates. The Order, by its Statutes,
+discouraged litigation to the utmost, desiring to promote concord and
+harmony among its members, and for that reason all legal procedure was
+made as simple and as summary as possible.
+
+In such an exclusive and aristocratic Order there was naturally much
+jealousy of the power of its head. Facts gave the Grand Master a very
+strong position, but technically he was only _primus inter pares_. To
+make sure the Knights were not oppressed, they were always at liberty
+to disregard the Grand Master's or any superior's command and to
+appeal to a Court of Égard to prove that the given command was a
+violation of the Order's Statutes. The Court of Égard consisted of
+nine members, each langue choosing one from its own ranks, and the
+Grand Master appointing the President. Either disputant could object
+to any member of the Court, whereupon that member's langue chose a
+substitute. After hearing the evidence, which was entirely oral, the
+Court discussed the case behind closed doors and came to a decision.
+The litigants were called back, and if they agreed to accept the
+verdict the Court's decision was announced and was deemed final; if
+they refused to accept it, an appeal lay to another Court, called the
+Renfort of the Égard, which was constituted by each langue electing
+another member, thus doubling the original number. The same procedure
+was carried out as in the first Court, and if the litigants expressed
+themselves still dissatisfied, a new Court was summoned, called the
+Renfort of the Renfort, which was formed by the election from each
+langue of another member, thus making twenty-five with the President.
+If their decision was not accepted a final Court of Appeal, called
+the Bailiffs' Égard, was formed by the addition of the conventual
+bailiffs, or, if absent, their lieutenants, and their decision was
+final. This admirable Court of Equity existed almost unaltered right
+down to 1798.
+
+The Hospital was a characteristic institution of the Order, and
+deserves some mention. Originally the chief scene of their activities,
+the Hospital was never forgotten by the Knights. Their first duty,
+wherever they went, was always to build a Hospital to tend the sick,
+and to the end every Knight at the Convent, in theory at least, went
+to take his turn in attending at the Hospital for one day in the week.
+The site of the Hospital, on the south-east side of Valetta, has been
+condemned by science as unhealthy, and it is very easy with modern
+knowledge to find many faults in its organisation. Howard, in his
+"Lazarettos in Europe," in 1786, gave a vivid description of its
+condition and exposed its defects. At that time, however, the Hospital
+was sharing the general decadence of the Order, and discipline had
+become very lax. But, even so, the Hospital was far superior to most
+other hospitals in Europe and still kept much of that distinction it
+had acquired in the great days of the Order. We must remember that
+hospital organisation is a very recent science, and it would be unfair
+to accuse the Knights of neglecting what had not yet been discovered.
+Their Hospital was one of the most famous in Europe, and was used
+by many from Sicily and Southern Italy as well as by the natives of
+Malta. It was open to all who wished to use it, and the attendance of
+patients from a distance proved that it supplied a need. The hospital,
+which had generally over 400 invalids, was maintained at great cost to
+the Order, and the regulations were drawn up with great care, though
+they reveal an amazing ignorance of some fundamental laws of health.
+Patients, for instance, who were members of the Order received meals
+twice as large as other patients.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: So called because they were Knights "by right" of noble
+birth.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE DECLINE
+
+1565-1789.
+
+The history of the Order of St. John after the siege of Malta in
+1565 is a sad story of gradual and inevitable decay. The magnificent
+heroism of the Knights at the siege raised their fame throughout
+Europe to the highest pitch, and the siege was rightly regarded as one
+of the first decisive checks received by the Ottoman conquerors.
+
+It is easy to imagine the anxious expectation of Europe in that summer
+of 1565, when the heretic Queen of England ordered prayers to be
+offered in the diocese of Salisbury for the safety of the Knights of
+St. John.
+
+The Battle of Lepanto, six years later, despite its lack of immediate
+results, dissolved the spell which the invincibility of the Ottoman
+fleet had woven, and in the seventeenth century the Turkish Empire
+showed plainly that it had passed its meridian. Now that they were in
+a weakened condition, the Ottomans, though never fully regarded as a
+European Power, were more acceptable to the Christian States, most
+of whom followed the example of Francis I. and concluded commercial
+agreements and treaties with the Porte. The Turk was no longer
+regarded as a being beyond human intercourse, and the Levant trade
+was too valuable to be ignored by France, England, or the Italian
+republics.
+
+The Knights of Malta, with their attitude of truceless war against the
+infidel, were thus becoming more and more of an anachronism as time went
+on. They never concluded peace with the Sultan, and always regarded
+the possessions of the infidel as fair and lawful booty. It was
+obviously impossible for the Christian States trafficking in Turkish
+waters to allow such a theory to go unchallenged, and we therefore
+find the Order quarrelling with the Pope, Venice, England, and France,
+as to their rights of seizure of Turkish goods in Christian vessels
+or of Turkish vessels in Christian harbours. In 1582 this led to
+a dispute with Gregory XIII., and in 1666 with Louis XIV., and the
+Knights were forced to confine their attentions to Turkish vessels
+trading between Turkish ports. England was destined later to incur
+similar trouble with neutrals for a similar theory of international
+law.
+
+Had the Knights wished, their unending warfare against the Mohammedan
+would have found a suitable enemy in the Barbary Corsairs, who were
+a plague to Europe right to the year 1816; but though we find many a
+struggle between Knight and Corsair in the seventeenth century, the
+sloth and decadence that were mastering the Order made it gradually
+neglect its duty in that direction. Whatever energies they had
+were more profitably spent in the Levant; for the Knights, in their
+seafaring expeditions, became little more than Corsairs themselves.
+When it was necessary, as at the twenty-five years' siege of Candia
+(1644-1669), the Knights displayed once more that magnificent heroism
+that had made their name ring throughout the world. We find through
+the seventeenth century many a display of bravery, but they became
+more and more infrequent, till, in the eighteenth century, the Order's
+squadron was used for little else but show voyages to different
+Mediterranean ports. It was becoming too great a task even to raid
+Turkish merchantmen.
+
+After the siege it was determined to move the _chef-lieu_ of the Order
+from Il Borgo to Mount Sceberras, and on March 28, 1566, the building
+of Valetta was commenced. It was originally intended to bring the hill
+down to a certain level and on the plateau thus constructed to build
+the city. The fear of another Turkish invasion, however, did not allow
+of the completion of this plan, with the result that Valetta consists
+of a long, narrow plateau with slopes descending to Marso Muscetto on
+one side and the Grand Harbour on the other. The difficulty of moving
+about in this hilly town is commemorated in Byron's lines:
+
+  Adieu, ye joys of La Valette,
+  Adieu, sirocco, sun, and sweat,
+  Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs,
+  How surely he who mounts you swears.
+
+Each Grand Master strove to enlarge and strengthen the town's
+fortifications, with the result that, in the eighteenth century,
+Valetta was recognised as one of the greatest fortresses in the world.
+The building and upkeep of these fortifications proved a great drain
+upon the resources of the Order, and served but little purpose, except
+that of ministering to the vanity of successive Grand Masters, who
+desired to leave behind them memorials of themselves by bestowing
+their name upon a new fort or outwork. The continual increase of
+security and strength did not serve to improve the daring of the
+Knights, but rather helped to engender a condition of sloth that was
+destined to prove fatal.
+
+This period is marked by constant tumults among the members of the
+Order and by acts of defiance against the Grand Masters. Even in the
+days of its glory there had been much jealousy and friction between
+the different nationalities composing the Order. The three French
+langues of Provence, Auvergne, and France, by acting together,
+exercised a preponderant influence; they contributed half the revenues
+of the Order, and were generally able to secure their object against
+the opposition of the remaining Knights. The constant wars between
+Spain and France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to
+constant troubles at Malta, and the Grand Masters throughout this
+period had great and increasing difficulty in preserving the Order's
+neutrality. Many Knights broke their Oath of Obedience by enlisting in
+the French and Spanish armies. When this was discovered, the offended
+King would make out that the Order had taken sides and would threaten
+it with his vengeance. As the Order possessed many estates in both
+kingdoms, the Grand Masters were in constant fear that these would be
+encroached upon if an excuse could be found to justify such an
+action. But Spain, while it possessed the kingdom of the Two Sicilies,
+possessed an even surer method of punishing the Order. Malta,
+despite all the care lavished upon it, has never been able to produce
+sufficient corn for its population, and for this reason imported food
+regularly from Sicily, where the Order had built granaries for storing
+the corn while awaiting transshipment. As soon as the Knights offended
+the King of Spain Malta was plunged into scarcity, and the unhappy
+natives had often to suffer heavily because the Grand Master was a
+Frenchman.
+
+Another result of the wars of France and Spain was the frequent
+internal quarrels at Malta. As the feelings of the two nations towards
+each other were often embittered, it is not surprising to find that
+French and Spanish Knights would come to open blows in the streets of
+Valetta. The unhealthy life of those young and idle aristocrats was
+conducive to turbulence, and the Grand Masters often adopted the
+policy of sending them to sea as soon as trouble was foreseen. The
+French were generally in the preponderance, as we can see from the
+great number of French Grand Masters; and the increasing greatness of
+the French monarchy in the seventeenth century was reflected at Malta.
+
+The position of the Maltese became worse and worse as the Order
+declined. The natives, who had enjoyed a considerable measure of local
+autonomy under Spanish rule, had been very reluctant to submit to the
+Knights, and had protested to Charles V. against their surrender to
+the Order, as a violation of the promise given in 1428 by Alphonse of
+Sicily that Malta would never be separated from the Sicilian Crown.
+They knew that the Order would conduct itself in Malta as a garrison
+in a fortress, and that this would mean strict military control over
+the inhabitants. It was also probable that the Turks would again
+besiege the Knights, as they had done at Rhodes in 1480 and 1522, and
+the Maltese were strongly averse to being drawn into such danger.
+
+During the residence of the Knights the native population of Valetta
+was considerably modified. Some of the Rhodians who had, in 1523,
+accompanied the Knights, came with them to Malta; mercenaries who
+fought for the Order sometimes stayed on in the island, and many in
+this new population were illegitimate children of the Knights. For,
+though the vow of chastity was insisted on to the end as a condition
+of entrance into the Order, in practice, by the eighteenth century, it
+had become entirely ineffective.
+
+At first the Knights made but slight inroads on the privileges of
+the natives, curtailing them only so far as was necessary for their
+military security, and imposing but few taxes upon them. As the island
+grew rich with the wealth brought in by the raids of the Knights, the
+condition of the Maltese also improved, and while the Order flourished
+it was not an excessive burden to the natives. But when the
+Knights started upon their decline the condition of the islanders
+deteriorated. They had always suffered from the occasional scarcity
+due to the ill-humour of the Spanish King or the natural failure of
+the Sicilian harvest. But now the taxes became heavier and heavier,
+and the free services of the Maltese, either as labourers in the
+constant fortifying of Valetta, or as soldiers in the garrison, or
+as sailors in the fleet, were more and more rigorously exacted. Many
+natives lost their lives while fighting with the Order, and from the
+generous behaviour of Grand Masters to the native women and
+children, which we find mentioned in chronicles, we can see there was
+occasionally acute distress in the island.
+
+In its degeneracy the Order treated the Maltese with boundless
+contempt, as might be expected from spoiled members of the great
+European aristocracies towards petty islanders. One of the most
+intolerable forms of the arrogance of the Knights during their last
+years at Malta was their disgusting behaviour towards the womenfolk
+of the natives; complaint was dangerous and futile. When the British
+captured the island in October, 1800, the mere proposal to restore
+the Order raised such a storm of protest from the Maltese as to prove
+conclusively to all how hated had been the domination of the Knights.
+
+The splendour of the Knights at the height of their greatness can be
+judged from the many magnificent buildings they constructed in the
+island. The Church of St. John in particular received such careful and
+lavish attention that it became one of the most splendid churches in
+Christendom, being especially famous for its wonderful mosaic floor.
+The "auberges" of the various langues were also built in the most
+magnificent manner, and the palace of the Grand Master at Valetta was
+a sumptuous building worthy of a king.
+
+The decline of the Order brought with it a diminution of respect
+from the nations of Europe, and we read of constant and increasing
+interference from outside in the affairs of the Order. The greatest
+offender was the Pope, who had always enjoyed a nominal headship over
+the Order, and who had been kept at a distance with difficulty even
+while the Knights had been at Rhodes. The creation of a bishopric at
+Malta, the introduction of the Inquisition, and then of the
+Jesuits, had led to constant quarrels between the Knights and the
+ecclesiastics, and from these had arisen the evil practice of appeals
+to the Curia. In the seventeenth century the Popes regarded the
+valuable patronage of the langue of Italy as in their gift, and the
+Grand Masters were powerless to protect their defrauded Knights. The
+depths of the Order's humiliation were shown by the demand of Pope
+Urban XIII., in 1642, that the Order's galleys should help him fight
+the League of Italian Princes which had been formed to resist his
+invasion of Parma. Lascaris, the Grand Master, was unable to refuse,
+and for the first time the famous red galleys were seen arrayed
+against Christian neighbours.
+
+The operations of the Knights in the seventeenth century were mainly
+carried out in alliance with the Venetians, who were the one Power
+who continued to resist the Turk at sea. They were still lords of
+the great island of Crete, which lay athwart the trade routes of the
+Levant, and only by its conquest would the Ottoman control of the
+Eastern Mediterranean be complete. In 1645 Ibrahim I. declared war on
+Venice and besieged Candia; but the attack was so remiss that success
+seemed impossible. The Knights of Malta threw themselves into the
+struggle on the side of the Venetians, feeling bound in honour to
+do so, as the refuge of Maltese galleys in Venetian harbours was the
+Turkish pretext for war. In 1656 Mocenigo, the Venetian Admiral, with
+the aid of the Knights, won a brilliant victory off the Dardanelles,
+capturing Lemnos and Tenedos. This imminent peril brought Mohammed
+Kiuprili to power as Grand Vizier, and the war was thenceforward
+conducted with great energy by the Turks. Year after year volunteers
+flocked to Candia to save the last Christian outpost in the Levant,
+but it was all fruitless, and in 1669 the island, with the exception
+of three ports, was surrendered to the Turks--their last important
+conquest in Europe, and the final term of their advance.
+
+The seventeenth century saw the gradual displacement of galleys in
+favour of sailing ships. The long voyages across the Atlantic and to
+the East had given great impetus to the development of the sailing
+vessel; its increasing use, and the entrance of England and Holland
+into the Mediterranean, had shown the Powers of that sea its
+superiority over the galley; finally, slaves were becoming more
+difficult to obtain in sufficient quantities, while criminals had
+never been a satisfactory source of supply. The Knights were slow in
+changing the oar for the sail, and to the end kept a small squadron of
+galleys as well as men-of-war. When Napoleon captured the island, in
+1798, he found there two men-of-war, one frigate, and four galleys.
+
+The pride and the renown of the Order had always demanded a salute
+from the warships of other nations, and even the mighty Louis XIV.
+yielded this privilege to the little squadron. There is extant an
+interesting correspondence between Charles II. and the Grand Master,
+Nicholas Cottoner, on the subject of salutes. A squadron of the
+British Fleet, under Admiral Sir John Narborough, had refused to
+salute Valetta unless assured of a response from the guns of the
+fortress--a mark of respect that the Order was unwilling to pay to the
+British flag. The Grand Master had also ventured to doubt Narborough's
+rank as Admiral, but the affair was amicably settled to the
+satisfaction of all.
+
+Though the decline of the Order was obvious to Europe throughout the
+eighteenth century, and the value of such a fortress as Malta to a
+Mediterranean Power apparent to all, yet there is little definite
+proof of any desire to wrest the island from the Knights. Of all the
+nations round the Mediterranean, France alone could be said not to be
+in a state of decay; Venice, Genoa, and Turkey were becoming more and
+more feeble at sea, and there was little fear of an attack on Malta
+from any of them; and though Spain paid great attention to her fleet
+in the second part of the eighteenth century, there was little reason
+to fear her aggression. Britain was acquiring greater and greater
+interests in the Mediterranean, but most of her attentions were
+directed to Spain and France. While the Knights kept their neutrality,
+however decadent and feeble they might be, there was little fear of
+their being disturbed. Europe still respected the relics of a glorious
+past of six centuries of unceasing warfare against the Moslem; but the
+moment that past with its survivals became itself anathema the Knights
+and their organisation would collapse at once. The French Revolution
+meant death to the Knights of the Order of St. John as well as to
+other bodies of aristocrats.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+THE FALL
+
+1789-1798.
+
+A wealthy Order of Knights drawn exclusively from the ranks of
+the nobility was sure to attract the attention of the French
+revolutionaries. Its international character was a cause of offence to
+the strong French nationalism engendered during the Revolution, while
+its traces of monastic organisation helped to identify the Knights
+with the Church.
+
+When Necker, in the financial distress of the autumn of 1789, appealed
+for a voluntary contribution from all landowners, the Order gave him a
+third of the revenue of its French commanderies, and later it pledged
+its credit for 500,000 francs to the destitute Louis XVI., to help him
+in the flight that ended so disastrously at Varennes. This last act
+put it in definite opposition to the Revolution.
+
+The Constituent Assembly declared the Order of St. John to be a
+foreign Power possessing property in France, and, as such, liable to
+all taxes to be levied on natives, and immediately afterwards a decree
+was passed declaring that any Frenchman belonging to an Order of
+Knighthood which demanded proofs of nobility from entrants could not
+be considered a French citizen. This was followed by the main attack
+on September 19, 1792, when all the property in France was declared
+confiscate and annexed to the French national domains. There was
+some mention of indemnification to the despoiled Knights, but as the
+necessary condition to a pension was residence in France--a dangerous
+course for a noble in 1793 and 1794--the scheme came to naught. The
+decree of September, 1792, was the death-blow to the Order, and its
+extinction was simply a matter of time. The course of the war and the
+constant French successes made their position even more perilous. Half
+the revenues had gone with the confiscation in France; but this was
+not all, for Bonaparte's Italian campaigns meant the loss of the
+Order's estates in Northern Italy, and the conquests of the French on
+the Rhine diminished the German possessions. With decreasing resources
+and dwindling numbers, the fortress of Malta could not long hold out
+if attacked, and the position of the Order was becoming desperate.
+De Rohan, the Grand Master, temporised and refused to declare war on
+France, but he seems to have helped the Spanish and English fleets by
+allowing them to recruit at Malta, a privilege hitherto granted very
+sparingly by the Knights. But whatever the Grand Master's policy, no
+words or pretences could disguise the fact that the French Republic
+by its confiscation had assaulted the Order. It was only too probable
+that France would seize the first opportunity of attacking the
+Order in its own home and by this means increasing its power in the
+Mediterranean.
+
+One gleam of light came to cheer the gloom at Malta. The third
+dismemberment of Poland had brought the Polish Priory into the hands
+of the Tsar Paul I. Among other eccentricities of that monarch was a
+passionate admiration for chivalry, which he displayed by changing
+the Polish into a Russian Priory, increasing its revenues to 300,000
+florins, and incorporating it in the Anglo-Bavarian langue; he also
+assumed the title of "Protector of the Order of Malta."
+
+In 1797, at Ancona, Napoleon had intercepted a message from the Tsar
+to the Grand Master containing this news. Plans for the capture of
+Malta took shape in Bonaparte's mind, and he sent a cousin of the
+French consul at Malta, Poussièlgue by name, to spy out the condition
+of the island, at the same time ordering Admiral Brueys, on his
+journey from Corfu to Toulon, to examine the situation of Malta. When
+the expedition to Egypt was decided upon, the capture of Malta formed
+part of the instructions to Napoleon.
+
+Bonaparte, relying on the demoralisation of the island, intended the
+capture to be a swift piece of work, and Poussièlgue had helped him
+by winning over some natives and French Knights to his side. The
+Grand Master, Von Hompesch, seems to have been utterly unnerved by the
+bewildering problems before him, and the cowardice and irresolution
+he displayed were a disgrace to the traditions of the Order. Speed was
+essential to the French army, as discovery by Nelson would be fatal
+to Bonaparte's plans, but had Von Hompesch been an utter traitor
+the capitulation could not have been more sudden and disgraceful and
+beneficial to the enemy.
+
+On June 6 the vanguard of the French appeared off the island, and on
+the 9th it was joined by the main fleet, the whole now numbering about
+450 sail, of which 14 were ships of the line and 30 were frigates;
+the Grand Master had about 300 Knights and 6,000 men, chiefly
+Maltese, under arms. Had this garrison been resolute and united,
+the fortifications of Valetta could have held the French for a
+considerable time. But the natives were divided, many regarding
+the French, despite their doubtful career of the last few years, as
+liberators from a detestable tyranny. Two-thirds of the Knights
+were French, and many of them had become infected with republican
+principles, though the French langues also contained the fiercest
+opponents to the invaders.
+
+Bonaparte sent for permission for his fleet to enter the harbour for
+water and for his soldiers to land--a request which was tantamount to
+a demand for surrender. Von Hompesch sent back a conciliatory letter,
+saying that treaty obligations forbade the entrance of more than four
+vessels at a time. Napoleon thereupon threw off the mask, and during
+the night landed troops at seven different parts of the island. A
+slight resistance was encountered from a few detached forts, but by
+the evening of the 10th Valetta was closely invested. The mob was
+encouraged by hired emissaries to attack as traitors the Knights, who
+were really the most bitter enemies of the invaders. While Napoleon's
+agents were busy throughout the town, Von Hompesch sat motionless in
+his palace, and no subordinate commander would take the responsibility
+of firing on the besiegers. Finally, a party of citizens interviewed
+Von Hompesch and threatened to surrender the town if he refused to
+capitulate.
+
+At this point a mutiny broke out in the garrison, and the Grand Master
+and his Council, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, sent for an
+armistice preliminary to surrender. The armistice was concluded on the
+11th, and on the 12th Napoleon entered Valetta, full of amazement at
+the might of the fortress he had so easily captured. On the 12th the
+capitulation was drawn up, of which the main clauses were:
+
+  1. The Knights surrendered Malta and its
+  sovereignty to the French army.
+
+  2. The French Republic would try to secure
+  to the Grand Master an equivalent principality
+  and would meanwhile pay him an annual pension
+  of 300,000 livres.
+
+  3. The French would use their influence with
+  the different Powers assembled at Rastadt to
+  allow the Knights who were their subjects to
+  control the property of their respective langues.
+
+  4. French Knights were allowed to return to
+  France.
+
+  5. French Knights in Malta were to receive a
+  pension from the French Government of 700
+  livres per annum; if over sixty years old, 1,000
+  livres.
+
+Such was the end of the Order at Malta. Napoleon treated the Knights
+and the Grand Master with extreme harshness. Most of them were
+required to leave within three days, and some even within twenty-four
+hours.
+
+On June 18, Von Hompesch, taking with him the three most venerable
+relics of the Order--all that the conqueror allowed him from the
+treasures at Valetta--left for Trieste, whence he withdrew to
+Montpellier, dying there in obscurity in 1805. Most of the homeless
+Knights proceeded to Russia, where, on October 27, 1798, Paul I. was
+elected Grand Master, though Von Hompesch still held the post.
+
+But on the Tsar's death in 1801 the Order lost the one man who might
+have been powerful enough to bring about a restoration, and the
+survival of some scattered relics could not conceal the fact that
+vanished for ever was the Order of the Hospital of St. John of
+Jerusalem.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I
+
+
+SOVEREIGNTY OF THE ORDER
+
+There can be no doubt whatever that, after 1530, the Order was no
+longer independent and sovereign, and that L'Isle Adam, despite all
+his efforts, had become a feudatory, though the service demanded was
+very slight. The Act of Donation of Malta put them definitely into the
+position of feudal vassals of Charles V. as King of the two Sicilies.
+This is plain to everyone who examines the Charter itself (Vertot,
+III., p. 494, or Codice Diplomatico, II., p. 194). The tenure on
+which the Knights held the island from the King of the Sicilies may be
+classed as a form of serjeanty--the annual payment of a falcon being
+the only feudal service demanded. There were other conditions in the
+Charter concerning the Bishop of Malta and the Grand Admiral of the
+Order, but they were not strictly feudal. The chroniclers of the Order
+were naturally reluctant to admit this, and as the feudal tie was very
+weak, they glossed it over. But the Sovereign of the island, strictly
+speaking, was the King of the two Sicilies, and the Knights were never
+more than tenants. When the Order had been expelled by Napoleon we
+can see this universally admitted. While the fate of the island was
+in doubt--that is, before the preliminary peace between England and
+France in 1801--both natives and English regarded the King of Naples
+as lord of the island (Hardman, 111, 142. Foreign Office Records,
+Sicily, 11). When the Maltese wanted to be put under the protection of
+England, either temporarily or, later, permanently (Hardman, 185,
+193, 204), they applied to the King of the Sicilies, as their lawful
+Sovereign, to grant their request. Events soon made Malta a question
+of great importance in the relations between France and England,
+and the renewal of war, in 1803, left Great Britain in _de facto_
+possession of the island, until the treaty of May 30, 1814, gave
+England full right and sovereignty over Malta.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II
+
+
+CONNECTION BETWEEN KNIGHTS OF MALTA AND THE MODERN ORDER OF ST. JOHN
+
+During the Napoleonic wars the surviving Knights were too scattered
+and too helpless to be able to improve their condition. But from 1815
+onwards we find various attempts of the Order to obtain from Europe
+another _chef-lieu_, and representatives of the Knights at the
+Congress of Vienna (1815) and at the Congress of Verona (1822) tried
+in vain to persuade the Allies to grant them an island. The French
+Knights were by far the largest and most powerful section of the
+Order, and in 1814 they had established a capitular commission in
+which they vested plenary powers to treat on their behalf. During the
+various negotiations for a _chef-lieu_ the question of reviving the
+English langue was started, and the French Commission entered into
+communication with the Rev. Sir Robert Peat, Chaplain to King
+George IV., and other distinguished Englishmen. The outcome was the
+reconstitution of the English langue on January 24, 1831, with Sir
+Robert Peat as Grand Prior.
+
+The English branch of the Order of St. John has devoted itself for the
+last ninety years to the succour of the sick and wounded, setting
+up cottage and convalescent hospitals, aiding the sick in other
+hospitals, and establishing ambulance litters in dangerous industrial
+centres, such as coal-mines and railway-stations, which at last
+developed into the St. John Ambulance Association, which rendered such
+magnificent service during the Great War. The German branch of the
+Order was the first to start ambulance work in the field in the Seven
+Weeks' War of 1866, work which was continued in the Franco-Prussian
+War of 1870. Since that date the mitigation of the sufferings of war
+has been a conspicuous part of the work of the Order of St. John,
+and nowhere has the Order's magnificent spirit of international
+comradeship been more fully displayed.
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS CONSULTED
+
+
+PRIMARY AUTHORITIES
+
+Statuta Ordinis Domus Hospitalis Hierusalem. Edited by Fr. Didacus
+Rodriguez. Rome. 1556.
+
+Statuti della religione de Cavalieri Gierosolimitani. Florence. 1567.
+
+Statuta Hospitalis Hierusalem. Rome. 1588.
+
+Collection of Statutes in Volume IV. of Vertot's Histoire de
+Chevaliers de Malte. Paris. 1726.
+
+[As there was no Chapter-General between 1631 and 1776, all the above
+collections are practically complete, Vertot's containing little more
+than the others.]
+
+Codice Diplomatico del sacro militare ordine Gierosolimitano oggi di
+Malta. Fr. Sebastiano Pauli. Lucca. 1737.
+
+Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic. 1523-1547.
+
+Calendar of State Papers. (Foreign.) 1547-1585.
+
+Calendar of State Papers. (Venetian.)
+
+Calendar of State Papers. (Spanish.)
+
+Les Archives de S. Jean de Jerusalem à Malte. Delaville Le Roulx.
+Paris. 1883.
+
+Report of Philip de Thame. Grand Prior of England. 1338. Camden
+Society. Volume LXV. 1857.
+
+Armoury of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem at Malta. Edited by
+G.F. Laking. London. 1903.
+
+Carta y verdadera relacion escrita por il eminentissimo Señor Gran
+Maestre al Commendador Fr. Don Joseph Vidal. 1669.
+
+E Tanner. Notitia Monastica. Ed. James Nasmith. Cambridge. 1787.
+
+Malte. Par un Voyageur français. Anonymous. 1791.
+
+Le Monete e Medaglie del S. Ordine Gierosolimitano. C. Taggiasco.
+Camerino. 1883.
+
+Relation du Voyage et Description exacte de Malte. Paris. 1779.
+
+Malta illustrata. Giovanni Abela. Malta. 1772-1780. 2 Volumes.
+
+Liste de Chevaliers des Langues de Provence, Auvergne et France.
+Malta. 1772.
+
+
+SECONDARY AUTHORITIES
+
+GIACOMO BOSIO: Dell' Istoria della sacra religione et ill'ma Militia
+di San Giovanni Gierosolimitano. Rome. 1594. 2 volumes.
+
+ABBÉ DE VERTOT: Histoire des Chevaliers de Malte. Paris. 1726. 4
+volumes.
+
+CHEVALIER DE BOISGELIN: Malta Ancient and Modern. English edition. 2
+volumes. 1804.
+
+PRESCOTT: Life of Philip II. Volume II.
+
+MAJOR-GENERAL PORTER: History of the Knights of Malta. Revised
+edition. 1 volume. London. 1883.
+
+DE GOUSSANCOURT: Le Martyrologe des Chevaliers de S. Jean de
+Hierusalem. Paris. 1643.
+
+ANONYMOUS: Memoire de' Gran Maestri del sacro militare ordine
+Gierosolimitano. Parma. 1780.
+
+L. HÉRITTE: Essai sur l'Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de
+Jérusalem. Paris. 1912.
+
+HARDMAN: History of Malta, 1798-1815. Edited by J. Holland Rose.
+London. 1909.
+
+REV. W.K.R. BEDFORD: Malta and the Knights Hospitallers. London. 1894.
+
+REV. W.K.R. BEDFORD: The Hospital at Malta. Edinburgh. 1882.
+
+J. TAAFE: History of the Order of S. John. 4 volumes. London. 1852.
+
+A.T. DRANE: History of the Order of St. John. London. 1881.
+
+MIÈGE: Histoire de Malte. 3 volumes. Paris. 1846.
+
+M.M. BALLOU: Story of Malta. Boston and New York. 1893.
+
+REV. W.K.R. BEDFORD AND R. HOLBECHE: Order of the Hospital of St. John
+of Jerusalem. London. 1902.
+
+ADMIRAL JURIEN DE LA GRAVIERE: (1) Les Chevaliers de Malte et la
+Marine de Philippe II. Paris. 1887. (2) Les Corsaires barbaresques et
+la Marine de Solyman le Grand. Paris. 1884. (3) Les Marins du XV'e
+et XVI'e siècles. Paris. 1879. (4) Les derniers Jours de la Marine à
+Rames. Paris. 1885.
+
+COMMANDER E.H. CURREY: Sea Wolves of the Mediterranean. London. 1913.
+
+SIR JULIAN CORBETT: England in the Mediterranean, 1603-1713. 2
+volumes. London. 1904.
+
+S. LANE-POOLE: Barbary Corsairs. (Stories of the Nations.) 1886.
+
+E. DRIAULT: La Question d'Orient. Paris. 1898.
+
+J.A.R. MARRIOT: The Eastern Question. Oxford. 1917.
+
+G. VIULLIER: Le Tour du Monde. Malte et les Maltais.
+
+P.J.O. DOUBLET: L'lnvasion et I'Occupation de Malte. Paris. 1883.
+
+C.T.E. DE TOULGOET: Les Responsabilités de la Capitulation de Malte en
+1798. (Revue des Questions Historiques. 1900.)
+
+DE LA JONQUIÈRE: L'Expedition d'Égypte. Paris. 1901.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE ON THE AUTHORITIES
+
+
+For the Statutes of the Order we possess the Italian edition of 1567,
+two Latin editions of 1556 and 1588, and the collection at the end of
+Vertot's fourth volume, which is later and more complete. The Codice
+Diplomatico of Fr. Pauli is the only collection of Charters to my
+knowledge which covers practically the whole history of the Order: the
+magnificent Cartulaire of Delaville Le Roulx only covers the Syrian
+period in the Knights' history. Many valuable hints can be found in
+the Calendars of State Papers issued by the Record Office, but they
+fail us at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
+
+Of the various historians above mentioned, Bosio, for the period he
+covers, is by far the best and completest. Vertot only goes down to
+1565: after the siege he treats the subject in a bare annalistic form.
+Boisgelin, who was a Knight himself and wrote his history after his
+expulsion from Malta, is valuable for his elaborate excursus on the
+financial system of the Order. All three--who are our completest
+authorities--wrote from the point of view of the Order, and
+consequently are very unreliable in some matters. The treatment that
+the Maltese received from the Order is very inadequately dealt with,
+and none of them can seriously estimate the Mediterranean background
+to the history of the Knights, and especially their relations with the
+Barbary pirates. General Porter, whose history is the only English
+one at all worthy of mention, possesses the same faults. Though his
+knowledge of the island is thorough, his ignorance of European history
+makes him neglect the importance of the external activities of the
+Knights, and he follows the Order's chroniclers too slavishly to claim
+authority as an independent investigator. Miège, who was a French
+Consul at Malta, is interesting as a bitter opponent of the Order and
+all its work; and he practically confines himself to the treatment of
+the Maltese at the hands of the Knights.
+
+The best authority on sixteenth-century sea power in the Mediterranean
+is Admiral Jurien de la Gravière, while Commander Currey's book is
+very sound and interesting.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Knights of Malta, 1523-1798, by R. Cohen
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Knights of Malta, 1523-1798, by R. Cohen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Knights of Malta, 1523-1798
+
+Author: R. Cohen
+
+Release Date: April 15, 2004 [EBook #12034]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KNIGHTS OF MALTA, 1523-1798 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Julie Barkley, Bill Hershey and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+KNIGHTS OF MALTA
+
+1523-1798
+
+BY R. COHEN LATE SCHOLAR OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD
+
+
+1920
+
+
+THE LOTHIAN PRIZE ESSAY FOR 1920 (UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD)
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SETTLEMENT AT MALTA, 1523-1565
+
+Departure from Rhodes--Residence in Italy--Settlement in
+Malta, 1530--Condition of the Mediterranean--The
+corsairs--Turkey--Fortification of Malta--Loss of English
+"Langue"--Enterprises of the Order--Solyman decides to attack Malta
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SIEGE OF MALTA, 1565
+
+Preparations--Size of opposing forces--Siege of St. Elmo--Arrival of
+Dragut--Capture of St. Elmo, June 23--Death of Dragut--Siege of main
+fortresses--Great losses on both sides--Arrival of reinforcements from
+Sicily--Turks evacuate island
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN
+
+Classes in the Order--Langues--Chapter-General--Councils--Grand
+Master--Bishop of Malta--Finances--Justice--Criminal Council--Court of
+Egard--The Hospital
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE DECLINE, 1565-1789
+
+Decadence of Turkey--Knights become anachronism--Valetta
+built--Fortifying the island--Disturbances in the Order--Quarrels
+with different Powers--Treatment of the Maltese--Buildings in
+Valetta--Papal interference--Naval operations--Independence of the
+Order
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE FALL, 1789-1798
+
+Attacks on the Order during the French Revolution--French
+estates confiscated--Poverty of the Order--Tsar Paul I.--French
+schemes--Napoleon appears off Malta--Condition of the island--Its
+capture--Dispersion of the Order
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+
+APPENDIX II.
+
+
+BOOKS CONSULTED
+
+
+NOTE ON THE AUTHORITIES
+
+
+
+
+KNIGHTS OF MALTA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+SETTLEMENT AT MALTA 1523-1565.
+
+On January 1, 1523, a fleet of fifty vessels put out from the harbour
+at Rhodes for an unknown destination in the West. On board were the
+shattered remnants of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, accompanied
+by 4,000 Rhodians, who preferred the Knights and destitution to
+security under the rule of the Sultan Solyman. The little fleet was
+in a sad and piteous condition. Many of those on board were wounded;
+all--Knights and Rhodians alike--were in a state of extreme poverty.
+For six months they had resisted the full might of the Ottoman Empire
+under its greatest Sultan, Solyman the Magnificent; Europe had looked
+on in amazed admiration, but had not ventured to move to its rescue.
+Now they were leaving the home their Order had possessed for 212
+years, and were sailing out to beg from Christendom another station
+from which to attack the infidel once again.
+
+The Knights of Rhodes--as they were called at the time--were the
+only real survivors of the militant Order of Chivalry. Two centuries
+earlier their great rivals, the Templars, had been dissolved, and a
+large part of their endowments handed over to the Hospitallers. The
+great secret of the long and enduring success of the Order of St. John
+was their capacity for adapting themselves to the changing needs of
+the times. The final expulsion of the Christians from Syria had left
+the Templars idle and helpless, and the loss of the outlets for their
+energy soon brought corruption and decay with the swift consequence of
+dissolution. All through the history of the great Orders we find
+the Kings of Europe on the lookout for a chance to seize their
+possessions: any excuse or pretext is used, sometimes most
+shamelessly. An Order of Knighthood that failed to perform the duties
+for which it was founded was soon overtaken by disaster.
+
+The Hospitallers had realised, as early as 1300, that their former
+role of mounted Knights fighting on land was gone for ever. From their
+seizure of Rhodes, in 1310, they became predominantly seamen, whose
+flag, with its eight-pointed cross, struck terror into every infidel
+heart. Nothing but a combination of Christian monarchs could cope with
+the superiority of the Turk on land: by sea he was still vulnerable.
+The Knights took up their new part with all their old energy and
+determination: it is but typical that henceforward we never hear of
+the "Knights" of Malta fighting as cavalry.
+
+After various adventures the fleet found itself united at Messina,
+whence it proceeded to Baiae. The election to the papacy of the
+Cardinal de' Medici--one of their own Order--as Clement VII., gave the
+Knights a powerful protector. He assigned Viterbo as a residence for
+the Order till a permanent home had been discovered.
+
+Villiers de L'Isle Adam, Grand Master of the Order, was faced with
+many difficulties. Remembering the fate of the Templars, he was afraid
+that the Order would disperse, and its present helpless condition was
+surely tending to disintegration. At this time the war between Charles
+V. and Francis I. was at its height, and the quarrel between France
+and Spain was reflected within the ranks of the Hospitallers. As the
+French and Spanish Knights formed the greater part of the members, the
+unity of the Order was threatened by the quarrels between them
+that arose out of national sentiment. The Reformation was rapidly
+spreading, and was likely to prove dangerous to the lands of the Order
+in Northern Europe, and various monarchs were meditating the seizure
+of the Hospitallers' estates now that the Order was temporarily
+without a justification for its existence.
+
+The Grand Master showed himself a skilful diplomat, as well as a brave
+soldier. From 1523 to 1530 the Order remained without a home, while
+L'Isle Adam visited the different European courts to stay the grasping
+hands of the various Kings. All this time negotiations were proceeding
+between Charles V. and the Knights for the cession of Malta. The
+harsh conditions which the Emperor insisted upon in his offer made
+the Knights reluctant to accept, while his preoccupation with the war
+against France made negotiations difficult. Further, the cause of
+the Knights had been damaged when the Pope--who had acted as their
+intercessor--joined the ranks of Charles's enemies, and Clement
+VII. was now a prisoner in the Emperor's hands. In March, 1530, an
+agreement was finally arrived at, which was the most favourable
+the Emperor would grant. One harassing burden the Knights could not
+escape: Charles insisted that Tripoli must go with Malta, a gift which
+meant a useless drain upon their weak resources, and which fell
+in 1551 to Dragut-Reis and the Turkish forces at the first serious
+attack. L'Isle Adam had insisted that he could not take the island
+over as a feudatory to the King of Spain, as that was contrary to the
+fundamental idea of the Order--its impartiality in its relations to
+all the Christian Powers. The only condition of service, therefore,
+that was made was nominal: the Grand Master henceforth was to send, on
+All Souls' Day, a falcon to the Viceroy of Sicily as a token of feudal
+sub-mission.[1]
+
+This was a splendid bargain for the Emperor. Malta had hitherto been
+worthless to him, but henceforth it became one of the finest bulwarks
+of his dominions. To understand the supreme value of the island, we
+must take a glance at sea power in the Mediterranean in the sixteenth
+century.
+
+The beginning of the century had seen the growth of the Corsairs'
+strength to a most alarming extent. While all the European Powers were
+fighting among themselves, these Barbary Corsairs (as they were later
+called) had become the terror of the Western Mediterranean. Spain, by
+its unrelenting persecution of the Moriscoes, following on centuries
+of bitter conflict between Christian and Mussulman, had earned the
+undying hatred of the dwellers on the North African coast, many of
+whom were the children of the expelled Moors. These Moors had wasted
+their energy in desultory warfare up to the beginning of the sixteenth
+century, when the genius of the two brothers, Uruj and Khair-ed-Din
+Barbarossa, had organised them into the pirate State of Algiers, which
+was to be a thorn in the side of Christendom for over three centuries.
+The Corsairs were not content with merely attacking ships at sea: they
+made raids on the Spanish, Italian, and Sicilian sea-boards, burning
+and looting for many miles inland. The inhabitants of these parts were
+driven off as captives to fill the bagnios of Algiers, Tunis, Bizerta,
+and other North African towns. These prisoners were used as galley
+slaves, and the life of a galley slave was generally so short that
+there was no difficulty of disposing of all the captives that could
+be seized. Cupidity, allied with fanaticism, gave this state of war a
+cruelty beyond conception: both sides displayed such undaunted courage
+and such fierce personal hatred as to make men wonder, even in
+that hard and bitter century. Those low-lying galleys, which were
+independent of the wind, were ideal pirates' craft in the gentle
+Mediterranean summer, and many a slumbering Spanish or Italian village
+would be startled into terror by their sudden approach. The audacity
+of their methods is illustrated by the raid on Fundi in 1534,
+when Barbarossa swooped down on that town simply to seize Giulia
+Gonzaga--reputed the loveliest woman in Italy--for the Sultan's harem:
+the fair Duchess of Trajetto hardly escaped in her nightdress.
+
+The Eastern Mediterranean, after the capture of Rhodes, was almost
+entirely a Turkish preserve. Though Venice at this period still kept
+her hold on Cyprus and Crete, the former of which was not yielded by
+the Republic till 1573 and the latter till 1669, yet the Treaty of
+Constantinople in 1479 had definitely reduced the position of Venice
+in the Levant from an independent Power to a tolerated ally. The
+growth of the Ottoman sea power had been alarming enough, but it
+became a distinct menace to the Christian Powers of the Mediterranean
+when the Corsair chiefs of the North African coast became Turkish
+vassals. All the African coast from Morocco to Suez, the coast of Asia
+Minor, and the European coast from the Bosphorus to Albania (with the
+exception of a few islands), were in Turkish hands. From 1475, with
+the conquest of the Crimea, the Black Sea had become a Turkish lake,
+and under Solyman the Magnificent the Turks had become masters of Aden
+and the Red Sea, with a strong influence along the Arabian and Persian
+coasts.
+
+Malta, then as always, was of supreme strategic importance for the
+domination of the Mediterranean. It lay right in the centre of the
+narrow channel connecting the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, and,
+in the hands of such a small but splendidly efficient band of sailors
+as the Knights Hospitallers, was sure to become a source of vexation
+to the mighty Turkish Empire. Though not so convenient as Rhodes for
+attacking Turkish merchant shipping, yet it had one advantage, in that
+it lay close to Christian shores and could easily be succoured in the
+hour of need. A small, highly defensible island, strengthened by all
+the resources of engineering, it could, and did, become one of
+the most invulnerable fortresses in the world, and of the utmost
+importance for the control of the Mediterranean.
+
+Charles V., therefore, made a splendid bargain when he handed over
+the neglected island to the Order of St. John, even had the gift been
+unconditional. The Knights rendered him valuable service by sharing in
+the several expeditions the Spaniards undertook to the African coast.
+Barbarossa, by the capture of Tunis from the old Hafside dynasty in
+1534, threatened the important channel between Sicily and Africa,
+which it was essential for Charles V. to keep open. In the next year,
+therefore, the Emperor attacked the town and conquered it without
+much difficulty. The victory was unfortunately stained by the inhuman
+excesses of the Imperial troops, and Charles's hold on Tunis was
+very short-lived. In 1541 came the miserable fiasco of the Spanish
+expedition to Algiers. Here, also, the Knights behaved with their
+usual bravery; but Charles's disregard of the advice of his Admiral,
+Andrea Doria, resulted in the failure of the whole expedition. In
+these and other expeditions the Knights took part: some--like the
+attack in 1550 on Mehedia[2]--were successful, others--like the siege
+of the Isle of Jerbah in 1559--ended in disaster.
+
+Such was the importance of Malta when the Knights took over the island
+in 1530. The first need was to put it into a state of defence. On the
+northeast of the island was the promontory of Mount Sceberras, flanked
+by the two fine harbours, the Marsa Muscetto and what was later known
+as the Grand Harbour.[3] The eastern side of the Grand Harbour was
+broken by three prominent peninsulas, later occupied by Fort Ricasoli,
+Fort St. Angelo, and Fort St. Michael. The only fortification in 1530
+was the Fort of St. Angelo, with a few guns and very weak walls. The
+intention of the Knights, even from the beginning, was to make the
+main peninsula, Mount Sceberras, the seat of their "Convent"; but
+as that would mean the leveling of the whole promontory, a task
+of enormous expense and difficulty, and as immediate defence was
+necessary, they decided to occupy the Peninsula of St. Angelo for the
+present. Wedged between St. Angelo and the mainland there was a
+small town, "Il Borgo": this, for the present, the Knights made their
+headquarters, drawing a line of entrenchments across the neck of the
+promontory to guard it from the neighboring heights.
+
+When it became certain that Malta was to be its permanent home--for
+L'Isle Adam had at first cherished hopes of recapturing Rhodes--the
+Order proceeded to take further measures for its security. Both St.
+Angelo and Il Borgo were strengthened with ramparts and artillery, and
+the fortifications of the Citta Notabile, the main town in the centre
+of the island, were improved. In 1552 a commission of three Knights
+with Leo Strozzi, the Prior of Capua, at its head--one of the most
+daring Corsairs of the day--made a report of the fortifications of the
+island. They recommended strengthening Il Borgo and St. Angelo, and
+pointed out that the whole promontory was commanded by St. Julian, the
+southernmost of the three projections into the Grand Harbour. Further,
+as it was necessary to command the entrances both of Marsa Muscetto
+and of the Grand Harbour, the tip, at least, of Mount Sceberras should
+be occupied, as the finances of the Order would not allow of anything
+further being done. These recommendations were carried out, and Fort
+St. Michael was built on St. Julian and Fort St. Elmo on the end
+of Mount Sceberras. A few years later the Grand Master de la Sangle
+supplied the obvious deficiencies of St. Julian by enclosing it on the
+west and the south by a bastioned rampart.
+
+Now the commitments of the Order in Tripoli proved a constant drain on
+its resources. Time after time Charles V. was appealed to for help in
+holding Tripoli, which was very difficult to fortify because of the
+sandy nature of the soil, and difficult to succour because of its
+distance from Malta. But Charles V. was at once reluctant to let go
+his grip of any parts of the African coast, and too much absorbed by
+his own troubles to be able to render much help, however much he might
+have desired to do so. It was obvious that the first determined attack
+of the Turks would mean the fall of Tripoli. In 1551, after putting in
+an appearance off Malta, Dragut, the successor of Barbarossa, sailed
+to Tripoli and easily captured the place owing to the disaffection of
+the mercenary troops in the garrison.
+
+During this period, 1523-1565, the Order lost for ever one of the
+eight national divisions or "langues." Henry VIII., soon after the
+fall of Rhodes, had shown himself unfriendly to the interests of the
+Order, but had been appeased by a visit of L'Isle Adam in February,
+1528.[4] But Henry's proceedings against the Pope and the monasteries
+inevitably involved the Order of St. John, which had large possessions
+both in England and in Ireland. The Grand Priory of England was
+situated at Clerkenwell, and the Grand Prior held the position in the
+House of Lords of the connecting link between the Lords Spiritual and
+the Barons, coming after the former in rank and before the latter.
+There is extant a letter written by Henry VIII. in 1538 to the Grand
+Master, Juan d'Omedes, wherein conditions are laid down for the
+maintenance of the Order in England. The two main stipulations were,
+that any Englishman admitted into the Order must take an oath of
+allegiance to the King, and that no member in England must in any way
+recognise the jurisdiction or authority of the Pope. Henry was well
+aware that the Knights could never consent to terms such as these,
+which were the negation of the fundamental principle of international
+neutrality of their Order. Henry's offers were refused, and the
+English langue, which had a brilliant record in the Order, perished.
+Many of the Knights fled to Malta; others were executed for refusing
+obedience to the Act of Supremacy. A general confiscation of their
+property took place, and in April, 1540, an Act of Parliament was
+passed vesting all the property of the Order in the Crown, and setting
+aside from the revenues of such properties certain pensions to be
+paid to the Lord Prior and other members. The Grand Prior, Sir William
+Weston, died soon after, before he could enjoy his pension of L1,000 a
+year.
+
+With the accession of Mary, in 1553, negotiations were at once opened
+with the Knights for the restoration of the English langue, and during
+her reign the old Order was restored once again, though the lands
+were not returned. But Elizabeth, in the first year of her reign,
+suppressed the Knights for good and all.
+
+In North Africa, Philip II., on his accession, had taken over the
+troubles of his father, and after the Corsairs had failed in their
+attack on the Spanish ports of Oran and Mazarquivir, he carried the
+war once more into the enemy's territory. Finding themselves isolated,
+they appealed to their overlord, the aged Sultan Solyman, to help them
+against Spain.
+
+The most important seaman on the Turkish side was Dragut--Pasha
+of Tripoli since 1551--who had been the greatest of Barbarossa's
+lieutenants. In 1540 Dragut had been surprised and captured by
+Giannetin Doria, the nephew of the great Admiral, and had served four
+years chained to the bench of a Genoese galley. One of the last acts
+of Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa had been to ransom his follower in the
+port of Genoa, in 1544, for 3,000 crowns, an arrangement of which the
+Genoese afterwards sorely repented. Dragut had the ear of the Sultan
+when the appeal for help came from Africa, and his suggestion was to
+attempt the capture of Malta. It had become more and more certain
+that the Turks would not leave the island unassailed. Not only did the
+Knights lend splendid help to the various Christian Powers, but they
+were in themselves a formidable foe. Their fleet was always small, six
+or seven galleys, but they became the dread of every Turkish vessel in
+the Mediterranean. Annually these red galleys, headed by their black
+_capitana_, swooped down on the Turkish shipping of the Levant and
+brought back many rich prizes. Malta grew steadily in wealth, and
+the island became full of Turkish slaves. The generals of the Maltese
+galleys, Strozzi, La Valette, Charles of Lorraine, and De Romegas,
+were far more terrible even than the great Corsairs, because of their
+determination to extirpate the infidel. The state of war between the
+Order and the Mussulman was recognised by all as something unique;
+neither side dreamt of a peace or a truce, and only once in the
+history of the Order does there seem to have been the suggestion of
+an agreement. The fanaticism which actuated the Knights in their
+determination to destroy the infidel made them formidable enemies,
+despite their fewness in number. Solyman the Magnificent must have
+often repented of his clemency in letting the Knights leave Rhodes
+alive, and in 1564 he decided it would be a fitting end to his reign
+if he could destroy the worst pest of the Mediterranean by capturing
+Malta and annihilating the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: _Vide_ Appendix I.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The chroniclers, such as Vertot, often call this town,
+which was the ancient Adrumetum, "Africa," and it is therefore
+necessary to watch their use of that word carefully.]
+
+[Footnote 3: See map on p. 19.]
+
+[Footnote 4: This visit caused a great sensation in Europe, as De
+L'Isle Adam crossed the Alps in the depth of winter, and this haste to
+pay his respects touched the King of England.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+THE SIEGE OF MALTA
+
+1565.
+
+The Grand Master of the Knights of Malta in 1565 was Jean Parisot de
+la Valette. Born in 1494 of a noble family in Quercy, he had been
+a Knight of St. John all his life, and forty-three years before had
+distinguished himself at the siege of Rhodes. He had never left
+his post at the "Convent" except to go on his "caravans,"[1] as the
+cruises in the galleys were named. As a commander of the galleys of
+the "Religion," as the Order called itself, he had won a name that
+stood conspicuous in that age of great sea captains; and in 1557, on
+the death of the Grand Master de la Sangle, the Knights, mindful of
+the attack that was sure to come, elected La Valette to the vacant
+office. No better man could be found even in the ranks of the Order.
+Passionately religious, devoted body and soul to his Order and faith,
+Jean de la Valette was prepared to suffer all to the death rather than
+yield a foot to the hated infidel. Unsparing of himself, he demanded
+utter sacrifice from his subordinates, and his cold, unflinching
+severity would brook no hesitation.
+
+Both sides spent the winter and spring of 1565 in preparations for
+the great attack. The Grand Master sent a message to all the Powers
+of Europe; but Philip II., who sent him some troops, and the Pope,
+who sent him 10,000 crowns, alone responded to his appeal. The message
+sent to the various commanderies[2] throughout Europe brought the
+Knights in haste to the defence of their beloved Convent. The Maltese
+Militia was organised and drilled and proved of great value in the
+siege, and even 500 galley slaves were released on promise of faithful
+service. Altogether La Valette seems to have had at his disposal about
+9,000 men (though the authorities differ slightly as to the exact
+figures). Of these over 600 were Knights with their attendants, about
+1,200 were hired troops, about 1,000 were volunteers, chiefly from
+Italy, and the remainder Maltese Militia and galley slaves.
+
+The Turkish fleet at the beginning consisted of 180 vessels, of which
+130 were galleys; and the troops on board consisted of about 30,000
+men, of whom 6,000 belonged to the select troops of the Janissaries.
+Twice during the siege the Ottomans received reinforcements: first,
+Dragut himself with 13 galleys and 1,600 men, and later, Hassan,
+Viceroy of Algiers and son of Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa, with 2,500
+Corsairs. Altogether the Ottoman forces at the maximum, inclusive of
+sailors, must have exceeded 40,000 men. A small reinforcement of 700
+men, of whom 42 were Knights, contrived to steal through the Turkish
+lines on June 29; but that was all the help the garrison received
+before September.
+
+[Illustration: PLAN TO ILLUSTRATE SIEGE OF MALTA 1565]
+
+The Turkish army was under the command of Mustapha Pasha, and the
+fleet under that of Piali. Both had received orders not to take any
+steps without the advice of Dragut. It would have been far better for the
+Turkish cause had the Corsair been in supreme command, for his skill
+as an artilleryman was famous. But there had always been trouble in
+the Ottoman fleet when a Corsair was in command. The proud Turkish
+generals were unwilling to be under the orders of men who were of
+doubtful antecedents, and whom they despised in their hearts as
+low-born robbers. Even Barbarossa, acknowledged by all to be the
+greatest seaman in the Turkish Empire, could not enforce strict
+obedience in the campaign of Prevesa in 1538. The Grand Vizier Ibrahim
+had seen the folly of putting generals in command of fleets, and had
+therefore secured the promotion of Barbarossa: but Ibrahim was now
+dead, and Solyman, bereft of his wise counsel, made a compromise.
+
+On May 18 the Turkish fleet was sighted off the island, and almost
+immediately the army disembarked, partly at Marsa Scirocco, and partly
+at St. Thomas's Bay. The first misfortune was the non-appearance
+of Dragut at the rendezvous, and in his absence Mustapha and Piali
+decided to attack St. Elmo and to leave to Dragut the responsibility
+of sanctioning the operations or breaking them off. Batteries were
+erected on Mount Sceberras, in which ten 80-pounders were brought into
+action, besides a huge basilisk throwing balls of 160 pounds, and two
+60-pounder _coulevrines_. The Turks at the height of their power put
+great faith in novel and massive artillery, which, though clumsy,
+and at times more dangerous to their own gunners than the enemy, was
+terribly effective at the short distance it was placed from St. Elmo.
+The walls of the fortress soon began to crumble under the continuous
+bombardment, and the garrison, which had been increased to 120
+Knights and two companies of Spanish infantry, soon felt the position
+untenable without reinforcements. As an attack had not yet been
+delivered La Valette was incensed at the appeal for help and offered
+to go himself to hold the fort; his council dissuaded him from doing
+so, and he permitted 50 Knights and 200 Spanish troops to cross to St.
+Elmo. It was of the utmost importance that St. Elmo should be held to
+the last minute. Not only did it delay the attack on the main forts,
+but Don Garcia de Toledo, the Viceroy of Sicily, had made it a
+condition in his arrangements with the Grand Master, before the siege,
+that St. Elmo must be held if the reinforcements from Sicily were to
+be sent.
+
+At this point--June 2--Dragut arrived with his galleys and expressed
+nothing but disapproval for the Turkish operations. He pointed out
+that the besiegers should have isolated the fortifications from the
+rest of the island before proceeding to attack St. Elmo; but, as
+the siege had started, he insisted on continuing it as vigorously
+as possible. He erected a powerful battery on the summit of Mount
+Sceberras, which swept both Fort St. Angelo and Fort St. Elmo, and
+erected another on the headland opposite St. Elmo on the other side of
+the Marsa Muscetto, which was henceforth known as Point Dragut.
+
+As soon as this was done the bombardment restarted with relentless
+fury. The Knights made a sortie to destroy some of the Turkish guns,
+but were driven back, and the Turks then captured and held a covered
+way leading up to a ravelin; a few days later, taking advantage of the
+negligence of the garrison, they surprised the ravelin itself, and,
+but for the efforts of a Spanish officer, would have captured the
+fort. After desperate fighting the Knights were still holding the
+fort, but had been unable to recapture the ravelin. The next day
+another attack was made by Mustapha, but without avail; the ravelin
+remained in Turkish hands, but it had cost them 2,000 men.
+
+It was a great gain, however; two guns were mounted on it, and all the
+Turkish artillery, including that of the galleys, began to play on the
+hapless fort. It was no question of a breach; the walls were gradually
+destroyed till there was nothing left of the enceinte but a mass of
+ruins. Every part of the fort was directly exposed to the fire of
+the two guns on the ravelin, and this exposure made the strain on the
+Knights intolerable.
+
+The garrison sent a Knight, renowned for his bravery, to report these
+conditions to the Grand Master and to ask for permission to withdraw.
+La Valette, feeling it imperative that the fort should hold out to the
+last minute, sent him back with orders that it was to be defended to
+the end. The garrison, amazed by his reply, sent a prayer for relief,
+failing which they would sally forth, sword in hand, to meet their
+death in open fight rather than be buried like dogs beneath the ruins.
+The Grand Master received the request with the stern comment that, not
+only were their lives at the disposal of the Order, but the time and
+manner of their death; but to make sure that their complaints were
+justified he would send three Knights to investigate the condition
+of the fort. One of the three (probably in collusion with La Valette)
+maintained the fort could be held, and offered himself to hold it with
+volunteers, who were immediately forthcoming in large numbers; but
+when the message arrived at St. Elmo announcing that the garrison was
+to be relieved, there was consternation among the defenders, who, now
+realising the ignominy of their prayer, sent out yet another request
+to St. Angelo, this time to be allowed to hold St. Elmo to the death.
+After some delay the Grand Master granted the permission.
+
+This was June 14; on the 16th the Ottomans delivered a grand assault.
+The fort was attacked on three sides, from Mount Sceberras and on each
+flank. The guns of St. Angelo rendered great service all day by raking
+the attacking forces in enfilade, and especially by breaking up the
+flank attack from the side of the Grand Harbour. All day long the
+battle went on with unabating fury; time after time the Janissaries
+burst over the ruined walls, and each time they were repulsed.
+Attacked on all sides, the few defenders fought with dauntless
+heroism, and when the night fell the Maltese Cross still waved over
+the fort.
+
+Reinforcements were dispatched as soon as night set in, and the
+volunteers far exceeded all requirements.
+
+Now at last the Turkish commanders perceived that, to capture St.
+Elmo, it must be isolated from St. Angelo. In the course of the next
+few days a battery was constructed on the promontory at the entrance
+of the Grand Harbour where Fort Ricasoli stood in later times, and
+another was mounted on the side of Mount Sceberras to sweep the
+landing place beneath the fort. Both batteries cost many Turkish
+lives, but their construction and the extension of the investing
+trenches to the Grand Harbour meant the complete isolation of St.
+Elmo. The Turks sustained their greatest loss when Dragut, while
+superintending the works, received a wound from which a week later he
+died.
+
+For three days twenty-six guns kept up the bombardment, and on the
+early morning of June 22 another grand assault was made. Three times
+repulsed and three times renewed, the attack failed in the end, and
+the handful of surviving Knights was left at nightfall in possession
+of their ruins. All attempts during the night to send reinforcements
+failed under the fire of Dragut's new batteries, and La Valette saw
+that his men were beyond all hope of rescue.
+
+The sixty shattered survivors prepared for death; worn out, they
+betook themselves at midnight to their little chapel, where they
+confessed and received the Eucharist for the last time. Dawn found
+them waiting, even to the wounded, who had been placed in chairs sword
+in hand to receive the last onslaught. Incredible as it may appear,
+the first assault was driven back, but the attack finally broke up
+the defence, and, with the exception of a few Maltese who escaped by
+swimming, the garrison perished to a man.
+
+June 24, St. John the Baptist's Day, was one of sorrow inside the
+beleaguered fortress. The Turks had soiled their victory by mutilating
+their dead foes and throwing them into the Grand Harbour; La Valette
+took reprisals, and from that time neither side thought of quarter.
+
+Nor were the besiegers greatly elated; the tiny Fort of St. Elmo had
+delayed them for five weeks and had cost them 8,000 men and their best
+general. The Order had lost 1,300 men, of whom 130 were Knights, and
+the disparity of the losses shows the impatience and recklessness of
+the Turkish attacks.
+
+Mustapha now transferred the main part of his army to the other side
+of the Grand Harbour, and, drawing a line of entrenchments along the
+heights on its eastern side, succeeded in investing completely the two
+peninsulas of Senglea and Il Borgo. Batteries were established and a
+constant bombardment commenced, the main target being Fort St. Michael
+at the end of Senglea, on which a converging fire was brought to bear.
+Unable to bring his fleet into the Grand Harbour under the guns of St.
+Angelo, Mustapha had eighty galleys dragged across the neck of Mount
+Sceberras and launched on the upper waters of the Grand Harbour. This
+was a blow to the besieged, as it meant an attack by sea as well as
+by land, and La Valette made all the preparations possible to meet the
+danger. Along the south-west side of Senglea, where the beach is low,
+he constructed, with the aid of his Maltese divers, a very firm and
+powerful stockade to prevent the enemy galleys from running ashore,
+and he also linked up Il Borgo and Senglea with a floating bridge.
+
+On July 15 the Turks delivered a grand assault by sea and by land. The
+attack by sea, under the command of the renegade Candellissa, proved
+the more formidable. At the critical moment the defenders were thrown
+into confusion by an explosion on the ramparts, during which the
+Turks were able to make their way through the stockade and into the
+fortress, being checked with difficulty by the desperate resistance of
+the garrison and finally driven out by a timely reinforcement sent
+by La Valette. Ten boatloads of troops sent by Mustapha incautiously
+exposed themselves to the guns of St. Angelo and were almost all sunk,
+while the attack on the land side, led by Hassan, Viceroy of Algiers
+and son of Khaired-Din Barbarossa, proved an utter failure.
+
+As at the siege of Rhodes, so at Malta, a distinct part of the
+fortifications had been allotted to each langue to defend. The langue
+of Castile held the north-east section of Il Borgo, which was destined
+to be the scene of most desperate fighting.
+
+On August 7 a joint attack was made on the land side of Senglea and on
+the bastion of Castile. On that day the Turks came nearer success than
+ever before or after. Mustapha's desperate attacks on Senglea were
+at last successful: masters of the breach made by their guns, the
+assailants' weight of numbers began to tell, and slowly the defenders
+were being pushed back inside the fortress. At this moment, to
+everyone's amazement, Mustapha sounded the retreat. The little
+garrison of the Citta Notabile, which had been left alone by the
+Turks, had been raiding the enemy's lines as usual, and, hearing the
+grand assault was in progress, had made a determined attack on the
+Turkish entrenchments from behind, burning and slaying all they could
+find. The confusion arising from this started the rumour that Sicilian
+reinforcements had landed and were attacking the Turkish army.
+Mustapha, in fear of being surrounded, drew off his troops in the
+moment of victory.
+
+Meanwhile,[3] farther north, the Bastion of Castile had been almost
+captured by Piali. The rock at that part of the fortification was
+extremely hard, and the possibility of mines had occurred to none of
+the garrison. Piali, however, with great labour, had dug a mine which
+had been sprung that morning and had blown a huge gap in the ramparts.
+This unexpected attack threw the whole of Il Borgo into confusion,
+and, but for the Grand Master's promptitude and coolness of mind, the
+enemy had been masters of the fortress. Seizing a pike, La Valette
+rushed into the fight, and, inspired by his example, the Knights
+succeeded in driving the enemy out of the breach. He ordered the
+garrison to remain there all night, as he expected an attack under
+the cover of darkness, and insisted on taking the command himself. His
+subordinates protested against this reckless exposure of a valuable
+life, but his precautions were justified when a Turkish attack made in
+the darkness was defeated by his prompt resistance.
+
+The bombardment continued unceasingly, and on August 18 another
+desperate assault was made, which, like the other, failed. Yet the
+position of the besieged was becoming desperate: dwindling daily
+in numbers, they were becoming too feeble to hold the long line of
+fortifications; but, when his council suggested the abandonment of Il
+Borgo and Senglea and withdrawal to St. Angelo, La Valette remained
+obdurate.
+
+Why the Viceroy of Sicily had not brought help will always remain a
+mystery. Possibly the orders of his master, Philip II. of Spain, were
+so obscurely worded as to put on his own shoulders the burden of a
+decision; a responsibility which he was unwilling to discharge because
+the slightest defeat would mean exposing Sicily to the Turk. He had
+left his own son with La Valette, so he could hardly be indifferent to
+the fate of the fortress, and Malta in Turkish hands would soon have
+proved a curse to Sicily and Naples. Whatever may have been the cause
+of his delay, the Viceroy hesitated till the indignation of his own
+officers forced him to move, and then the battle had almost been won
+by the unaided efforts of the Knights. On August 23 came yet
+another grand assault, the last serious effort, as it proved, of the
+besiegers; it was thrown back with the greatest difficulty, even the
+wounded taking part in the defence. The plight of the Turkish forces,
+however, was now desperate. With the exception of St. Elmo, the
+fortifications were still intact. By working night and day the
+garrison had repaired the breaches, and the capture of Malta seemed
+more and more impossible. Those terrible summer months with the
+burning sirocco had laid many of the troops low with sickness in their
+crowded quarters; ammunition and food were beginning to run short, and
+the troops were becoming more and more dispirited at the failure of
+their numerous attacks and the unending toll of lives. The death of
+Dragut, on June 23, had proved an incalculable loss, and the jealousy
+between Mustapha and Piali prevented their co-operation. The whole
+course of the siege had been marked by a feverish haste and a fear of
+interruption, which showed itself in ill-drawn plans. Dragut himself,
+early in the siege, had pointed out the necessity of more foresight,
+but his warnings went unheeded. The Turkish commanders took few
+precautions, and, though they had a huge fleet, they never used it
+with any effect except on one solitary occasion. They neglected their
+communications with the African coast and made no attempt to watch and
+intercept Sicilian reinforcements.
+
+On September 1 Mustapha made his last effort, but all his threats and
+cajoleries had but little effect on his dispirited troops, who refused
+any longer to believe in the possibility of capturing those terrible
+fortresses. The feebleness of the attack was a great encouragement to
+the besieged, who now began to see hopes of deliverance. Mustapha's
+perplexity and indecision were cut short by the news of the arrival
+of Sicilian reinforcements in Melleha Bay. Hastily evacuating his
+trenches, he embarked his army; but, on learning that the new troops
+numbered but some 8,000, was overcome by shame and put ashore to fight
+the reinforcements. It was all in vain, however, for his troops would
+not stand the fierce charge of the new-comers, and, helped by the
+determination of his rearguard, safely re-embarked and sailed away on
+September 3.
+
+At the moment of departure the Order had left 600 men capable of
+bearing arms, but the losses of the Ottomans had been yet more
+fearful. The most reliable estimate puts the number of the Turkish
+army at its height at some 40,000 men, of which but 15,000 returned
+to Constantinople. It was a most inglorious ending to the reign of
+Solyman the Magnificent.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: A reminiscence of the Syrian days of the Order.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The name given to the different estates of the
+Hospitallers scattered throughout Europe: they were so called because
+they were each in charge of a "commander," sometimes also named a
+"preceptor," from his duty of receiving and training novices.]
+
+[Footnote 3: Most historians make this event part of the attack of
+August 18. But Prescott (_Philip II_., vol. ii., p. 428) points out
+that Balbi, who is undoubtedly the best authority for the siege as he
+was one of the garrison, places it on August 7.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN
+
+Before proceeding to trace the history of the last two centuries
+of the Knights at Malta it will perhaps be advisable to examine the
+organisation of an Order which was the greatest and most long-lived
+of all the medieval Orders of Chivalry. The siege of 1565 was its last
+great struggle with its mortal foe; after that there is but little
+left for the historian but to trace its gradual decadence and fall.
+And, as might be expected in a decadent society, though outwardly
+the constitution changed but little in the last two centuries, yet
+gradually the Statutes of the Order and the actual facts became more
+and more divergent.
+
+There were three classes of members in the Hospitallers, who were
+primarily distinguished from each other by their birth, and who were
+allotted different functions in the Order. The Knights of Justice[1]
+were the highest class of the three and were the only Knights
+qualified for the Order's highest distinctions. Each langue had its
+own regulations for admitting members, and all alike exercised severe
+discrimination. Various kinds of evidence were necessary to prove the
+pure and noble descent of the candidate. The German was the strictest
+and most exacting of the langues, demanding proof of sixteen quarters
+of nobility and refusing to accept the natural sons of Kings into the
+ranks of its Knights. Italy was the most lenient, since banking and
+trade were admitted as no stain on nobility, while most of the other
+langues insisted on military nobility only.
+
+The chaplains, who formed the second class of the Order, were required
+to be of honest birth and born in wedlock of families that were
+neither slaves nor engaged in base or mechanical trades. The
+same regulations were in force for the third class--that of
+servants-at-arms, who served under the Knights both on land and sea.
+As the military character of the Order became less and less marked
+in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these servants-at-arms
+became fewer and fewer, but in earlier days they were of considerable
+importance. The chaplains performed their duties at the Convent or on
+the galleys; the priests at the various commanderies throughout Europe
+were a class apart, known as Priests of Obedience, and never came to
+Malta, but resided permanently in their respective countries. A number
+of commanderies was allotted to the two inferior classes.
+
+The Order, as we know, was an international one, and for purposes of
+administration was divided into sections or langues. In the sixteenth
+century there were eight of these divisions, which, in order of
+seniority, were Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, England,
+Germany, and Castile. When Henry VIII. suppressed the English langue
+in 1540, the Knights, with a reluctance to face the facts which was
+characteristic of a proud Order of Chivalry, kept up the fiction
+of its existence. In 1782, when the Elector of Bavaria secured the
+establishment of a Bavarian langue, it was united to the dormant
+langue of England and named the Anglo-Bavarian.
+
+Each langue had its own quarters at the Convent known as the
+"Auberge," presided over by a "conventual bailiff," who in all matters
+was the head of the langue. Each conventual bailiff had an important
+office in the hierarchy of the Order which was permanently appurtenant
+to the headship of that langue. Thus the conventual bailiff of the
+langue of France was always the Grand Hospitaller in charge of the
+Hospital of the Order, while that of England was Turcopolier, or
+commander of the light cavalry--a survival from the Syrian days. The
+possessions of each langue in its native land were divided into grand
+priories and bailiwicks. Thus England, which meant the possessions
+throughout the British Isles, was divided into the Grand Priory of
+England at Clerkenwell, the Grand Priory of Ireland at Kilmainham, and
+the Bailiwick of the Eagle, which was situated near Lincoln and had
+originally belonged to the Templars. These Grand Priors and Bailiffs
+of each langue, as well as its conventual bailiff, were all Knights
+Grand Cross, and, as such, entitled to seats in the Chapter-General of
+the Order.
+
+The supreme control of the Order was vested in the Chapter-General,
+consisting of all the Knights Grand Cross. Though these
+Chapters-General were often convened in the early history of the
+Order, their difficulty of assembly and their clumsy method of
+procedure made them less and less frequently summoned, as the Grand
+Master had it in his power to convoke it when he pleased, though an
+interval of five years--later extended to ten--had been sanctioned
+by custom. In the seventeenth century the institution fell into utter
+disuse, and there was no meeting of the Chapter-General from 1631 to
+1776, when its uselessness was finally demonstrated.
+
+When the Chapter-General was not sitting the government of the Order
+was carried on by the Grand Master and the Councils, known as the
+Ordinary, Complete, Secret, and Criminal. The Ordinary Council
+consisted of the Grand Master, the conventual bailiffs, together with
+any Grand Cross residing at the Convent. This Council, as its name
+indicates, transacted the ordinary business of government, which
+mainly consisted of appointing to these offices and making those
+arrangements which were not definitely assigned to the Grand Master
+himself. The Secret and Criminal Councils, respectively, dealt with
+foreign affairs and offences against the Statutes, while the Complete,
+consisting of the Ordinary Council with the addition of two Knights
+from each langue of more than five years' residence at the Convent,
+dealt with appeals from the other Councils. In the later days of the
+Order the pernicious practice of appealing to the Pope destroyed all
+semblance of authority in this Council.
+
+The election of the Grand Master was an exceedingly complicated
+affair, the intention being to prevent intrigue. Each langue solemnly
+elected three Knights to represent it, and this body of twenty-four
+chose a triumvirate, which consisted of a Knight, a chaplain, and a
+servant-at-arms. These three co-opted a fourth, and the four a fifth,
+and so on, till the number of sixteen was reached, and this body of
+sixteen elected the Grand Master. Every stage of the proceedings
+was hedged about with meticulous precautions to prevent intrigue and
+corruption, and it was a thoroughly typical medieval attempt to secure
+an honest election.
+
+The framers of the Order's Statutes had taken the precaution of
+limiting the authority of the Grand Master by a minute enumeration
+of all his rights. But, as the Order developed into a purely military
+body, even officially his powers became greater. No subject for
+discussion could be introduced at the Councils except by himself; he
+had a double vote, and, in case of an equal division, a casting vote
+also; he had the right of nomination to many administrative posts
+besides all those of his own household, and in each priory there was
+a commandery in his own gift whose revenues went to himself. But even
+such wide powers were less than the reality. While the Order was at
+Rhodes, and during the first half-century at Malta, it was obviously
+necessary that the Grand Master should possess the powers of a
+commander-in-chief. As a purely military body, surrounded by powerful
+foes, the Order was in the position of an army encamped in enemy
+territory. Further, the absolute possession of Rhodes, and later
+of Malta, tended to give the Grand Masters the rank of independent
+Sovereigns, and the outside world regarded them as territorial
+potentates rather than as heads of an Order of aristocratic Knights.
+
+But when the Order's existence was no longer threatened the Grand
+Master's position was assailed from many sides. No one, while reading
+the history of the Knights, can fail to be impressed by the numerous
+disturbances among them during the last 200 years of the Order. Drawn
+from the highest ranks of the nobility, young, rich, and with very
+little to occupy their time (except when on their "caravans"), the
+Knights were perpetually quarrelling among themselves or defying the
+constituted authorities of the Order.
+
+Charles V. had insisted on keeping in his own hands the nomination
+of the bishopric of Malta, and the custom grew up that the Bishop of
+Malta and the Prior of St. John--the two most important ecclesiastics
+in the Order--should be chosen from the chaplains who were natives of
+the island. This was intended as a compensation for an injury which
+had been inflicted on the Maltese. To prevent the Grand Mastership
+falling into the hands of a native, the Maltese members of the Order
+were unable to vote at the election. The Bishop was often engaged
+in quarrels with the Grand Master, and the disputes were generally
+carried to the Pope, who, as the Head of Christendom, was regarded as
+having supremacy over all Religious Orders. But the Pope himself often
+encroached upon the rights of the Order, not only by sending nuncios
+to Malta with large and undefined powers, but by arrogating to himself
+the patronage of the langue of Italy when he wished to bestow gifts
+upon his relatives and friends. This led to bitter resentment among
+the Italian Knights, who saw all the lucrative posts of their langue
+given away to strangers. The introduction of the Inquisition in 1574
+and the Jesuits in 1592, brought additional disputes about the chief
+authority in the island, and these different ecclesiastical personages
+had no hesitation in interfering in matters which should have been
+entirely beyond their province. Many a Grand Master of the seventeenth
+and eighteenth centuries had his time occupied in efforts to assert
+his authority.
+
+The Grand Mastership was also weakened by the practice of electing
+very old men to the post, as the short tenure of the office and
+the feebleness of its holder meant a lax control over the turbulent
+Knights. This practice became very common in the last two centuries
+of the Order's existence. But many of the Grand Masters, though over
+seventy at the time of election, disappointed expectation by living
+till eighty or even ninety.
+
+We possess detailed accounts of the financial system of the Order in
+the work of two Knights, Boisgelin and Boisredon de Ransijat, accounts
+which agree almost entirely.
+
+The average revenue of the Order before the French Revolution was
+L136,000 per annum--i.e., the revenue which definitely reached Malta.
+It is to be remembered that this sum only represented the residue
+which was sent to the _chef-lieu_. The Knights possessed over
+600 estates throughout Europe, each of which, besides sending
+contributions to Malta, maintained several members of the Order,
+gave a liberal income to its commander, and contributed towards the
+revenues of the Grand Priory in which it was situated. The chief items
+of the above sum were:
+
+1. RESPONSIONS.
+
+A proportion of the net income of each commandery fixed by the
+Chapter-General and liable to increase in case of need--L547,520 per
+annum.
+
+2. MORTUARY AND VACANCY.
+
+On the death of a commander all the net revenues from the day of
+his death to the following May 1 went to the Treasury: this was the
+MORTUARY; the whole revenue of the succeeding year was also sent to
+Malta: this was called the VACANCY--L521,470 per annum.
+
+3. PASSAGES.
+
+These were sums paid for admission into the Order, and were especially
+heavy for those who wished to enter the Order at an age earlier than
+that laid down in the Statutes--L520,324 per annum.
+
+4. SPOILS.
+
+These were the effects of deceased Knights, who were only allowed to
+dispose of one-fifth of their property by will, the remainder going to
+the Treasury--L524,755.
+
+These made up about five-sixths of the total revenue, the remainder
+being small sums accruing from various sources, such as the proceeds
+from the timber of the commanderies (which went entirely to the
+Council), rents from buildings in Malta, and so forth.
+
+At the height of their prosperity the Knights derived a very
+considerable revenue from their galleys, and just as Algiers,
+Tunis, or Tripoli throve on piracy, even so the wealth of the
+East contributed largely to the splendour of Malta. But during the
+seventeenth century various Christian Powers, such as Venice or
+France, insisted on restricting the Knights' claims to unlimited
+seizure of infidel vessels and infidel property on board ship. As
+early as 1582 the Pope had forbidden the Order to seize in a Christian
+harbour Turkish ships or Turkish property on Christian ships,
+and, despite the strenuous opposition of the Knights, enforced his
+commands.
+
+The expenditure of the Order was, on the whole, within the limits of
+its revenue. The chief charge upon the expenditure was the fighting
+forces--the fleet and the garrisons--which together absorbed about
+half the revenue. Of the other items, the most important were the
+Hospital, the Churches of the Order, and the support of its officers
+both at the Convent and in the various European countries. The Knights
+were never seriously threatened financially till the French Revolution
+wiped out half their revenues at one fell swoop. Emergencies were
+always successfully met by an appeal to the self-denial of the members
+of the Order and the generosity of Europe.
+
+The control of the revenues was in the hands of the Chambre de Commun
+Tresor, which consisted of eight officials, the most important of whom
+were the President, who was always the Grand Commander (the conventual
+bailiff of Provence, the senior langue of the Order), and the
+Secretary through whose hands all the revenues passed. In each langue
+certain specified towns were used as receiving Treasuries, under
+the control of receivers who paid the money direct to the Central
+Treasury; these towns numbered twenty-nine in all. These receivers
+obtained the revenues from each estate or commandery within their
+district. At first the Order had possessed one common chest, but with
+the growth of its possessions each Grand Prior was put in control
+of his Priory's revenues; this proving unsatisfactory, from the
+difficulty of exercising control over these powerful Knights,
+the finances of each estate were administered by the commanders
+themselves, who dealt directly with the receivers in their area. They
+paid their quota or "responsions" biennially, and were subject to
+inspection from their Grand Priors; commanderies were rewards to aged
+Knights, and good administration brought promotion to richer estates.
+
+The Criminal Council, which consisted of the Grand Master, the Bishop
+of Malta, the Prior of St. John, the conventual bailiffs, and any
+Grand Crosses present at the Convent, dealt with offences against the
+estates of the Order. The accused were brought in, the evidence taken,
+and the verdict declared. All evidence was verbal and no written
+testimony was accepted; each Knight, unless he could show good
+reason to the contrary, had to plead in person. Any English or German
+Knights, who knew only their own tongue and so had difficulty in
+being understood, were allowed advocates. The Order, by its Statutes,
+discouraged litigation to the utmost, desiring to promote concord and
+harmony among its members, and for that reason all legal procedure was
+made as simple and as summary as possible.
+
+In such an exclusive and aristocratic Order there was naturally much
+jealousy of the power of its head. Facts gave the Grand Master a very
+strong position, but technically he was only _primus inter pares_. To
+make sure the Knights were not oppressed, they were always at liberty
+to disregard the Grand Master's or any superior's command and to
+appeal to a Court of Egard to prove that the given command was a
+violation of the Order's Statutes. The Court of Egard consisted of
+nine members, each langue choosing one from its own ranks, and the
+Grand Master appointing the President. Either disputant could object
+to any member of the Court, whereupon that member's langue chose a
+substitute. After hearing the evidence, which was entirely oral, the
+Court discussed the case behind closed doors and came to a decision.
+The litigants were called back, and if they agreed to accept the
+verdict the Court's decision was announced and was deemed final; if
+they refused to accept it, an appeal lay to another Court, called the
+Renfort of the Egard, which was constituted by each langue electing
+another member, thus doubling the original number. The same procedure
+was carried out as in the first Court, and if the litigants expressed
+themselves still dissatisfied, a new Court was summoned, called the
+Renfort of the Renfort, which was formed by the election from each
+langue of another member, thus making twenty-five with the President.
+If their decision was not accepted a final Court of Appeal, called
+the Bailiffs' Egard, was formed by the addition of the conventual
+bailiffs, or, if absent, their lieutenants, and their decision was
+final. This admirable Court of Equity existed almost unaltered right
+down to 1798.
+
+The Hospital was a characteristic institution of the Order, and
+deserves some mention. Originally the chief scene of their activities,
+the Hospital was never forgotten by the Knights. Their first duty,
+wherever they went, was always to build a Hospital to tend the sick,
+and to the end every Knight at the Convent, in theory at least, went
+to take his turn in attending at the Hospital for one day in the week.
+The site of the Hospital, on the south-east side of Valetta, has been
+condemned by science as unhealthy, and it is very easy with modern
+knowledge to find many faults in its organisation. Howard, in his
+"Lazarettos in Europe," in 1786, gave a vivid description of its
+condition and exposed its defects. At that time, however, the Hospital
+was sharing the general decadence of the Order, and discipline had
+become very lax. But, even so, the Hospital was far superior to most
+other hospitals in Europe and still kept much of that distinction it
+had acquired in the great days of the Order. We must remember that
+hospital organisation is a very recent science, and it would be unfair
+to accuse the Knights of neglecting what had not yet been discovered.
+Their Hospital was one of the most famous in Europe, and was used
+by many from Sicily and Southern Italy as well as by the natives of
+Malta. It was open to all who wished to use it, and the attendance of
+patients from a distance proved that it supplied a need. The hospital,
+which had generally over 400 invalids, was maintained at great cost to
+the Order, and the regulations were drawn up with great care, though
+they reveal an amazing ignorance of some fundamental laws of health.
+Patients, for instance, who were members of the Order received meals
+twice as large as other patients.
+
+
+[Footnote 1: So called because they were Knights "by right" of noble
+birth.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE DECLINE
+
+1565-1789.
+
+The history of the Order of St. John after the siege of Malta in
+1565 is a sad story of gradual and inevitable decay. The magnificent
+heroism of the Knights at the siege raised their fame throughout
+Europe to the highest pitch, and the siege was rightly regarded as one
+of the first decisive checks received by the Ottoman conquerors.
+
+It is easy to imagine the anxious expectation of Europe in that summer
+of 1565, when the heretic Queen of England ordered prayers to be
+offered in the diocese of Salisbury for the safety of the Knights of
+St. John.
+
+The Battle of Lepanto, six years later, despite its lack of immediate
+results, dissolved the spell which the invincibility of the Ottoman
+fleet had woven, and in the seventeenth century the Turkish Empire
+showed plainly that it had passed its meridian. Now that they were in
+a weakened condition, the Ottomans, though never fully regarded as a
+European Power, were more acceptable to the Christian States, most
+of whom followed the example of Francis I. and concluded commercial
+agreements and treaties with the Porte. The Turk was no longer
+regarded as a being beyond human intercourse, and the Levant trade
+was too valuable to be ignored by France, England, or the Italian
+republics.
+
+The Knights of Malta, with their attitude of truceless war against the
+infidel, were thus becoming more and more of an anachronism as time went
+on. They never concluded peace with the Sultan, and always regarded
+the possessions of the infidel as fair and lawful booty. It was
+obviously impossible for the Christian States trafficking in Turkish
+waters to allow such a theory to go unchallenged, and we therefore
+find the Order quarrelling with the Pope, Venice, England, and France,
+as to their rights of seizure of Turkish goods in Christian vessels
+or of Turkish vessels in Christian harbours. In 1582 this led to
+a dispute with Gregory XIII., and in 1666 with Louis XIV., and the
+Knights were forced to confine their attentions to Turkish vessels
+trading between Turkish ports. England was destined later to incur
+similar trouble with neutrals for a similar theory of international
+law.
+
+Had the Knights wished, their unending warfare against the Mohammedan
+would have found a suitable enemy in the Barbary Corsairs, who were
+a plague to Europe right to the year 1816; but though we find many a
+struggle between Knight and Corsair in the seventeenth century, the
+sloth and decadence that were mastering the Order made it gradually
+neglect its duty in that direction. Whatever energies they had
+were more profitably spent in the Levant; for the Knights, in their
+seafaring expeditions, became little more than Corsairs themselves.
+When it was necessary, as at the twenty-five years' siege of Candia
+(1644-1669), the Knights displayed once more that magnificent heroism
+that had made their name ring throughout the world. We find through
+the seventeenth century many a display of bravery, but they became
+more and more infrequent, till, in the eighteenth century, the Order's
+squadron was used for little else but show voyages to different
+Mediterranean ports. It was becoming too great a task even to raid
+Turkish merchantmen.
+
+After the siege it was determined to move the _chef-lieu_ of the Order
+from Il Borgo to Mount Sceberras, and on March 28, 1566, the building
+of Valetta was commenced. It was originally intended to bring the hill
+down to a certain level and on the plateau thus constructed to build
+the city. The fear of another Turkish invasion, however, did not allow
+of the completion of this plan, with the result that Valetta consists
+of a long, narrow plateau with slopes descending to Marso Muscetto on
+one side and the Grand Harbour on the other. The difficulty of moving
+about in this hilly town is commemorated in Byron's lines:
+
+  Adieu, ye joys of La Valette,
+  Adieu, sirocco, sun, and sweat,
+  Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs,
+  How surely he who mounts you swears.
+
+Each Grand Master strove to enlarge and strengthen the town's
+fortifications, with the result that, in the eighteenth century,
+Valetta was recognised as one of the greatest fortresses in the world.
+The building and upkeep of these fortifications proved a great drain
+upon the resources of the Order, and served but little purpose, except
+that of ministering to the vanity of successive Grand Masters, who
+desired to leave behind them memorials of themselves by bestowing
+their name upon a new fort or outwork. The continual increase of
+security and strength did not serve to improve the daring of the
+Knights, but rather helped to engender a condition of sloth that was
+destined to prove fatal.
+
+This period is marked by constant tumults among the members of the
+Order and by acts of defiance against the Grand Masters. Even in the
+days of its glory there had been much jealousy and friction between
+the different nationalities composing the Order. The three French
+langues of Provence, Auvergne, and France, by acting together,
+exercised a preponderant influence; they contributed half the revenues
+of the Order, and were generally able to secure their object against
+the opposition of the remaining Knights. The constant wars between
+Spain and France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to
+constant troubles at Malta, and the Grand Masters throughout this
+period had great and increasing difficulty in preserving the Order's
+neutrality. Many Knights broke their Oath of Obedience by enlisting in
+the French and Spanish armies. When this was discovered, the offended
+King would make out that the Order had taken sides and would threaten
+it with his vengeance. As the Order possessed many estates in both
+kingdoms, the Grand Masters were in constant fear that these would be
+encroached upon if an excuse could be found to justify such an
+action. But Spain, while it possessed the kingdom of the Two Sicilies,
+possessed an even surer method of punishing the Order. Malta,
+despite all the care lavished upon it, has never been able to produce
+sufficient corn for its population, and for this reason imported food
+regularly from Sicily, where the Order had built granaries for storing
+the corn while awaiting transshipment. As soon as the Knights offended
+the King of Spain Malta was plunged into scarcity, and the unhappy
+natives had often to suffer heavily because the Grand Master was a
+Frenchman.
+
+Another result of the wars of France and Spain was the frequent
+internal quarrels at Malta. As the feelings of the two nations towards
+each other were often embittered, it is not surprising to find that
+French and Spanish Knights would come to open blows in the streets of
+Valetta. The unhealthy life of those young and idle aristocrats was
+conducive to turbulence, and the Grand Masters often adopted the
+policy of sending them to sea as soon as trouble was foreseen. The
+French were generally in the preponderance, as we can see from the
+great number of French Grand Masters; and the increasing greatness of
+the French monarchy in the seventeenth century was reflected at Malta.
+
+The position of the Maltese became worse and worse as the Order
+declined. The natives, who had enjoyed a considerable measure of local
+autonomy under Spanish rule, had been very reluctant to submit to the
+Knights, and had protested to Charles V. against their surrender to
+the Order, as a violation of the promise given in 1428 by Alphonse of
+Sicily that Malta would never be separated from the Sicilian Crown.
+They knew that the Order would conduct itself in Malta as a garrison
+in a fortress, and that this would mean strict military control over
+the inhabitants. It was also probable that the Turks would again
+besiege the Knights, as they had done at Rhodes in 1480 and 1522, and
+the Maltese were strongly averse to being drawn into such danger.
+
+During the residence of the Knights the native population of Valetta
+was considerably modified. Some of the Rhodians who had, in 1523,
+accompanied the Knights, came with them to Malta; mercenaries who
+fought for the Order sometimes stayed on in the island, and many in
+this new population were illegitimate children of the Knights. For,
+though the vow of chastity was insisted on to the end as a condition
+of entrance into the Order, in practice, by the eighteenth century, it
+had become entirely ineffective.
+
+At first the Knights made but slight inroads on the privileges of
+the natives, curtailing them only so far as was necessary for their
+military security, and imposing but few taxes upon them. As the island
+grew rich with the wealth brought in by the raids of the Knights, the
+condition of the Maltese also improved, and while the Order flourished
+it was not an excessive burden to the natives. But when the
+Knights started upon their decline the condition of the islanders
+deteriorated. They had always suffered from the occasional scarcity
+due to the ill-humour of the Spanish King or the natural failure of
+the Sicilian harvest. But now the taxes became heavier and heavier,
+and the free services of the Maltese, either as labourers in the
+constant fortifying of Valetta, or as soldiers in the garrison, or
+as sailors in the fleet, were more and more rigorously exacted. Many
+natives lost their lives while fighting with the Order, and from the
+generous behaviour of Grand Masters to the native women and
+children, which we find mentioned in chronicles, we can see there was
+occasionally acute distress in the island.
+
+In its degeneracy the Order treated the Maltese with boundless
+contempt, as might be expected from spoiled members of the great
+European aristocracies towards petty islanders. One of the most
+intolerable forms of the arrogance of the Knights during their last
+years at Malta was their disgusting behaviour towards the womenfolk
+of the natives; complaint was dangerous and futile. When the British
+captured the island in October, 1800, the mere proposal to restore
+the Order raised such a storm of protest from the Maltese as to prove
+conclusively to all how hated had been the domination of the Knights.
+
+The splendour of the Knights at the height of their greatness can be
+judged from the many magnificent buildings they constructed in the
+island. The Church of St. John in particular received such careful and
+lavish attention that it became one of the most splendid churches in
+Christendom, being especially famous for its wonderful mosaic floor.
+The "auberges" of the various langues were also built in the most
+magnificent manner, and the palace of the Grand Master at Valetta was
+a sumptuous building worthy of a king.
+
+The decline of the Order brought with it a diminution of respect
+from the nations of Europe, and we read of constant and increasing
+interference from outside in the affairs of the Order. The greatest
+offender was the Pope, who had always enjoyed a nominal headship over
+the Order, and who had been kept at a distance with difficulty even
+while the Knights had been at Rhodes. The creation of a bishopric at
+Malta, the introduction of the Inquisition, and then of the
+Jesuits, had led to constant quarrels between the Knights and the
+ecclesiastics, and from these had arisen the evil practice of appeals
+to the Curia. In the seventeenth century the Popes regarded the
+valuable patronage of the langue of Italy as in their gift, and the
+Grand Masters were powerless to protect their defrauded Knights. The
+depths of the Order's humiliation were shown by the demand of Pope
+Urban XIII., in 1642, that the Order's galleys should help him fight
+the League of Italian Princes which had been formed to resist his
+invasion of Parma. Lascaris, the Grand Master, was unable to refuse,
+and for the first time the famous red galleys were seen arrayed
+against Christian neighbours.
+
+The operations of the Knights in the seventeenth century were mainly
+carried out in alliance with the Venetians, who were the one Power
+who continued to resist the Turk at sea. They were still lords of
+the great island of Crete, which lay athwart the trade routes of the
+Levant, and only by its conquest would the Ottoman control of the
+Eastern Mediterranean be complete. In 1645 Ibrahim I. declared war on
+Venice and besieged Candia; but the attack was so remiss that success
+seemed impossible. The Knights of Malta threw themselves into the
+struggle on the side of the Venetians, feeling bound in honour to
+do so, as the refuge of Maltese galleys in Venetian harbours was the
+Turkish pretext for war. In 1656 Mocenigo, the Venetian Admiral, with
+the aid of the Knights, won a brilliant victory off the Dardanelles,
+capturing Lemnos and Tenedos. This imminent peril brought Mohammed
+Kiuprili to power as Grand Vizier, and the war was thenceforward
+conducted with great energy by the Turks. Year after year volunteers
+flocked to Candia to save the last Christian outpost in the Levant,
+but it was all fruitless, and in 1669 the island, with the exception
+of three ports, was surrendered to the Turks--their last important
+conquest in Europe, and the final term of their advance.
+
+The seventeenth century saw the gradual displacement of galleys in
+favour of sailing ships. The long voyages across the Atlantic and to
+the East had given great impetus to the development of the sailing
+vessel; its increasing use, and the entrance of England and Holland
+into the Mediterranean, had shown the Powers of that sea its
+superiority over the galley; finally, slaves were becoming more
+difficult to obtain in sufficient quantities, while criminals had
+never been a satisfactory source of supply. The Knights were slow in
+changing the oar for the sail, and to the end kept a small squadron of
+galleys as well as men-of-war. When Napoleon captured the island, in
+1798, he found there two men-of-war, one frigate, and four galleys.
+
+The pride and the renown of the Order had always demanded a salute
+from the warships of other nations, and even the mighty Louis XIV.
+yielded this privilege to the little squadron. There is extant an
+interesting correspondence between Charles II. and the Grand Master,
+Nicholas Cottoner, on the subject of salutes. A squadron of the
+British Fleet, under Admiral Sir John Narborough, had refused to
+salute Valetta unless assured of a response from the guns of the
+fortress--a mark of respect that the Order was unwilling to pay to the
+British flag. The Grand Master had also ventured to doubt Narborough's
+rank as Admiral, but the affair was amicably settled to the
+satisfaction of all.
+
+Though the decline of the Order was obvious to Europe throughout the
+eighteenth century, and the value of such a fortress as Malta to a
+Mediterranean Power apparent to all, yet there is little definite
+proof of any desire to wrest the island from the Knights. Of all the
+nations round the Mediterranean, France alone could be said not to be
+in a state of decay; Venice, Genoa, and Turkey were becoming more and
+more feeble at sea, and there was little fear of an attack on Malta
+from any of them; and though Spain paid great attention to her fleet
+in the second part of the eighteenth century, there was little reason
+to fear her aggression. Britain was acquiring greater and greater
+interests in the Mediterranean, but most of her attentions were
+directed to Spain and France. While the Knights kept their neutrality,
+however decadent and feeble they might be, there was little fear of
+their being disturbed. Europe still respected the relics of a glorious
+past of six centuries of unceasing warfare against the Moslem; but the
+moment that past with its survivals became itself anathema the Knights
+and their organisation would collapse at once. The French Revolution
+meant death to the Knights of the Order of St. John as well as to
+other bodies of aristocrats.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+THE FALL
+
+1789-1798.
+
+A wealthy Order of Knights drawn exclusively from the ranks of
+the nobility was sure to attract the attention of the French
+revolutionaries. Its international character was a cause of offence to
+the strong French nationalism engendered during the Revolution, while
+its traces of monastic organisation helped to identify the Knights
+with the Church.
+
+When Necker, in the financial distress of the autumn of 1789, appealed
+for a voluntary contribution from all landowners, the Order gave him a
+third of the revenue of its French commanderies, and later it pledged
+its credit for 500,000 francs to the destitute Louis XVI., to help him
+in the flight that ended so disastrously at Varennes. This last act
+put it in definite opposition to the Revolution.
+
+The Constituent Assembly declared the Order of St. John to be a
+foreign Power possessing property in France, and, as such, liable to
+all taxes to be levied on natives, and immediately afterwards a decree
+was passed declaring that any Frenchman belonging to an Order of
+Knighthood which demanded proofs of nobility from entrants could not
+be considered a French citizen. This was followed by the main attack
+on September 19, 1792, when all the property in France was declared
+confiscate and annexed to the French national domains. There was
+some mention of indemnification to the despoiled Knights, but as the
+necessary condition to a pension was residence in France--a dangerous
+course for a noble in 1793 and 1794--the scheme came to naught. The
+decree of September, 1792, was the death-blow to the Order, and its
+extinction was simply a matter of time. The course of the war and the
+constant French successes made their position even more perilous. Half
+the revenues had gone with the confiscation in France; but this was
+not all, for Bonaparte's Italian campaigns meant the loss of the
+Order's estates in Northern Italy, and the conquests of the French on
+the Rhine diminished the German possessions. With decreasing resources
+and dwindling numbers, the fortress of Malta could not long hold out
+if attacked, and the position of the Order was becoming desperate.
+De Rohan, the Grand Master, temporised and refused to declare war on
+France, but he seems to have helped the Spanish and English fleets by
+allowing them to recruit at Malta, a privilege hitherto granted very
+sparingly by the Knights. But whatever the Grand Master's policy, no
+words or pretences could disguise the fact that the French Republic
+by its confiscation had assaulted the Order. It was only too probable
+that France would seize the first opportunity of attacking the
+Order in its own home and by this means increasing its power in the
+Mediterranean.
+
+One gleam of light came to cheer the gloom at Malta. The third
+dismemberment of Poland had brought the Polish Priory into the hands
+of the Tsar Paul I. Among other eccentricities of that monarch was a
+passionate admiration for chivalry, which he displayed by changing
+the Polish into a Russian Priory, increasing its revenues to 300,000
+florins, and incorporating it in the Anglo-Bavarian langue; he also
+assumed the title of "Protector of the Order of Malta."
+
+In 1797, at Ancona, Napoleon had intercepted a message from the Tsar
+to the Grand Master containing this news. Plans for the capture of
+Malta took shape in Bonaparte's mind, and he sent a cousin of the
+French consul at Malta, Poussielgue by name, to spy out the condition
+of the island, at the same time ordering Admiral Brueys, on his
+journey from Corfu to Toulon, to examine the situation of Malta. When
+the expedition to Egypt was decided upon, the capture of Malta formed
+part of the instructions to Napoleon.
+
+Bonaparte, relying on the demoralisation of the island, intended the
+capture to be a swift piece of work, and Poussielgue had helped him
+by winning over some natives and French Knights to his side. The
+Grand Master, Von Hompesch, seems to have been utterly unnerved by the
+bewildering problems before him, and the cowardice and irresolution
+he displayed were a disgrace to the traditions of the Order. Speed was
+essential to the French army, as discovery by Nelson would be fatal
+to Bonaparte's plans, but had Von Hompesch been an utter traitor
+the capitulation could not have been more sudden and disgraceful and
+beneficial to the enemy.
+
+On June 6 the vanguard of the French appeared off the island, and on
+the 9th it was joined by the main fleet, the whole now numbering about
+450 sail, of which 14 were ships of the line and 30 were frigates;
+the Grand Master had about 300 Knights and 6,000 men, chiefly
+Maltese, under arms. Had this garrison been resolute and united,
+the fortifications of Valetta could have held the French for a
+considerable time. But the natives were divided, many regarding
+the French, despite their doubtful career of the last few years, as
+liberators from a detestable tyranny. Two-thirds of the Knights
+were French, and many of them had become infected with republican
+principles, though the French langues also contained the fiercest
+opponents to the invaders.
+
+Bonaparte sent for permission for his fleet to enter the harbour for
+water and for his soldiers to land--a request which was tantamount to
+a demand for surrender. Von Hompesch sent back a conciliatory letter,
+saying that treaty obligations forbade the entrance of more than four
+vessels at a time. Napoleon thereupon threw off the mask, and during
+the night landed troops at seven different parts of the island. A
+slight resistance was encountered from a few detached forts, but by
+the evening of the 10th Valetta was closely invested. The mob was
+encouraged by hired emissaries to attack as traitors the Knights, who
+were really the most bitter enemies of the invaders. While Napoleon's
+agents were busy throughout the town, Von Hompesch sat motionless in
+his palace, and no subordinate commander would take the responsibility
+of firing on the besiegers. Finally, a party of citizens interviewed
+Von Hompesch and threatened to surrender the town if he refused to
+capitulate.
+
+At this point a mutiny broke out in the garrison, and the Grand Master
+and his Council, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, sent for an
+armistice preliminary to surrender. The armistice was concluded on the
+11th, and on the 12th Napoleon entered Valetta, full of amazement at
+the might of the fortress he had so easily captured. On the 12th the
+capitulation was drawn up, of which the main clauses were:
+
+  1. The Knights surrendered Malta and its
+  sovereignty to the French army.
+
+  2. The French Republic would try to secure
+  to the Grand Master an equivalent principality
+  and would meanwhile pay him an annual pension
+  of 300,000 livres.
+
+  3. The French would use their influence with
+  the different Powers assembled at Rastadt to
+  allow the Knights who were their subjects to
+  control the property of their respective langues.
+
+  4. French Knights were allowed to return to
+  France.
+
+  5. French Knights in Malta were to receive a
+  pension from the French Government of 700
+  livres per annum; if over sixty years old, 1,000
+  livres.
+
+Such was the end of the Order at Malta. Napoleon treated the Knights
+and the Grand Master with extreme harshness. Most of them were
+required to leave within three days, and some even within twenty-four
+hours.
+
+On June 18, Von Hompesch, taking with him the three most venerable
+relics of the Order--all that the conqueror allowed him from the
+treasures at Valetta--left for Trieste, whence he withdrew to
+Montpellier, dying there in obscurity in 1805. Most of the homeless
+Knights proceeded to Russia, where, on October 27, 1798, Paul I. was
+elected Grand Master, though Von Hompesch still held the post.
+
+But on the Tsar's death in 1801 the Order lost the one man who might
+have been powerful enough to bring about a restoration, and the
+survival of some scattered relics could not conceal the fact that
+vanished for ever was the Order of the Hospital of St. John of
+Jerusalem.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I
+
+
+SOVEREIGNTY OF THE ORDER
+
+There can be no doubt whatever that, after 1530, the Order was no
+longer independent and sovereign, and that L'Isle Adam, despite all
+his efforts, had become a feudatory, though the service demanded was
+very slight. The Act of Donation of Malta put them definitely into the
+position of feudal vassals of Charles V. as King of the two Sicilies.
+This is plain to everyone who examines the Charter itself (Vertot,
+III., p. 494, or Codice Diplomatico, II., p. 194). The tenure on
+which the Knights held the island from the King of the Sicilies may be
+classed as a form of serjeanty--the annual payment of a falcon being
+the only feudal service demanded. There were other conditions in the
+Charter concerning the Bishop of Malta and the Grand Admiral of the
+Order, but they were not strictly feudal. The chroniclers of the Order
+were naturally reluctant to admit this, and as the feudal tie was very
+weak, they glossed it over. But the Sovereign of the island, strictly
+speaking, was the King of the two Sicilies, and the Knights were never
+more than tenants. When the Order had been expelled by Napoleon we
+can see this universally admitted. While the fate of the island was
+in doubt--that is, before the preliminary peace between England and
+France in 1801--both natives and English regarded the King of Naples
+as lord of the island (Hardman, 111, 142. Foreign Office Records,
+Sicily, 11). When the Maltese wanted to be put under the protection of
+England, either temporarily or, later, permanently (Hardman, 185,
+193, 204), they applied to the King of the Sicilies, as their lawful
+Sovereign, to grant their request. Events soon made Malta a question
+of great importance in the relations between France and England,
+and the renewal of war, in 1803, left Great Britain in _de facto_
+possession of the island, until the treaty of May 30, 1814, gave
+England full right and sovereignty over Malta.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II
+
+
+CONNECTION BETWEEN KNIGHTS OF MALTA AND THE MODERN ORDER OF ST. JOHN
+
+During the Napoleonic wars the surviving Knights were too scattered
+and too helpless to be able to improve their condition. But from 1815
+onwards we find various attempts of the Order to obtain from Europe
+another _chef-lieu_, and representatives of the Knights at the
+Congress of Vienna (1815) and at the Congress of Verona (1822) tried
+in vain to persuade the Allies to grant them an island. The French
+Knights were by far the largest and most powerful section of the
+Order, and in 1814 they had established a capitular commission in
+which they vested plenary powers to treat on their behalf. During the
+various negotiations for a _chef-lieu_ the question of reviving the
+English langue was started, and the French Commission entered into
+communication with the Rev. Sir Robert Peat, Chaplain to King
+George IV., and other distinguished Englishmen. The outcome was the
+reconstitution of the English langue on January 24, 1831, with Sir
+Robert Peat as Grand Prior.
+
+The English branch of the Order of St. John has devoted itself for the
+last ninety years to the succour of the sick and wounded, setting
+up cottage and convalescent hospitals, aiding the sick in other
+hospitals, and establishing ambulance litters in dangerous industrial
+centres, such as coal-mines and railway-stations, which at last
+developed into the St. John Ambulance Association, which rendered such
+magnificent service during the Great War. The German branch of the
+Order was the first to start ambulance work in the field in the Seven
+Weeks' War of 1866, work which was continued in the Franco-Prussian
+War of 1870. Since that date the mitigation of the sufferings of war
+has been a conspicuous part of the work of the Order of St. John,
+and nowhere has the Order's magnificent spirit of international
+comradeship been more fully displayed.
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS CONSULTED
+
+
+PRIMARY AUTHORITIES
+
+Statuta Ordinis Domus Hospitalis Hierusalem. Edited by Fr. Didacus
+Rodriguez. Rome. 1556.
+
+Statuti della religione de Cavalieri Gierosolimitani. Florence. 1567.
+
+Statuta Hospitalis Hierusalem. Rome. 1588.
+
+Collection of Statutes in Volume IV. of Vertot's Histoire de
+Chevaliers de Malte. Paris. 1726.
+
+[As there was no Chapter-General between 1631 and 1776, all the above
+collections are practically complete, Vertot's containing little more
+than the others.]
+
+Codice Diplomatico del sacro militare ordine Gierosolimitano oggi di
+Malta. Fr. Sebastiano Pauli. Lucca. 1737.
+
+Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic. 1523-1547.
+
+Calendar of State Papers. (Foreign.) 1547-1585.
+
+Calendar of State Papers. (Venetian.)
+
+Calendar of State Papers. (Spanish.)
+
+Les Archives de S. Jean de Jerusalem a Malte. Delaville Le Roulx.
+Paris. 1883.
+
+Report of Philip de Thame. Grand Prior of England. 1338. Camden
+Society. Volume LXV. 1857.
+
+Armoury of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem at Malta. Edited by
+G.F. Laking. London. 1903.
+
+Carta y verdadera relacion escrita por il eminentissimo Senor Gran
+Maestre al Commendador Fr. Don Joseph Vidal. 1669.
+
+E Tanner. Notitia Monastica. Ed. James Nasmith. Cambridge. 1787.
+
+Malte. Par un Voyageur francais. Anonymous. 1791.
+
+Le Monete e Medaglie del S. Ordine Gierosolimitano. C. Taggiasco.
+Camerino. 1883.
+
+Relation du Voyage et Description exacte de Malte. Paris. 1779.
+
+Malta illustrata. Giovanni Abela. Malta. 1772-1780. 2 Volumes.
+
+Liste de Chevaliers des Langues de Provence, Auvergne et France.
+Malta. 1772.
+
+
+SECONDARY AUTHORITIES
+
+GIACOMO BOSIO: Dell' Istoria della sacra religione et ill'ma Militia
+di San Giovanni Gierosolimitano. Rome. 1594. 2 volumes.
+
+ABBE DE VERTOT: Histoire des Chevaliers de Malte. Paris. 1726. 4
+volumes.
+
+CHEVALIER DE BOISGELIN: Malta Ancient and Modern. English edition. 2
+volumes. 1804.
+
+PRESCOTT: Life of Philip II. Volume II.
+
+MAJOR-GENERAL PORTER: History of the Knights of Malta. Revised
+edition. 1 volume. London. 1883.
+
+DE GOUSSANCOURT: Le Martyrologe des Chevaliers de S. Jean de
+Hierusalem. Paris. 1643.
+
+ANONYMOUS: Memoire de' Gran Maestri del sacro militare ordine
+Gierosolimitano. Parma. 1780.
+
+L. HERITTE: Essai sur l'Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de
+Jerusalem. Paris. 1912.
+
+HARDMAN: History of Malta, 1798-1815. Edited by J. Holland Rose.
+London. 1909.
+
+REV. W.K.R. BEDFORD: Malta and the Knights Hospitallers. London. 1894.
+
+REV. W.K.R. BEDFORD: The Hospital at Malta. Edinburgh. 1882.
+
+J. TAAFE: History of the Order of S. John. 4 volumes. London. 1852.
+
+A.T. DRANE: History of the Order of St. John. London. 1881.
+
+MIEGE: Histoire de Malte. 3 volumes. Paris. 1846.
+
+M.M. BALLOU: Story of Malta. Boston and New York. 1893.
+
+REV. W.K.R. BEDFORD AND R. HOLBECHE: Order of the Hospital of St. John
+of Jerusalem. London. 1902.
+
+ADMIRAL JURIEN DE LA GRAVIERE: (1) Les Chevaliers de Malte et la
+Marine de Philippe II. Paris. 1887. (2) Les Corsaires barbaresques et
+la Marine de Solyman le Grand. Paris. 1884. (3) Les Marins du XV'e
+et XVI'e siecles. Paris. 1879. (4) Les derniers Jours de la Marine a
+Rames. Paris. 1885.
+
+COMMANDER E.H. CURREY: Sea Wolves of the Mediterranean. London. 1913.
+
+SIR JULIAN CORBETT: England in the Mediterranean, 1603-1713. 2
+volumes. London. 1904.
+
+S. LANE-POOLE: Barbary Corsairs. (Stories of the Nations.) 1886.
+
+E. DRIAULT: La Question d'Orient. Paris. 1898.
+
+J.A.R. MARRIOT: The Eastern Question. Oxford. 1917.
+
+G. VIULLIER: Le Tour du Monde. Malte et les Maltais.
+
+P.J.O. DOUBLET: L'lnvasion et I'Occupation de Malte. Paris. 1883.
+
+C.T.E. DE TOULGOET: Les Responsabilites de la Capitulation de Malte en
+1798. (Revue des Questions Historiques. 1900.)
+
+DE LA JONQUIERE: L'Expedition d'Egypte. Paris. 1901.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE ON THE AUTHORITIES
+
+
+For the Statutes of the Order we possess the Italian edition of 1567,
+two Latin editions of 1556 and 1588, and the collection at the end of
+Vertot's fourth volume, which is later and more complete. The Codice
+Diplomatico of Fr. Pauli is the only collection of Charters to my
+knowledge which covers practically the whole history of the Order: the
+magnificent Cartulaire of Delaville Le Roulx only covers the Syrian
+period in the Knights' history. Many valuable hints can be found in
+the Calendars of State Papers issued by the Record Office, but they
+fail us at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
+
+Of the various historians above mentioned, Bosio, for the period he
+covers, is by far the best and completest. Vertot only goes down to
+1565: after the siege he treats the subject in a bare annalistic form.
+Boisgelin, who was a Knight himself and wrote his history after his
+expulsion from Malta, is valuable for his elaborate excursus on the
+financial system of the Order. All three--who are our completest
+authorities--wrote from the point of view of the Order, and
+consequently are very unreliable in some matters. The treatment that
+the Maltese received from the Order is very inadequately dealt with,
+and none of them can seriously estimate the Mediterranean background
+to the history of the Knights, and especially their relations with the
+Barbary pirates. General Porter, whose history is the only English
+one at all worthy of mention, possesses the same faults. Though his
+knowledge of the island is thorough, his ignorance of European history
+makes him neglect the importance of the external activities of the
+Knights, and he follows the Order's chroniclers too slavishly to claim
+authority as an independent investigator. Miege, who was a French
+Consul at Malta, is interesting as a bitter opponent of the Order and
+all its work; and he practically confines himself to the treatment of
+the Maltese at the hands of the Knights.
+
+The best authority on sixteenth-century sea power in the Mediterranean
+is Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, while Commander Currey's book is
+very sound and interesting.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Knights of Malta, 1523-1798, by R. Cohen
+
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