The Knights
of St John
Many hundreds of years after the Neolithic period
and precisely in 1530, the Knights of the Order
of St. John brought about another epoch of great
cultural significance to the island. This is not
to say that between the sudden disappearance of
the Neolithic culture and the arrival of the Knights
nothing had happened. Quite the contrary. Many
relics and remains witness to important historical
events in this period. However, no unique or individual
culture had originated from the many peoples -
the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs,
Normans and Castillians - who colonised the island
in this prolonged interval.
The history of the Knights of St. John begins
in the middle of the eleventh century in the Holy
Land. The Order’s original duties were to
care for the sick and wounded Christian pilgrims
to the Holy Land and to help the poor. But very
soon their duties expanded; the fight against
the ‘infidels’ became of equal or
even greater importance. The Knights became ‘Soldiers
of Christ’. They acquired and maintained
huge estates and castles in the Holy Land and
finally owned a large fleet.
With the loss of Acre to the Moslems in 1291,
however, the fate of the Knights was sealed. They
withdrew to Rhodes and acted as a shield against
the Turks for two centuries until 1522 when Suleiman
the Magnificent ousted the Knights from Rhodes.
They now needed a new homeland and, in 1530, moved
to Malta, which was given to them by Emperor Charles
V.
The Knights quickly improved trade and commerce
on the islands, built new hospitals and, most
important, erected new strong fortifications.
But Suleiman wanted to destroy the Order completely
and use Malta as a base from which to attack Southern
Europe. In 1565 he set out with a strong fleet
to drive the Knights out of Malta.
The siege, which his navy laid on Malta, referred
to by the Maltese as the Great Siege of 1565,
lasted four months with fighting of almost unimaginable
ferocity. Although heavily outnumbered, the Knights
stood firm and finally won, assisted by the Maltese
people and by last minute reinforcements from
Sicily. The Turks had no alternative but to beat
retreat leaving behind them an impressive number
of dead amongst whom the feared corsair Dragut.
The Knights of St. John had successfully protected
Southern Europe and Christendom.
After their victory against the Turks, the Knights
turned enthusiastically to the further development
of Malta and Gozo. A golden era in culture, architecture
and the arts followed. Many of Malta’s most
attractive buildings were built during this period.
A new fortress city, Valletta, was built and named
in honour of the Grand Master Jean Parisot de
La Valette under whose inspired guidance the knights
and the Maltese had defied the Turkish onslaught.
Valletta is one of the earliest examples of a
planned city built on the grid system. The Knights
of St. John, coming as they did from the richest
families in Europe, could afford to hire the best
talent available. Thus the buildings of Valletta,
its’ fortifications and the art treasures
in its museums and churches are the work of the
best European engineers and artists of the time.
It was the magnificence of its palaces and other
treasures that led Sir Walter Scott to describe
Valletta as "The city built by gentlemen
for gentlemen"
The fall of the Ottoman Empire marked the beginning
of the end of the military vocation of the Order.
The absence of a serious military threat to the
Order’s existence, increasing wealth, arrogance,
lack of discipline and debauchery ate into the
moral fabric of the Order.
Thus when, in 1798, Napoleon, on his way to Egypt,
dropped anchor outside Grand Harbour on the pretext
that his expedition needed fresh water supplies,
he found an Order which had lost its morale. Not
surprisingly, the French Navy did not have to
fire a single shot to secure Malta’s surrender
from the Knights. On the 12th June, Napoleon entered
Valletta bringing to an end 268 years of rule
by the Knights of St. John. Napoleon spent six
eventful days in Malta during which, through numerous
edicts, he tried to transform the island into
a typical "Department" of France.
However, French rule in Malta was short-lived.
By 1800 the Maltese, with the help of Nelson,
managed to drive the French garrison out of Malta
and sought the protection of the British throne.
That was to mark the beginning of a close association
between Malta and Britain lasting over 160 years,
Malta became independent in 1964 and adopted a
Republican Constitution in 1974.
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Valletta
- The City of the Knights |
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