|
 KNIGHTS
OF MALTA
The Knights of the Order of St. John of
Jerusalem (to give their full name) were formed long before their reign on
Malta. The Order was originally established in 1085 as a community of monks
responsible for looking after the sick at the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem.
They later became a military order, defending crusader territory in the Holy
Lands and safeguarding the perilous routes taken by medieval pilgrims. The
Knights were drawn exclusively from noble families and the Order acquired vast
wealth from those it recruited and later from the ill-gotten gains of their
privateering.
The Knights came to Malta in 1530, having been ejected from their earlier home
on Rhodes by the Turks in 1522. Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, gave them the
choice of Malta or Tripoli as a new base. Neither was to their liking, but
nothing, they thought, could be worse than Tripoli.
Having chosen Malta, the Knights stayed for 268 years, transforming what they
called 'merely a rock of soft sandstone' into a flourishing island with mighty
defences and a capital city coveted by the great powers of Europe.
The Order was ruled by a Grand Master who was answerable only to the Pope.
Knights were chosen from the aristocratic families of France, Italy, Spain,
England and Portugal. On acceptance into the Order they were sworn to celibacy,
poverty and obedience. Few lived up to these ideals; many were very wealthy and
the Knights' standoffish attitude towards the locals does not always seem to
have applied when it came to temptations of the flesh.
Ironically, it was the two great victories of the Knights which spelt the
death-knell of the Order. The Great Siege of 1565, followed by the crucial
Battle of Lepanto in 1571, were so successful in checking the Ottoman advance
into the western Mediterranean, that there was no longer an Infidel to fight.
The Order gradually grew complacent and corrupt, with little to do but scour the
seas for any booty that could be seized from Muslim ships.
By the late 18th century the Order was little more than a large but effete
international gentlemen's club. The island was ripe for picking by Napoleon in
1798. When, four years later, the Order was formally restored to Malta, the
Maltese resisted their return and instead sought the protection of the British.
The world's oldest order of chivalry, the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order
of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta, more commonly known as the
Order of Malta or simply the S.M.O.M., has its origins in a hospice and
confraternity in Jerusalem founded some time before the First Crusade (1099).
According to most accounts, this was undertaken with the financial assistance of
some wealthy merchants of the Italian port city of Amalfi to aid European
pilgrims to the Holy Land. (The Amalfitans still commemorate their support of
the Order in an annual observance.) The original Christian hospice may have been
founded as early as circa 1020.
Read More
about the knights of Malta- Order of St. John
Visit
Valletta City of the Knights
|
