The Order of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, founded by Blessed Gerald, who became the first
Grand Master. After being driven from
Jerusalem and
Rhodes, the order was awarded
Malta and
Tripoli in 1530 by
Charles V of
Spain.
Tripoli soon fell to the forces of
Islam, and
Malta was also invaded in 1551, the island held out but the entire population of the sister island
Gozo was taken into slavery. The order in
Malta became an important naval power and invested heavily in defending
Malta and in developing the local
corsairing trade. Maltese
pirates became greatly feared amongst
muslim ships in the
Mediterranean. The capturing of an important ship by the order is rumoured to have prompted another invasion which came to be known as the Great Siege in 1565, in which the order, under the leadership of
Grand Master La Vallette, emerged victorious despite seemingly impossible odds. The Order was divided into eight "langues" according to national origin. These were Provence, Auvergne, France, Aragon, Castille, Italy, Germany and
England (the English langue was removed when
England converted to
Protestantism). The Order was removed from
Malta by
Napoleon, who on his way to
Egypt was let into
Malta by the cowardly
Grand Master Hompesch. The remaining fragments of the order then fled to
Rome and
Russia, as
Napoleon couldn't tolerate the
aristocracy.
Full list of the
Grand Masters in
Malta (after 1530):
- 1530 Phillipe Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (France)
- 1534 Pietro del Ponte (Italy)
- 1535 Didier de Saint-Jaille (France)
- 1536 Juan d'Omedes (Aragon)
- 1553 Claude de la Sengle (France)
- 1557 Jean de la Valette-Parisot (Provence)
- 1568 Pietro del Monte San Savino (Italy)
- 1572 Jean l'Eveque de la Caissiere (Auvergne)
- 1582 Hugues Loubenx de Verdala (Provence)
- 1595 Martin Garzes (Aragon)
- 1601 Alofe de Wignacourt (France)
- 1622 Louis Mendez de Vasconcelles (Castille)
- 1623 Antoine de Paule (Provence)
- 1636 Jean-Paul de Lascaris-Castellar (Provence)
- 1657 Martin de Redin (Aragon)
- 1660 Annet de Clermont-Gessan (Auvergne)
- 1660 Raphael Cotoner (Aragon)
- 1663 Nicolas Cotoner (Aragon)
- 1680 Gregoire Carafa (Italy)
- 1690 Adrien de Wignacourt (France)
- 1697 Ramon Perelles y Roccaful (Aragon)
- 1720 Marc Antoine Zondadari (Italy)
- 1722 Antoine Manoel de Vilhena (Castille)
- 1736 Ramon Despuig (Aragon)
- 1741 Manuel Pinto de Fonseca (Castille)
- 1773 Francisco Ximenes de Texada (Aragon)
- 1775 Emmanuel Marie de Rohan-Polduc (France)
- 1797 Ferdinand von Hompesch (Germany).