A
Commissioner, sent by the Grand Master, Philippe de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam,
to examine Malta as a possible chef-lieu for the Order, reported ' that it was
but an arid rock, covered in many places with sand, and in a few with a light
scattering of earth brought from Sicily; that it had neither rivers nor springs,
and that the fresh water was for the most part rain collected in tanks or cisterns;
that it produced little corn^ not half enough to feed the scanty population;
that it would be a very unpleasant residence, particularly during the summer
months, violently hot, with not one forest-tree and hardly a green thing for
the eye to rest on; with a sort of ill-walled town called the capital at some
distance from the sea; that, however, the stone, a sort of tufra, was soft and
easy to cut into any shape; that the people speak a dialect of Arabic or Moorish
and are noted for their frugality of living. For the rest the harbours may be
rendered good; that what are called casals are miserable villages or shocking
huts rather befitting fishermen or pirates than the renowned Hospitallers; and
that, as to Gozo, it was too little, though in comparison with Malta fertile
and pleasant.' Very different from this was the Malta that the Knights left behind
them when they were expelled in the year 1798, beautified as it was with churches,
palaces, and gardens worthy of the chef-lieu of what was once the richest and
most aristocratic community in Europe.
When, indeed, the Order came to Malta the fortunes of the island were at a low ebb. The
population was scarcely 17,000, owing to the repeated famines, with which the feudal rulers made
no effort to cope, as well as the depredations of the Turkish Corsairs, who carried off large numbers
of the inhabitants into slavery; and so from the fame of their wealth and valour their new masters,
the Knights, were welcomed as protectors by the Maltese. When, however, the Grand Master,
L'Isle Adam, was about to enter Medina, he was stopped at the gate of the capital by the Hakem
and the other leaders of the Maltese people, who required him to swear that he and his Order would
preserve for the Maltese their privileges and govern them according to their native laws, a promise they faithfully performed for a certain period of their occupation. This incident is depicted in a well-known picture at the Palace in Valletta by the artist Favray.
The relation of the Order to the natives was in one respect curious. Hitherto
the Maltese nobles had been enrolled from time to time as full Knights of the
Order, being received as members of the Langue of Italy. At a General Chapter
of the Order, held two years after L'Isle Adam's arrival, they were, to their
surprise, refused admission into the Order upon the technical ground that Malta,
now the chef-lieu, was no longer included in the Langue of Italy, and, in consequence,
the Maltese no longer complied with the qualification necessary for postulants
namely, residence within a Grand Priory; the real reason no doubt being the
fear that the Maltese might become all-powerful in the affairs of the Order.
By way of compensation, however, they were allowed to join as Chaplains and
to serve in the large army which, from this time onward, the Order maintained.
These privileges were, indeed, largely used, and many Maltese rose to fame in
the service of the Knights, Giampieri, Imbroll, and Menville, to mention a few
names, becoming Grand Priors. Girolamo Cassar, to whose inspiration are due St.
John's Church and the Auberges, was for thirty years architect and engineer to
the Grand Master, while in the Government buildings may be seen today many pictures
of Priests of the Order bearing such unmistakable Maltese names as, among others,
Xerri, Cali, Xuereb, and Zerafa. The bodyguard of the Grand Master in later
days was exclusively formed of Maltese soldiers as a compliment to the loyalty
of the natives in the conspiracy of Kara Mehmet, a Turk, against the life of
the Grand Master Pinto. But the native nobility, seeing themselves placed rather
in the background, looked coldly upon the Order, and retired in seclusion to
the gloomy grandeur of their palaces in Medina, taking little part in the life
of Valletta, or in the affairs of the Order; and when the Maltese, in the year
1798, rose against the Knights, the nobles sided with their own people, and also
supported their petition to the British Crown to retain the sovereignty of
the island when the return of the Knights was contemplated.
To understand the Great Siege of Malta, it must be remembered that the Order
first established their Convent in the Borgo AKA Birgu, a village upon a promontory
running into the sea on the right-hand side of the Grand Harbour, now known as
Citta Vittoriosa.
Borgo or Birgu, is a very old locality on the south side of the Grand Harbour
in Malta with its origins reaching back to medieval times. The town occupies
a promontory of land with Fort St Angelo at its head and the city of Cospicua at its base.
Fort St. Angelo, originally
built by the Moors, was already standing a chapel from the Norman times, in which
the first Grand Master of Malta, L'Isle Adam, and his four successors were originally
buried. The first care of the Knights was to put themselves and their new home
into a state of defence against the Ottoman Power, which would scarcely allow
them to rest in Malta undisturbed. Fort St. Elmo, at the extreme point of Mount
Sceberras, then a bare ridge of ground (where now stands Valletta), and 
Fort
St. Angelo guarded the entrance to the Grand Harbour. L'Isle Adam died in the
year 1534, and was succeeded by Peter du Pont, Didier de St. Jaille, John d'Omedes,
and Claude de la Sangle, whose Masterships we may leave unnoticed, save
to remark that the Emperor Charles V. visited Malta when undertaking his unfortunate
expedition to Algiers against the Moors. In this a large number of the Knights
were lost. At this time, too, the fortifications of Senglea on the promontory
next that of the Borgo were begun by the Grand Master Claude de la Sangle, of
which Fort St. Michael played such a famous part in the siege. In the year 1557,
Jean Parisot de la Valette was elected Grand Master. He had been present at
the Siege of Rhodes, and had held many high offices in the Order, having attained
fame as a naval commander. Once he had been taken prisoner in an encounter with
a Turkish
Corsair named Abda Racman, and he was in due course 
ransomed
by the Order. Curiously enough, he succeeded in capturing a galley commanded
by the same Abda Racman, though history does not record how he treated his former
captor. Tripoli was lost to the Order after their arrival in Malta, being seized
by the famous Dragut (Turgut Reis 1485 – 23 June 1565; an Ottoman
Admiral) -pictured left.
It was soon known, through the spies of the Grand Master at Constantinople,
that Suleiman I (Sultan of the Ottoman Empire) was preparing a great
armament, designed for the conquest of Malta, in anticipation of which the Order
proceeded to put the island in a state of defence. The Borgo was defended by
ditches on the land side, and a chain was fixed from the end of Fort St. Angelo
to Fort St. Michael, to protect the entrance of the creek (where now lies the
dismasted cruiser H.M.S. Egmont) in which the galleys of the Order were harboured.
A floating bridge inside the chain across this piece of water connected the two
garrisons. From the different Commanderies on the Continent were summoned to
Malta the Knights of the Order, and these, when the siege began, numbered 474;
and with volunteers and the regular army, mainly Maltese, the forces of La Valette
amounted to just under 9,000 men. The points of defences were divided among the
Knights according to their Langues: the French and some Spaniards guarding the
Borgo; the Italians defending Senglea and Fort St. Michael, under the Grand Admiral
del Monte, afterwards Grand Master; and the Knights of Aragon, Catalonia and
Navarre the lines of Burmolo, a suburb between the Borgo and Senglea, called
today Cospicua, the third of the 'Three Cities.' The Germans, Portuguese, and
some Spaniards and English Knights took up their position in the front of Fort
St. Angelo, in which La Valette established himself.' One Englishman always
accompanied him, Sir Oliver Starkey, his Latin Secretary, whose remains now lie
by the side of the Grand Master he so faithfully served, in the vault under the
high altar of St. John's, an honour accorded to none other not a Grand Master.
A flying column of the army under the Knight Coppier moved up and down the island
to harass the enemy. Fort St. Elmo, the first point seen on the right hand of
the traveller as he enters the Grand Harbour the scene of the heroic defence
by a small band for five weeks against the Turkish thousands was garrisoned by
about 100 Knights of all nationalities, and reinforced from time to time with
companies of soldiers, 1,500 men being estimated to have fallen in its
defence.
'It is questioned whether, with the exception of Sir Oliver Starkey, any Knights
of the English Langue were present in Malta in 1565, since the Order had been
suppressed in England twenty-five years previously. Two English gentlemen, however,
called Edward Stanley and John Smith, turned up with the other ' free lances
' under Don Juan de Cardona, who managed to get through the Turkish lines and
reinforce the Knights in the Borgo just after the fall of Fort St. Elmo.
Upon the morning of May 18, 1565, a gun, fired
from the Castle of St. Angelo, answered by the
Forts of St. Michael and St. Elmo, announced that
the enemy's fleet was in sight. At this signal all
the inhabitants in the country parts gathered into
the Borgo or Medina, where they remained until
the siege was raised in the following September.
The Turkish fleet consisted of 130 galleys and
50 transports; the troops in all, counting the reinforcements brought later by
Dragut and Hassan, amounting to 40,000 men. Of these some 4,000
were Janissaries, a force formed by seizing at certain intervals the young children
of Christian parents in the Ottoman Empire, who were then brought up
by the Turkish authorities to a military career from
their early years. The fleet was commanded by
Piali, and the troops by Mustapha, with whom was
Candelissa.
The Turks first landed in the Marsa Scirocco
a few miles behind the Borgo. Their first anxiety
was to capture Fort St. Elmo, and this they
eventually did, after a five-weeks' siege and the
loss of 8,000 men, but only by literally battering
it and its holders to pieces. The defence of this
outpost is one of the finest records of endurance
in the face of great odds that history affords.
The Turks were at this time in advance of other
nations in the use and quality of their artillery,
and under cover of siege-works they moved their
guns up against the outworks of St. Elmo on the
Marsamuscetto side of Mount Sceberras: a battery
of twenty, including one very deadly weapon called
the Great Basilisk, beating at not 200 yards' distance
upon the walls; and had the fortifications not been
cut in the solid rock, Fort St. Elmo could scarcely
have held out, as it did, for five weeks.
The force inside was slender, and many of the
Knights saw little use in sacrificing themselves, as it was evident they must
if they remained, and so counselled a retreat into the Borgo or Senglea,
sending urgent messages to this effect to La
Valette. Communication was at this time maintained between the garrison in the
Fort and La Valette, boats landing, under cover of the night, soldiers
across the water from the Borgo to replace those who
had fallen in St. Elmo. These had access to the
inside of the Fort by a subterranean passage, the
entrance of which was hidden in the rocks at the
foot of Mount Sceberras. The space available in
Fort St. Elmo was so small that not more than a
few hundred at one time were ever able to hold it,
which fact makes the stand of the garrison for
five weeks against the Turks even more wonderful.
La Valette wished the Fort to hold out to the
bitter end; he had already sent urgently to the
Viceroy of Sicily for help which had not come, and
he feared that the faint-hearted Sicilians might never
start for Malta if they learnt that Fort St. Elmo
had fallen. So, by a clever ruse, the Grand Master
induced the wavering Knights to retain their
position. He answered their messages asking leave
to withdraw by saying that they could retire, as he
had volunteers from the Borgo to take their places.
This appeal to their pride caused them to stick to their guns and give up their
lives to become the heroes of succeeding centuries.
Dragut now appeared upon the scene, and put
batteries to play upon St. Elmo from the point
across the water on the Sliema side (where now
stands Fort Tigne), which is called today Dragut
Point; and he also placed other guns on the top of
Mount Sceberras to prevent further communication
with La Valette across the Grand Harbour. The
small garrison was now in a bad way: their dead
could no longer be replaced; their ammunition was
dwindling; their numbers were becoming daily less.
Assaults were continuously made by the Turks
upon the outworks, and, as the enemy could
lightly sacrifice thousands, they succeeded in
moving their positions daily nearer to the walls.
Many efforts to scale these or enter the breaches,
now numerous, had hitherto been successfully
repulsed by the garrison with all the ingenuity of
the warfare of that age. Pots of earthenware, so
baked as to break easily, were filled with wildfire
concocted of such things as sulphur, saltpetre,
ammonia, camphor, and resin, fitted with a fuse,
and thrown by the besieged upon the heads of the
approaching enemy. The contents of these pots,
on breaking, became alight and burnt with fury, clinging to the bodies of those
with whom they came in contact. Funnels attached to halberds
were filled with similar compounds, lighted, and
poked in the faces of those who tried to climb over
the walls of the fort, while buckets of boiling pitch
were poured on the heads of those who mounted
the scaling-ladders. Another missile was a large
hoop steeped in inflammable material, which was
set alight and thrown a sort of firework lifebuoy
over the sea of heads of the Turks below,
where it fell, encircling the bodies and shoulders of
many in its fiery embrace, generally causing a panic
in the ranks, and certainly diverting, as intended,
the attention of the storming-party for the moment,
during which the breaches were repaired.
Despite the valiant defence, St. Elmo was taken
by the Turks on June 24. A swimmer had managed
to get across to Fort St. Angelo and announce
the desperate state of the garrison. Permission
was then given, all too late, by La Valette to the
Knights to retire, and at the final assault of the
Turks, the guns of St. Angelo were fired point-blank into St. Elmo as a desperate
remedy, killing, however, more Christian than Infidel soldiers. The
renowned Dragut was, in the hour of victory,
killed by a splinter from a gun. His armour may be seen in the Palace at Valletta.
Mustapha, with the cruelty of his age, ordered the heads of the
fallen Knights to be severed from their bodies.
These were erected on poles, and placed upon the
broken walls between banners bearing the Crescent,
which announced to La Valette that the Fort had
been taken. The bodies of the decapitated Knights
were now nailed to planks in the form of a cross,
which emblem was gashed on their breasts, and
were then thrown into the Grand Harbour, where
they floated across to their Brethren on the other
side. La Valette directed that these mutilated
remains should be buried in the Conventual Church
in the Borgo, and in revenge caused all his Turkish
prisoners to be decapitated, and their heads fired at
the enemy from the guns of Fort St. Angelo.
The Turks were now free to enter Marsamuscetto
Harbour, and to turn their attention to investing
the Borgo and Senglea. These they approached
on the land side, playing upon the cities by batteries
placed upon the heights of Corradino, Cottonera,
and Bighi.
As yet they were unable to pass the entrance of
the Grand Harbour, which was protected by the
guns of Fort St. Angelo, and so they had recourse
to a novel expedient. They brought their boats down to the end of the adjoining
Marsamuscetto Harbour, probably to Pieta Creek, and from there
the big galleys were dragged by Christian slaves
over the small neck of land outside the present
Floriana, and launched at the extreme inland point
of the Grand Harbour, protected from the fire of
the Forts, to the dismay of the besieged in the
Borgo, who now saw themselves hemmed in by the
Turks by land and sea. To prevent these ships
approaching, the garrison determined to erect a
stockade along the shore near Senglea, and huge
piles were driven into the bed of the harbour in
the night by Maltese divers. Mustapha, perceiving
this, sent a body of swimmers the next day with
axes to break up the stockade, at which a number
of Maltese, with knives between their teeth, plunged
into the harbour and swam to the enemy, and a
hand-to-hand encounter took place in the water,
in which the Turks were cut to pieces.
The ensuing months of July and August are a
record of numerous assaults upon the Borgo and
Senglea, which the Knights and Maltese were able
to repulse, and other thrilling and picturesque
details in which the historians of the Order
Viperani, Castellani, Vertot, and others revel.
Once, indeed, we are told, a breach in the walls of the Borgo was effected, through
which the Turks poured; the bells of San Lorenzo rang out to warn
the inhabitants of their critical position; but La
Valette appeared in person on the spot with a pike
in his hand, and by his presence restored the
wavering ranks of the Christians. La Valette
was himself wounded; but the situation was saved.
Of the numerous incidents two are worthy of
mention. Ten galleys, with a party of 800 Turks,
approaching Fort St. Angelo, were suddenly fired
upon by a masked battery with such effect
that nine of them sank with all on board. On
another occasion a band of Turks effected a landing
at the foot of Fort St. Michael in Senglea. A
party of the besiegers suddenly sallied from the
Fort and surrounded them, whereupon the Turks
called for quarter, which, however, the Knights
refused, and replied by cutting them to pieces, in
revenge, as they said, for the treatment of their
Brethren in Fort St. Elmo. From this an act of
vengeance was for long known in the island as
* St. Elmo's pay.' Once, also, when it seemed that
the Turks had actually effected an entry into the
Borgo, the Commandant of Medina issued with his
garrison from the capital and fell upon the Turkish
camp, and by this diversion drew off the attack; for Mustapha, in mistake, considered
that the new force was the long expected help from
Sicily.
At length, in September, the Viceroy's fleet from
Sicily was sighted. The Turkish army was by now
disorganized and disheartened, and had lost many
thousands; and suddenly, to the delight of the
besieged, the retreat was sounded. In one day the
camps were struck, the artillery was removed,
the army embarked, and upon the evening of
September 8, leaving 25,000 of their dead upon
the rocky slopes of Malta, the Turkish galleys
disappeared beyond the blue horizon.
The Great Siege had been watched with interest
by the nations of Europe. In England prayers
for the success of the Knights were ordered by
Protestant Elizabeth; which fact shows how real
was the fear of the advancing Ottoman power
entertained by Western nations. Philip of Spain
sent La Valette a jewelled sword and poniard in
acknowledgment of his great defence; the Pope
offered the Grand Master a Cardinal's hat and
ordered illuminations in Rome to celebrate the
successful issue, while Malta became known in
contemporary literature as ' The Island of Heroes.'
We must not forget the part the Maltese people
played in this event. 'No single instance,' says General Porter, 'is recorded
throughout the siege in which they failed to do their duty, and on many
occasions, notably when the Turks attempted to
destroy the stockade of Senglea, proved themselves
capable of the most devoted heroism;' and it
may be added that the Maltese women, no less
than the men, took an active part in the defence.
In acknowledgment of its resistance, the Borgo (Birgu)
was henceforth known as Vittoriosa, and in it
now a large, densely populated city stands, in
the still quaint old-world square, the Column
of Victory erected in memory of the defence.
Hard by is a medieval-looking square grey tower,
which stands out above the city, where La Valette
kept watch during the siege, and in it is a clock
which tradition says has kept time since the year
1530. In the Oratory adjoining the old parish
church of San Lorenzo are preserved the veritable
hat and sword worn by La Valette on the day of
his victory over the Turks.
The young Maltese of today are reminded of
this great historical event in a v poem found in the
local school books, ending with the exhortation 'Oh, may the story of that deathless
fight Still make you, like your fathers, brave and strong!
May some great minstrel shape the tale aright,
And give it to the world in deathless song.'
To the Great Siege is due the building of Valletta,
which La Valette designed to secure the island for
ever against another attack from the Turks. The
foundation was laid with great ceremony, and the
new city was given the name of Umilissima. The
Pope's famous engineer, Laparelli, assisted in the
designs, which were carried out by the Maltese
Girolamo Cassar, who has been elsewhere mentioned.
But in a short time the Knights had no Turkish
foe to fear, for the Ottoman forces were finally
crushed in the year 1571, at the battle of Lepanto,
in which the galleys of the Order took a conspicuous
part with the Christian Allies.
The warlike occupation of the Order now gradually disappeared, for the Rule
of Raymond forbade the Brethren to fight with Christian princes:
policing the commerce of the Mediterranean, with
occasional affrays with the Turkish pirates, being
the sole outlet for their militant energies; and in
course of time these expeditions became mere
pleasure cruises undertaken in gaily decked barges.
The Order increased in numbers, wealth, and
power after its famous defence of Malta, and it
had now to be reckoned with by the chancelleries
of Europe as a political factor. Its ambassadors
were maintained at all the Catholic Courts, and the Grand Master, the successor
to 'Raymond du Puy, the servant of Christ's poor,' was now addressed as 'His
Serene Highness,' and 'Prince of Malta.'
The vast revenues were spent in keeping the
Knights in luxury and grandeur at Valletta. Their
original vows were forgotten, and the Brotherhood
came to be regarded merely as an honourable and
lucrative profession for the younger sons of noble
families. The rule of the Order in Malta was at
first that of benevolent tyrants, in the end corrupt
and self-seeking. Dissensions with foreign powers
or among the Brethren themselves, and a disregard
for both the national and individual liberty of the
Maltese causing the Rebellion of the Priests,
the Quarrel with the Venetians, the Expulsion of
the Jesuits mark the years of the decline of the
Order. However objectionable may have been the
form of their rule, the Knights certainly did much
for the material prosperity of the island and its
inhabitants. To the buildings and palaces of the
Knights we have repeatedly referred. The Grand
Master Vignacourt built the aqueduct, ten miles
long, which today, when needed, brings water from
the hills to Valletta. They organized a system of
State pawnbroking in the Monte di Pieta, borrowed from Italy, and still maintained
by the British Government. They founded the University, a
number of schools, and the Public Library, the
latter from the books and manuscripts of deceased
Knights, which were, however, as Thackeray puts
it, 'none of your works of modern science, travel,
and history, but good old useless books of the last
two centuries.' In one respect, at least, they fulfilled the original function
of their ancient Order they maintained a Hospital in Valletta that, to the
last, was famous throughout Europe, where the
dissolute Knights tended without fee or reward and
with a lavish if unhygienic care all who came to
them to be cured; and they also spent large sums
in relieving the poor of Malta. The fortifications
of Malta will ever remain a lasting monument to
their domination. Many of the bastions, cavaliers,
and redoubts are now out of date, and indeed, in
their day, were superfluous, for they were often
built out of the pockets of individual Knights, who
vied from pure vanity with one another in these
works, gaining a sort of second-rate immortality by
the fort or bastion so erected bearing the donor's
name.
In 1797 Ferdinand von Hompesch, the first
German to hold the office, was elected Grand Master in succession to De Rohan.
It was due to his vacillation and weakness that the Order was
forced to evacuate Malta. At the outbreak of the
French Revolution the Grand Master De Rohan
had offended the Republican Government by
offering official condolences to the family of
Louis XVI., having, in fact, attended a solemn
Requiem Mass for the repose of the King's soul
in the church of St. John's. The property of the
Order in France, once very large, was soon confiscated by the Directory, and
the titles and dignities of the Order were forbidden as aristocratic.
The revenues of the Order indeed were, under bad
management, falling in every Langue. Those of
the French had already fallen, in the year 1797,
from 500,000 to 40,000 livres. In April, 1798, the
French Directory decided by secret decree that the
General commanding the Army of the East should
obtain possession of the island of Malta.
On June 6 a French fleet appeared off the island,
Napoleon being on board his ship Orient, with the army
destined for the conquest of the East. A free
entrance into the Grand Harbour for all the French
men-of-war was demanded of Hompesch, who replied that it was contrary to treaty
rights to admit more than four at a time. Bonaparte refused to continue negotiations,
and landed his men under General Vaubois on June 10, and after a very faint
resistance the fortress 
surrendered.
A Maltese regiment, bearing the standard of the Order, made
a feeble effort to resist at Porta Reale, but was
put to flight, and the flag of the Order captured.
Hompesch was ordered by Napoleon with scant
ceremony to quit the island with all the Knights.
All the treasures and possessions of the Order
were seized, Bonaparte himself taking the jewelled
ring belonging to the hand of St. John, with the
remark that it suited his finger better. The
Maltese people made little effort to save their
island for the Knights. The French Republican
agents had been long at work among them, and
they were glad to be rid of the demoralized Order.
Napoleon left General Vaubois with a French army
of occupation, and departed to conquer Egypt and
suffer his first reverse beneath the walls of that Acre
in Palestine which had witnessed six centuries before
the glorious achievements of the very Order he had
just driven from Malta.
Before we pass to the less eventful, and perhaps
happier, history of Malta as a Crown Colony, the
reader may be interested to learn the ultimate fate
of the great Order of St. John so long associated with the island, and which
had existed up to 1798 in unbroken sequence for seven and a half centuries:
Ferdinand Von Hompesch being the twenty-eighth
Grand Master who ruled in Malta, and sixty-ninth
of the whole Order. When expelled from Malta
the Knights had no longer a chef-lieu, and in consequence a number of them went
to Russia, and there elected, on the resignation of Hompesch,
the Czar as their Grand Master. The Pope
was also requested by them to nominate his successors when occasion arose; but
on the death of the Emperor Paul, Pius VII. declined to do this,
and for many years the office of Grand Master fell
into abeyance. In Rome the Knights still held,
as they do today, the Palazzo di Malta in the
Via Condotti and the Villa di Malta on the
Aventine Hill, belonging to the Langue d'ltalie,
which became henceforth the headquarters of the
Order. At length Pope Leo XIII., in 1877,
appointed a Grand Master. From Rome the
Order yet controls in different countries the old
Commanderies, existing now only in name, and a
number of Hospitals where the Brethren, maintaining the old designations of Knights,
Priors, Almoners, and other titles of the days of chivalry,
still perform the original charitable duties of the Rule of Raymond. The great
officials of the Order exist in diminished grandeur in the Eternal
City, where their chief role is to attend, in their
gorgeous and picturesque uniforms, at the ceremonies of the Papal Court. Time,
indeed, has brought about a curious change, for the stanchest
recruits to the still exclusive and aristocratic ranks
of the Order are now found in the members
of the Maltese nobility, once rejected by L'Isle
Adam being, as they are, all fervent followers of
the Roman Catholic faith. In England the original
Langue suppressed by Henry VIII. has been revived
by the Roman Catholics and placed under the
Grand Master at Rome, and this branch maintains
a Church and Hospital at St. John's Wood in
London. It is interesting to note, as a link
between England and Malta, that an English
Knight, called Fortescue, beheaded for denying the
King's supremacy in the reign of Henry VIII., had
long been revered by the Maltese as a martyr,
his picture, painted by Preti, having hung since
the sixteenth century in St. John's Church, where
it may still be seen. This Knight was, in course
of time, solemnly beatified by the Church of Rome,
and so the gallant martyr is known today as
Blessed Brother Sir Adrian Fortescue. He was a first-cousin of the unfortunate
Queen Anne Boleyn, which may account in part for his untimely end.
The Crown in recent years thought fit to establish
a Grand Priory of the Hospital of St. John of
Jerusalem in England. This was, in 1888, incorporated by Royal Charter, with
the Sovereign as its Patron, mainly for the purpose of performing
ambulance and charitable works. By Roya
command Badges of this Order may be worn
generally in England. This English association now
occupies the original St. John's Gate at Clerkenwell, and have enrolled in their
members many thousands throughout the British Empire, carrying
on the good work of the original Order. They
have established hospitals in the Holy Land, and
a corps for ambulance-work in Malta. Let it be
hoped that some day these two British bodies may
find some common ground upon which to unite.
The English association also awards decorations
and distinctions, and has its church, with the stalls
of the Knights, in Clerkenwell, beneath which is
the crypt of the old church of the original English
Grand Priory consecrated by Heraclius in 1185.
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Next - Malta as a crown colony (to 1909)
