Knights of Malta, 1523-1798 | Page 4

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