You are on page 1of 5

1

Malta under the rule of the Order


A. The Order as a seafaring force (importance of fleet and main naval exploits)
When the Order settled in Malta, it soon discovered that it had less than total sovereignty
over its navy which became practically an auxiliary to that of Spain. Political circumstances
dictated that as the naval forces in the Mediterranean were rallied behind the 2 main powerful
ideologies the Christian and the Muslim the Spanish would be the leader of the former.
However the Order had a small and efficient navy. The number of galleys in service varied
from three in 1530, to six in 1562, but in 1590 the number was down to four. Throughout the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries fluctuations in squadron size were brought about by the
prospects of peace and war and the Orders financial position. In 1674 there were seven
galleys in 1686 eight, although this was later reduced again to seven due to the expense
involved.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Order revised its naval policy. Instead of a
striking force consisting only of galleys (oar - propelled vessels with auxiliary sails), three
round cottoned sailing ships were introduced. The number of galleys was progressively
reduced and by the middle of the eighteenth century the navy consisted of four sailing
vessels, four galleys and three frigates. From this point the size of the navy declined.
When the order was expelled from Malta in 1798, the navy consisted of four galleys, one
sailing ship, three frigates and a number of smaller vessels. Such a force was technically and
numerically insignificant in terms of the Great European Wars of the day.
Duties
{1} to convey supplies from Sicily particularly wheat.
{2} to keep the surrounding seas free from pirates.
Every year the Orders fleet made a cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean, attacking Turkish
and pirate vessels.
Operational Control
The head of the Orders Fleet was the Admiral, who was the head of the Langue of Italy, but
the naval commander ashore and afloat was the Captain General of the Galleys who was
elected by the Grand Master and Council for a period of two years. The Captains of the
Galleys were also similarly elected.
The day to day running of the navy was however entrusted to the Congregazione delle
Galere made up of the Admiral of the Order, the Captain general of the Galleys and four
Commissioners who were nominated by the Grand Master and the Council. This
Congregazione was responsible for the payment of salaries, the provisioning of the galleys
and other matters which concerned the navy.
The Crew
A galleys crew consisted of Knights and Servants at Arms, soldiers, sailors, and a number of
tradesmen. The crew also included the pilot and his assistants, a doctor, and a chaplain. In
2
1670, the complement of the flagship Capitana was established at 220 while that of the
other galleys was fixed at 181.
The Dockyard
The Order had a dockyard at Vittoriosa where galleys were constructed. Throughout the
Cottoner era (1660 - 1681) sixteen new galleys were built to replace older ones which were
no longer fit for service of these sixteen galleys, three were constructed abroad, while the rest
were constructed in Malta. The money for the building of new galleys came from various
foundations.
The Maltese Corso under the Knights

The Corso was piracy by law conducted by Christians and Muslim in the Mediterranean.
Piracy was considered an honourable and profitable career. But it was also a risky one.
Corsairs could be captured as slaves, be permanently disables or die in combat. Probably for
this reason, before leaving Grand Harbour, corsair ships had a custom of being blessed by a
priest and the crew received the Holy Communion.

Privateering was to the Order a fully fledged industry, costing nothing to set up and at the
same time protecting local shipping by keeping Muslim corsairs away from our shores. The
Maltese had a particular attraction towards this industry. The Order however did not usually
allow them to set up their own ships but preferred to utilize them on its own navy and on the
building projects all over the island.

In Malta the Corso was an organized business protected and encouraged by the Orders
Government. The Knights themselves used its galleys and vessels to search for Muslim prizes
in the Mediterranean. People from different social classes engaged in corsairing by arming
their own vessels and hunting for Muslim ships to loot. This business became so popular
among the Maltese that in 1608 Grandmaster Alof de Wignacourt set up the Tribunale degli
Armamenti to regulate the Corso and to settle disputes between corsairs. Three classes of
people were involved in the Corso: the Knights, the Maltese from all classes of society and
foreigners. All corsair vessels based in Maltas harbour flew the Orders flag against the
payment of a small fee. This gave the corsairs legal protection against arrest by other
Christian states. The Order imposed a tax of 10% of all the booty captured by all those
corsairs based in Malta.

In addition to the traditional licence given to corsairs to fly a red banner with a white cross,
Wignacourt made up another licence which gave corsairs the right to fly the personal colours
of the Grand Master. Wignacourt himself had two galleys and a polacca privateering on his
behalf. Funds for the building and the upkeep of the galleys came from the Fondazione per le
Galere (set up in 1598). During the following century there were 5 more foundations for the
same purpose. The last one was made in 1651 by Grandmaster Lascaris. This provided
money not only for the construction of the ships but also for their manning with men and
armaments.

Malta was not the only port engaged in corsairing. Apart from the Moslem centres in North
Africa (Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers), several French and Italian ports (Marseilles, Toulon,
Messina, Naples and Leghorn) were involved in corsairing. Corsairs used several types of
ships to carry out their trade. In the 17th century the quarantine registers mention the most
3
popular vessels were in this order: vascello (vessel), brigantino, galeotto, tartane, barchetta,
pollacca.

During the 17th century the Maltese Corso flourished. In about 1650 there were 30 corsair
vessels based in the islands. From 1647 onwards the Order was forced to introduce a number
of restrictions on the activity of the Maltese corsairs. In 1647 Maltese corsairs were ordered
to stay 10 miles away from the Palestinian coast; in 1697 this restriction was increased to 50
miles. In the 17th century, some European powers (France, Holland and England) started
trading with the Turks. France thus put pressure on the Order to stop Maltese corsairs from
attacking Turkish vessels. Early in the 18
th
century, French ships were declared immune from
attack, even if they were carrying Turkish merchandise. Soon Greeks ships acquired the same
right as Christians. The Turks started using French and Greek ships to carry their
merchandise in the Levant. By 1720 the Maltese corsairs in the Levant rapidly declined.
Although Maltese vessels continued to attack the North African coast, their numbers were
few and the booty they obtained was less profitable.

From the mid-17
th
century the activity of the Orders fleet began gradually to decline. And in
the 18
th
century, as a result of French pressure, the Order had to withdraw its anti-Ottoman
privateering operations in the Levant. Towards the late 18
th
century the greater part of the
European States had concluded peace treaties with the Barbary Regencies, agreeing to give
the corsair cities an annual tribute. Even the Order itself, eventually agreed to some form of
truce, especially with Tripoli.

Some of the main exploits of the Orders fleet while in Malta
The Orders Navy participated in naval exploits together with other great powers. Less than
two months after their arrival in 1530, Charles V ordered the navy of the Knights to join his
Imperial fleet, led by Andrea Doria, in an attack on Cherchel, a Muslim base 80 km west of
Algiers. The following year Charles again called upon the Order to participate in the Spanish
sea-borne attack on Ain et-Turk, near Oran, led by Alvaro de Bazen. In 1532 the Order had to
provide four galleys when Doria attacked Coron in Greece.

The Order once again provided four galleys and the carrack SantAnna when, in June 1535,
Charles himself led an armada of 400 ships and 30,000 men to invade Tunis. Though both
Carthage and Goletta were taken, the famous corsair, Keyr ed-Din, managed to escape.
Although this victory relieved the Order of great pressure in the south, the forces of Dragut
devastated Gozo in 1551 and also conquered the fortress of Tripoli.

In 1560 three of the Orders galleys took part in a retaliatory expedition against Dragut in
Djerba. The plan was, however, betrayed by a certain Gozitan, Mariano Santoro, and the
Christians lost 20 out of their 28 vessels together with thousands of men, who were either
killed or enslaved. The Orders galleys escaped, thanks to the skill of the Maltese pilot,
Tomeo Cassia. The traitor, Santoro, was later captured and hung.

When the routed navy arrived at Malta, La Valette offered the Orders ships to return to
Djerba and rescue the men who had been made prisoners. The viceroy of Sicily, on whose
insistence the base of Djerba had been chosen as the target of the assault rather than Tripoli
as La Valette had advised, did not dare risk his fleet again without his Emperors express
consent. Moreover, two of the galleys of the Order had suffered serious losses and for four
4
whole years the Knights did not mount any sea-borne assaults with the exception of the
unsuccessful attack on Oran and Mers-al-Kebir in 1563.

In 1564 four of the Orders galleys helped in the conquest of Penon de Velez. It was this
incident, together with the swash-buckling deeds of the Knight Maturin de Lescaut, known as
Romegas, who was wrecking havoc with Turkish shipping, that finally forced the Sultan to
retaliate and remove their threat once and for all. The Turks attacked the Knights in 1565 but
lost.

In 1569 a richly laden Turkish vessel was seized near Alexandria by two of the Orders
galleys on a privateering expedition. The nine per cent levy paid on the value of the landed
booty was a welcome addition to the common treasury and no doubt was instrumental in
helping Grand Master Pietro del Monte (1568-72) to decide to encourage similar ventures.

In 1570, after expelling the Venetians from Cyprus, the Ottoman Turks became the absolute
masters of the Eastern Mediterranean. In order to meet the threat of a Turkish invasion of
Europe, Pius V encouraged the Venetians and the Spaniards to smooth over their differences
and form a Holy League. The League was signed on 20 May 1571. The Leagues Armada,
under the overall leadership of Don Juan of Austria, sailed from Messina on 16 September
1571 bound for Corfu. The Order contributed only 3 galleys under the command of Pietro
Giustiniani. The Knight Romegas was nominated here Sovrindente delle galere pontifice.

The Leagues 208 vessels encountered the 230 strong Turkish navy at the entrance to the
Gulf of Lepanto on 7 October 1571. The Order participated in the battle of Lepanto, together
with the Spanish, Papal and Venetian Fleets. There took place the most spectacular military
event in the Mediterranean during the entire 16
th
century. The Turks lost 200 of their ships
while the League lost just 10, including the Capitana of the Order of whose crew only three,
including Giustiniani, escaped drowning. The Turkish fleet was heavily defeated at this Battle
of Lepanto (1571). The Orders shares of the spoils consisted of two Turkish vessels.

Lepanto however did not mark the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Indeed in 1574 the Turks
conquered Tunis while in 1578 they took Morocco from the Portuguese. Lepanto, however,
brought a period of peace to the Mediterranean as the great sea powers turned their attention
elsewhere. All in all, it can be said that the days of the holy wars, of the crusades and of the
jihads, were over. Instead the traditional enmity between Christians and Muslims found
outlets in privateering. Indeed from the end of the 16
th
century onwards, with the sole
exception of the part it played in the War of Crete (1645-69), the navy of the Order restricted
itself to privateering of which numerous episodes are recorded.
In 1644 six galleys of the Order, under Boisboudrant, captured a large and powerful Turkish
galleon whilst, cruising off Rhodes, after a fierce and sanguinary struggle with eight of the
enemy's vessels. Over 600 Turks were killed in engagement, and the Order had to deplore the
loss of 120 men including their gallant captain, Boisboudrant.
Among the captives was the young Basseba, Sultana of the Imperial harem of Ibrahim, with
her infant son Osmal, on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The Sultana died shortly after her arrival in
Malta, and the child was educated and received into the Catholic Church. He subsequently
joined the Dominican Order of Preachers, under the name of Father Ottoman.
5
In 1656 at the battle of the Dardanelles, the Order, under Gregorio Caraffa, sent 7 galleys to
help the Venetians achieve a great victory over the Ottoman Empire. The Orders navy also
assisted the Venetians during the war of Candia (Crete) between 1645 and 1669. In this
battle, the Ottoman Turks were still strong to threaten Vienna and capture Candia (Crete)
from the Venetians after such a long war.

Ottoman power started to decline when they were forced to abandon the Siege of Vienna
(1683) and lost most of Hungary in 1699. With regards to Malta, the Turkish fleet attacked
Gozo in 1708 and appeared off the islands for the last time in 1722.
The Orders fleet fought a number of successful battles against the Muslims like the Turkish
Venetian War of Corfu in 1715-1718. However due to its small size, it was never able to
carry out great exploits on its own. Its role in such circumstances was an auxiliary one.
Under the command of Jacques de Chambrai the Order had a series of victories in naval
battles fought against North African corsairs. Between 1720 and 1741 the Order captured 20
Turkish and Barbary vessels and some 1,500 slaves. But these spoils, although they appear
great, were not enough to pay for the Orders naval expenses. The fleet started entering in
debt and to make matters worse, after the 1740s naval encounters became rear and prizes
taken were few. Finally, the Knights helped also the Venetians during the last Venetian naval
venture when in 1784-86 they attacked Tunis, by assuming the important task of keeping the
central Mediterranean free of corsairs.

You might also like