In 1522, after a six-month-long siege, the Order of St John, under the leadership of Grand Master Philippe Villiers de l’Isle Adam (1464-1534), was forced to abandon Rhodes, with full military honours, and had to seek temporary shelter at Viterbo, Italy, where the Knights were invited to stay by Pope Clement VII (1478-1534). They stayed there for seven years before finally accepting the offer of Tripoli and Malta from the Emperor Charles V (1500-58).

Grand Master Philippe Villiers de l’Isle Adam (1464-1534). He was elected Grand Master of the Order of St John in Rhodes in 1521.

The arrival of the grand master and the main body of the Order occurred on October 26, 1530, when their transportation was affected by the Order’s three galleys Santa Croce, San Filippo and San Giovanni, the two great carracks Santa Maria and Sant’Anna, and a few transport ships.

For seven years, l’Isle Adam had travelled round Europe asking for help and for the donation of a headquarters for his Order. Various places were suggested or offered, including Cerigo in the Morea, Elba, Suda in Crete, Minorca, Ischia and Ponza. All were refused for various reasons. Likewise, the Knights were not altogether enthusiastic with Charles V’s offer of Malta and Tripoli in 1524 – an offer which found favour with the new pontiff, Clement VII – mainly because of the proposed conditions. However, in December 1525, the Order’s Council asked for and obtained permission to send a delegation to Malta, Gozo and Tripoli to survey the possibilities on the spot.

The great carrack Sant’Anna taken from a glass negative. Launched in 1522, this carrack helped transport members of the Order of St John to Malta in 1530. Photo: Sails Round Malta, Malta 2008, By J. Muscat

The eight-member commission did not report favourably. It was reported that Malta was but a limestone rock with infertile soil and a lack of running water. The capital city [Mdina] was on a hill in the centre of the island, quite a distance from the sea, which was the Order’s centre of operations. Gozo was found to be fertile but both islands were practically defenceless. Tripoli’s defences also left much to be desired. Although noted for their frugality, the scanty Maltese population did not grow enough food for the islands and lived in miserable villages. The commissioners did note, however, that the harbours were good.

Emperor Charles V (1500-1558), who donated Malta to the Order of St John. Portrait by Juan Pontoja de la Cruz (1553-1608) after a painting by Titian. Photo: Wikipedia.com

All this meant that, if the Order were to accept Charles V’s offer, the Knights would have to practically start from scratch to fortify the new possessions. There was the added difficulty of having to import most foodstuffs while revenues from customs dues were low. Both places were difficult to defend and it was deemed impossible to close the seas between Malta and Tripoli to enemy shipping.

However, the fact that almost the whole of Malta’s southern shore consisted of great cliffs and dangerous rocks, coupled with good harbours on the northern coast, induced the commission to recommend, albeit reluctantly, the acceptance of the islands. They also noted that Fort St Angelo and its tiny borgo (Birgu) could be developed into a useful town wherein the Order could be lodged.

But this was not enough to convince l’Isle Adam and his council since they believed that Tripoli would be too burdensome. Moreover, they did not relish the idea of their sovereignty and neutrality being subjected to the emperor. In fact, it was not until 1530 that Charles V’s offer was finally accepted.

In the 1520s, Europe was a house divided. The Hapsburg family, in the person of the Emperor Charles V, held sway over both the Holy Roman and the Spanish Empires. Spain was continuously at war with France, ruled by Francis I of Valois, mainly to decide the suzerainty of northern Italy, a war which saw the capture of Francis at Pavia in 1525 and the sack of Rome by Charles’s German troops in 1527. England, under the Tudor Henry VIII, watched passively and sold its alliance according to how events progressed.

Letter from King Henry VIII to Grand Master l’Isle Adam in 1530. Courtesy: National Library of Malta, Valletta

The rise of Protestantism continued to rip Europe apart and the 1521 Diet of Worms solved nothing: neither the political problems nor the question of religious reform. However, by 1529, an uneasy peace was signed between France and Spain.

During this period, l’Isle Adam had not been idle. He had a hand in securing fellow Frenchman Francis I’s release in 1526, secured promises of help and money from both France and Spain, and paid an advantageous visit to Henry of England.

Charles V’s offer of Malta was disliked by the Order because it included responsibility for the defence of Tripoli, that the Knights be perpetual feudal lords and not sovereigns, and that ships of nations at war with Spain would not be allowed within Maltese harbours. Such conditions were not consonant with the sovereign and neutral nature of the Order and were, therefore, unacceptable.

Pope Clement VII (1478-1534), who interceded with Charles V in favour of the Order of St John. Portrait by Sebastiano Luciani, known as del Piombo, (1485-1547).

Indeed, l’Isle Adam and the Order still dreamt of a possible return to Rhodes and would not readily accept, even temporarily, an inferior substitute. But, by 1529, too much time had elapsed and the issue at stake now was not the recapture of Rhodes but the real danger that the Order would disintegrate if left indefinitely without a home as its central headquarters.

Pope Clement VII interceded in favour of the Order and managed to obtain more favourable terms for the transfer. But Charles V only accepted that:

• Malta and Tripoli would be free fiefs with no bond of serfdom except the annual presentation of a falcon in remembrance of the donation;

• the Maltese would not be ruled directly by the Viceroy of Sicily but the islands would continue receiving customs-free grain;

• the Order would be able to mint its own currency;

• the Bishop of Malta would be chosen from a list of three candidates nominated by the Order, one of whom was to be a subject of the ruler of Sicily.

Charles V’s Act of Donation by which he ceded Malta to the Order of St John in 1530. Courtesy: National Library of Malta, Valletta

Beggars cannot be choosers and, because of the dire straits the Order found itself in, l’Isle Adam had to accept the emperor’s offer on April 25, 1530.

On his arrival on October 26, 1530, Grand Master l’Isle Adam settled in Fort St Angelo and so displaced the castellan Alvaro de Nava, who left for Sicily with a pension. The other knights and followers settled as best as they could in Birgu. After the initial thanksgiving service at St Lawrence parish church, taken over by the Knights to be used as their conventual church, the Order’s settling in and the formal entry of the grand master into the capital city Mdina on November 13, the Order had to take stock of its new possessions.

Grand Master l’Isle Adam’s solemn entry into Mdina on November 13, 1530. The grand master is seen here receiving the symbolic keys to the city. Painting by Antoine Favray (1706-98). Courtesy: Heritage Malta

In contrast to Rhodes, Malta was completely undeveloped as a fortress. The amount of capital required to erect the necessary defences was huge and this was at a time when the Knights had just lost considerable income-producing properties in Rhodes. This new base also involved much more dependence on Europe, particularly on Sicily and its Spanish overlords.

Malta’s position was, in actual fact, little safer than that at Rhodes because of the Muslim corsairs based on the north African coast from whom the island had suffered continual depredations, the latest being in 1526. The corsairs were now rapidly assuming another role besides piracy: linking up with Ottoman efforts to break out into the western Mediterranean. No wonder many knights favoured a return to Rhodes.

It was true that the Order had inherited three sets of fortifications in the Maltese islands: the Citadel in the centre of Gozo, Mdina, and Fort St Angelo (formerly known as the Castrum Maris, or the Castle by the Sea). But all three were weak and totally unsuited to oppose the techniques of siege warfare which the Turks had evolved. Therefore, there was much building and reconstruction work to be carried out.

The policy of the Order was to be based on the strategic value of the harbours as opposed to the medieval concept of shrinkage from the coasts. If these were to be fully exploited, then the main centres of administration, industry and population would grow around them.

Fortifications to defend them would have to be built and manned. And the surest way for supplying the needed manpower was to build towns within them. The Maltese would be willing to be part of this process, and the harbour area was to become more attractive to them because the Order provided jobs: work on the rebuilding of Birgu, in the auberges, and on the war galleys with their ancillary services.

The Order of St John had arrived in Malta and the island moved on from the medieval period to the early modern period.