Result of the Siege.--Native Women serving as Soldiers.--The
Maltese Militia.--The Knights gain World-Wide Applause.--
Rage of Sultan Solyman.--Agents of the Grand Master become
Incendiaries.--La Vallette, Hero of the Siege.--The Order
still Piratical.--The Turks and Knights Affiliate.--Decadence
of the Chivalric Brotherhood.--Momentary Revival of the Old
Spirit.--Treacherous Surrender.--French Sovereignty.--End of
the Order.
Many interesting considerations suggest themselves in connection with
this remarkable siege. The lack of discipline which characterizes
Oriental soldiery was an element constantly operating against the
assailants. Had the siege opened on true engineering and military
principles, such an enormous and well-armed number of Turkish fighters
must have overwhelmed the Christians at the very outset. This, however,
was not the case. The siege seems to have been a series of blunders on
the part of the Ottomans from the beginning until the end, or at least
until the arrival of Admiral Dragut, who took partial command and gave
the operations the benefit of his great military experience. Henceforth
something like order and system were evolved from the utter confusion
which reigned supreme in the Turkish army.
The vast number of the Ottoman forces, compared with that of the
defenders of Malta, only served to emphasize their final and utter
defeat. True, there is a great difference between contending parties
when one is fighting in the open, while the other is protected by
well-constructed walls of stone, but the Turkish commander, though
foolhardy, was not blind, and he must have taken that into consideration
when he made his opening and reckless attack upon the stronghold of Fort
St. Elmo. It is quite possible that excessive numbers may prove an
element of disaster, under certain circumstances. This was exactly the
case in the first onslaught of the Ottomans, who came to the attack
almost in a solid body,--a mere reckless, over-confident mob,--relying
upon their numbers rather than upon any appropriate tactics. In after
assaults more discipline was adopted and observed. The forces were
divided so as to attack various points simultaneously, while a heavy
reserve was held well in hand to launch upon the point where any
temporary success disclosed a weakness in the defenses. The enemy had
learned a bitter lesson by experience; that vain, ill-conceived attack
at the opening of the siege having cost them between three and four
thousand of their best soldiers. The bodies of these men who were slain
before the stout walls of St. Elmo lay unburied for days in the trenches
and approaches to the fort, creating a terrible stench, which caused a
fever to break out in the Turkish camp, nearly as fatal to them as the
missiles and battle-axes of the Knights.
During the progress of the siege the Maltese women not only tended the
sick and wounded, but constantly served refreshments to those who could
not leave their posts of duty. They also transported the wounded upon
stretchers to the hospitals, and brought powder, shot, and rocks, to aid
the defenders upon the ramparts. Though many of them were killed and
others wounded while thus engaged, they bravely continued their
important services to the last. One historian says that twice when the
Turkish shot had cut down the red banner of St. John, with its
eight-pointed cross of white, it was a Maltese woman who instantly
rushed to the exposed point and raised it again over the ramparts, where
stout and ready hands once more secured it in position.
It is a notable circumstance that the native population, though so
clearly Arabic in their origin, manners, and customs, have never, so far
as we know, sympathized with the Mohammedans.
Further details of this memorable siege would but weary the reader.
Suffice it to say that the final defeat of the Turks showed them to have
lost, since they had landed in Malta, thirty thousand men killed,
besides hordes of wounded left unfit for future service. Of the Knights
and their auxiliaries, who aggregated, as will be remembered, about nine
thousand fighting men, only six hundred remained capable of bearing
arms! The Maltese militia, so say contemporary writers, proved to be
effective soldiers, numbering about three thousand men at the beginning
of the conflict, but they were nearly all destroyed during the
protracted siege. They were amphibious fighters, sometimes leaping into
the sea, holding their swords in their teeth, and successfully attacking
the Turks from this element in which they were so much at home. They
aided most materially in the general result, and indeed, but for their
gallant services, the Knights could not have held out to the close, when
the reinforcements arrived.
This decisive victory gained over the Ottoman power was not alone of
great significance to the Order of St. John, but it was of immense
importance to all the dwellers in the Mediterranean ports west of the
Levant, relieving the several exposed nationalities from the fear of
predatory visits of Turkish or Algerine galleys. These notorious
corsairs had for centuries made the great inland sea the terror of all
honest seamen, seriously crippling its commerce. But at the siege of St.
Elmo the most daring leader of the pirates had lost his life, and his
followers were no more to be feared, at least for a considerable period.
By their brave and successful defense of Malta, the Knights permanently
fixed the boundary of the Ottoman power, so far as regarded its possible
extension westward. Up to this time, Solyman II., like his father,
called the "Magnificent," had his eyes fixed on Europe, the eventual
conquest of which they both boldly resolved upon, but the tide of
successful warfare in that direction was now stayed. Advance upon the
Christian powers was quite impossible, while there remained upon their
flank and rear so efficient and implacable an enemy as the Knights of
Malta.
The admiration and gratitude of the Christian world at large were
manifested by liberal donations from all quarters to swell the depleted
treasury of the order, while earnest and able aspirants hastened to join
its ranks. The Knights, by their display of indomitable courage and
prowess in war, justly won the name of the heroes of Christendom. They
were men, as we have seen, of whose morality the less said the better,
but who as soldiers merited their unrivaled reputation.
The rage of Sultan Solyman at the complete defeat of his army and the
return of his unsuccessful general was terrible. He immediately resolved
to gather another army and flotilla, with which to conquer Malta, to
lead this expedition himself, and to take with him a hundred thousand
soldiers to insure victory. Preparations were accordingly begun in the
great arsenal of Constantinople by collecting arms and ammunition for
the carrying out of this purpose, especially including the storage of
large quantities of gunpowder. When this had progressed for a few
months, La Vallette was informed of the object by his well-paid spies in
the Turkish capital. The Knights could not withstand another siege.
Their ranks had been so thinned as to leave only a skeleton
organization, and the outlook for them was indeed desperate. The Grand
Master knew that he could no longer hope to oppose force to force
successfully, and that other and effective means must be promptly
adopted to cripple and discourage the persistent enemy. La Vallette
secretly instructed his unscrupulous spies to fire the arsenal of
Constantinople, promising a grand premium if success followed the
attempt. This was done. Large stores of powder had already been gathered
here for the expedition; and its explosion destroyed not only the
arsenal itself, with its store of arms and equipments, but also wrecked
the entire fleet, which was being equipped close at hand. The instant
destruction of human life, as well as of war materials, was enormous, so
great, in fact, that the expedition was necessarily abandoned for the
time being. The death of the Sultan of Turkey soon followed the blowing
up of the arsenal, thus preventing any renewal of the design against the
order.
The successful defense of Malta proved to be the last great feat of arms
achieved by the Knights of St. John. They had completely broken the
Ottoman power, so far as aggressive operations were concerned. There was
now no active enemy with whom they were called upon to contend. Rest and
recuperation would seem to be absolutely necessary after the terrible
strain which had been put upon their endurance; and they had most
certainly earned the right to enjoy such a respite. Of the Grand Master,
La Vallette, it is recorded that, during the heat of action, when the
Turks were storming the walls and his battle-axe was spreading death
right and left, his associate Knights besought him not to so expose his
life. It was then that he replied: "How can I, at my age of seventy-one
years, die more gloriously than in the midst of my brothers, in the
service of God, and in defense of our holy religion?" He was the
soldier-monk par excellence, possessing grand physical powers, devoutly
pious according to his creed, and a grand example of chivalry. It is not
too much to say that it was his hand that hurled back the shattered and
riven power of the Turks. Age had not withered his ambition or
enterprise. He resolved to build at once a new and thoroughly fortified
city by the shore, on the promontory of Mount Sceberris, the present
site of Valletta, and to remove the capital of the island to the coast.
The outcome of this purpose is the beautiful city which we have already
described, in the erection and fortification of which the order reached
the acme of its defensive purposes. It may be truly said that they were
at last fully prepared and able to repulse any force which could
possibly be brought against them, and the universal knowledge that this
was so prevented any further attempt at molestation.
The galleys of the Knights of St. John still roamed the seas in search
of prizes, and woe betide any craft which they encountered sailing under
the Turkish flag. It is said that a careful discrimination was not
always exercised as to the nationality of the vessels which they
attacked. Other craft than Turkish were often seized and pilfered, under
some specious pretext, especially if they were Grecian. The galleys of
that people, it must be frankly admitted, were mostly of a piratical
character.
The rapidity with which the Knights recovered from their late almost
hopeless condition was marvelous. A large and thoroughly fortified city
seemed to spring into existence as though by magic. To accomplish this,
vast sums of money were required, and the principal sovereigns of Europe
vied with each other in their gratitude, as to which should most
liberally contribute means for the use of the order in Malta. The
Valletta of our day, however, was not actually completed until some
twenty-five years later.
While Emmanuel Pinto was Grand Master of the order, in 1741, the King of
Sicily attempted to establish a claim upon these islands, and sent a
select council to preside over its government. These officials, who came
hither in great state, were summarily dismissed and sent back to Sicily
by the Grand Master. The king in retaliation closed all the ports of
Sicily against Maltese vessels. This was a serious matter to the latter,
as the group depended upon that country for a large portion of its food
supply, especially in grain. To meet this exigency, the Grand Master
entered into a treaty with the old foes of the order, namely, the Turks,
who gladly accepted a proposal which afforded them a respite from
warfare with so active an enemy, and also enabled them, for the time
being, to sell supplies to the people of the Maltese group. They joined
the Knights also in an offensive marine warfare against the Sicilians,
and soon caused the king of that country to regret the step he had taken
against the Knights of St. John. After he had lost many vessels to the
Knights and Turks combined, he humbly sued for peace, and made such
ample reparation as was demanded of him for the needless war which he
had caused.
Looking at the current of events from our own standpoint, and through
the distance of time, it would seem that the Knights must have found it
a rather uncongenial business to fight a so-called Christian power, side
by side with their life-long enemies, the infidel Turks. True, it was
but a temporary union, the object of which having been accomplished, the
old spirit of enmity between the Knights and the Ottomans was resumed,
and found expression in an immediate renewal of hostilities.
From this period the glory of the Knights of St. John seems to have
gradually waned. Their religious zeal and simplicity of living had long
since departed. Is not all growth toward ripeness also toward decay,
unless directed heavenward? There was no longer any violent opposition
to overcome by energetic action and self-abnegation, no enemy with arms
in his hands whom they must conquer. The one power whom they had always
antagonized was comparatively exhausted and undemonstrative. True
manhood feeds upon--is supported by--antagonism, and opposition is the
spur to heroic deeds. The life of constant warfare and the savage use of
arms which the Knights had so long been accustomed to quite
over-shadowed their priestly instincts, and as peace now reigned, they
sought unholy excitement in various forms, such as were ill-suited to
the vows and professions of the order. They now dwelt in sumptuous
palaces, lapsing by degrees into utter idleness and libertinism. They
had become the richest and most powerful brotherhood in the world. It is
true that the outward forms of their religion were observed with more or
less regularity, but it was an empty, heartless ceremony. The portraits,
still extant, which were painted of them at this period, show that their
dress was changed from steel armor and shirt of mail to velvet and
gold-wrought fabric, of an effeminate character. Their chivalric
impulses had departed. They gave way to the pleasures of the table and
to the demoralizing wine-cup. Those who have written of the order
understandingly as regards this period tell us that morality was at the
lowest ebb with the individual members of the fraternity. In these
latter years, joining the organization was the means of providing for a
younger brother in titled European families. The order became the resort
for libertines who had exhausted all home relations. It was not unusual
for men, however dissolute, provided they belonged to the higher ranks,
to become Knights of St. John as a final resort, after leading a godless
and criminal career.
An instance which occurred so late as 1783 is called to mind, when the
Knights, for a brief period, seemed to awaken to the old instincts and
professions of their order. It was tidings of the fearfully destructive
earthquake in Sicily, happening in that year, which so aroused the
fraternity. Manning their galleys, after they had filled them with
food, wine, and medicine, they sailed across the sea, and having landed
amid widespread desolation, they assumed the role of good Samaritans,
feeding the hungry, ministering to the sick, and smoothing the pillow of
the dying. Thus they once more revived the memory of those grand,
unselfish days at Jerusalem, when they were justly renowned and revered
as Hospitallers, living up to their vows of poverty, charity, and
chastity. This was, however, only the blazing up of dying embers, and
the order lapsed once more into luxury and decay.
The final disaster which befell the Knights of St. John, as an
organization, came through the medium of treachery, and that, too, of
the grossest description, in 1798, when Von Hompesch was the Grand
Master. This faithless man, like Bazaine at Metz, proved to be an arch
traitor to every trust that had been reposed in him, and won the
contempt of all Christendom.
Von Hompesch was a man entirely unfit for such an exigency as then
occurred. He was devoid of all firmness or decision of character, and
was, indeed, neither priest nor soldier except in name. It seems strange
that he should have been chosen to so responsible a situation by his
brotherhood, who must have known the man thoroughly. The application of
the classic saying is clear: "Whom the gods would destroy, they first
make mad." There was evidently considerable discontent under his
authority, and rebellious expressions were not wanting. At this
distance of time, and with our want of light upon the situation, no
satisfactory motive can be adduced for Von Hompesch's treachery and
general listlessness. The principal traitors who are known to have been
most active in this conspiracy, for conspiracy it was, were the Knights
of the division of Provence, Auvergne, and France, among whom liberal
pensions and rewards were freely distributed by the invaders of Malta.
It was thus that the French soldiers under Bonaparte obtained ready and
easy admittance to the almost impregnable defenses of Valletta, absolute
possession being given to them without any real or pretended fighting in
their defense. "It was well," said an officer high in command among the
invaders, "that some one was within to open the gates for us. We should
have found considerable difficulty in entering, if the place had been
entirely empty."
French gold and cunning diplomacy, not French valor, opened the way into
the well-fortified capital. Three days after the appearance of the
French fleet off the harbor, the tricolor was floating over the historic
battlements of St. Elmo. The indignation of the native Maltese was so
great at this ignominious surrender of the island to the enemy, that the
people rose in their anger and assassinated several of the most guilty
of the obnoxious members of the Order of St. John.
Bonaparte agreed, by solemn compact duly written and signed, on behalf
of his government, with the Grand Master, Von Hompesch, when he gave up
the possession of the island to him, that "the inhabitants shall be
allowed, as of old, the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion,
their privileges and property shall remain inviolate, and they shall not
be subject to any extraordinary tax." This agreement was a mere form on
the part of the French, the pledges being all broken within one week
from the day on which they were signed.
All Europe was amazed at this blot cast upon the escutcheon of a
chivalric brotherhood like that of the Knights, whose record for loyalty
to the order and its general purposes had been so gallantly maintained,
and at such terrible cost, for so many centuries. To one who recalls the
past history of these soldier-priests, such an ending must seem almost
incredible. It is impossible not to contrast this shameful surrender
with the valorous resistance of the Knights in the terrible siege of
1565, when their blood flowed free as water to sustain the honor of
their flag, and to preserve the integrity of their order. The dying of
the Knights who formed the forlorn hope of the fort of St. Elmo, one by
one fighting at his post until he fell, is one of the grandest and most
heroic tableaux known to the annals of history.
The new masters of the Maltese at once banished the traitor Von Hompesch
from the island, and perhaps it was necessary in order to save his life,
which the native population did not hesitate to threaten openly. He
retired to Trieste, after receiving a princely fortune from France. This
was in 1799. His death occurred in 1805, at Montpellier, in the
sixty-second year of his age. He is dismissed from history, disgraced
and forgotten.
The successor of this unknightly leader of the order was the Emperor
Paul I., of Russia, who was chosen as a _dernier ressort_. He was
solemnly inaugurated, but was never more than nominally Grand Master.
His election to the office was so manifestly an incongruous act, that it
remained unrecognized. When the French established themselves in Malta,
a number of the Knights took refuge in St. Petersburg, and there elected
the emperor to the post even before Von Hompesch had formally resigned
the office. Paul made several vain attempts to reestablish the Knights,
inviting the nobility of Christendom to enlist in the ranks of the
ancient order. Success did not follow his efforts to this end.
The Knights were seen no more in Malta, though up to the arrival of the
French they had been sovereign in the islands for two hundred and
sixty-eight years. Twenty-eight successive Grand Masters had presided
over them here, from L'Isle Adam to Von Hompesch.
The new masters of Malta made themselves odious to the people of the
island by their reckless pillage and rapine, so that the French name has
ever been held in abhorrence by them. The soldiery invaded the sanctuary
of domestic life, and the honor of maid or mother was recklessly
sacrificed by brute force to their vile appetite. We have referred in
these pages to the faldetta, which is worn by the women of Malta. There
is a legend relating to this article of dress which occurs to us in this
connection. It is to the effect that after Valletta was seized by the
French troops, the women registered a solemn vow that, in memory of the
brutal treatment they had received at the hands of the licentious
soldiery, they and their descendants should for the period of one
hundred years dress in black, whenever they appeared upon the streets,
and that all should wear a distinctive hood, which is called the "hood
of shame."
The local customs of the Maltese were outraged, and the legal code
interfered with, by the French. Among other acts they abolished all
titles, altered the laws affecting the tenure of property, and demanded
that the sons of rich families should be sent to France for educational
purposes. They seemed to try to aggravate the Maltese by petty and
needless oppression, until at last, goaded beyond further endurance,
especially in matters relating to church affairs, the islanders rose in
insurrection, and were joined in their struggle by the English. The
fleet of the latter had just arrived at Malta, fresh from the victory of
Aboukir, and it heartily seconded the uprising of the Maltese against
their oppressors. Without this timely aid they could have made but a
feeble struggle for their freedom. The anger of the native population
came to a climax when the French soldiery attempted to rifle the old
cathedral at Citta Vecchia, which was held by them in such special
reverence. That ancient temple was to the masses of the islanders what
the more modern church of St. John had been to the Knights.
The French invaders were promptly driven within the walls of the
fortifications, where they were virtually held as prisoners for the
period of two years, submitting to every sort of deprivation, while
looking in vain for reinforcements and relief from the government of
France. That hoped-for assistance never came. At the close of the second
year, the French troops were absolutely starved out, and compelled to
surrender to the united English and Maltese. This was effected on
honorable terms, the garrison marching out with all the honors of war,
the whole force being transported to Marseilles at the expense of the
British government. General Vaubois, the soldierly commander whom
Bonaparte left in charge of Malta, was a brave and reliable man, and
heroically maintained his trust to the very last, when his troops were
on the verge of starvation. The English historian says, in relating the
circumstances of the surrender: "When the garrison marched out, it was
with famine proudly painted on their cheeks."
The siege was raised September 5, 1800, whereupon the English took
formal possession of Valletta, together with the entire group, and they
have retained it to the present time. They thus became the masters of
Malta, but disregarded treaty promises, and refused in 1802, as was duly
stipulated, to evacuate, and restore the islands to the Knights of St.
John. It was this which occasioned the rupture of the Peace of Amiens.
Malta was, however, finally and formally transferred to the possession
of England with the approval of the European powers, in 1814, at the
treaty of Paris.
Since the year 1798, when the Knights of St. John were expelled from
Malta, the ancient order, once so important a factor in the Christian
world, has scarcely more than existed in name, though able to point to
so proud and warlike a career, extending through a period of seven
centuries. Few dynasties of emperors or kings have lasted so long as
this famous order of warrior-monks, whose name was once the synonym for
loyalty, but whose end was brought about by treachery within its own
ranks,--an organization whose members began as paupers, but who ended as
sybarites.