Knights of the Order of Saint John – Rhodesian – Maltese

In the following, only a general overview of the history of the Maltese in the second half of the 16th century is given, as far as it seems necessary for the understanding of The Jew of Malta.¹

In the middle of the 11th century, merchants from Amalfi founded a hospital in Jerusalem to care for pilgrims and the sick. At the beginning of the 12th century, the leader at the time – Gerard – founded the Hospitaller Order, which consisted of helpers from the hospital and similarly minded people, which Pope Paschalis II confirmed in 1113. The patron saint of the order was John the Baptist, hence the name Knights of St John. As the members of the order were soon doing military service, Gerard’s successor Raimond de Puy transformed the association into the knightly order Ordo militiae S. Joannis Baptistae hospitalis Hierosolymitani. After Jerusalem fell in 1187, the Order moved to the fortress of Margat, later to Acre, which was also conquered by the Muslims in 1291. The Knights of St John first went to Cyprus. From 1309 they were the owners of Rhodes, which earned them another name, the Rhodesian Order. From 26 June to 22 December 1522, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I laid siege to Rhodes. The island resisted, but received no help from the European rulers. Since the surrender had only been agreed to under the guarantee of a free departure, the Knights of the Order and thousands of civilians left Rhodes on 1 January 1523. The Knights of St John first retreated to Crete and Italy. After Charles V gave them Malta in 1530, they settled on the island. Initially, they chose the only city, Mdina, as their seat. For strategic reasons – Mdina is inland – the Order moved two years later to Birgu, a small fishing village situated on a peninsula jutting into the eastern side of Malta’s natural harbour. The Reformation and the secession of the Church of England did not stop at the Order. From 1534 there were hardly any English knights left and four years after that the Protestants seceded. Since then, the Protestant branch has been known as the Knights of St John and the Catholic branch as the Order of Malta.