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Although they had only a small number of ships, they nevertheless quickly drew the ire of the Ottomans who were less than happy to see the order re-established. Accordingly they assembled another massive army in order to dislodge the Knights from Malta, and in 1565 invaded, starting the Great Siege of Malta. At first the battle looked to be a repeat of the one on Rhodes.
Most of the cities were destroyed and about half the Knights died in battle. But things changed dramatically when a relief force arrived from Spain. In the ensuing retreat the Ottomans lost some 30,000 men, enough to secure the island for a time.
The siege is vividly portrayed in the frescoes of Matteo Perez d'Aleccio in the Hall of St Michael and St George, also known as the Throne Room, in the Grandmaster's Palace, Valletta. Four of the original modellos, painted in oils by Perez d'Aleccio himself between 1576 and 1581, can be found in the Cube Room of the Queen's House, Greenwich, London. After the siege a new city had to be built -- the present city of Valletta, so named in memory of its valiant grand master La Valette who had sustained this siege.
In 1571 the growing Ottoman fleet decided to give challenge once again, but this time were met at sea by a huge and very modern Spanish fleet under the command of Don Juan de Austria (son of Emperor Charles V). The Ottomans were outgunned, outmanuvered and outrun, and by the end of the day almost the entirety of their fleet was destroyed or captured in what is now known as the Battle of Lepanto. The battle, however, had little political impact for the Ottomans quickly rebuilt their fleet.
Following the victory at Lepanto the Knights continued to attack pirates, and their base became a centre for slave trading, selling captured Africans and Turks and conversely freeing Christian slaves. Malta remained a slave market until well into the eighteenth century. It required a thousand slaves to equip merely the galleys of the order.
The group lost a number of its European holdings following the rise of Protestantism but survived on Malta. The property of the English branch was confiscated in 1540. In 1577 the German Bailiwick of Brandenburg became Lutheran, but continued to pay its financial contribution to the Order, until the branch was turned into a merit Order by the King of Prussia in 1812. The "JohanniterOrden" was restored as a Prussian Order of Knights Hospitaller in 1852.
The Knights of Malta had a strong presence within Imperial Russian Navy and the pre-revolutionary French Navy. When De Poincy was appointed Governor of the French colony on St Kitts in 1639, he was a prominent Knight of St. John and dressed his retinue with the emblems of the order. The Order's presence in the Caribbean was eclipsed with his death in 1660. He also bought the island of Saint Croix as his personal estate and deeded it to the Knights of St. John. In 1665 St. Croix was bought by the French West India Company. This marked an end to their exploits in the Caribbean.
Their Mediterranean stronghold of Malta was captured by Napoleon in 1798 when he made his expedition to Egypt. As a ruse, Napoleon asked for safe harbor to resupply his ships, and then turned against his hosts once safely inside Valetta. Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch failed to anticipate or prepare for this threat, provided no effective leadership, and readily capitulated to Napoleon. This was a terrible affront to most of the Knights desiring to defend their stronghold and sovereignty. The Order continued to exist in a diminished form and negotiated with European governments for a return to power. The Emperor of Russia gave the largest number of Knights shelter in St Petersburg and this gave rise to the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller and recognition within the Russian Imperial Orders. In gratitude the Knights declared Ferdinand von Hompesch deposed and Emperor Paul I was elected as the new Grand Master. Following Paul's murder in 1801, in 1803 a Roman Catholic master was restored to the Order in Rome.
By the early 1800s the Order had been severely weakened by the loss of its Priories throughout Europe. Only 10% of the Order's income came from Europe, with the remaining 90% being generated by the Russian Grand Priory until 1810. This was partly reflected in the government of the Order being under Lieutenants, rather than Grand Masters in the period 1805 to 1879, when Pope Leo XIII restored a Grand Master to the Order. This signalled the revival of the Order’s fortunes as a humanitarian and ceremonial organization. In 1834, the revived Order established a new headquarters in Rome. The revived organisation is known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which enjoys a special status, which is discussed further.
The modern Sovereign Military Order of Malta
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