The Knights OF MALTA
Inspired by the numerous coins issued over the centuries, coin expert Tony Holmes charts the eventful history of Malta’s Knights Hospitaller, who ruled the Mediterranean country for many years
The First Crusade took Jerusalem in 1099. They found there a Christian ‘hospital’ run by Brother Gerard, who founded an order of Hospitallers to serve it. Soon the Order began to protect pilgrims on their way to the holy land and developed a military side. The final expulsion of the crusaders from the area in 1291 led eventually to the settlement of the Hospitallers in Rhodes. Here they began to strike a coinage, mainly of silver gigliati.
Forced out of Rhodes in 1523, the Order was given the barren, rocky island of Malta seven years later, by Charles V, the Holy
Roman Emperor. It did have a large harbour and here the Knights set up fortifications. In 1565 the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the
Magnificent sent a well-equipped force of some 45,000 men to take the island, but the heroic defence of the 5,000 Knights fought bravely. Only 600 men remained after the battle, many of them wounded, but the defence was successful. The Grand Master Jean de la Valette was seventy years old then, but a man of totally dedicated courage, fighting personally in the breach and immovable in what seemed a hopeless position. His new capital, Valetta, is named after him; he was the first person to be buried there (and for a couple of years he was its only inhabitant).
Luckily for the Knights, Suleiman died in 1566, before he could complete the conquest and his successor, the alcoholic Selim the Sot, preferred to take Cyprus in order to obtain its wine. There was a
minor invasion in 1597 and a major one in 1615. Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt (1601-22) repulsed this and also built a nine-mile aqueduct to remedy the chronic shortage of drinking water in the new town of Valetta. He paid seventy percent of the cost of this from his own pocket, paying out around 114,864 scudi.
New coinage
Another generous Knight was Grand Master Antoine de Paule who, noticing how worn the copper currency was becoming, ordered the production of 2,800 new coins, allowing today’s numismatists another chance to obtain decent specimens.
The coins had been issued on the Sicilian standard, 20 copper grani to the silver taro, 12 tari to the scudo, which was an accounting unit but not struck as a coin until 1723. There were also gold zecchini, based on the Venetian ducat both in design and metal content, so these were worth 4 scudi, 3 tari each, not as convenient as our decimal currency.
Under Jean Paul Lascaris Castellar (1636-57; descended from the Byzantine emperor Theodore Lascaris), the fleet was so successful that it captured a young sultana of the Ottoman sultan named Ibrahim. The enraged sultan decided to conquer this troublesome island, but when he heard of the reinforcements pouring into Malta, he decided to take Crete instead. The Knights sailed to Crete and fought with much distinction, but after a struggle lasting 22 years the island fell to the Ottoman forces.
Lacking sufficient silver to pay for further fortifications, the Grand Master authorised an issue of 2 tari and 4 tari pieces in copper instead of silver. Forgers also found it profitable to make these coins in copper, so they were countermarked with a double-headed eagle - the arms of Lascaris-Castellar, referring to his Byzantine ancestry.
Later grand masters did the same to prevent forgeries. Wignacourt, with a crowned lis (heraldic lily); Cotoner, with John the Baptist’s head; Perellos, with a paschal lamb; Despuig, with a star and crown; Pinto, with a crowned crescent or ‘MA’, and Rohan, with a crowned mascle (lozenge). As the coins were quite thin, these punches left many examples rather deformed.
Military fund
The Order had always depended on the splendid Maltese soldiers, and the Grand Master Adrien de Wignacourt recognised this by setting up a fund to support their widows and orphans.
Ramon Perellos y Roccaful (1697-1720), seeing the increased size and power of the latest Turkish warships, built an enlarged warship at his own expense, and the State built three more. This was fortunate as in 1708 the Turks attempted an invasion of the small island of Gozo, adjacent to Malta and those big ships were able to drive off the invading fleet. Learning that the Turks were preparing a much more substantial attack, the Grand Master completed the outer defences of Valetta, the Cotoner lines, but the expected attack was directed against Venice.
Anthony Manoel de Vilhena (1722-36) had in his first year to face a Turkish invasion which was to be supported by a revolt of the slaves (more numerous than the free population at the time). He managed to prevent the rising and drove off the invasion fleet. He also found time to reform the coinage, restoring the fineness of the silver and issuing some 200,000 gold zecchini (ducats) but being undervalued they were mostly melted for their gold value. His arms were a lion rampant and a hand grasping a sword.
Raymond Despuig (1736-41) was a mild and gentle character, a lover of peace. His arms were a heraldic lily (a lis) on a mountain. Emmanuel Pinto was similarly liberal. A Portuguese, he served as grand master between 1741 to 1773, though a captured Turkish pasha was treated with rather too much honour and privilege in 1749, and arranged a plot for the 1,500 Turkish slaves to murder the Christian population. Thankfully for Pinto the conspiracy was being discovered and suppressed.
In 1760 one of the finest Turkish battleships was captured by its (Christian) slave crew and took refuge in Malta. A major war was averted by Louis XV, who bought the ship and gave it back to the Ottomans.
Revolts and reform
Pinto was the first grand master to use a royal crown. At the age of
77 he read his obituary in a Paris journal, remarking ‘Ah well, then it is not Pinto but his shade who rules Malta.’ Patrick Brydone met him, finding him ‘a clear-headed sensible little old man... although he is considerably upwards of ninety, he retains all the faculties of his mind to perfection. He has no minister, but manages everything himself and has immediate information of the most minute occurrences. He walks up and down stairs and even to Church without assistance.’
Francesco Ximenez de Texada, 1773-5, was a man known for bravery but was also arrogant and obstinate. He forbade game shooting, the main relaxation of the Maltese clergy, and proposed a tax on bread. This led to a revolt, which was soon suppressed, but it was clear that the Maltese were no longer content with being ruled by foreign knights.
Emmanuel de Rohan 177597, a Frenchman, tried hard to reform the government and make it more acceptable, calling a general chapter (the first for 155 years), a code of laws was published and several beneficial reforms instituted. However, in 1792 the French revolutionary government confiscated all the property of the Order in France and closed all the French commandaries. The move was a deadly blow, since France had been the greatest supporter of the Order. Agents tried to persuade the many French knights in Malta to depose the Grand Master and hand the island over to France. His arms are nine mascles conjoined - like diamond shapes.
Ferdinand de Hompesch 175799 was a German; his reign began with the creation of a Russian
Priory by tsar Paul I. The French gathered a great fleet at Toulon, but the grand master refused to believe it threatened Malta. On 9 June
1798 the huge fleet appeared off Malta and pretended to need water; they were told they could enter the harbour four at a time as was the rule. They treated this as a refusal and landed 15,000 men at eleven different points. The irresolute grand master issued no orders for resistance and surrendered the huge fortifications without a fight. Thus, ingloriously, ended the rule of the Knights of Malta.
The island became part of the British Empire at the end of the Napoleonic wars, though the copper coins of the Knights remained valid until 1827 and the silver until 1886. British coins were used alongside these and a special denomination was introduced especially for Malta. This is the one-third farthing (a twelfth of a penny) but in the proclamation introducing it, it is called a ‘grain’, being called a grano in Malta.
Valetta became a major base for the British Navy and the heroic defence of the island during World War Two was recognised by the award of the George Cross to the island as a whole. The cross is shown on a 1 cent coin, in use between
1972 and 1982.
Malta was given full independence in September 1964, introducing its own decimal currency in 1972, with pounds, cents and mils, reflecting its lower prices. In 1974 it became a republic and in 2008 joined the Euro currency, unlike Britain.
The Order continued as a charitable foundation; the present Grand Master is British, in fact.
Our own St John Ambulance, so essential at sports fixtures and other big public occasions, is a noncatholic offshoot of this Catholic order, on good terms with it. Some of the Catholic Knights could be seen at the installation of the new Archbishop of Westminster, in May 2009, but of course, they no longer make coins, even though they are a sovereign order.