Malta - Thomas Freller

The urban, cultural and political profile of the Maltese
islands is deeply marked by the presence for 268 years of the
Knights of St John. The Order has left its mark decisively in the
collective memory of the Maltese.
Malta: The Order of St John
gives a global picture of this multinational institution in
those crucial years when Grand Master L'Isle Adam moved the
convent from Rhodes to Malta, when legendary Grand Master Valette
withstood the Turkish assault in 1565, when Grand Masters
Wignacourt, Cotoner and Carafa turned Malta into a centre of
Mediterraean corsairing and Grand Masters Vilhena and Pinto tried
to imitate the Central European absolutist princes. It all came
to a sudden - but not unexpected - end in 1798 when Grand Master
Hompesch handed over Malta to the rising star on the European
horizon, Napoleon. The various diplomatic attempts of the knights
to regain their island all failed. The book also provides the
reader with an overview of the most important monuments connected
with the knights on Malta and Gozo.