The Order of St John is the oldest order of Christian chivalry in the world, dating back to the 11th century. It started with a group of traders from Amalfi in Italy. These people used to trade with people in the Holy Land. There, they met the pilgrims who often arrived weary and sick. So this group of traders organized themselves into a Hospital Order.
They built their first hospital in the Holy Land but after a time they were thrown out by the Saracens. They then managed to find a temporary home in Cyprus. In 1309 they invaded the Island of Rhodes. There they started building their auberges according to the language which they spoke. An auberge is an inn, one might say, where the Grandmaster with his entourage was accommodated and where the young men were trained as knights. There were eight languages of the Order. Three were French - France, Provence and Auvergne; two were German (Germany of the North and Bavaria from the South); one Italian, one Spanish from Aragon, one Portuguese from Castile & Leon. At one time there was also the English Language, but when Henry VIII quarreled with the Pope, the king disbanded the knights and took all their property. Then, when they joined the Order again they joined to the Bavarian Langue. They were therefore known as the Anglo-Bavarians.
In Rhodes they lived in a collachium (sort of convent). After more than 200 years in Rhodes, Sulamein the Magnificent (he was a Turk) felt that this Christian Order was becoming too powerful for his liking and he decided to attack the Island of Rhodes. After a siege lasting six months they were forced to surrender.
Sulamein proved himself to be a generous victor. He allowed the knights to leave in their own ships, take their armaments with them and also their archives. This is very important for Malta as those archives dating back to the 11th century are now in our Public Library in Republic Street in Valletta. For a time the Order kept roaming through the various cities of Europe, visiting monarchs in the hope of getting enough money and weapons to retrieve back Rhodes.
Unfortunately, this was not possible and in 1530 Charles V of Spain (The Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Sicily and Malta fell under his domain), decided to give Malta to the Order of St John for the symbolic prize of one falcon a year. When the Knights of the Order of St John sent a report on what Malta had to offer they were not particularly enthusiastic. They said Malta is barren and Malta has no water but it has a safe harbor.
In October 1530 they sailed into the harbor in Birgu, in the only known armor-plated ship of the time the Santa Anna, which was commandeered by an English Captain - William Weston. The name Birgu comes from Italian word Borgo, which means a little town but in reality it was only a fishing village. Birgu already boasted of a Fort which, at one time, was a Roman temple. They fortified further this Fort St Angelo. They built bastions to fortify Birgu and the other two neighboring cities Senglea and Cospicua. After the great siege of 1565 Birgu was re-named Vittoriosa - the victorious city.
La Vallette decided to build a new capital city for Malta. In 1566 the first stone was laid amid much pomp for the building of the new capital city Valletta, named after the Grand Master who built it Jean Parisot de la Vallette. The Knights remained in Malta until 1798 when they were ousted by the French. Although Malta under the Knights was ruled in a totalitarian system for over 200 years, the legacy which this great Order left us far outweighs the system of government adopted at the time, which was practically like this all over Europe.
It was not easy to become a knight of the Order of St John. One had to have nobility for eight generations and this had to be proven nobility and not bought nobility which was common in those days. Nobility meant wealth. They had contacts and they had a diplomatic corps, something quite unusual for the 16th century. They also had, in their statue, that when a Knight of the Order of St John died three-quarters of everything he possessed must be left to the Order and all the armaments and all the weapons must be left to the order as well.
Also, with the coming of the Order to Malta came the best artists Caravaggio, Mattia Preti, Favray, Palladini and many more. The best engineers came to Malta, commissioned by the knights Valperga, Tigne, Floriani. They fortified the towns of Vittoriosa, Senglea, Birgu, Mdina and built a new capital city for Malta, Valletta. The building of Valletta alone involved young and old in work at a time when Europe was still wallowing in poverty.
They built a hospital in Birgu (being first and foremost a hospital order) and, when Valletta was built, they also built a hospital in Valletta known as the Sacra Infirmeria - the Holy Infirmary. In the new Hospital they built in Valletta, there were 600 beds, something quite unusual for the 16th century. This hospital had the longest unsupported hall in Europe and it could take 2000 patients in an emergency. The hospital was built by the sea to bring up the wounded with the minimum of inconvenience. In the hospitals all the patients were given the same high standard, irrespective of race, political standing or religion. This means that even if a Moslem came into the knights' hospital he was given the same good treatment. The grandmasters took it in turn to serve the patients themselves. Attached to their hospital was a surgery school and a pharmacy. The patients were served out of silver plates. This was not down for show but for hygienic purposes.
For this reason and also because they had a law that said that all the houses had to be connected to the main sewer, Malta had at the time the lowest death rate in Europe. When the Order came to Malta the population was of 20000. By the time the knights left in 1798 the population was up to 100000. The knights generated wealth. They built fortifications and a military arsenal. Families grew in number. As knights were hospitaliers so they could pass on their knowledge to the people.
Through the coming to Malta of the Knights of the Order of St John Malta became a safe place to live in, much more pleasant and beautiful than the barren rock which the Knights set their foot on. The Order found an infertile, barren land and turned it into a country which was safe and pleasant to live in. In order to appreciate what the Knights did for Malta all one has to do is walk the streets of Valletta, Mdina and the Three Cities as they are known - Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua.