Medieval Malta

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Throughout the Middle Ages, the Maltese islands’ fortunes were tied to those of various European nobility and royals.

In 1282 an uprising known as the “Sicilian Vespers” Sicilian rebels killed 3,000 French men and women and Angevin King Charles the lost control of the island. Peter III of Aragon was crowned king of Sicily and the Angevin fleet was defeated in the July 1283 naval Battle of Malta at the entrance to the Grand Harbour. This marked the beginning of Aragonese rule over Malta, much to the joy of the Maltese who like the Sicilians, had risen against the Angevins. Although Angevin rule had been short, it was during this period that Malta really began to be absorbed into the Latin and European systems of laws, government and church administration.
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Although officially part of the kingdom of Sicily, during the Aragonese period, Malta was often given as a ‘fiefdom‘ to a nobleman who then became ‘Count of Malta’. Hence in the period between 1283 and 1350, the kings of Aragon granted political authority including taxation rights to a succession of Sicilians, awarding them the titles of marquis or count of Malta. In 1350 the Maltese begged King John I of Aragon to remove Malta and Gozo from Sicilian rule and to place the islands under his direct rule. An agreement was signed that same year however, subsequent kings ignored it and it was only after widespread discontent that in 1398 King Martin I re-ordered that the Maltese islands were not to be given as a fiefdom.

This promise was broken once again in 1420 under Aragonese King Alfonso V. A new feudal lord made the Maltese pay heavy taxes and by 1425 under yet another count, Gonsalvo Monroi (or Monroy), the Maltese were reduced to poverty. The situation was so desperate that the Maltese got rid of Monroi by repaying him the sum of 30,000 florins that he had paid for the islands. As a result Mdina was granted the title of ‘Citta Notabile’ and Maltese self-government known as the Universita’ was set up. The repayment of all that money was not an easy task for Malta and to make matters worse Malta was invaded by pirates and then ravaged by a plague from 1427 to 1428.

Sicilian cultural influence in the Maltese islands was growing as nobles and merchants had constant contact with Sicilians, while The islands’ townsmen mixed with their Sicilian counterparts, and promising young men were sent to Sicily to further their education or careers. Maltese seasonal labourers worked in Sicily, with many settling permanently in the Val di Noto and elsewhere. By 1500 Sicilian influences ran right through Maltese society, evident in material life and behaviour. Under the Catalan-Aragonese kings of Sicily, Catalan merchants could use of Malta as a base for their trading activities with North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.

At this point, Malta starts to change from a backwater to a key outpost; around 1300 Ramon Llull remarked on the strategic value of Malta for the crusades while Malta starts to appear on mariner’s charts and traders’ logbooks. Commercial ties with Sicily, vital for Malta’s constant needs, now became two-way, as Maltese cotton found its way to international markets in Genoa, Barcelona and beyond, thanks to Italian and Catalan traders.

Corsairing (legal pirateering) was a major activity from Angevin times. Leading Maltese families armed galleys and invested in corsairing in the Sicily-Africa channel, along North Africa, and in the Ionian sea. Fortunes were made, but attracted harsh and frequent reprisals. In 1429 a large Tunisian force invaded the islands and besieged Mdina, carrying off thousands of slaves.

Besides the constant fear of major Moorish attacks, the islands came under regular attack throughout this period, initially by political enemies of the king of Sicily, be they Angevin, Genoese or Venetian. A Catalan-Aragonese fleet sacked Malta, Gozo and Pantelleria in 1298 to punish Frederick III of Sicily, while from 1470 the threats increased due to the Barbarossas based in Djerba and the expansionist ambitions of the Ottoman Empire.

After the deaths of King Alfonso V and his brother, the Maltese Islands passed under joint Sicilian and Spanish rule as Spain ruled over Sicily. Under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella the Maltese faced more misery when a huge army of 18,000 men from Tunisia attacked Malta and Gozo and some 3,000 were dragged away to slavery. Following this disaster King Ferdinand ordered the building of Fort St Elmo at the mouth of the Grand Harbour. Foreign soldiers were brought to defend Malta but had to be billeted in private homes. Despite these efforts, the next four decades to 1530 were marked by repeated landings, culminating in the sack of the inland village of Mosta by Sinan’s men in 1528.

Before the arrival of the Knights in Malta, the islands had a population of about twenty thousand, equal to a medium-sized town in Sicily. Local production of cereals and other food was limited, most of Malta’s needs being provided by tax-free grain imports from Sicily. Care was taken to ensure that the islands had enough food stocks for emergencies caused by epidemics, stormy weather or enemy action, for while it took a large force to conquer the islands, a few ships could effectively blockade Malta for weeks, disrupting its commerce and communications.

In 1522 the Order of St John of Jerusalem Knights Hospitaller was driven out of Rhodes by the Turks and after wandering Europe for 8 years, King Charles V of Spain gave Malta to the Knights as a base, to the dismay of the Maltese nobility who felt Malta had been betrayed yet again.

Malta’s stormy feudal history meant that the islands suffered both economically and socially during Medieval times, and did not benefit from a social and artistic Renaissance like the rest of Europe. However the transfer of Malta and Gozo to the Order of St John in 1530 changed all that. From then on, the islands were no longer overseen from Sicily; defence, political control and all decisions would be shouldered by the Order. Although Malta continued to depend on grain from Sicily, the move from a marginal community under a Sicilian viceroy [1] to an island under the direct rule of the Knights of St John was truly revolutionary.

PRIMARY BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Satellite, Sentinel, Stepping Stone. Medieval Malta in Sicily’s Orbit – Charles Dalli

REFERENCES:

4. Fiorini 1999; Fiorini 2004)