The French Occupation 1798-1800

On the 9 June 1798, a French fleet sailing to Egypt with over 30,000 men under Napoleon Bonaparte arrived off heavily fortified Valletta, ruled by the Knights of St John. A French Knight in Malta recorded the event in these terms: “the Maltese people saw from vantage points, the forest of masts which covered a vast expanse of sea….the sight petrified us.”

Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch refused Bonaparte’s demand that his convoy would be allowed to enter Valletta and take on supplies, upon which Bonaparte immediately ordered his fleet to bombard Valletta and landed several thousand soldiers at seven strategic sites around the island.

Most French knights commanding various strategic localities and forts deserted the Order. However, many Maltese regiments resisted bravely in spite of the confusion. At Fort Tigne, the Maltese Cacciatori regiment threw back three times the attacking French forces. At Fort San Lucian at Marsaxlokk, the Maltese garrison fought fiercely for 36 hours and the 165 men only gave up when they ran out of water and ammunition. Although Valletta was strong enough to hold out against a lengthy siege, the weakened Order failed to mount a strong resistance and once the city of Mdina fell to Bonaparte, Hompesch surrendered Malta to the French on the 12th June 1798, in exchange for estates and pensions in France for himself and his knights.

Napoleon stayed in Malta for a few days establishing a French administration, dismantling the Knights’ institutions, limiting the Bishop’s influence to purely religious matters, expelling all foreign clergy, seizing church property, protecting family rights in a Civil Code of Laws, granting free education for all and establishing freedom of press. The French abolished nobility, slavery, the feudal system and the inquisition. Slavery was abolished and all Turkish slaves were freed. All aristocratic rights and privileges were abolished.

Napoleon then sailed for Egypt, leaving a garrison of 3,053 soldiers under General Vaubois, but the Maltese turned against the French due to lack of employment after the departure of the Knights, French failure to pay salaries and pensions that were due to their Maltese sailors and others, while monies intendfor food supplies were stolen to fund the Egyptian campaign.

The Mdina Nobles and Church leaders encouraged insurrection when the French began meddling with Maltese churches and looting them of their silver. The last straw came when on September 2nd, the French ordered the auctioning of the damask of the Carmelite Church at Mdina. This was opposed by an angry crowd and rioting broke out. Colonel Masson was attacked and thrown from a balcony in nearby Rabat, dying along with some of his men while Col. Masson’s wife was only spared because she was expecting a child. The French troops took refuge behind the walls of Malta’s fortified cities, where they were blockaded by the Maltese militia. French control of Malta had lasted less than three months!

Valletta was surrounded by approximately 10,000 irregular Maltese soldiers led by Emmanuele Vitale and Canon Saverio Caruana. The Maltese were armed with 23 cannon and a small squadron of coastal gunboats. Although there were some skirmishes between the garrison and the Maltese, the fortress was too strong for the irregulars to attack.

When the French Mediterranean Fleet was destroyed at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798, the British Royal Navy was able to start a blockade of Malta, assisting the Maltese rebellion against French rule. The French troops eventually ran out of food and had to eat cats and rats. Although small quantities of supplies arrived in early 1799, starvation and disease had a disastrous effect on the health and morale of the French troops.

Portugal, Great Britain and belatedly, the King of Naples and Sicily, sent ammunition and aid to the Maltese stopping French convoys to and from Malta, forcing them to surrender to larger British squadrons in hard-fought battles. These defeats and lack of regular supplies weakened the French position in Valletta and on the 4th of September 1800 after a two-year siege, General Belgrand de Vaubois surrendered his garrison, exhausted by malnutrition and typhus disease.

On the 15th of June 1802, the National Congress of the people of Malta and Gozo placed the Maltese Islands under the sovereignty of the British Crown, drawing up a Declaration of Rights in which they agreed to come “under the protection and sovereignty of the King of the free people, His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”. The Declaration also stated that “his Majesty has no right to cede these Islands to any power…if he chooses to withdraw his protection, and abandon his sovereignty, the right of electing another sovereign, or of the governing of these Islands, belongs to us, the Maltese alone, and without control”.

By the terms of the Treaty of Amiens of 1801 Britain was to return Malta to the Order of St. John. the Napoleonic Wars with France began soon afterwards, partly due Britain’s refusal to do so. The island subsequently remained in British hands until its independence in 1964.