The militia roster of watch duties of 1417

Abstract

That Malta had a militia force in the Middle Ages apparently called the Dejma and that watch or għassa was kept along the coast in several places subsequently and consequently called Wardija for hostile landings or suspicious movements of vessels, are commonplaces of Maltese history. But little else was known of the island's militia in the fifteenth century until the publication in 1969 of the surviving militia roll of 1419-20 with the names and surnames and the place of residence of every member of the militia. Unfortunately, though this provides much incidental invaluable information on the spread of population on the island, and on family nomenclature, at first glance, it give hardly any enlightenment on the structure of the militia and the tasks it performed. However, among the name-lists preserved in the Cathedral Archives at Mdina there is a militia list much shorter than that of 1419-20 or even the one of ca. 1425. Its names are arranged according to the militia posts in town and countryside, not according to the places of residence of the militiamen as in the other two lists, and on a daily roster over a seven day period. As such it is unique in our fifteenth century documentation and of extraordinary interest to the military student. Not before the eighteenth century will it again be possible to get a similar insight into the intricacies of the island's defence forces.