The fortification of Malta, 1530-1798 : the impact on the Maltese

Abstract

In the course of the two hundred and fifty. years following their. arrival from Rhodes in 1530 the. knights of St John transformed Malta from a poorly fortified outpost of the Sicilian kingdom into a showpiece of. military engineering. The scale of the building programme was such that, to a greater or lesser extent, it touched the lives of all the inhabitants of the islands, native as well as members of the Order. The Ordell in general held itself aloof from the Maltese and would not normally admit the local nobility to its higher ranks. In practice there was little social contact between the members of the Order and the native aristocracy, the latter withdrawing to their palaces in Mdina (at that time commonly called Notabile) well away from Valletta the administrative centre of the knights. But whereas in Rhodes the knights had lived in an inner citadel or collachio, segregated from the the native population, in Malta, despite attempts to establish collachios both in Birgu (the first headquarters of the Order) and later in Valletta, the knights and the Maltese dwelt side by side. Before the Order's arrival the Universitas of Notabile (or Mdina) and Gozo had borne certain defence obligations. In the fifteenth century the upkeep of the walls of Notabile was .a major preoccupation but the Universitas were also responsible for the construction and maintenance of coastal towers and for the provision of militia, comprising both coastal lookouts and mounted guards. The finance came from locally raised taxation, either direct or indirect, and from the proceeds of judicial fines. Although the Universitas retained certain rights, powers and duties after 1530, the overall responsibility for the islands' defence was assumed by the congregation of fortification and war, a subcommittee of the Order's ruling body the council. Defence was too important a matter to be left to bodies over which the Order did not have direct control so that, although in practice the Universitas maintained the walls of Notabile and of the Castello in Gozo and some coastal towers" even in these areas the Order would intervene if it considered the overall defence of the islands was involved.