Aspects of Maltese history under Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena 1722-1736

Abstract

Very little valuable work has been done on Fra Manoel de Vilhena and his years as Grand Master in Malta. It is the purpose of this dissertation to study aspects of Malta during the Magistracy of Manoel de Vilhena ( 1722-1736). These have been restricted to four major themes. Chapter one will provide the European and Mediterranean framework of which Hospitaller Malta formed part, and by which it was inevitably effected. Chapter two will survey the effects which the Ottoman threat of 1722 had on Malta and the Order. This will shed light on how the European powers were looking at the Hospitaller institution during the early eighteenth century, it will also throw light on how the Knights themselves regarded such a threat. The same chapter will examine the unique truce proposal made to the Knights at this time and will attempt to suggest why such negotiations failed. Chapter three will discuss the corsairing industry, it will shed light on the importance and the extent of the activity in Vilhena's Malta. It will also delineate the inevitable trouble which the Order found itself in owing to the corsairs' activity, and the measures or lack of them which the Grand Master adopted to control the situation and avoid foreign pressure. Chapter four will try to discover the extent of the absolutist characteristics inherent within the Magistracy. This will be illustrated by showing the power and attitude of the Inquisitor and the power and influence which Rome had especially through its courts on the affairs of the Order and of the Island. As Manoel de Vilhena was the first Grand Master to publish in print the laws of the island, chapter five will try to shed light on the social and economic situation of the island by an examination of the legislation, the bandi or proclamations and the suppliche (petitions).