Rhodes and Malta
After the fall of the short-lived
Christian states in the Holy Land, the knights became
rulers of island states.
The knights seized Rhodes in 1306, and
established their headquarters and hospital. They fortified the
island, and those nearby, and gradually acquired more ships. Their
galleys prowled the shipping lanes and raided surrounding Muslim
territory.
Rhodes became a target for the
expanding Ottoman Empire and was constantly raided. The
islands fell to the young Turkish sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent,
in 1522.
The knights were
given Malta in 1530. The struggle with the Turks for
control of the Mediterranean continued, and Suleiman attacked the
island in 1565. Despite having a much smaller army, the knights and
the Maltese people won through the siege. The city of Valletta was
built and fortified by the knights after the Great Siege, and was
named after the Grand Master. It is still the capital of Malta.
Throughout their sovereign years on Rhodes and
Malta the Knights’ medical work continued. In Rhodes the hospital
had separate wards for infectious disease and maternity care. In
Malta the Order ran a health service for the Maltese
people and set up a famous school of anatomy and
surgery. The great ward in Malta’s hospital was the
longest room in 18th century Europe.
The knights of Malta, as they became known,
continued to rule the island until they were driven out in
1798 by Napoleon. Today their direct descendant, the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta, is based in Rome and has
returned completely to its first role of caring for the sick, and
those in need.