In the years following the death of L'Isle Adam the Order was involved in many major battles, especially along the coast of Africa, usually as the leading element of forces raised by Charles V against the pirates and Muslim forces which were capturing or destroying shipping and brutalizing Christian cities -- often carrying off thousands of men and women to slavery. During these same years several attempted sieges of Malta failed.

In August 1557, John de la Valette, one of the finest commanders ever to serve the Order, was elected Grand Master by unanimous vote. He immediately corrected a number of injustices which had tarnished the Order's reputation, and then began preparing the island for certain Turkish assault. Fortunately for the Sovereign Order, and for all of Europe, La Valette was, as Sutherland states, "Equal in natural sagacity, in courage, in military skill, and in honorable zeal, to the most illustrious chiefs the Order had ever possessed, fortune could not, at this critical period, have devolved the supreme power on a more efficient and magnanimous commander than John de la Valette."

We offer here a brief resume of La Valette, as quoted from the book, Knights of The Order, by Ernle Bradford (1972). The purpose is to show, once again, the kind of men who were the Knights of Saint John.

"Jean Parisot De La Valette who became Grand Master in 1557 was worthy of L'Isle Adam and d'Aubusson before him. 'Entirely French and a Gascon,' as he was described by the Abbe' de Brantome, 'he was a very handsome man, speaking several languages fluently -- including Italian, Spanish, Greek, Arabic and Turkish.' Born in 1494 he had been twenty-eight when he had served throughout the last siege of Rhodes. He was twenty when he had first joined the Convent, and from that day to the end of his life he stayed entirely devoted to the Order, never as far as is known revisiting his family estates in Toulouse, even during the period when the Order was in exile at Nice. A totally dedicated man, a Christian of the old crusader breed, he would allow no backsliding among his Knights. He was as ardent in his religious practices as he was upon the field of battle. He had for a time been Admiral of the Order's fleet. This was a distinction in itself, since most Admirals came from the Langue of Italy something which had been among the terms required by Charles V when he had granted Malta to the Knights.

For a whole year La Valette had served as a galley slave, after the Order's galley in which he was serving had been captured by a Turkish corsair. Enslavement was a fate that often befell men in the Mediterranean in those days -- the wheel came full circle and victor became vanquished and vice versa within a matter of hours. Usually the only way in which a man could escape from the benches (where he was chained below deck as an oarsman with a hundred or more other slaves) was by having his family or friends raise his ransom, although sometimes the ship in which he was imprisoned might later be taken by his own side or, as on occasions happened, there was a large-scale exchange of prisoners between Christians and Muslims.

La Valette was sixty-three when he became Grand Master, a man of iron frame and resolution. Both of these he would have need of when the great test came, and when the Sultan Suleiman designed to rid the Mediterranean forever of 'Those sons of dogs whom I have already conquered and who were spared only by my clemency at Rhodes forty-three years ago!' By that time both La Valette and the great Sultan would be men of seventy. But, whereas the Sultan would be sitting in the scented gardens of Constantinople, La Valette would be fighting in the breach."

The Great Siege of 1565 was imminent. Due to constraints of space in this short history details will be spared. This siege, although in a different part of the Mediterranean, coming four decades later, and with different commanders of the Order, nevertheless, was a replay of the sieges of 1480 and 1522.

La Valette had a total of 700 Knights and serving brothers, and 8,500 men-at-arms, made up of the crews of galleys, foreign mercenaries, and the island's militia. The Turks arrived on the 18th of May 1565 with 159 fighting ships, carrying 30,000 Janissaries and Saphis -- the elite of the Ottoman forces. A huge number of supply ships followed the galleys, carrying heavy artillery, munitions and armament, supplies and horses, and many thousands of slaves to be used as sappers.

The bombardment and the pitched battles began almost immediately. The usual heroism of the Knights and their men-at-arms again prevailed. Once again it would take a complete book to relate the events of this great siege, and our need to merely state the results in no way diminishes the magnitude or importance of this historic confrontation, nor the greatness of La Valette and the Knights of the Order.

The siege equaled in intensity and carnage the two great sieges of Rhodes. The Order's extensive archives record in detail the ceaseless bombardment, the daily assaults by thousands on the Order's bastions, and the fearless resistance of the Knights, many of whom distinguished themselves in individual combat. And as in previous sieges, the bravery and exploits of the Grand Master caused, in turn, heroic performance by all the Order's men-at-arms. Often in the thick of hand-to-hand combat, La Valette, whose leadership was invaluable, was urged to move to the rear so that he might not be killed. In one such situation he replied, "Is it possible for me, at the age of seventy-one, to lay down my life more gloriously than in defense of our holy religion, and in the midst of my brethren and friends?"

In prior sieges the Order had been abandoned by the monarchs of Europe, but this time the war was closer to home. Consequently, a powerful armament in support of the Order had been slowly assembled in Sicily. This force included warships, men-at-arms, and some two hundred Knights who had been governing the Order's properties throughout Europe -- each of whom had recruited several noble men willing to fight for Christianity. The expedition totaled nearly eight thousand men. After various problems, once even returning to port, the force landed on Malta. The Pasha, who had been told by his sentinels that this new force was a huge army, larger than his own invading force, had reloaded his ships to quit the siege. Then, finding that the new force numbered only several thousand, he once more disembarked to attack it. However, the new force well armed, fresh, zealous, and mounting heroic charges into the Muslim lines, defeated this Turk force and drove it back to the shore with heavy losses.

Consequently, the Turks put to sea at once, and abandoned the siege after a loss of more than twenty-five thousand men out of the original force of thirty thousand. The Order's losses were also great. Two hundred and sixty Knights and more than seven thousand men-at-arms were dead, and many more were wounded or ill. Only six hundred Knights and men-at-arms were still capable of resistance. Nevertheless, who could defeat such men.

The Great Siege of Malta had begun on 18 May 1565. It ended 114 days later on 8 September 1565 -- the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Sovereign Order's Lady of Victory.