The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM),officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem,of Rhodes and of Malta,and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta,is a Catholic lay religious order,traditionally of a military,chivalric,and noble nature. Though it possesses no territory,the order is often considered a sovereign entity under international law.
António Manoel de Vilhena was a Portuguese nobleman who was the 66th Prince and Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from 19 June 1722 to his death in 1736. Unlike a number of the other Grand Masters,he was benevolent and popular with the Maltese people. Vilhena is mostly remembered for the founding of Floriana,the construction of Fort Manoel and the Manoel Theatre,and the renovation of the city of Mdina.
St John's Co-Cathedral is a Catholic co-cathedral in Valletta,Malta,dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. It was built by the Order of St. John between 1573 and 1578,having been commissioned by Grand Master Jean de la Cassière as the Conventual Church of Saint John.
Fra' Emmanuel Marie des Neiges de Rohan-Polduc was a member of the wealthy and influential Rohan family of France,and Prince and 70th Grand Master of the Order of St. John from 1775 to 1797.
Fort Manoel is a star fort on Manoel Island in Gżira,Malta. It was built in the 18th century by the Order of Saint John,during the reign of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena,after whom it is named. Fort Manoel is located to the north west of Valletta,and commands Marsamxett Harbour and the anchorage of Sliema Creek. The fort is an example of Baroque architecture,and was designed with both functionality and aesthetics in mind.
Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim,O.S.I. was the 71st Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller,formally the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,by then better known as the Knights of Malta. He was the first German elected to the office. It was under his rule that the Order lost the island of Malta to France,after ruling there since 1530. This effectively marked the end of their sovereignty over an independent state,dating from the time of the Crusades.
Fra' Claude de la Sengle was the 48th Grand Master of the Order of Malta,from 1553 to his death in 1557. His successor was Fra' Jean Parisot de Valette.
Manuel Pinto da Fonseca was a Portuguese nobleman,the 68th Grand Master of the Order of Saint John,from 1741 until his death.
Fra' Philippe de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam was a prominent member of the Knights Hospitaller at Rhodes and later Malta. Having risen to the position of Prior of the Langue of Auvergne,he was elected 44th Grand Master of the Order in 1521.
Fra' Juan de Homedes y Coscón was a Spanish knight of Aragon who served as the 47th Grand Master of the Order of Malta,between 1536 and 1553.
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem,commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller,is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there until 1291,thereafter being based in Kolossi Castle in Cyprus (1302–1310),the island of Rhodes (1310–1522),Malta (1530–1798),and Saint Petersburg (1799–1801).
Fra' Piero del Ponte was the 45th Grand Master of the Order of Saint John between 1534 and 1535.
Pierre Jean Louis Ovide Doublet was a French politician and writer who spent much of his life serving in the Knights of Malta. Following his enlistment as a soldier,he entered the service of the French Secretariat of the Knights and was eventually promoted to the leadership of the Secretariat.
Giovanni Paolo Lascaris di Ventimiglia e Castellar was an Italian nobleman and Grand Master of the Knights of Malta.
The French occupation of Malta lasted from 1798 to 1800. It was established when the Order of Saint John surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte following the French landing in June 1798. In Malta,the French established a constitutional tradition in Maltese history,granted free education for all,and theoretically established freedom of the press,although only the pro-French newspaper Journal de Malte was actually published during the occupation.
Hospitaller Malta,known in Maltese history as the Knights' Period,was a de facto state which existed between 1530 and 1798 when the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo were ruled by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. It was formally a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily,and it came into being when Emperor Charles V granted the islands as well as the city of Tripoli in modern Libya to the Order,following the latter's loss of Rhodes in 1522. Hospitaller Tripoli was lost to the Ottoman Empire in 1551,but an Ottoman attempt to take Malta in 1565 failed.
Fra' Jean "Parisot" de (la) Valette was a French nobleman and 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta,from 21 August 1557 to his death in 1568. As a Knight Hospitaller,joining the order in the Langue de Provence,he fought with distinction against the Turks at Rhodes. As Grand Master,Valette became the Order's hero and most illustrious leader,commanding the resistance against the Ottomans at the Great Siege of Malta in 1565,sometimes regarded as one of the greatest sieges of all time.
The French invasion of Malta was the successful invasion of the islands of Malta and Gozo,then ruled by the Order of St. John,by the French First Republic led by Napoleon Bonaparte in June 1798 as part of the Mediterranean campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars.
Admiralty House,formerly known as Casa Miari,Palazzo Don Raimondo and by several other names,is a palace in Valletta,Malta. It was originally built in 1569–70 as two private houses by Fra Jean de Soubiran dit Arafat,a knight of the Order of St. John. The houses were later leased to various owners,including Fra Raimondo de Sousa y Silva,who rebuilt them a single residence between 1761 and 1763.
Jean Quintin or Quentin was a French priest,knight of the Order of St John and writer. His writings include Insulae Melitae Descriptio (1536),the earliest known detailed description of the Maltese Islands,which also contains the earliest known printed map of the archipelago.
Order of Saint John 
