The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM),officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem,of Rhodes and of Malta,commonly known as the Order of Malta,Malta Order or 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 a sovereign entity of international law and maintains diplomatic relations with many countries.
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 Roman Catholic co-cathedral in Valletta,Malta,dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. It was built by the Order of St. John between 1572 and 1577,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 70th Prince and 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 it 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 his death. His successor was Fra' Jean Parisot de Valette.
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,was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem until 1291,on the island of Rhodes from 1310 until 1522,in Malta from 1530 until 1798 and at Saint Petersburg from 1799 until 1801. Today several organizations continue the Hospitaller tradition,specifically the mutually recognized orders of St. John,which are the Sovereign Military Order of Malta,the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John,the Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Chivalric Order of Saint John,the Order of Saint John in the Netherlands,and the Order of Saint John in Sweden.
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.
Malta was ruled by the Knights Hospitaller,or Order of Saint John,as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1530 to 1798. The islands of Malta and Gozo,as well as the city of Tripoli in modern Libya,were granted to the Order by Spanish Emperor Charles V in 1530,following the loss of Rhodes. The Ottoman Empire managed to capture Tripoli from the Order in 1551,but an 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 Hospitaller colonization of the Americas occurred during a 14-year period in the 17th century in which the Knights Hospitaller of Malta,at the time a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily,led by the Italian Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris,possessed four Caribbean islands:Saint Christopher,Saint Martin,Saint Barthélemy,and Saint Croix.
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 
