Group
Knights of Malta, Sovereign and Military Order of the
Following the conquest of the Holy Land by Islamic forces, the Knights Hospitaller operated from Rhodes, over which they were sovereign, and later from Malta, where they administer a vassal state under the Spanish viceroy of Sicily.
The Hospitallers are the smallest group ever to colonize parts of the Americas; at one point in the mid-seventeenth century, they acquire our Caribbean islands, which they turn over to the French and Dutch in the 1660s.The knights are weakened in the Protestant Reformation, when rich commanderies of the order in northern Germany and the Netherlands become Protestant and largely separate from the Roman Catholic main stem, remaining separate to this day.
The order is disestablished in England, Denmark, Sweden and elsewhere in northern Europe.
The Roman Catholic order is further damaged by Napoleon's capture of Malta in 1798 and becomes dispersed throughout Europe and Russia.
Member Cities
- Valletta Malta Capital
- Algiers > Alger Alger Algeria Location
- Bejaïa (Bougie) Bèjaïa Algeria Location
- Benghazi > Banghazi Banghazi Libya Location
- Candia > Iráklion Iraklion Greece Location
- Canea > Khaniá Khania Greece Location
- Citta Vecchia Malta Location
- Herceg-Novi Montenegro Montenegro Location
- Houmet Essouq Madanin Tunisia Location
- Lepanto > Návpaktos Aitolia kai Akarnania Greece Location
- Mahdia Al-Mahdiyah Tunisia Location
- Mahón Balearic Islands Spain Location
- Murzuq Murzuq Libya Location
- Paris Ile-de-France France Location
- Préveza Preveza Greece Location
- Rabat Malta Location
- Rabat (Victoria) Malta Location
- St Petersburg Sankt-Peterburg Russia Location
- Tripoli > Tarabulus Tarabulus Libya Location
- Tunis Tunis Tunisia Location
- Valona > Vlorë Vlore Albania Location