Fort Ricasoli Southern Harbour District South Eastern Region Malta

The British suppress a mutiny at Fort Ricasoli, Malta, by men of the irregularly-recruited Frobert Regiment, from April 4 to 12, 1807.

The Froberg Regiment had been founded in December 1803 by the French royalist Gustave de Montjoie, who had claimed he was the German Count Froberg.

He had been given permission by the Secretary at War to raise a regiment for service on Malta, which he had done in Albania and the Christian parts of the Ottoman Empire.

It consists of men with various nationalities, including Germans, Poles, Swiss, Albanians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Russians.

The regiment's five hundred and thirteen men had arrived on Malta in 1806.

The regiment was commanded by Major Schumelketel and Lieutenant Schwartz, the latter of whom had supervised the dubious recruiting process.

Soon after their arrival, some of the men of the regiment had begun to complain: they had been promised high rank with good pay, but have been forced to work as privates at lower wages.

While the men were quarantined at the Lazzaretto on Manoel Island, they demanded to be sent back to Corfu.

They had withdrawn their demands after Schwartz threatened to stop their food rations, which itself had created more discontent.

After the release from quarantine, the soldiers had been allowed to go into the capital Valletta, where they had quarreled among themselves and with the locals.

To prevent unrest, the Commander of the British Forces in Malta, William Villettes, had confined them to Fort Ricasoli, a large fortification at the entrance of the Grand Harbour.

In November 1806, Villettes had appointed Lieutenant-Colonel James Barnes as the regiment's commander, but this had only increased their resentment.

The mutiny breaks out on  April 4, 1807, while Lieutenant-Colonel Barnes is in Valletta.

It involves two hundred Greeks and Albanians who kill Lieutenant Schwartz, Captain De Wattville, Gunner John Johnstone and a number of privates.

They also wound Major Schumelketel and three other officers.

They remove the British flag and replace it with the Russian ensign, close the fort's gates and raise the drawbridge.

The mutineers take the regimental officers and their families hostage, and forced about twenty British artillerymen to aim the fort's guns and mortars at Valletta.

The revolt is led by a Greco-Bulgarian named Caro Mitro.

Some men who had escaped from the fort inform the British of the mutiny.

The Royal Maltese Regiment and the 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot take positions on the glacis of the fort, while the guns of Fort Saint Elmo and Fort Saint Angelo are trained on Ricasoli.

In a message, the mutineers demand  to be discharged and to be sent home, with money and a pardon from Villettes.

They threaten to open fire on Valletta, but Villettes refuses their demands and ordered them to surrender.

More guns are trained towards Ricasoli on the second day of the mutiny, but no further action is taken since Villettes intends to starve out the mutineers in a siege.

A second message from the rebels demands food and provisions, again threatening to bombard Valletta, but their demands are again ignored.

On the third day of the mutiny, the mutineers send one of the hostages, an officer, with a message from the mutineers, which is ignored once again.

The officer tells the British authorities of conditions in the fort, but has to return since they have kept his wife.

Shortly afterwards the rebels begin fighting among themselves, and a faction that is ready to surrender hoists the white flag; another faction takes it down.

Seeing there is disagreement among the rebels Villettes sends a delegation to negotiate with them, but they still refuse o surrender.

The families of the officers held hostage are released on the fifth day, April 8, since the mutineers are running out of food.

The rebels send an ultimatum threatening to destroy the fort unless provisions are sent.

When it expires they send another in which they threaten to kill all the remaining hostages.

Meanwhile, there is more infighting between the rebels, and a group of Germans and Poles manage to open the gates of the fort.

While most of the mutineers escape and surrender, some twenty others remain inside behind the re-closed gates.

The remaining mutineers fire on Valletta on April 10, though they caused no injury.

Villettes now orders that the fort be stormed.

A party of forty men under Lieutenant de Clermont, who is himself part of the Froberg Regiment, scales the fort and takes control of it, taking no losses in the process.

The fort falls but six rebels retreat into the gunpowder magazine, threatening to blow it up.

After two days, the six remaining rebels blow up the magazine's six hundred barrels of gunpowder, and kill three British sentries.

In the ensuing confusion the six rebels manage to escape to the countryside.

Four of the six rebels who had gotten away after blowing up the magazine are captured after two days, and are hanged immediately.

Villettes puts the ringleaders on trial: twenty-four or twenty-five are found guilty and condemned to death.

The executions are carried out at the Floriana Parade Ground in the presence of the rest of the Froberg Regiment, which is now imprisoned.

The first fifteen mutineers are divided into three groups of five: each group is hanged by the following group.

The last group is not hanged, but instead executed by firing squad with the remaining prisoners.

Some do not die immediately and try to escape, and although most are recaptured and executed, two run away and die after jumping off the bastions.

Meanwhile, the mutineers' leader Caro Mitro together with his friend Nicola d'Anastasi had managed to escape, but they will be captured on April 25 or 26 by Maltese soldiers near Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq.

They will be hanged on the same day and buried in a trench beneath the Bastioni della Salnitriera.

A board of inquiry is set up between April 20 and 22, and their investigation uncovers the dubious recruiting of the regiment.

They order it to be disbanded in June 1807.

About three hundred and fifty men are discharged and repatriated to the Balkans; others, who want to remain in British service, are reassigned to the Regiments of De Roll, Chasseurs Britanniques, and De Watteville.

The government also publishes an eight-page report about the mutiny, entitled Rapporto di quanto è accaduto nel Forte Ricasoli dalli 4 fino alli 11 d'Aprile 1807 (Report of what happened at Fort Ricasoli from 4 to 11 April 1807), which was probably written by Vittorio Barzoni.

The fort itself is badly damaged; besides the magazine, most of St. Dominic Demi-Bastion had been destroyed.

The damaged demi-bastion will never be rebuilt to its original design, but repair works to the damaged parts of the fort cost over four thousand five hundred and twenty-three pounds.

The fort will again be badly damaged in the Second World War, and today it is in a dilapidated state and threatened by coastal erosion.