Jean Parisot de Valette
Hero of the Great Siege of Malta and founder of Valletta.
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Marie-Lan Nguyen · CC BY 2.5
He commanded the Hospitallers through the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, a conflict sometimes regarded as one of the greatest sieges of all time.[1][2] He joined the Order of St. John of Jerusalem when he was 20 and never returned to France.[3][2] From 21 August 1557 until his death in 1568, the French nobleman Jean Parisot de Valette served as the 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta.[1]
Life and work
He fought with distinction against the Turks at Rhodes as a Knight Hospitaller in the Langue de Provence.[1] In 1541, Valette was badly wounded and lost his galley San Giovanni in action against the corsair Abd-ur-Rahman Kust Aly.[2] Upon the death of Grand Master Claude de la Sengle in 1557, the Knights unanimously elected La Valette to succeed him.[4][2] The La Valette family of Quercy in South-western France, into which Valette was born, had members who took part in the Crusades over many generations.[4]
Barbary pirates commanded by Turgut Reis captured him, and he spent a year as a galley-slave.[5] The Order's galleys had him as their elected Captain General starting in 1554.[6] A Christian defeat at the Battle of Djerba in 1560 was the outcome of an alliance he formed with the Habsburg Empire to recapture Tripoli.[4]
What the cited sources add
The South African Relief Organisation account states that Valette was a completely single-minded man and more dedicated to his vows than most of his ancestors.[2] That same source notes that Valette learned two languages while a Turkish galley-slave.[2] It also records that Valette had all Turkish prisoners beheaded and forbade any more prisoners to be taken.[2] He personally assisted the workers digging and planned the fortifications for the siege.[2]
Valette, holding a pike, led his knights in a charge against the enemy.[2] Bonello uncovered documentary proof that a 1568 decree from King Charles IX of France legitimatized Valette's illegitimate son Barthélemy.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Jean Parisot de Valette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hindley, "Medieval Sieges & Siegecraft", Skyhorse Publishing, 2009, p. 158 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Jean Parisot de La Vallette", South African Relief Organisation of the Order of Malta. facts only, no text reused. smom-za.org
- Wikipedia, "Jean Parisot de Valette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Jean Parisot de La Vallette", South African Relief Organisation of the Order of Malta; "6 little-known facts about Jean de Valette", The Malta Independent, 28 June 2020 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jean Parisot de Valette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Jean Parisot de La Vallette", South African Relief Organisation of the Order of Malta (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jean Parisot de Valette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Jean Parisot de la Valette", Knights of Malta; Vella, "The Order of Malta and the defence of Tripoli 1530–1551", Melita Historica, 1975, p. 362–381 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jean Parisot de Valette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette (1557–1568)", St John's Co-Cathedral (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jean Parisot de Valette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bonello, "The love children of Grand Master Jean de La Valette", Times of Malta, 26 May 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jean Parisot de Valette (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Jean Parisot de Valette (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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