 |
History of Malta - The Middle Ages
The Arabs in Sicily we're divided, and taking advantage of the situation, Count Roger the Norman, after a series of campaigns, subdued that island to Norman Rule. Count Roger had invaded the islands to make sure his southern Hank was secure from a possible Arab attack, having reduced the Arabs to a state of vassalage and releasing the foreign Christian slaves, he returned to Sicily without even bothering to garrison his prize. In Sicily itself the Normans followed the same enlightened policy and although the Christian Faith was regarded as the official religion there, nobody was persecuted because of his race or for his religious beliefs. In 1127, Roger 11 the son of Count Roger, led a second invasion of Malta; having overrun the Island he placed it under a more secure Norman domination under the charge of a Norman governor. He also garrisoned with Norman soldiers the three castles then on the islands. From about this period the Maltese moved back gradually into the European orbit to which they had belonged for a thousand years prior to the Arab interlude. Because the last Norman king died without a male heir, the new masters of the Maltese islands came, in turn, from the ruling houses of Germany, France and Spain: the Swabians (1194); the Angevins (1268); the Aragonese (1283) and finally, the Caslillians (1410). When the Norman Period came to an end, the Fief of Malta was granted to loyal servants of the Sicilian Crown: these Counts, or Marquises of Malta, as these nobles were styled, looked on the fief simply as an investment - a source for the collection of taxes and something that was bartered or sold when no longer viable. The last feudal lord of Malta. Don Gonsalvo Monroy, had been expelled from the Island following a revolt and at the Court of Sicily the count demanded that the strongest measures be taken against the insurgents. At the same Court the representatives of the Maltese offered to repay the 30,000 florins originally paid by Monroy for the Fief of Malta; they also asked for the Island to be incorporated in the Royal Domains once they had redeemed their homeland. The king, Alphonse V. impressed by their loyalty, called Malta the most notable gem in his crown, thus the capital of Malta came to be called Notabile although, then, as now, the Maltese continued to call the town Mdina. By this time, the Maltese were thoroughly Christianized and the houses of the great Religious Orders were being established in the Island: the Franciscans (1370); the Carmelites (1418); the Augustinians (l450); the Dominicans (1466); and the Minor Observants (1492), while the Benedictine Sisters arrived in 1418. In 1429 a determined attempt was made by an army of 18,000 Moors from Tunisia under Kaid Ridavan to capture the Maltese islands with the intention of using them as an advance post for further conquests. The Maltese population then numbered between 16,000 to 18,000 with only some 4,000 men under arms. The invaders were beaten back but not before they liad captured over 3.000 of the inhabitants as prisoners.
Click here to Add the above Search Box to your Site
|
|
