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For Sale - GBP 1,000 - LOOK & LEARN # 972 cover (25 October 1980)

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Artwork Details

Title:	For Sale - GBP 1,000 - LOOK & LEARN # 972 cover (25 October 1980)
Artist:	Patrick Nicolle (All)
Media Type:	Paint - Acrylic
Art Type:	Cover
For Sale Status:	For Sale - GBP 1,000
Views:	1,643
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	6/13/2006
Comic Art Archive:

Description

It was in the autumn of 1530 that the Santa Anna sailed into Malta in front of the anxious gaze of hundreds of onlookers. She was a magnificent vessel, probably the first armour-plated ship in history, and her six decks were cased in lead and bolted with brass. No less than 50 cannons bristled threateningly from her sides.
Yet it was not the Santa Anna herself which so worried the watching Maltese � it was the Knights of St. John who sailed on her. For they came to take possession of the island.
Bleak and infertile, Malta lay dangerously close to the coast of North Africa, an easy prey for the Barbary pirates. And so it was not surprising that its owner, Emperor Charles V of Spain, had few qualms about handing it over to the Order after the knights had been driven from Rhodes. There was to be a nominal rent � after all, even an emperor as rich as Charles never gave land away for ever � and eventually it was fixed as one falcon a year.
The Maltese were furious. After all, they were used to the forays of the Barbary corsairs, but Spain had always seemed so distant. They had built up a system of liberties and rights, and they intended to keep them.
As it was, the islanders had nothing to fear. The Grand Master, De L�Isle Adam, entered the ancient capital of M�dina to swear that the privileges of the Maltese would be upheld, and he was as good as his word. In any case, the Order had plenty of money from its lands in Europe. What it needed was a home, a base, and it found it in Malta.
Soon great fortifications rose round the harbour in the north; the galley fleet was rebuilt; and the pirates soon learned to give Malta a wide berth. The knights� main duties included tending the sick and guarding the trade routes of the Christian nations, and these they carried out with the utmost efficiency.
But if it was for the glory of God that they attacked the infidel pirates, it was also to their profit. The Order soon found that there was even more money, if not glory, in attacking the heavily laden Turkish merchantmen. The knights� greed was greater than their common sense, for their old enemy, the aged Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, was ready to do battle with his old adversaries.
The final insult had come in 1565, with the capture of his greatest galleon, the Sultana, carrying 20 cannon, a regiment of his bodyguard, the Janissaries, and a valuable cargo intended for the ladies of the harem.
The main strongholds of the knights were on several promontories of the Grand Harbour of Malta, and the Turks launched the first attack against the fort of St. Elmo. They bombarded the fort from two sides, and when it fell after a month of heavy fighting, only five Christians escaped by swimming the harbour.
The Turks now turned their main attack on the Borgo. No mercy or quarter was given on either side. Supplies and ammunition began to run low, as the siege of the Borgo ran into weeks and then months.
The Turks lost thousands of men in vain assaults on the massive walls, but there seemed no end to the reinforcements, and the fighting men within the Borgo grew less every day. Finally the Turks managed to tunnel beneath the walls, and exploded a mine which brought down tons of masonry and, yelling in triumph, they poured into the breach.
A counter-attack drove back the Turks, and while the wall was repaired the knights grimly held on. In September, the Turks threw all their forces into a massive assault, but the heart went out of them as on the horizon appeared at last the sails of the relieving fleet from Sicily, and they withdrew.
The city was in ruins, but a new and more splendid one rose on the old foundations, to be named Valetta in honour of the Grand Master. The Borgo�s name was changed to Vittoriosa. The finest of the new buildings was the hospital, named the Sacred Infirmary. It was said to contain the largest room in Europe, and could hold over 400 patients. No-one was ever allowed to forget that the Order had been founded for the charitable care of the wounded and diseased.
In the Holy Land, the knights had been no more than a powerful order of warrior monks. In Malta, they became a sovereign power and the Grand Master ranked among the princes of Europe.
The Order was divided into three ranks: the knights, the chaplains and the servants-at-arms. A young man of noble birth could become a novice at the age of 16, in his own country, and would not be sent out to Malta until he was at least 20, and then at his own expense. He would then be trained in the galleys and sent out for at least a year on �caravans� seeking to destroy pirates and capture Turkish merchantmen.
In Malta itself, the Order was divided into eight Tongues, and the young Knight would live in the Auberge of his own language. These eight were Auvergne, Provence, France, Castile, Aragon, England, Germany and Italy. The Grand Master could be elected from any one of these Tongues, and would rule the Order for life.

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	Terry Doyle
Joined:	August 2004
Last Login:	August 2025
Country:	UNITED KINGDOM
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