rather stark contrast to their heroic forbears the knights of the Order who faced Napoleon surrendered after resisting for some ninety minutes. Thereafter the Order was forced to leave Malta and shifted its headquarters to Rome, where it has remained ever since.
Although the scene is very different today, one can still get a sense of the challenge that faced the Turks by exploring the harbour. When I first sailed into Valetta I was struck by the predominance of Fort St Elmo, and it is easy to understand why the Turks would have chosen it as the target of the first assault. Although the city is heavily built up, the main features of the harbour are intact and it is easy to picture the scene as it would have been in 1565. There is an excellent museum in the Grand Master’s palace with a fine collection of armour and weapons dating back to the siege. For those who wish to read more about the siege and the wider historical context, a good starting place is Tim Pickles’s Malta 1565: Last Battle of the Crusades from the ever excellent Osprey series. There is also an utterly gripping first-hand account by Francisco Balbi Di Correggio. Part diary and part commentary, it is a detailed summary from the point of view of a common soldier caught up in events. Ernie Bradford’s
On the question of the document at the heart of the tale, it is clear that King Henry VIII became increasingly concerned about his prospects for the afterlife as he grew older. His break with the Church of Rome had left England isolated from the heart of Europe and late in his reign he was keen to rebuild relations with the Catholic powers. The sticking point was the Pope’s demand that the possessions the Catholic Church had lost during the Reformation should be returned. Any attempt to strip the assets from those who had profited from the confiscation of Church property would have split the English ruling class right down the middle and the threat of civil war would have been unavoidable. Hence the desperate attempt by Sir Robert Cecil and Sir Francis Walsingham to secure the will that I have depicted in this novel.
