As the Knights of Malta prepare to elect a new Grand Master - the situation is well analysed here - my mind has turned to a previous crisis in the order. It was in 1798, when they lost the island of Malta. At the time the Grand Master was Ferdinand von Hompesch, the only German ever to have held the office of Grand Master, and generally regarded as the worst leader the Knights have ever had.
Before his election to the Grand Magistracy in June 1798, Hompesch, a Rhinelander, had held most of the important posts in the Order, and his election may well have seemed like the natural thing to do. However, he inherited a ruinous situation. The order, thanks to the French Revolution, had lost most of its income, which came from properties in France - all of which had been secularised in 1792. Moreover, of the 300 Knights vowed to defend Malta from the infidel, some two thirds were French and had been infected by Jacobin ideas. Thus, when Napoleon turned up on his way to Egypt in July 1798, perhaps a majority of the Knights were ready to welcome him, and the order as a whole was in no shape to resist. The Knights surrendered with hardly a shot being fired, and the mighty fortifications of Malta, which had never been put to the test since 1565, were meekly handed over to the invader.
