# The Knights' Navy: When Malta Ruled the Mediterranean Sea

An episode of [The Story of Malta: The Fortress Island of the Mediterranean — Fexingo History](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1895465859), 5 Aug 2026, 11 min.

Audio: https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-story-of-malta/episode-0191.mp3

Lucas and Luna explore the formidable navy of the Knights of St. John, the force that turned Malta into a Mediterranean superpower. From the galleys powered by slaves and convicts to the great galleons of the Order's line, they uncover how this tiny island built a fleet that challenged the Ottomans and the Barbary corsairs. Along the way, they meet the corsairs of Malta themselves — knights who raided North African shipping with papal approval — and follow the epic Battle of Djerba, where the Knights' admiral Jean de la Valette survived a crushing defeat and lived to build Valletta. The story spans from the Order's arrival in 1530 to the decline of galley warfare, revealing how naval power made Malta the 'fortress island' it remains today. #KnightsOfMalta #NavalHistory #Mediterranean #BattleOfDjerba #JeanDeLaValette #Galleys #Corsairs #OrderOfStJohn #OttomanEmpire #BarbaryCorsairs #GrandHarbour #MaltaHistory #NavalWarfare #16thCentury #History #FexingoHistory #WarAtSea #MediterraneanHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

## Transcript

Lucas: So we've talked before about the Knights as fortress-builders, as hospitaliers, even as slave-owners. But today I want to look at them from the other side of the land — the sea. Because the Knights of Malta weren't just a garrison on a rock; they were one of the most effective naval forces in the Mediterranean for centuries.
Luna: I didn't think of them as a navy, honestly. I thought they were just defenders of the island.
Lucas: That's exactly the common image, but they were much more aggressive than that. The Order's whole reason for being after they lost Rhodes in 1522 was to fight the Ottoman Empire, and they did that largely at sea. When Charles V gave them Malta in 1530, he didn't just want them to hold the island — he wanted them to harass Ottoman shipping. And they did, with a fleet that became the terror of the eastern Mediterranean.
Lucas: Now, that fleet wasn't huge by the standards of Spain or Venice, but it was highly effective. At its peak in the sixteenth century, the Order could put maybe eight to ten galleys to sea, but those galleys were manned by professional soldiers and rowed by a mix of slaves, convicts, and paid volunteers. And they knew the waters like no one else.
Luna: Where did they get all those rowers? Slaves, you said, but also paid volunteers?
Lucas: Right. The rowing benches were a mix. You had the forzati, the convicts sentenced to the oars, and the schiavi, the enslaved Muslims captured in raids. But you also had the buonavoglia — free men who signed on for pay, often poor Maltese or Italians who saw it as a steady job. It was brutal work, but for some it was better than starving.
Lucas: And the captain of each galley was usually a knight, often a younger son from a noble family who had joined the Order hoping for military glory. They weren't just figureheads; many of them were experienced seamen who had spent years on the galleys before commanding their own. The office in charge of all this was the Capitano delle Gaglere — literally 'Captain of the Galleys' — and he was answerable only to the Grand Master himself.
Luna: So it was a serious professional operation, not just a bunch of crusaders playing pirate.
Lucas: Exactly. But here's where it gets interesting: they also did play pirate, in a way. The Knights relied heavily on what they called the corso — essentially licensed privateering against Muslim shipping. The Order would issue letters of marque to its own knights and to private captains from Malta, allowing them to attack Ottoman and Barbary vessels and keep a share of the plunder. This was completely legal under the laws of the time, and it was a huge source of income for the island and the Order.
Lucas: And the Vatican approved. The pope saw it as a holy war against Islam, so the corso was blessed by the Church. That meant Maltese corsairs could raid with a clear conscience, and they did — the Maltese corsairs became as feared as the Barbary corsairs of North Africa. They'd sweep down on shipping lanes, capture merchantmen, and bring back cargo and slaves. It was a brutal economy, but it kept Malta rich.
Luna: So it was like a mirror image of the Barbary pirates, just on the Christian side.
Lucas: Yeah, that's a fair way to put it. Both sides were doing the same thing, and both justified it religiously. But the Knights were also part of the larger Christian coalitions that went up against the Ottomans in big set-piece battles. And one of the most dramatic, and most overlooked, was the Battle of Djerba in 1560.
Luna: Djerba — that's off the coast of Tunisia, right? The island with the ancient synagogue?
Lucas: The very same. In 1560, a Christian fleet made up of Spanish, Papal, Genoese, and Maltese ships sailed to seize Djerba as a base against the Ottomans. It was a huge gamble, and it went catastrophically wrong. The Ottoman admiral Piyale Pasha caught the Christian fleet at anchor, and the result was a massacre. Out of about 200 ships, only a handful escaped. The Knights' galleys were decimated, and their admiral — a certain Jean de la Valette — was one of the few survivors who made it back to Malta.
Luna: Wait, that Jean de la Valette? The hero of the 1565 siege?
Lucas: The same. He was the Captain of the Galleys at Djerba, and he managed to get his own galley out, but many of his knights weren't so lucky. Hundreds were killed or captured, and those who were captured often ended up as slaves in Constantinople or on Ottoman galleys. It's a humbling reminder that even the greatest figures in Malta's history started with a loss.
Lucas: But de Valette was a survivor. He used that experience to rebuild and strengthen Malta's defenses, which is partly why he was ready when Suleiman sent the Ottomans back in 1565. And after the Great Siege, he founded Valletta, the city named for him. But the navy itself had to be rebuilt from almost nothing after Djerba.
Lucas: Which brings me to a point that I find kind of fascinating. After Djerba, the Order invested heavily in its naval capabilities, but it also shifted its strategy. Instead of big fleet actions, they focused more on the corso — the privateering war — because it was more profitable and less risky. For the next century, the Knights' galleys were more likely to be hunting single merchant ships than fighting the Ottoman navy in open battle.
Luna: So they became more like pirates than a navy, in a way.
Lucas: In a way, yes, but they were still a navy when needed. They took part in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, where the Holy League broke the Ottoman fleet once and for all. The Knights' galleys fought with distinction, and the Order's admirals became famous across Europe. But after Lepanto, the Mediterranean became safer for Christian shipping, and the corso declined as the Ottomans and Christians grew tired of the endless raiding.
Lucas: By the seventeenth century, the galleys themselves were becoming outdated. Heavy sailing ships with cannons were replacing them, and the Order struggled to keep up. The last great naval moment for the Knights was in 1708, when they helped capture the island of Minorca from the Spanish, but that was more of a land operation. After that, the navy gradually shrank, and by the time Napoleon arrived in 1798, the Order's fleet was a shadow of what it had been.
Luna: But for those two hundred years, they were a real naval power. I never think of Malta that way — it's so small.
Lucas: That's the thing — size didn't matter as much as seamanship and motivation. The Knights were fanatically devoted to their mission, and they had a lot of experience in Mediterranean waters. Plus, they had the resources of the entire Order, which owned estates all over Europe, funneling money into their ships. It's a unique example of a tiny island state becoming a major naval player, and it's a big reason why Malta earned its reputation as a fortress island.
Lucas: You know, before we go deeper, I want to take a quick step back. This podcast — it's a labor of love, and it's completely ad-free, which means it exists thanks to people who chip in a small amount. If our conversations about Mediterranean history have been worth a coffee to you, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's the smallest ask, and it helps keep these episodes coming.
Luna: Yeah, and it's a great way to support a show you get so much from.
Lucas: So, back to the galleys. We mentioned the Battle of Djerba, but let me tell you a little more about what it was like to serve on one of these ships. The galley itself was long and low, maybe 40 meters, with a single deck and a ram at the bow. It had two masts with lateen sails, but in battle, they relied on oars for speed and maneuverability. The rowers, as we said, were often slaves, and they were chained to their benches, sometimes for years at a time.
Lucas: The knights themselves were soldiers and officers, not rowers. They stood on a raised platform at the stern, where the captain and the helmsman directed the ship. In battle, the knights would wear armor and fight as marines, boarding enemy ships with sword and musket. It was a brutal form of warfare, but it was also the most prestigious military service a knight could perform.
Luna: And the ships themselves — were they more advanced than the Ottoman ones?
Lucas: Not necessarily. The Ottomans had very similar galleys, and by the sixteenth century, both sides had adopted the same design. The advantage the Knights had was in their crews. Their rowers, even the slaves, were often better fed and better trained, and their knights were more motivated. Also, they had developed a tactic of firing their heavy guns at close range before boarding, which could be devastating.
Lucas: One of the most famous admirals after de Valette was a man named Mathurin d'Aux de Lescout, who led the Knights' galleys at Lepanto. He was known for his aggression, and he once turned a defeat into a victory by ramming an Ottoman flagship and boarding it. Stories like that made the Knights' navy a legendary institution, even as it faded.
Luna: It's incredible how much of Malta's history is tied to the sea. From the Phoenicians to the Knights to the Second World War, it's always been about naval power.
Lucas: Absolutely. And that's why the Grand Harbour was so important — it was the home base for all of this naval activity. The ships were maintained in the docks, and the island's economy revolved around the fleet. When the Knights were strong, Malta was strong. When their navy declined, so did the Order's influence. It's a story of how a small island leveraged its geography and its determination to become a naval superpower, and it's a story that doesn't get told as often as the sieges and the palaces.
Lucas: So, next time we're on a beach in Malta and you see a little harbor, just imagine the galleys pulling in with their flags flying, their captive crews, and their cargo of plunder. That's the real story of the Knights' navy, and it's a part of Malta's history that definitely deserves a place in your mental map.
Luna: I'll never look at the sea the same way again.
Lucas: And that's exactly what we're here for. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you in the next episode.

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