Jean Parisot de Valette

Jean Parisot de Valette was Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. His leadership during the Ottoman assault helped preserve the island as a Christian stronghold in the central Mediterranean.

Jean Parisot de Valette also held the offices or ranks of Grand Commander of the Order of the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, grand prior of Saint-Gilles, and Grand Master of Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem.

Roger Crowley’s Empires of the Sea gives particular attention to the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, where Jean Parisot de Valette’s Hospitallers resisted an Ottoman army that included the veteran commander Turgut Reis, and to the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, fought after Selim II’s conquest of Cyprus. In James H. Jackson’s Blood Rock, the Knights Hospitaller prepare to resist the vast Ottoman force sent by Suleiman the Magnificent to destroy their island stronghold. Christian Hardy, an English soldier serving among the defenders, wins the attention of Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette through courage and military skill, but the Order faces danger from betrayal within as well as bombardment and assault from without. Further fictional perspectives on Jean Parisot de Valette can be found in Simon Scarrow’s Sword and Scimitar and William Napier’s The Last Crusaders: The Great Siege.