Villiers de L’Isle Adam, Grand Master of the Order, was faced with many difficulties.  Remembering the fate of the Templars, he was afraid that the Order would disperse, and its present helpless condition was surely tending to disintegration.  At this time the war between Charles V. and Francis I. was at its height, and the quarrel between France and Spain was reflected within the ranks of the Hospitallers.  As the French and Spanish Knights formed the greater part of the members, the unity of the Order was threatened by the quarrels between them that arose out of national sentiment.  The Reformation was rapidly spreading, and was likely to prove dangerous to the lands of the Order in Northern Europe, and various monarchs were meditating the seizure of the Hospitallers’ estates now that the Order was temporarily without a justification for its existence.

The Grand Master showed himself a skilful diplomat, as well as a brave soldier.  From 1523 to 1530 the Order remained without a home, while L’Isle Adam visited the different European courts to stay the grasping hands of the various Kings.  All this time negotiations were proceeding between Charles V. and the Knights for the cession of Malta.  The harsh conditions which the Emperor insisted upon in his offer made the Knights reluctant to accept, while his preoccupation with the war against France made negotiations difficult.  Further, the cause of the Knights had been damaged when the Pope—­who had acted as their intercessor—­joined the ranks of Charles’s enemies, and Clement VII. was now a prisoner in the Emperor’s hands.  In March, 1530, an agreement was finally arrived at, which was the most favourable the Emperor would grant.  One harassing burden the Knights could not escape:  Charles insisted that Tripoli must go with Malta, a gift which meant a useless drain upon their weak resources, and which fell in 1551 to Dragut-Reis and the Turkish forces at the first serious attack.  L’Isle Adam had insisted that he could not take the island over as a feudatory to the King of Spain, as that was contrary to the fundamental idea of the Order—­its impartiality in its relations to all the Christian Powers.  The only condition of service, therefore, that was made was nominal:  the Grand Master henceforth was to send, on All Souls’ Day, a falcon to the Viceroy of Sicily as a token of feudal sub-mission.[1]

This was a splendid bargain for the Emperor.  Malta had hitherto been worthless to him, but henceforth it became one of the finest bulwarks of his dominions.  To understand the supreme value of the island, we must take a glance at sea power in the Mediterranean in the sixteenth century.