were, that any Englishman admitted into the Order must take an oath of allegiance to the King, and that no member in England must in any way recognise the jurisdiction or authority of the Pope.  Henry was well aware that the Knights could never consent to terms such as these, which were the negation of the fundamental principle of international neutrality of their Order.  Henry’s offers were refused, and the English langue, which had a brilliant record in the Order, perished.  Many of the Knights fled to Malta; others were executed for refusing obedience to the Act of Supremacy.  A general confiscation of their property took place, and in April, 1540, an Act of Parliament was passed vesting all the property of the Order in the Crown, and setting aside from the revenues of such properties certain pensions to be paid to the Lord Prior and other members.  The Grand Prior, Sir William Weston, died soon after, before he could enjoy his pension of L1,000 a year.

With the accession of Mary, in 1553, negotiations were at once opened with the Knights for the restoration of the English langue, and during her reign the old Order was restored once again, though the lands were not returned.  But Elizabeth, in the first year of her reign, suppressed the Knights for good and all.

In North Africa, Philip ii., on his accession, had taken over the troubles of his father, and after the Corsairs had failed in their attack on the Spanish ports of Oran and Mazarquivir, he carried the war once more into the enemy’s territory.  Finding themselves isolated, they appealed to their overlord, the aged Sultan Solyman, to help them against Spain.

The most important seaman on the Turkish side was Dragut—­Pasha of Tripoli since 1551—­who had been the greatest of Barbarossa’s lieutenants.  In 1540 Dragut had been surprised and captured by Giannetin Doria, the nephew of the great Admiral, and had served four years chained to the bench of a Genoese galley.  One of the last acts of Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa had been to ransom his follower in the port of Genoa, in 1544, for 3,000 crowns, an arrangement of which the Genoese afterwards sorely repented.  Dragut had the ear of the Sultan when the appeal for help came from Africa, and his suggestion was to attempt the capture of Malta.  It had become more and more certain that the Turks would not leave the island unassailed.  Not only did the Knights lend splendid help to the various Christian Powers, but they were in themselves a formidable foe.  Their fleet was always small, six or seven galleys, but they became the dread of every Turkish vessel in the Mediterranean.  Annually these red galleys, headed by their black capitana, swooped down on the Turkish shipping of the Levant and brought back many rich prizes.  Malta grew steadily in wealth, and the island became full of Turkish slaves.  The generals of the Maltese galleys, Strozzi, La Valette, Charles of Lorraine, and De Romegas, were far more terrible even than the