THE ORDER OF MALTA AND THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

After the partition of Poland, during the reign of the emperor’s mother Catherine II, the Polish Langue came under Russian control. In 1797 this was renamed the Anglo-Bavaro-Russian Langue. The proclamation by Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch in the same year, making the Emperor Paul a Protector of the Order, meant that, even after the Napoleonic conquest of the island of Malta, the emperor could still lay claim to Malta — if only he could get himself made the Grand Master. This was effected in 1798 when the Grand Priory of Russia, possibly with the connivance of a number of French emigre Knights, declared the Grand Master von Hompesch deposed. In the November of the same year Paul I was proclaimed Grand Master of The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta. The whole transaction was completely illegal, Paul wasn’t even Catholic. However, as has been seen, the Maltese uprising against the French, coupled with the English intervention in the affairs of the island, caused the miscarriage of all Paul’s Mediterranean policy. The whole of this curious and fascinating episode in the Order’s history is succinctly dealt with in THE ORDER OF MALTA AND THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE (Rome, 1969) by Fra Olgerd de Sherbowitz-Wetzor and fra Cyril Toumanoff.