Jean Parisot de Valette

Who is Jean Parisot de Valette?

Jean Parisot de Valette was a French nobleman and the 49th Grand Master of the Order of St John (the Knights Hospitaller), born into the La Valette family of Quercy in south-western France around 1494. He joined the Order in his youth, serving in the Langue de Provence, and rose through its ranks over decades of military and administrative service, including combat against the Ottomans at Rhodes. Elected Grand Master in 1557, he led the Knights and the people of Malta through the Great Siege of 1565, when a heavily outnumbered force held out for over three months against a massive Ottoman invasion fleet and army before the siege was broken. The victory made Malta and the Order famous across Christian Europe. In its aftermath, Valette founded a new fortified capital city on the Sciberras peninsula, laying its first stone in 1566; the city was later named Valletta in his honour. He declined the offer of a cardinal's hat to preserve the Order's independence, and he died in Malta in 1568, remembered as the island's most celebrated defender.

Sources: Wikipedia, 'Jean Parisot de Valette' · Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Jean Parisot de la Valette' · Order of Malta - Western Association, 'Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette'