An archival approach to the tribunal armamentorum and corsairing regulation between 1605 and 1798

Abstract

The Tribunal Armamentorum (TAR) was a tribunal founded in 1605 by Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt (1601-1622) to regulate corsairing in Malta and Gozo. It remained active until 1798 when it was abolished by the newly instituted French Government. The records and documents which make up the archive have attracted historical attention; however, the literature is lacking an investigation of the TAR as an institution in its own right. The aim of this dissertation is to provide a different perspective on this tribunal by focusing on its role as an archival creator. The research addresses three questions: how the TAR functioned as an administrative and judicial body; how these functions are reflected in its archive; the custodial history of the documents after the Order’s expulsion from Malta; archival gaps and rearrangements. Using a qualitative methodology grounded in documentary analysis and structured in three case studies, the study reconstructs the TAR’s administrative system across two centuries of legislative change. Central to this study is the analysis of four corpora of law and the current arrangement of this archive. The findings demonstrate that behind an expedition into the waters of Barbary and the Levant lay paper, production of records and bureaucratic density. As is reflected in the documentation, in conducting its functions the TAR made use of a wide range of instruments, ranging from petitions, licenses, reports, oaths and rulings. The TAR did not operate in a vacuum but in an integrated Mediterranean-wide multi-legal framework and evolving diplomatic networks. These complexities are reflected in the records and through litigations opened by individuals from a variety of different contexts. Malta-based corsairing in the early modern period is treated as an extension of ‘holy war’ against the enemies of Christendom. Behind this veneer lay fortunes, money, and a thirst for riches. Financial disputes were a unifying thread across its documentation. Within the TAR’s archive unfolds the enforcement of law, the livelihood of a state and its people, religion, and diplomacy. The dissertation makes several contributions. It provides an archival and institutional history of the TAR; sheds light on the history of the records after the abolishment of the tribunal, situates Maltese tribunals within Mediterranean legal and diplomatic history; highlights the archival connections between the TAR and dispersed repositories; and deepens understanding of how recordkeeping shaped early modern regulation. In a tangible manner are brought to the fore the consequences of historical ruptures on archives. This research enriches the history of corsairing, expands the study of Maltese early modern tribunals, and opens pathways for future investigations into related archives and institutions.