Malta and Venice : the war of Candia 1645-1669

Abstract

The greatest contribution of the Order and its navy to the struggle against the advance of the Turks in the Mediterranean during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was definitely the unstinted aid offered to Venice during the long-drawn-out War of Candia (1645-69). The Archives of the Order of St. John kept in the National Library of Malta possess a wealth of unpublished documents concerning this important episode in Mediterranean history. I intend to fill the wide gap left by the numerous scholars of Venetian history with regards to the auxiliary assistance offered by the Order to Venice. Their common oversight is that they did not give any importance to the role played by the Order's fleet. The number of published works dealing directly or indirectly with the War of Candia is very substantial as can be seen from the bibliography and, initially, my research studies tended to become a mere repetition of known facts.