The old and original order of St. John of Jerusalem later became known as the Knights of Malta (1530-1798) and has included, among illustrious ranks, many men of fame and bravery. Foremost among the brave, and most famous, was the Grand Master of the Order in the Islands of Malta, between 1557 and 1568, named Jean Parisot de la Valette. His name will always be remembered in the annals of history for his part in the Great Siege of 1565, a battle that lasted four months, where, with great bravery, he led the Knights and the Maltese to victory against the mighty Turks of Suleiman the Magnificent.
The victory in this memorable battle between the forces of the Crescent and the Cross gave Christian Europe a sigh of relief and earned Malta the admiration of everyone. On June 5th, 1566, King Philip II of Spain proclaimed la Valette "The Greatest Hero of His Age" and presented to the Grand Master a magnificent sword and dagger, as a tribute and honor to the courage and bravery of the defenders. The hilts of both weapons were made of gold, artfully set diamonds, and fine jewels, inscribed with the motto PLUS QUAM VALOR VALET VALETTE!
In June, 1798, 212 years later, Napoleon Bonaparte, during his invasion of the Islands of Malta, sacrilegiously plundered St. John's Co-Cathedral, one of Europe's wealthiest temple museums. The sword and the dagger were among the treasures looted and, on Napoleon's personal instructions, were sent, immediately, to Paris. The rest of the treasures were loaded on Napoleon's flagship, L'Orient, which, tragically, ended up at the bottom of the Nile Delta, just off Aboukir Bay, where L'Orient sank after being blown up in the infamous Battle of the Nile by Admiral Horatio Nelson.
When Napoleon was exiled on the Island of Helena, in the South Atlantic, in 1815, the dagger accompanied him as his personal valued acquisition. After Napoleon's death, in 1821, the dagger, together with his personal belongings, was just shipped back to Paris. The dagger and the sword, which is known as L'Epee de la Religion, were displayed under lock and key, in the Bibliotheque Nationale until removed in 1961 to the Apollo Gallery of the Louvre Museum, in Paris, where they have been ever since.
The government of France should return these treasures to their rightful owners, the people of the Maltese Islands.
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