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CHAPTER 4 Corsair for Christ n 1 July 16221 Charles Huault left Paris for the island of Malta. He had chosen the definitive direction of his life, even though he did not make his solemn profession in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem until 1651, twenty-nine years later.2 Did he truly know what lay ahead of him? He had been able to develop an approximate ideaof the "chivalrous life" in talking with members of the Order, of whom there were several among his relations.3 Buthe did not suspect that in fourteen years he would journeyten timesbetween the capitalof France and that ofMalta,that he would end up serving the king of France and the Grand Master of the Order simultaneously, and that he would take ship for the colonies. The motivation underlying his decision remains hidden, but it is not a surprising one, taken as it was in the atmosphere of a relatively troubled age.4 Thereligious wars had not yet ended - it wasprecisely in the summer ofthis year, 1622,that LouisXIII was fightingagainst the Protestants of the Midi, at the very time that several Knights of Malta were battling in the ranks of the French navy against La Rochelle.The Thirty Years War had recently begun. Duelling was in its heyday.5 As will be shown later, violence did not intimidate Charles Huault; he lacked neither courage nor audacity. All through his life, he demonstrated a total readiness for all tasks, from the most perilous to the most delicate. The aim of the present chapter is to consider the period from the beginning of July 1622 to the beginning of January 1636, the moment of his appointment to Quebec. But first will come a description of the Order that he was choosing to join, followed by a brief examination of the events which marked this new phase in his life; and finally, a consideration in some detail of his activities after completion of his novitiate: his service in the Mediterranean, on behalf of the Grand Master or on his own account (as when he went on a privateering expedition with a boat which he himself had bought), and then, from 1632 on, his participation in the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France. O 86 THE CHEVALIER DE MONTMAGNY 1. The Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, also known, since 1530, as the Order of Malta There seems to be littlevalue in offering a simple definition of a reality as complex as the Order of Malta. It would seem more useful to give a three-part description of it: a brief look at its past, an outline of its organization, and a summary of its strictly religious requirements. An outline of the history of this institution can be made under two headings: the eastern Mediterranean until 1522 and Malta from 1530 onward (see Table 14). It all began around 1060, with the creation in Jerusalem by Italian merchants of a hospital for the treatment of sick pilgrims.6 In 1100 an enterprising man7 decided to found a religious community to take charge of patient care (the word "hospitallers" was often used to designate the Knights of Malta). In 1137, military responsibilities were added (in the beginning, essentially, for the protection ofthe pilgrims); these would remain in effect until the end of the eighteenth century. Thehazards associated with the politicalupheavals in the region forced a retreat to the coast, then to two islands, Cyprus and Rhodes. The Knights were installed on the latter for two centuries.8 The Ottoman Sultan Soliman II forced them to leave it in 1522.9 In 1530 Emperor Charles V granted them the fiefdom of the archipelago ofMalta.10 As at Rhodes, the Knightswere made responsible for the government of this territory, which though relatively small in size was densely populated - the population,11 100 per cent Catholic would in 1530 have numbered between 35,000 and 40,000.12 Even here the Ottomans pursued the Knights. Their siege ofMalta in 1565 is an important date in the annals of Europe. For one thing, the Knights' victory guaranteed the Order a great renown and won it numerous vocations, above all in France. For another, it began the decline of Ottoman naval power in the Mediterranean, a decline that would be confirmed by the battle of Lepanto six years later. Equally, it was at this moment that a systematic defence of the place was undertaken; the fortifications ofthe capital,Valetta, still impress today's...

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