Order. Henry's offers were refused, and the
English langue, which had a brilliant record in the Order, perished.
Many of the Knights fled to Malta; others were executed for refusing
obedience to the Act of Supremacy. A general confiscation of their
property took place, and in April, 1540, an Act of Parliament was
passed vesting all the property of the Order in the Crown, and setting
aside from the revenues of such properties certain pensions to be
paid to the Lord Prior and other members. The Grand Prior, Sir William
Weston, died soon after, before he could enjoy his pension of L1,000 a
year.

With the accession of Mary, in 1553, negotiations were at once opened
with the Knights for the restoration of the English langue, and during
her reign the old Order was restored once again, though the lands
were not returned. But Elizabeth, in the first year of her reign,
suppressed the Knights for good and all.

In North Africa, Philip II., on his accession, had taken over the
troubles of his father, and after the Corsairs had failed in their
attack on the Spanish ports of Oran and Mazarquivir, he carried the
war once more into the enemy's territory. Finding themselves isolated,
they appealed to their overlord, the aged Sultan Solyman, to help them
against Spain.

The most important seaman on the Turkish side was Dragut--Pasha
of Tripoli since 1551--who had been the greatest of Barbarossa's
lieutenants. In 1540 Dragut had been surprised and captured by
Giannetin Doria, the nephew of the great Admiral, and had served four
years chained to the bench of a Genoese galley. One of the last acts
of Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa had been to ransom his follower in the
port of Genoa, in 1544, for 3,000 crowns, an arrangement of which the
Genoese afterwards sorely repented. Dragut had the ear of the Sultan
when the appeal for help came from Africa, and his suggestion was to
attempt the capture of Malta. It had become more and more certain
that the Turks would not leave the island unassailed. Not only did the
Knights lend splendid help to the various Christian Powers, but they
were in themselves a formidable foe. Their fleet was always small, six
or seven galleys, but they became the dread of every Turkish vessel in
the Mediterranean. Annually these red galleys, headed by their black
_capitana_, swooped down on the Turkish shipping of the Levant and
brought back many rich prizes. Malta grew steadily in wealth, and
the island became full of Tu