By Order of Napoleon: The Taking of Malta

This book is a chronological compilation of Bonaparte's orders issued during and after the invasion of Malta in 1798. He gave orders to capture Gozo, Mdina, St. Paul and of course the city of Valletta. Napoleon's orders were very specific in terms of how the French were to treat the Knights, the Maltese, and the clergy. They included radical health and education reforms intended to align Malta's administration to the new revolutionary ideology of the French republic. He abolished nobility and slavery. He reorganized the clergy and redefined its sphere of influence. He also ordered the removal of the Order's silver and other precious items from St. John's Cathedral in Valletta. The goal is not to judge, praise or criticize the French occupation of Malta, but to give the reader access to source documents and hopefully give some perspective to those momentous events that radically changed the course of Malta's history.