VALETTE, JOHN PAIZISOT DE LA, a grand master of the knights of St. John, cele brated for his gallant defense of Malta against a powerful fleet of the Turks, which must be regarded as mainly instrumental in checking the westward progress of the arms of Solyman the great, long the terror of Europe and of Christendom. La Valette was born of a noble family, in 1494; and at a very early age entered the order of St. John, in which he soon distinguished himself by his enthusiastic bravery and his skill in arms. His chief distinctions, even in youth, were won in the naval service in the Mediterranean, where the Turkish power was especially formidable. On the death of Claude la Sangle, grand master of the order, La Valette was elected to that office, being the '.8th in the list of the grand masters. Still directing the energies of the order in the same course, he succeeded, within the first five years of his grand-mastership, in capturing 50 great gal leys from the Turks, and an immense number of smaller vessels of war; a success which so stirred the indignation of the sultan, that he resolved on the capture of Malta, and the destruction of the knights. Accordingly, on May 18, 1565, an immense fleet, of 159 ships, conveying a body of 30,000 janizaries and spahis, appeared off the harbor of Malta, and after failing in several assaults, formally invested the island. Alone and
unsupported by any of the Christian powers, the gallant La Valette maintained the fortress under circumstances of extreme difficulty and distress of every kind; and when, all further resistance seeming. to be hopeless, he was urged to capitulate, Ids reply was, that the life of a worn-out soldier of 71 years could not be better spent than in such a service. At last, at the end of four mouths, and after a loss, it is said, of 20,000 men, the Turkish fleet was forced to raise the blockade and withdraw from the island. La, Valette died three years later, Aug. 21, 1568.—There is another LA VALETTE, a father of the Jesuit society, who obtained a very different sort of notoriety in the latter half of the 18th century. Having engaged, contrary to the prohibition of Benedict XIV., as a trader in the products of the large estates held by the Jesuits in the Philippine islands, and being unable, in consequence of the capture of his ships by an English privateer, to meet his engagements, a suit was commenced in the French courts against the French province of the society, the proceedings in which suit were among the causes which precipitated the expulsion of the society from France, and its eventual suppression by Clement XIV. See JESUITS.