The siege of Malta, also known as the siege of Valletta or the French blockade (Maltese: L-Imblokk tal-Franċiżi), was a two-year siege and blockade of the French garrison in Valletta and the Three Cities, the largest settlements and main port on the Mediterranean island of Malta, between 1798 and 1800. Malta had been captured by a French expeditionary force during the Mediterranean campaign of 1798, and garrisoned with 3,000 soldiers under the command of Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois. After the British Royal Navy destroyed the French Mediterranean Fleet at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798, the British with the cooperation of a Portuguese naval squadron were able to initiate a blockade of Malta, assisted by an uprising among the native Maltese population against French rule. After its retreat to Valletta, the French garrison faced severe food shortages, exacerbated by the effectiveness of the British blockade. Although small quantities of supplies arrived in early 1799, there was no further traffic until early 1800, by which time starvation and disease were having a disastrous effect on the health, morale, and combat capability of the French troops.
In February 1800, a significant convoy under Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée sent from Toulon made a determined effort to resupply the garrison. The blockade squadron under Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson intercepted the convoy within sight of the starving troops on Malta. Perrée was killed and his flagship captured in the ensuing and brief Battle of the Malta Convoy; no supplies reached Malta. The following month, the ship of the line Guillaume Tell set sail from Valletta to Toulon, laden with soldiers, but this too was intercepted and in a hard-fought battle was forced to surrender to a larger British squadron. These defeats rendered the French position on Valletta untenable, and its surrender inevitable. Although Vaubois held out for another five months, he eventually surrendered on 4 September and Malta was taken by Britain.
Background
French invasion of Malta
On 19 May 1798, a French fleet sailed from Toulon, escorting an expeditionary force of over 30,000 men under General Napoleon Bonaparte. The force was destined for Egypt, Bonaparte seeking to expand French influence in Asia and force Britain to make peace in the French Revolutionary Wars, which had begun in 1792. Sailing southeast, the convoy collected additional transports from Italian ports and at 05:30 on 9 June arrived off Valletta, the heavily fortified port-city on the island of Malta. At this time, Malta and its neighbouring islands were ruled by the Knights of St. John, an old and influential feudal order weakened by the loss of most of their revenue during the French Revolution. The order was composed of men from across Europe, including a significant proportion of Frenchmen, who ruled over the majority Maltese population of the islands. The head of government was Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim, who refused Bonaparte's demand that his entire convoy be allowed to enter Valletta and take on supplies, insisting that Malta's neutrality meant that only two ships could enter at a time.
On receiving this reply, Bonaparte immediately ordered his fleet to bombard Valletta and on 11 June General Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers directed an amphibious operation in which several thousand soldiers landed at seven strategic sites around the island. The French Knights deserted the order, and the remaining Knights failed to mount a meaningful resistance. Approximately 2,000 native Maltese militia resisted for 24 hours, retreating to Valletta once the city of Mdina fell to General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois. Although Valletta was strong enough to hold out against a lengthy siege, Bonaparte negotiated a surrender with Hompesch, who agreed to turn Malta and all of its resources over to the French in exchange for estates and pensions in France for himself and his knights. Bonaparte then established a French garrison on the islands, leaving 4,000 men under Vaubois while he and the rest of the expeditionary force sailed eastwards for Alexandria on 19 June.
Battle of the Nile
Bonaparte's convoy was pursued across the Mediterranean by a British fleet of 14 ships under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, who learned of the invasion of Malta while anchored off Sicily, and subsequently attempted to intercept the French on their passage to Egypt. Nelson's force overtook the French fleet on the night of 22 June in the dark without discovering their presence, and arrived off Alexandria on 28 June ahead of Bonaparte. Believing that the French must have had a different objective, Nelson turned northwards the following day to investigate the coast of Anatolia and missed Bonaparte's arrival on 30 June by less than 24 hours. Unopposed, Bonaparte landed his army and marched on Alexandria, capturing the city and turning inland. The fleet was ordered to anchor in nearby Aboukir Bay and await further instructions. On 1 August, Nelson returned to the Egyptian coast and discovered the French fleet at anchor. Attacking immediately, Nelson's ships managed to capture nine French ships of the line and destroy two, including the flagship Orient with only moderate damage to themselves. The destruction of the French Mediterranean fleet granted control of the sea to the Royal Navy, soon joined by the navies of Portugal, Naples, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire as part of the hastily organised Second Coalition against France.
Siege
Maltese uprising
On Malta, the French had rapidly dismantled the institutions of the Knights of St. John, including the Roman Catholic Church. Church property was looted and seized to pay for the expedition to Egypt, an act that generated considerable anger among the deeply religious Maltese population. On 2 September 1798, this anger erupted in a popular uprising during an auction of church property, and within days thousands of Maltese irregulars had driven the French garrison into Valletta. Valletta was surrounded by approximately 10,000 irregular Maltese soldiers led by Emmanuele Vitale and Canon Francesco Saverio Caruana. The Maltese were armed with 23 cannon and a small squadron of coastal gunboats. Although there was intermittent skirmishing between the garrison and the Maltese, the fortress was too strong for the irregulars to assault.
In mid-September, a squadron of Portuguese ships had arrived at the island. They included the Príncipe Real (90 cannons; Captain Puysigur), Rainha de Portugal (74; Captain Thomas Stone), São Sebastião (74; Captain Mitchell), Afonso de Albuquerque (74; Captain Donald Campbell), and the brig Falcão (24; Captain Duncan). All were under the command of Domingos Xavier de Lima, Marquess of Niza. In addition, the British ship HMS Lion (Captain Manley Dixon) and the fireship HMS Incendiary (Captain George Baker) were attached to the squadron. The Portuguese government had sent this force from the Tagus to augment Nelson's fleet. After a brief stay off Malta the squadron continued to Alexandria. There Nelson sent the squadron back to blockade Malta.
Late in September, a British convoy consisting of 13 battered ships under Captain Sir James Saumarez appeared off the island. Survivors of the Battle of the Nile, they were in urgent need of repair and unable to directly assist in the siege. Nevertheless, Saumarez met with representatives of the Maltese and on 25 September, sent an offer of truce to Vaubois on their behalf. Vaubois replied "Vous avez, sans doute, oublié que des Français sont dans la place. Le sort des habitans [sic] ne vous regarde pointe. Quant à votre sommation, les soldats français ne sont point habitués à ce style" ("You have, no doubt, forgotten that French soldiers are present. The fate of the inhabitants is none of your concern. As for your summons, French soldiers are not accustomed to that style). Unable to persuade the French to give in, Saumarez instead provided the Maltese forces with 1,200 muskets with which to continue the siege and, unable to delay repairs any longer, sailed for Gibraltar at the end of the month.
On 12 October, the British ships of the line HMS Alexander under Captain Alexander Ball, HMS Culloden under Captain Thomas Troubridge and HMS Colossus under Captain George Murray joined Niza's ships off Malta, marking the formal start of the blockade. On the same day, Vaubois withdrew the last of his soldiers into the fortified new city of Valletta, accompanied by approximately 100 Maltese nationals who had joined the French forces. The garrison numbered over 3,000 men and initially at least was well supplied. In the harbour lay the ships of the line Dégo and Athénien and the frigate Carthaginoise, all of which were former ships of the Maltese Navy, as well as the newly arrived Guillaume Tell and frigates Justice and Diane, survivors of the Battle of the Nile under Rear-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, which had reached Malta at the end of September.
Capture of Gozo
On 24 October, after a ten-day passage from Naples, Nelson joined the blockade squadron in HMS Vanguard accompanied by HMS Minotaur. On 28 October, Ball successfully completed negotiations with the French garrison on the small island of Gozo, the 217 French soldiers there agreeing to surrender without a fight and transferring the island, its fortifications, 24 cannon, a large quantity of ammunition and 3,200 sacks of flour to the British. Although the island was formally claimed by King Ferdinand of Naples, it was administered by British and Maltese representatives, whose first action was to distribute the captured food supplies to the island's 16,000 inhabitants.
Malta and the surrounding islands were not self-sufficient and quickly the challenge of feeding the population became a strain on the islands' resources, particularly with so many men under arms. Although now formally in command of the islands, King Ferdinand refused to assist with supplies, and the responsibility was left to Ball and his captains to arrange for the transport of supplies from Italy. By the end of the year, the number of Maltese troops in the field had fallen from 10,000 to 1,500, supported by 500 British and Portuguese marines from the blockade squadron. The blockade fleet, consisting of five British and four Portuguese ships, operated from St. Paul's Bay and Marsa Sirocco (now Marsaxlokk) on the island of Malta itself.
Blockade
1799 was a frustrating year for the British and Maltese forces deployed against the French forces, as efforts to secure sufficient forces to prosecute the siege were repeatedly denied. Major-General James St Clair-Erskine, commander of British Army forces in the Mediterranean, considered the ongoing War of the Second Coalition in Italy and the defence of Menorca to be higher priorities than Ball's siege, while the defeated Neapolitans continued to refuse assistance. A Russian squadron under Admiral Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov briefly appeared off the island in January, but was almost immediately ordered to join the Russian and Turkish forces besieging the island of Corfu. In addition to the difficulties the Allies faced in obtaining food for the Maltese population, the French succeeded in bringing supplies through the blockade in the early part of the year: in January 1799 a schooner reached Valletta from Ancona, and in February the frigate Boudeuse evaded the blockade and entered the port with supplies from Toulon. In May, a major French expedition under Admiral Etienne Eustache Bruix entered the Western Mediterranean, forcing Nelson to recall his scattered fleet from across the region, temporarily raising the blockade of Malta. During this operation a number of French supply ships took advantage of the absence of the British squadron to enter Valletta.