Jean de Vallette served as Grand Master from 1557 until his death in 1568, a tenure defined almost entirely by one event: the Great Siege of 1565, during which an Ottoman force estimated at 40,000 men failed to dislodge roughly 700 Knights and several thousand Maltese soldiers over four months. The siege's failure shifted the strategic balance of the central Mediterranean and secured the Order's presence on Malta for another two and a half centuries.
Coinage struck under de Vallette is relatively scarce — the island's mint was not a high-volume operation, and wartime disruption to silver supply during 1565 almost certainly interrupted production.
Jean de Vallette served as Grand Master from 1557 until his death in 1568, a tenure defined almost entirely by one event: the Great Siege of 1565, during which an Ottoman force estimated at 40,000 men failed to dislodge roughly 700 Knights and several thousand Maltese soldiers over four months. The siege's failure shifted the strategic balance of the central Mediterranean and secured the Order's presence on Malta for another two and a half centuries.
Coinage struck under de Vallette is relatively scarce — the island's mint was not a high-volume operation, and wartime disruption to silver supply during 1565 almost certainly interrupted production.