Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim

Fra ' Ferdinand Joseph Hermann Anton Freiherr von Hompesch to Bolheim ( born November 9, 1744 Castle Boll home at Oberelvenich, † May 12, 1805 in Montpellier, France) was the 71st and so far only German Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of Malta, a position which he held from July 17 1797 until his resignation on July 6, 1799.

Under his leadership, the Order had to the island of Malta, which had since 1530 home of the Order, give up after French troops landed under the then General Napoléon Bonaparte in June 1798 with a large contingent of ships and soldiers on the island. The monastic rule, not to fight against Christians, forbade the fight against the invaders. In addition to that, the majority of the Knights were French themselves. Ferdinand of Hompesch to Bolheim gave Malta thus without a fight and left the island together with all the knights. He moved into its new headquarters at first in Trieste in Italy, two months later in Ljubljana in Slovenia today.

After his resignation from the office of the Grand Master in 1799 he first moved to Austria and Italy. In 1804 he finally settled in Montpellier in France down and joined the Brotherhood of the Blue Penitents at. A short time later, in May 1805, he died a poor man at the age of 60 years.

Life

Born into the Rhenish Uradels Ferdinand of Hompesch was inducted into the Order at the age of twelve years one of the pages of the Portuguese Grand Master Manuel Pinto de Fonseca and was after five years of vesting on July 10, 1761 cum dispensatione minoris Aetatis, where he was to make rapid career. Already in 1768 he held the office of Castellan, 1770 he was jointly responsible as a lieutenant for the monitoring of the galleys and the fortifications and in 1774 was transferred to him as armor Commissioner concern for the armament.

Since late 1775, he also represented the court of Vienna as ambassador (he had this job until the takeover of the Grand Magisterium in 1797 held ). 1776, the dignity of Grand Cross, he was awarded so that he belonged to the Permanent Council of the Order from that date. His plan an approach of the Order of Malta to the Protestant St. John failed in the same year at the opposition of several German Teutonic Knights. In the following years he received the Coming Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Reichardsroth (1777 ), Herford and location (1783, this year was at the same time Prodomo per cent of the convent church of St.. Johannes ), Basel -St. Johann and Dorlisheim ( 1785 ), Sulz, Colmar and Mulhouse (1786 ) and Villingen in the Black Forest (1796 ). In 1796 he obtained the position of Großbailli ( the head of ) the German tongue.

On July 17, 1797 by Ferdinand Hompesch was - not least with the help of imperial patronage and due to the disunity of the different tongues - unanimously elected Grand Master of the Order. He joined this office in difficult times, as there was the Order in a phase of decline and Malta had attracted the military interest of the great powers because of its strategic location. This was particularly true for France, which had declared by resolution of the National Assembly in 1792 all Ordensbesitzungen in France to national property. The increased attention of the Order to Russia, where Czar Paul - as a non-Catholic sovereign - was inducted into the Order and received the title " Protector of the Order of Malta ", felt France as a task of the neutrality of the Order and a threat of a Russian takeover in Malta. Following Napoleon 's urging him was issued on April 12, 1798 by the French Board of the order, to seize the occasion of his Egypt campaign of the island. Already on March 3, 1798 a small French fleet had tried to run Malta, however, the Order of the ships refused, citing the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 the full entrance to the port. Already on June 9, 1798, now a good 500 ships stranded French fleet appeared off Malta with 54,000 men. The renewed refusal to allow the ships entering the harbor was taken by Napoleon as an opportunity to attack the island in violation of applicable international law. On June 10, 1798 15,000 men landed at eleven different locations in Malta. In addition to the poor condition of the defenses dissatisfaction contributed large parts of the Maltese population with the Order rule, sabotage and the vanishingly small number of combat-capable Ritter ( of 332 knights were about 50 no longer in service age) with their part in ensuring that Malta on 11 June had to capitulate in 1798.

The Grand Master went on 18 June 1798 in the company of 16 knights into exile to Trieste in Austria. After two months, he moved his headquarters to Ljubljana. Half a year later, on 7 November 1798, the Russian Tsar Paul of a few knights did choose Grand Master of the Order. On July 6, 1799 declared by Hompesch in a letter to Francis II 's renunciation of the office of Grand Master.

After several years of wandering through Austria and Italy in 1804, he moved to Montpellier, where he joined on 25 December of the same year the Brotherhood Penitents Bleus already died on 12 May 1805. He was buried in the chapel of the brotherhood Sainte Eulalie. His makeshift grave was not marked, since the transfer of the body was planned in his home. This, however, remained under.

Ferdinand of Hompesch can be considered as a tragic figure of the Order, the first and only German Grand Master of Malta's loss was very soon established as the result of personal cowardice to load. In early September 1798 Tsar Paul raised this allegation, and until recently it corresponded to a general perception that from Hompesch a possible incompetent and despondent Grand Master was. Only in the past few years, almost exactly 200 years after the alleged dishonorable capitulation, a new image is drawn, the historical figure and his role in the surrender of Malta is more appropriate. While there may well have been in his personal life questionable aspects (besides crushing debt be mentioned here: the defamation of his former secretary Franz Sinsteden mentioned, according to which Hompesch a mistress named Natale Farrugia had ); also reflects the fact that France is an annual alimony in the amount of 300,000 francs promised him for the surrender to the impression that Malta has not abandoned own based on technical considerations. But it would certainly be wrong to draw from any personal failings the conclusion that he had only left Malta from cowardice and due to personal profit motive the French. Rather, the intertwining of various factors meant that he ultimately had no choice but to surrender the island to the French force: The Order was extremely weakened in the late 18th century due to internal disputes, and general decay, the defenses of the island were only partially operational, the armament proved to be largely obsolete or unusable on the bulk of the knight was due to their French or Spanish descent ( Spain was at this time Napoleon's ally) no unconditional reliance, just as there was a lack of support in the population. Some years earlier, addressed to Spain, Russia and Austria asked for financial assistance to improve the readiness for defense of Malta were scarcely heard, apparently existed among the great powers no excessive interest in sustainable strengthening of the island. Our own economic power of the Order, which had not been recently weakened seriously by the expropriation of the three French tongues ( Auvergne, France, Provence), was not enough for the necessary measures by far.