Mathurin Romegas
Mathurin d' Aux de Lescout called Romegas or Mathurin Romegas (* 1525 or 1528; † November 4, 1581 in Rome) was a descendant of the aristocratic family Gascon d' Aux and a Knight of the Order of Malta.
He was one of the best ship Commander of the Order and probably together with Dragut Rais one of the best captains of the Mediterranean at the time.
He entered the Order at in December 1546 and served most of his life on the galleys. The Ottomans feared his attacks on water, as well as on the coasts of the Levant, the Aegean and the Maghreb.
His first fame he won in 1555 by a miraculous rescue from a capsized in the harbor of Malta galley. The ship drifted keel up in the water, as the rescue team heard knocking noises from the trunk. After she had made a hole in the hull, Romegas came along with his favorite monkey on his shoulder to light - he had survived in a bubble. This story was witnessed by his friend and later Grand Master Jean Parisot de la of the Order Valette. 1564, he conquered Cephalonia before a heavily armed Turkish schooner that the Kustir Aga, the head eunuch of the seraglio of the sultans, was loaded and had goods to the value of 80,000 ducats. These goods were partly also the favorite daughter of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, what this final so angry that he ordered the attack on Malta, then to the siege of Malta ( 1565) led. In this siege Romegas played no major role, because he of a caravan ( as the Knights called their pirate trains) returning the island already vorfand under a state of siege, which is why he could not land. During the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 Romegas commanded the papal flagship.
1575 Romegas commander of the galleys of the Order of Malta and was appointed shortly after the Grand Prior of Toulouse. In 1577 he was lieutenant of the reigning Grand Master Jean de la Cassiere, which seemed clear that he once would be Grand Master. 1581 la Cassiere the Knights had, as applied by various decisions that were perceived as humiliation against him, that he was imprisoned in Fort St. Angelo. Now led de facto Romegas the Order. By Pope Gregory XIII. was an emissary, Gaspare Visconti, sent to see how the situation developed in Malta. Romegas and Cassiere were ordered in October 1581 to Rome, where the former is treated with coldness and contempt, which has probably contributed to his death on November 4, 1581 in Rome. Cassiere is used again, but dies in Rome also a month later.