Britain and Malta
From 1787 to 1798
The first contact between Malta and Britain was initiated by the Grand Master of the Order, Emmanuel de Rohan, in 1789. Hearing that the British government intended to send representatives to Malta, who would be subordinate to the British consul-general who was in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, de Rohan sent a complaint and emphasized the independence of Malta from the kingdoms in the south of Italy, greatly encouraging speeding up the process of recognizing William England as British Consul in Malta. He would come to Malta only in 1794. W. England was previously consul in Sweden and the Baltic countries and worked closely with De Rohan.
The situation was getting worse for the order: on September 19, 1792, their property in France was confiscated, and after that the French revolutionary army managed to defeat the Prussians in the Battle of Valmy. On September 21, Louis XVI was ousted from power and on November 19 of the same year a proclamation was issued proclaiming that France would fight for the overthrow of all monarchies in Europe. In this context, William England sent a request to Britain in December 1792 to guarantee the protection of Malta. Another letter was already sent in January of the following year, due to the greater losses of the order thanks to the confiscation of their property and the republican victories.
William England tried to convince the British to send their fleet and ships to the Mediterranean at a time when the British presence was minimal and French pirates ruled the seas and disrupted trade. This agreement meant that Malta would send its fleet to defend British trading interests if they promised to defend Malta against the revolutionaries. The situation changes during the spring and summer of 1793, when France finds itself in economic chaos and civil war. As it looked as if the main problem of order - the return of confiscated property - would resolve itself, contacts between Britain and Malta weakened during this period.
The opinion of the British just before 1 February 1793 was that whatever happened, the problem of confiscated property would force Malta to look for a protector to represent her in the future and that it would have to be one of the great maritime powers. Also seen in the British analysis is a detailed inventory of Malta's military forces, including the fact that they have the ability to recruit around 25,000 men in the event of a conflict. The British did not want Russia to become the master of the islands, because it would mean that it would have more influence over the eastern Mediterranean from where it would exert pressure on Constantinople, the Greek islands and could intervene in the Levant. On the other hand, Spain was not seen as a threat because its fleet was focused on the Atlantic. Malta's advantage is prominent; it was thought that it would give Britain advantages in trade with Italy, Africa and Egypt. The British felt that France would rather see Malta under British than Russian control. Despite this, British governments until 1798 were not particularly interested in Malta. British interest was more focused on establishing control over Corsica or Minorca, which were much closer to Toulon than Malta.
In the middle of the summer of 1793, the Jacobins manage to establish their power in France. As a result, relations between Malta and Britain were strengthening. However, the problems also kept getting worse. Since their property was confiscated and in the meantime other countries brought new taxes on their remaining property, the order had to take on a lot of debt. Although the order was officially obligated to stay out of conflicts between European powers, De Rohan began talks with the British to take revenge on the French (despite warnings from several of his advisers that neutrality was the better option). De Rohan did not recognize the new government in France, considering the royalist government in exile to be the true government of France. French ships were not allowed to use the tricolor, and De Rohan sent his men to speed up the process of Malta joining the European coalition against France and to offer Malta as a place where the wounded would be treated for free, etc.
The negotiations took place around September 1793. Britain needed men for the siege of Toulon, which De Rohan uses to his advantage. He offers to send his troops as well as give the British access to all the ammunition that Malta had at its disposal, including all the warehouses in its territory if the British would promise to help Malta and finance the order. The delegation sent by De Rohan, however, did not succeed in negotiations with the British, namely Lord Robert Fitzgerald, the ambassador for Switzerland. The delegation did not make it clear that the absolute condition for Malta's entry into the coalition was that Britain cover its debts.
On the other hand, based on the delegation of De Rohan, De Maisonneuve and the report of the British Admiral Hood, about 1000 sailors from Malta were recruited for the siege of Toulon. The British ship H.M.S. Captain entered the main harbor on November 19, 1793 to recruit new detachments. This meant a direct violation of the statute of neutrality that the order emphasized. Although Admiral Hood received only 440 sailors based on this, De Rohan used this to demand that Britain pay him off. In 1794, there was an upheaval - Corsica proclaimed George III as king, and Gilbert Elliot became the administrator of the area. Two knights of the order went to the British, offering to persuade De Rohan to send his men to Corsica. Eventually they managed to convince him, and one of the knights, De Corne, informed the British government about the negotiations. This all happens in the middle of the summer of 1794, a period when the French intended to slowly increase their influence in Malta, especially from October 1794.
The British used knights within the order to find out through them the extent of French influence on the island. One of those knights was De Sade, who answered directly to Admiral Hood. He came to Malta on 15 October 1794, while De Rohan was informed and grateful that Hood and Elliot were actively interested in Malta, and wanted closer connections between Corsica and Malta. He assured them that he would actively fight against Republican propaganda. De Sade reports at the end of November 1794 that the order was by then fully prepared to enter the war directly on the side of the coalition, if Britain would give them a subsidy of £100,000. Only on those terms would Rohan accept an alliance with Britain. However, Elliot rejected the offer and recalled De Sade; he returned back to Corsica. It was enough for the British to know that Malta would never recognize a republic. In that case, Elliot thought the subsidies weren't necessary.
Elliot sent his proposal to London in January 1795 and London agreed; subsidies will not be provided. Instead, the British sent De Corne and British officers to force De Rohan to commit troops, which would force him to give up any semblance of neutrality altogether. The British thought it was possible without subsidies anyway, taking into account Malta's previous policy. Other knights of the order, such as De Thuisy, tried to make a formal agreement with Britain where they would try to satisfy their demands while preserving the neutrality of Malta. These attempts failed. De Rohan himself probably disagreed with this, considering that these negotiations ignored the issue of subsidies. He sent De Corne with military engineers to Corsica on 25 May 1795. In return, De Rohan forbade De Corne to recruit military detachments in Malta, thereby leaving himself room to distance himself from the whole issue. De Rohan argued that the Maltese who went to Corsica were not within the order itself, so that they were completely free to seek a better home elsewhere and that this did not jeopardize Malta's neutrality.
In 1796, Malta changed its strategy and tried to coexist with the republic. They sent a representative to Paris, and at the same time they negotiated with the Russian Emperor Paul. By then, the British were forced to withdraw from Corsica. In 1797, Grandmaster De Rohan died. This withdrawal brought Malta back into the spotlight of the British public. For example: Member of Parliament, Colonel Mark Wood, argued (from 1796 to 1802, when Malta became an active issue again) that the ideal base in the Mediterranean was Malta, which he considered to be "another Gibraltar". If Britain did not claim the island, there would be great danger that France would do so, thereby not only having a base from which to attack Egypt, but also cutting Britain off from India. That is why he advocated that Britain provide subsidies to the order, considering that a golden opportunity in 1795 had been lost. Later, he felt that in 1798 the conquest of Malta was no longer feasible (because of Toulon and Egypt) and that the British government must do everything in its power to preserve the connection with India.