Count of Malta - Aragonese Sicily

Aragonese Sicily

The heir apparent of the fief, Guglielmo de Malta, nephew of Count Andrea died in 1299 leaving all possetions to his daughter Lukina. It appears that during the period between 1300 and 1320 no Count of Malta held the fief although Lukina held on to the rights she had inherited from her father without actually holding any title or power. The most important positions where filled by natives and people appointed by the Crown.

At around 1320 King Frederick II, gave the title of Count of Malta to his son by Eleanor of Anjou, Guglielmo, it seems that in 1330 Guglielmo invested the county of Malta to his half brother Alfonso Federigo. Although no records are known to substantiate the common belief, it is maintained that he held the fief until his death in 1349. At this date the fief was inherited by his son Pietro Federigo. A year later in 1350 King Louis of Sicily incorporated the islands to the royal dominio, apparently after petitioning from the local nobility. During this period Queen Jeanne of Naples appointed Niccolo Acciaiuoli Count of Malta which title he claimed until 1360. In 1360 King Frederick III the Simple gave the fief to Guido Ventimiglia but by 1366 the fief was passed by the crown to Manfred III Chiaramonte. Once again in 1370 King Frederick III the Simple entrusted the fief to his illegitimate son Guglielmo d’Aragona. Manfred III Chiaramonte being Admiral for the King of Sicily, Captain of Djerba and the Kerkenna Islands, and Count of Modica took control of the islands later on after the death of the aforementioned king in 1877.

In reality during much of this period the islands were in the control of Giacomo de Pellegrino, a Messinese who had settled in Malta, and who from 1356 to 1372 holding various titles and administrative positions along with a lucrative cotton cloth warehouse along with a privateering business took over the politics of the fiefdom. He was finally removed from power after an invasion of Malta from an allied force of Genoese and Sicilian navies and a 2 month siege of Mdina by both these forces and Maltese rebels from both peasants and other noblemen. his power in local politics and administration made him many enemies on the islands and with the Sicilian claimants to the county, while his privateering business made him enemies in both Sicily and Genoa.

Manfred III Chiaramonte than held the fief until his death in 1391, after which the fief was to be inherited by his eldest child Elizabetta Peralta Chiaramonte, although actual management of the territories was probably undertaken by her brother Andrea Chiaramonte. Finally Andrea Chiaramonte was executed in 1392 after he had been accused as a major conspirator in the anti-Aragonese unrest during the early rein of Maria of Sicily.