Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/626

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
590
A History of

of the grand-prior, Col. Gould Hunter Weston, himself a knight of the revived langue. It now lies once more in its original recumbent position, on a suitable base, in the north side of the church. Sir William Weston had been present at the siege of Rhodes in 1522, where he greatly distinguished himself.

Adrian Fortescue was the second son of Sir John Fortescue; his mother was aunt to Queen Anne Boleyn. He was created by Henry VIII. a knight of the Bath for his services in the French wars. He was summoned to attend that king at the field of the cloth of gold, when he was directed “not only to put yourself in arreadiness with the number of ten tall personages, well and conveniently apparelled for this purpose to pass with you over the sea but also in such wise to appoint yourself in apparel as to your degree the honour of us and this our realm appertaineth.” He was committed “to the Knight Marshall’s ward at Woodstock,” in 1534, for denying the king’s supremacy, and released under the general pardon late in the autumn of the same year. He was again attainted in the spring of 1639. Hull has the following entry in his chronicle on the subject:—“Sir Adrian Foskeu and Sir Thomas Dingley knights of St. John were the 10th day of July beheaded.” There are two pictures of him in the church of St. John at Valetta, and a third in the Collegio di San Paulo at Rabato, Malta. The two first are by Matthias Preti, called “Il Calabrese,” a knight who flourished in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Sir Adrian Fortescue has always been revered as a martyr in the island.

Clement West, Turcopolier. He rendered himself notorious by the turbulence and disrespect of his conduct. In the chapter-general held in 1532, he argued that the proxies for the grand-priors of England and Ireland, and for the bailiff of Aquila, should not be allowed to vote. The assembly having decided against that opinion, he broke out into the most unseemly and blasphemous language, calling the procurators Saracens, Jews, and bastards. The latter then preferred a complaint against him, and when called upon for explanation he merely stated that it was impossible for him to know whether they were Jews or not, for that they certainly were not Englishmen. The