Giovanni Paolo Lascaris di Ventimiglia e Castellar (Maltese: Laskri) (28 June 1560 – 14 August 1657) was an Italian nobleman and Grand Master of the Knights of Malta.

Failing to secure enough votes for his own election, de Redin encouraged his supporters to instead side with Lascaris.

[4] Also in 1639, Pope Urban VIII asked Lascaris to intervene in the First War of Castro by sending naval forces owned by the order to assist papal troops against the Dukes of Parma; specifically galleons and other warships.

[5] Lascaris played a dangerous double game; he sent warships to aid the pope while assuring the Dukes they were there only as a show of force and would not participate in the conflict.

[7] The Order's proprietary rights were confirmed in a treaty with France two years later: while the king would remain sovereign, the Knights would have complete temporal and spiritual jurisdiction on their islands.

The only limits to their rule were that they could only send French knights to govern the islands, and upon the accession of each new King of France they were to provide a gold crown worth 1,000 écus.

[8] In 1665, after Lascaris's death, the Knights sold their islands back to France, ending their brief colonial project.