[2] Although his birth year is usually given as 1494, both chroniclers of the Great Siege of Malta, Francisco Balbi di Correggio and Hipolito Sans, say he was 67 at the time, thereby implying that he was born in 1498.

[3] After the loss of Rhodes, the Order was granted the Maltese Islands and Tripoli by Emperor Charles V. In 1538 he was imprisoned in the Gozo prison for four months after attacking a man.

[4] In 1541 La Valette was involved in a naval battle against Abd-ur-Rahman Kust Aly, in which he was wounded and his galley, the San Giovanni, was captured.

La Valette was taken as a galley slave for a year by Barbary pirates under the command of Turgut Reis but was later freed during an exchange of prisoners.

La Valette was described by Abbe de Branthome as being a "very handsome man, speaking several languages fluently including Italian, Spanish, Greek, Arabic and Turkish.

During the siege the vastly outnumbered Christians held out for over 3 months against an Ottoman force containing no less than 30,000 soldiers, including the Janissaries, as well as the Sultan's fleet of some 193 ships.

The battle saw the fall of Fort St. Elmo after about a month of fierce fighting, but the Order managed to hold out in Birgu and Senglea until a relief force arrived.

Ottoman specialist engineers had originally assessed the fortification of Saint Elmo, from local informants and conducting reconnoitring missions, saying it would fall in three days.

Knight Commander Le Sande, who had sailed from Sicily with reinforcements, ordered a general charge from the Maltese hills toward the end of the siege.

His tomb (in the form of a sarcophagus) can be found in the Crypt of the Conventual Church of the Order (now St. John's Co-Cathedral), situated within the walls of Valletta.

Worthy of eternal honour, He who was once the scourge of Africa and Asia, And the shield of Europe, Whence he expelled the barbarians by his Holy Arms, Is the first to be buried in this beloved city, Whose founder he was.

[8] Claims have also been put forth that La Valette had at least another child, Isabella Guasconi, after a presumed affair with the wife of a Rhodiot nobleman of Florentine descent.

A street in the town of Naxxar as well as the flagship of Virtu Ferries MV Jean de La Valette are both named after him.

[17] Due to his key role in holding Malta during the siege of 1565, de Valette has appeared as a main and supporting character in several works of literature: Notes