Introduction.
One event, apparently unrelated with them, was to ensure the survival of the Knights Templar after the fall of Acre in 1291 marked the end of the Crusades.
It all began after the Sicilian Vespers, when the kings of the House of Barcelona became the rulers of the kingdom of Tinacria, that is, of the island of Sicily. Thus, Frederick III of Sicily, as part of the Peace of Castalbellotta (1302), to appease the Pope, gave Malta to the Knights Templar led by Jacques de Molay
Initially, de Molay was less than thrilled by this gift,busy as he he had his hands full with asserting the influece of the Order in Cyprus, but this changed in 1305 with his death. His successor, Hugues de Peraud, the visitor of France, even if he focused too in what was going on in Cyprus, he found time to pay some attention to Malta, that was reinforced and fortified by the Templars.
Because, basically, de Peiraud's time as Grand Master of the Knights Templar was marked with turmoil and chaos that kept him away from the island. First there was the death of Phillip IV of France in 1305 and the whispered rumours spreaded by a Esquieu de Floyran, who claimed that the French king had been poisoned by the Templars because he knew some dark secrets about the Order. Thus began the black legend of the Templars.
Then came the next crisis that gave little time to de Peiraud to waste with those rumours, busy as he was with Cyprus, where, in 1306, king Henry II of Jerusalem had been deposed by his brother, Amalric, Prince of Tyre, and posioned later on.