How King Tom ruled Malta and the Ionian Islands, Rivalry for power in Mediterranean

Description

There can hardly be a more eccentric British colonial administrator than Thomas Maitland, Malta’s first governor and lord high commissioner of the Ionian Islands. He wasn’t called King Tom or an ape of Napoleon out of admiration or respect, but for the despotic manner he ruled Malta and the Ionian Islands. Maitland lies buried – unwept, unhonoured, unsung, and unnoticed – in one of Malta’s iconic spots, a garden perched high on top of a mighty bastion overlooking Grand Harbour. Maitland ruled at a time when Britain had become the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean. He brooked no interference and, though he piloted important reforms in all the places he governed, his work is overshadowed by his ruthlessness. This account, which may be regarded as a sequel to the author’s Napoleon: ‘Malta or War’, also brings out episodes that drew sharp criticism, such as the oppressive manner in which he enforced London’s policy of neutrality in the Greek war of independence.

His little-known love affair with a Sinhalese gypsy dancer in Ceylon, which he governed before moving to the Mediterranean, gives a human touch to a story of a colonial administrator who, regardless of his good and bad points, has left a mark on the history of Malta and the Ionian Islands.