Oliver Starkey

A plaque with the inscription AUBERGE D'ANGLETERRE: THIS WAS THE AUBERGE OF THE ENGLISH KNIGHTS. IN THE ADJOINING BUILDING LIVED OLIVER STARKEY LATIN SECRETARY TO GRAND MASTER VILETTE AND TURCOPILIER OF THE ORDER AT THE TIME OF THE GREAT SIEGE IN 1565
Commemorative plaque to Sir Oliver Starkey on the former English Auberge.

Sir Oliver Starkey (c.1523-83/86), was an English knight who lived in the 16th century. He was the only English knight present at the siege of Malta.[1] It was wrongly assumed that he was buried in the crypt of St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta. The tombstone with his name on it contains only a poem written by Oliver Starkey for Grand Master Jean de La Valette.[2] The Poem reads, in translation:'To God, Supreme, Almighty, Sacrosanct. He [La Valette] was the dread of Asia and Libya and once the guardian of Europe, after he had subdued the Turks by means of his Sacred Arms, the first one to lie buried in the grave, here in this propitious city of Valletta which he founded, worthy of eternal honour. Fra. Oliver Starkey, Pro-Turcopolier, wrote [this] poem.'

He was MP for St Alban's in April and November 1554.[3]

  1. ^ Professorial Inaugural Lecture given by Professor Gerwyn Griffiths, University of Glamorgan, retrieved 16 October 2009
  2. ^ Munro 2005, p. 178
  3. ^ Oliver Starkey, The History of Parliament Trust, retrieved 31 August 2013