Again from the Chocolate Festival. Four standard bearers carrying the colours of 4 of the 8 langues of the Order of the Knight of St John & of Malta. The Order was founded in the 10th century as a Hospitaller Order to care for pilgrims who visited holy places in Jerusalem. Subsequently, the necessity was felt to establish a military wing of the Order to defend itself and pilgrims against Turkish and Arab forces from the Islamic world. The Order’s years of glory are directly linked with Malta where it ruled between 1530 and 1798. It is now more commonly known as the Order of Malta. The Order is still in existance as a charitable institution with its headquarters in Rome. For administrative purposes, the Order was divided into 8 Langues (or languages) with a Grand Counsel representing all the langues headed by the Grand Master who was appointed for life. Knights members formed part of the langue for the state from which they came. The 8 langues were: Provence, Auvergne, France, Castille & Leon, Aragon, Italy, England and Germany.
