Innico Maria Guevara Suardo (4 June 1744 in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

– 25 April 1814 in

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

) was a member and leader of the

Order of Saint John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

(also known as the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

Life

Born into a Neapolitan noble family of Spanish origin, he was made lieutenant of the Order on the death of Grand Master

Giovanni Battista Tommasi Frà Giovanni Battista Tommasi (Cortona, 6 October 1731 – Catania, 13 June 1805) was an Italian nobleman and 73rd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta. Life 1731–1798 He was born in the Kingdom of Naples and entered the Knights H ...

in 1805, since the Order had been expelled from its traditional base on

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and was now based in

. Guevara Suardo distinguished himself as an admiral of the Order's naval fleet, using all his authority and firmness to prevent the Order's lands in Sicily being sold, as was planned during the reign of

Joachim Murat Joachim Murat ( , also , ; it, Gioacchino Murati; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a French military commander and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the ...

, the new king of Naples. On 23 June 1811 he also had to accept the suppression of the Order of Saint John of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg, operated by

Frederick William III of Prussia Frederick William III (german: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, wh ...

, who founded a new order with a view to nominating the new Grand Master, so as to completely remove the ancient Brandenburg institution from the Catholic Order of Malta. During his lieutenancy he also worked hard to get the British government to return complete control of

to the Order, which they were unwilling to do even after the end of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. With a political and diplomatic commitment, in the same years in which the Order and Britain faced off against each other,

Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden Gustav IV Adolf or Gustav IV Adolph (1 November 1778 – 7 February 1837) was King of Sweden from 1792 until he was deposed in a coup in 1809. He was also the last Swedish monarch to be the ruler of Finland. The occupation of Finland in 1808–09 ...

offered to transfer the Order's base to the island of

Gotland Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...

, so as to have the prestigious order based on Swedish soil. Guevara-Suardo was grateful for the offer but refused it right as soon as it was made, since accepting it would look to the British as if the Order was giving up its legitimate and secular claims on Malta. On his death in 1814 Guevara Suardo was buried in the convent church of Novaluce and succeeded as lieutenant by

Andrea Di Giovanni y Centellés Andrea Di Giovanni y Centellés (Messina, 3 February 1742 – Catania, 10 June 1821) was an Italian nobleman and lieutenant of the Knights Hospitaller, Order of Saint John from 1814 until his death. Life From a Spanish-origin noble family in Mes ...

Sources

* Francesco Giuseppe Terrinoni, ''Memorie storiche della resa di Malta ai francesi nel 1798'', tip. delle Belle Arti, Roma, 1867. {{DEFAULTSORT:Guevara-Suardo 1744 births 1814 deaths Lieutenants of the Knights Hospitaller Italian commanders of the Napoleonic Wars