The European Union has accepted a request by a former possession of the Knights of St John – St Barthélemy in the Caribbean – to become an associated overseas territory.

St Barthélemy was formerly an outermost region of the EU, as part of France. It is understood that the new status will allow the tiny territory to exploit better EU funding. But the territory is far from a backwater, it is already a paradise for the rich and famous, so much so that its GDP is E26,000 per capita, which is 10 per cent higher than the average rate for metropolitan France – and a good deal higher than Malta’s E17,000.

St Barthélemy – or St Bart’s – has an obscure past and has a link to Malta, more accurately, to the Knights of St John. In fact, its coat of arms still bears the Cross of the Knights Hospitaller. But the story is not one of chivalry and valour, but rather of treachery and self aggrandisement.

The name St Barthélemy is actually a variation of the name St Bartholomew and the island was named by pioneer Christopher Columbus, in honour of his brother Bartolomeo. The island was first settled by the French in the early 1600s, and they tried to grow indigo and cotton.

Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy was a French nobleman and Bailiff Grand Cross of the Knights of Malta. On 12 January 1638 de Poincy set sail for the Caribbean on board La Petite Europe. On February 20 he took up his commission as Lieutenant Governor of the Isles of America and Captain General of the French at St Kitts. He arrived wearing the regalia of the Knights of St John and soon dispensed with the authority of the French king, declaring, “the people of St Kitts will have no other Governor than De Poincy and will take no orders from the King of France.”

He instructed one of his followers, the Huguenot Levasseur, with sixty buccaneers to drive out the English from Tortuga. Levasseur was successful. On 26 December 1644, de Poincy sent his replacement back to the French king in chains. De Poincy bought the nearby island of St Croix, which he bequeathed to the Knights of St John.

In 1648, he seized the island of St Bartholomew, populated by 170 Europeans and 50 enslaved Africans. Then he sent his nephew, Robert de Longvilliers, with 300 men to take over the French half of Saint Martin. In 1650 he heard that the Spanish had evacuated St Croix, so he sent Vaugelan with two ships and 160 men to capture it. He persuaded Juan de Lascaris-Castellar, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, to pay 120,000 livres for St Kitts, St Croix, St Bartholomew and St Martin. De Poincy was immediately appointed governor.

The Order’s presence in the Caribbean was eclipsed with de Poincy’s death in 1660. He had also bought the island of Saint Croix as his personal estate and deeded it to the Knights of St John. In 1665, the Order sold its Caribbean possessions to the French West India Company, ending the Order’s presence in that region.

In 1784, the French sold the island to Sweden, who renamed the largest town Gustavia, after the Swedish King Gustav III, and made it a free port. France repurchased the island in 1878 and placed it under the administration of Guadeloupe. Saint Barthelemy retained its free port status along with various Swedish appellations, such as Swedish street and town names, and the three-crown symbol on the coat of arms. In 2003, the populace of the island voted to secede from Guadeloupe and became part of France.

St Barthélemy

Capital: Gustavia

Population: 7,448

Area: 8.1 square miles