Perhaps one of the best-known and very popular episodes of the Maltese islands’ medieval history relates how the populace heroically rose against their local lord, Don Gonsalvo de Monroy (or Monroi), in 1426-27. A sizeable number of local historians have devoted ample space to this episode but all the authors were at a loss when they tried to explain why the Maltese revolted against Monroy but not against his predecessor, Don Antonio de Cardona.
The well-known recounted story ran thus: in January 1420, King Alfonso I of Sicily (and V of Aragon), known as The Magnanimous, born in 1396 and who reigned from 1416 till 1458, was in need of funds to pursue his costly foreign policy of aggrandisement, and so he pawned the Maltese islands to Don Antonio Cardona (1395-1458) for 30,000 florins.