During the Middle Ages (1000-1500 AD), the castle was the residence of either the Counts of Malta, or the feudal barons responsible for the control of the islands. The Keeper of the Castle, also known as the Castellan or Governor, enjoyed pre-eminence amongst the islands’ nobility and was independent from the jurisdiction of the Universitá of Mdina.
For more than two centuries the castle was controlled by feudal lords. The Angevins commanded it from 1268 and passed it onto the Aragonese on the 30th March 1282. The Genoese under King Frederick took control in 1372 and inhabited it until the arrival of the Castillians in 1410.
It appears that after 1416 King Alphonse curtailed the jurisdiction of the Castellan beyond the ditch’s border – thus withdrawing his power over vessels entering or leaving the port, as well as over the people of the Borgo. This indicates that the excavation of a dry ditch separating the castle from the Borgo precedes this date.
After the Maltese uprising of 1427 against Consalvo de Monroy, when his wife Costanza was besieged within the Castrum Maris, the castle itself was handed over to the representative of Guterra de Nava until 1435. Subsequently the de Guevara and de Nava families almost monopolised the Castellany between them right up until the arrival of the Order of St John in 1530.
