History – 1660 Annet de Clermont Gessan

Annet de Clermont Gessan, of the illustrious Auvergne family of the Counts of Clermont, was seventy-six years of age at the time he was called upon to succeed De Redin as Grand Master on the 9^th February 1660. The dauntless bravery, which Gessan had shown at the capture of Mahometta in Africa in 1606, had raised him high in the estimation of the fraternity. For a long time he held the important office of confidential adviser to the Prince De Vendome, Prior of Toulouse, and on his being called to Malta in 1645 he was made Grand Marshal and subsequently Bailiff of Lyons.

He had barely occupied the supreme dignity four months when the wound, which he had received at the capture of Mahometta, opened afresh and was the cause of his death, which occurred on the 2nd June 1660.

No events of importance took place during the brief rule of this Grand Master.