In his history of the Order of St. John, the 18th-century historian Abbe Vertot (whose history is largely based on - but often confuses - the earlier one of Giacomo Bosio) indicates that Valette was indeed the same age as both Suleiman I and Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha (the commander of the Ottoman land forces), which would mean that he was actually 70 years old at the time of the siege.
Čeprav naj bi leto njegovega rojstva bilo 1494, oba letopisca velikega obleganja Malte Francisco Balbi di Correggio in Hipolito Sans, pravita, da je bil star 67 let v tistem času, kar pa nakazuje, da je bil rojen 1498.