Black Friday is around the corner – here are a few books that have just been released!
How far were the Military Orders responsible for the results of the Third Crusade?
May 10, 2015 By
In order to assess how responsible the Military Orders were for the results of the Third Crusade this article will be structured by the analysis of three key areas in which they played a part; the siege of Acre, the march to Jaffa and their other military contributions, and their role as councillors to King Richard I of England.
De Valette’s Battlesword
April 1, 2015 By
This Hospitaller sword is shrouded in mystery, but it is well known and it is, in any case, still in Malta.
Templars, Hospitallers, and 12th-Century Popes: The Maltese Evidence
March 21, 2015 By
To date, scholars have cataloged approximately 1,000 pre-1198 papal documents for Templars and Hospitallers, including deperdita (lost documents, inferred from other, still existing documents), as well as forgeries and falsifications.
Steamy Syrian Scandals: Matthew Paris on the Templars and Hospitallers
December 30, 2014 By
Matthew Paris is a major source of information on the Templars and Hospitallers. But we ask: ‘How far can this Mad Monk be trusted? Was he in the pay of the Evil Emperor?’
Strange Bedfellows : The Rise of the Military Religious Orders in the Twelfth Century
November 27, 2014 By
Although they were devout members of a pacifist religion, they were also its dominant military force. By the most basic tenants of Christianity, the Military Orders should never have existed.
The impact of the crusading movement in Scotland, 1095-c.1560
February 15, 2014 By
The involvement of Scots in the Crusades has never been studied in detail either by historians of Scotland or of the Crusades, but it is hoped that the present thesis will show such a detailed study to be worthwhile.
Crusader hospital discovered in Jerusalem
August 8, 2013 By
The remains of a large hospital from the Crusader period have been discovered in the heart of Old Jerusalem, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. Later this year the public will be to visit part of the structure when the site is turned into a restaurant.
Negotiation and warfare: The Hospitallers of Rhodes around and after the Fall of Constantinople (1426–1480)
June 20, 2013 By
At the beginning of the 14th century, the Order of the Hospital, unlike the Temple, had managed to safeguard its image as a religious military order still able to pursue its mission to fight against the enemies of the Christian faith.
The Participation of the Military Orders in Truces with Muslims in the Holy Land and Spain during the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
June 10, 2013 By
Although the military orders’ primary function was to fight against the infidel, warfare in the Middle Ages was never continuous, as armies could not be kept in the field indefinitely, and when there was an imbalance of power between Christians and Muslims it was in the interests of the weaker side to seek truces, even at the expense of concessions.
The Hospitallers’ and Templars’ involvement in warfare on the frontiers of the British Isles in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries
June 8, 2013 By
Although in theory they were independent religious orders answerable only to the pope, in the British Isles the Templars, and particularly the Hospitallers, were increasingly secularised institutions, serving the king of England and playing important roles in royal government
The Battle of La Forbie (1244) and its Aftermath
June 6, 2013 By
How did the kingdom’s leaders cope with the battlefield defeat? How did the settlements survive? Above all, what was the Military Orders’ contribution to the kingdom’s stability after the chaos following the battle?
Muslim Perspectives on the Military Orders during the Crusades
April 15, 2013 By
What caused the particular enmity between Saladin and the Templars and Hospitallers? To understand this situation one must begin with examination of Muslim perspectives on monasticism in general.
The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem as prototypical NGO
March 31, 2013 By
While the term non-governmental organization and its definition are modern, the common traits of NGOs today can be found in the equivalents of medieval times.
Querimonia desolacionis terre sancte – The fall of Acre and the Holy Land in 1291 as an emotional element in the Teutonic Order tradition
December 24, 2012 By
Those Military Orders − the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights, along with other Military Orders, had shed their blood across the Latin Kingdom and suffered many casualties in the final siege which took place in Acre between March and May 1291.
The Hospitallers in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, c. 1150–1387
November 22, 2012 By
The origins of a military-religious Order under the spiritual patronage of St. John can be sought in a pilgrim-hospital which was founded in Jerusalem by the 1080s.
Religion, Warfare and Business in Fifteenth Century Rhodes
October 25, 2012 By
How did a military-monastic order manage the resources of an island commercially asimportant as that of Rhodes while overcoming the limitations due to its patrimonial struc-tureto cover their defensive needs? In this essay weattempt to answer this question interms of practice and in the light of relationsthatthe Knights maintained with two distinctgroups of merchants: the Catalan-Aragonese and the Florentines.
Nomadic Violence in the First Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Military Orders
October 8, 2012 By
That the threat posed by bands of marauders was taken seriously by the early crusader settlers can be seen by some of the barons’ brutal reactions to it.
‘Images of the Other: Venice’s Perception of the Knights of Malta’
August 15, 2012 By
The hostile perception which Venice generally entertained of the Knights Hospitallers on Rhodes and Malta was not an attitude which the Republic secretly assumed and secretly endeavoured with much effort to disguise.
A Hospitaller Consilium (1274) and the Explanations Advanced by Military Orders for Problems Confronting them in the Holy Land in the Later Thirteenth Century
August 7, 2012 By
The text does not explicitly state which order was responsible for the document, but the consilium provides two indications that it was in fact drawn up by a Hospitaller.
Female Hospitallers in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
July 31, 2012 By
These Hospitaller brothers had sisters. The first known sister was Adelaide, who became a female Hospitaller during a chapter meeting of the Hospitallers of Saint-Gilles and Trinquetaille in 1146.
The Sword Brothers – Knights Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights
July 16, 2012 By
Listen to the three-part programme The Sword Brothers, broadcast by the CBC radio show Ideas
Motivations and Response to Crusades in the Aegean: c.1300-1350
July 16, 2012 By
Since the Fourth Crusade, there had been a permanent Latin settlement in the Aegean made up primarily of the Venetians who had fought alongside the Frankish knights in 1204.
The Great Siege of Malta
May 18, 2012 By
Tony Rothman recalls one of the turning points of early modern history, when a heroic defence prevented the rampant Ottoman forces from gaining a strategic foothold in the central Mediterranean.
The Science of Fortification in Malta in the Context of European Architectural Treatises and Military Academies
May 18, 2012 By
In order to understand why the fortifications of Malta evolved as they did, we need to study them in the context of the technical publications and military academies of the period.
How you can Follow Us!