True Crusader Crime: Murdering Monks
Not surprisingly, the crusades were full of headstrong and heavily armed soldiers who were hard to police.
The Siege of Rhodes (1522)
The Mediterranean island of Rhodes would once be the stage for the conflict between the Hospitallers and the Ottoman Empire. In this episode of Bow and Blade, Michael and Kelly talk about how Suleiman the Magnificent was able to besiege and overcome the Hospitallers and their fortress.
The Siege of Rhodes (1480)
In the year 1480, the Ottoman Empire massed its armies to conquer the small island of Rhodes. Defending the island were a group of medieval monastic warriors – the Hospitallers. In this episode of Bow and Blade, Michael and Kelly discuss the Siege of Rhodes in 1480.
Dread the Grim Reaper: Early Warning Strategies as a Means of Plague Prevention: Hospitaller Malta’s Fight Against Contagion
Plague, the grim reaper of preindustrial society, brought social disruption and physical devastation on such a scale as to warrant major literary attention both from contemporaries who witnessed the misery it perpetrated and by writers fortunate enough to live in centuries when this most fatal of epidemics was by and large only a distant memory
Medieval Geopolitics: The Medieval Church as a Military Power
By the late 11th century the Roman Catholic Church began to evolve into a distinctive – and powerful – controller of military power.
Non ex unica natione sed ex plurimis: Genoa, the Catalans and the Knights of St John in the fifteenth century
In the fifteenth century, the hitherto usually close relations between the Genoese community and the Order of the Knights of St John were threatened by an increase in tension and incidents of violence.
The Medieval Magazine (Volume 3, Issue 7)
In our latest issue: Being lovesick was a real disease in the Middle Ages! Judaism, War, and Chivalry: Why is this Knight Different than Other Knights? Travel Tips: San Lorenzo’s Medici Crypt! Crusade in Europe
Soldiers of Christ: The Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar in medieval Ireland
In an Irish context, the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar were the most significant expressions of this unusual vocation that sought to combine military service with monastic observance.
The Ideal Medieval Hospital: St. John of Jerusalem
Let’s take five minutes to look at what may be the most famous hospital of the Middle Ages: The Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem
Crusaders, Pilgrims, and Relics – Bearers of the Cross: Material Religion in the Crusading World 1095-1300
The Museum of the Order of St. John is hosting a series of events and talks to promote their project: Bearers of the Cross: Material Religion in the Crusading World 1095-1300.
BOOK REVIEW: The Lady Agnes Mystery – Volume I
A review of the Lady Agnes Mystery by Parisienne author, Andrea Japp.
Medieval Books: 5 Great New Releases!
Black Friday is around the corner – here are a few books that have just been released!
De Valette’s Battlesword
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.