The Hospitaller Knights of Saint John at Rhodes 1306-1522

By Gordon Ellyson Abercrombie

The first of a series of volumes on the Hospitaller Knights of Saint John, this volume covers the period 1306–1522.

The Hospitaller Knights had developed during the Crusades from a monastic order providing hostels for Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. The need to provide armed escorts to these pilgrims brought about their evolution into a Military Order. An elite component of Crusader armies, Hospitallers were involved in most large-scale Christian-Saracen engagements following the First Crusade. Taking to the sea, the Hospitallers became a major naval power in the Mediterranean. 

The author draws on the work of the Order’s official historians, Giacomo Bosio and his successor Bartolomeo dal Pozzo. He transcribes their writings for the modern reader, while also presenting new information revealed in the 400 years of scholarship since Bosio’s death in 1627. This volume opens with Hospitaller relocation from Cyprus to Rhodes during the years 1306 to 1309 while introducing other entities wielding power in the Eastern Mediterranean, including Mamluk Egypt, Turkish beyliks emerging from disintegration of the Seljuk Empire, the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, Cyprus itself, and not least, the Republic of Venice controlling most Aegean islands. The book brings to light the contributions of Hospital leaders (Grand Masters) as well as of lieutenants, allies and opponents, including those of Philippe Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, who became Grand Master in 1521. 

Complete with an extensive glossary of notable figures, this volume is believed to be the only continuous history since Bosio of the Hospitallers during the period 1306 through 1522, and is certainly the only such history in the English language.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: May 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9781399048026

Gordon Ellyson Abercrombie

The son and grandson of naval officers and a naval officer himself, GORDON ELLYSON ABERCROMBIE has spent most of his life at sea and much of it sailing the eastern Mediterranean aboard both warships and his own 44-foot sailboat. A Royal Navy sea cadet early in life at Plymouth, England, he is also a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, followed by nine years of naval service much of it with the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Long a resident of Turkey both before and after naval service, he is an amateur archaeologist who has delighted in tracing the footsteps of England’s George Ewart Bean, turning over stone slabs along the coast of Anatolia in search of inscriptions shedding light on history. It was a similar curiosity which led him to Giacomo Bosio, a search for missing information concerning Hospitallers, their great walls 40’ in width, and their medical service in the time of plague. An avid student of history, the author believes he has crawled through every Hospitaller structure west of Cyprus, not once but often, describing the purpose and history of each to friends and family. In doing so he has scoured the Mediterranean from Morocco to Lebanon and become familiar with the coasts and most historically significant islands of Croatia, Greece, and Italy.

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Introduction

The author came to this undertaking, the writing of The Hospitaller Knights of Saint John, with an unflagging interest in history and decades of residence and travel in the Near East. A former naval officer and sailing-yacht owner, he also brought to the undertaking a deep respect for seamen of the age of sail. As importantly, he brought tens of thousands of sea miles to the undertaking, including thousands of miles of solo sailing leaving him with a profound awareness of weather at sea and its impact on maritime history. He in addition brought hundreds of personal explorations of Mediterranean arenas of history, dozens of which were of that remarkable redoubt called Rhodes Town, not to overlook multiple inspections of most other Hospitaller facilities in the Mediterranean. He is deeply indebted to the Order’s official historian Giacomo Bosio who has already written an unsurpassable Istoria della Sacra Religione et Illustria Militia di San Giovanni Gierosolimitano. And Bosio did it without the World Wide Library available today. The author is also deeply indebted to Bosio’s 1671 successor Bartolomeo dal Pozzo, an Hospitaller who participated in some of the history he describes, a history as detailed as that of his predecessor.

For many readers and students of history, however, the Renaissance Italian of Giacomo Bosio and Bartolomeo dal Pozzo is a difficult read as it was for this author. It is the author’s hope that he has nevertheless transcribed some of the wealth of Bosio and dal Pozzo content, and complemented it with truths revealed in the nearly 400 years of scholarship since Bosio’s death in 1627. These complementary truths are the work of numerous learned historians, too many to name here but who are named in endnotes of the text. One standing out among others, however, is linguist and historian Kenneth M. Setton whose four-volume The Papacy and the Levant 1204–1571 and Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century are a must-read for anyone with an interest in the Hospitaller Knights of Saint John or the Levant or simply with an interest in history. These titles are particularly pertinent because the Hospital was an arm of the Church.

Originally the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, the Order’s inception in Jerusalem may be considered to date from the First Crusade conquest of the city in July 1099. At that time there already existed a hospice in Jerusalem (the Hospital of Saint John) for Christian pilgrims to Muslim Jerusalem, headed since 1080 by Benedictine Brother Gerard (Blessed Gerard). This entity survived on charitable contributions. Under Gerard, the Hospital obtained a Papal charter and from 1099 founded subordinate hospices in cities and towns of Europe to furnish rotating staff and operating funds called ‘responsions’¹ for the Hospital of Saint John in Jerusalem. Upon Gerard’s death in 1120 he was succeeded by Raymond du Puy (r.1121–60) who altered the Order’s character to one with a military ethos, the hospice also becoming a true hospital tending all sick and wounded no matter position or faith. Meanwhile subordinate hospices in Europe became priories with their own infirmaries furnishing streams of replacement knights (nobles), serving brothers (not of high birth), and chaplains (both) to Jerusalem, all sworn to chastity, poverty and obedience. Priories themselves meanwhile created subordinate commanderies (called preceptories in England and parts of Germany) to staff and fund priories, many with their own infirmary, most with donated land leased to tenant farmers and tradesmen. During the period of this history every Hospitaller was permanently attached to his receiving commandery, which would, at least, remain a retirement destination, in some cases a permanent assignment.² The number of commanderies varied over time but likely exceeded 500 during this period of history, each with one to thirty Hospitallers. Most of these commanderies were for knights, others for serving brothers, and still others for chaplains. To become a knight commander an aspirant must have passed a minimum of five years at the convent, in this history the fortified city of Rhodes. An aspirant must have also completed two caravans of twelve months each aboard the Order’s galleys as well as an unspecified period of duty in the Order’s hospital.

Entitled The Hospitaller Knights of Saint John at Rhodes, 1306–1522, this volume’s opening chapter deals with Hospitaller relocation from Cyprus to Rhodes during the period 1306 to 1309. This chapter also deals with the first ten years of Hospitaller residence at Rhodes ending in 1319 while necessarily introducing other entities wielding power and influence in the Eastern Mediterranean. These other entities included Mamluk Egypt, the largest such entity, Turkish beyliks emerging from disintegration of the Seljuk Empire, including the Mentese Emirate enveloping Rhodes to the north and east by as little as 15 miles, the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire in its final decades, Cyprus itself, and not least, the Republic of Venice controlling most Aegean islands.

By intention much of this history’s detail involves individuals, and while the first chapter focuses on Foulques de Villaret, twenty-fifth Grand Master of the Hospitaller Knights of Saint John, it also brings to light the contributions of properly identified lieutenants as well as of properly identified allies and opponents. Succeeding chapters coincident with the term of office of succeeding grand masters deal similarly with the individuals making history, but not at the expense of history itself. The author hopes the reader finds this volume as instructive and interesting as did he. This Volume I is believed to be the only continuous history since Bosio of the Hospitallers during the period 1306 through 1522, and is certainly the only such history in English.

Gordon Ellyson Abercrombie

Chapter I

Foulques de Villaret 1306–1319

Foulques de Villaret was elected Grand Master of the Hospitaller Knights of Saint John within a few days of his uncle and predecessor Guillaume de Villaret’s death on 9 June 1305. About sixty-five years of age and believed to be a veteran of Louis IX’s Eighth Crusade to Tunis as well as of combat in the Holy Land, this second or younger son of the Seigneurie of Villaret near Carcassonne in south-west France was deemed to be of the same mold as his admired uncle, a knight of energetic brilliance and great heart. Received into the Order of Jerusalem in 1259 and the Order’s first and only admiral at the time of his election, he was also considered one of ‘them,’ a storyteller with a bellowing laugh who was fond of conversation and a cup of wine.¹

Villaret chaired his first Sacred Council meeting of Knights of the Grand Cross within days of his election. At the meeting, Guy de Sévérac of Provence was appointed Villaret’s successor as Grand Commander while Sancio de Aragona (Sanç de Aragó in Catalan) was appointed his successor as Admiral effective in 1306, Aragona in 1304 and 1305 commanding a Sicilian Galley Squadron in service to Roger de Flor’s Catalan Company. Also at the meeting, it was agreed in view of inhospitable Lusignan hosts on the island of Cyprus, the Hospitaller Order of Saint John like the departed Order of Templars must seek a new home. During the same month of June 1305, forty-one-year-old Raymond Bertrand de Got had been elected Pope Clement V by the College of Cardinals. He would similarly choose not to lead the Church from an inhospitable Rome and would become the first pope of the Avignon Papacy.²

The Holy Land’s last Crusader bastion at Acre had fallen in 1291 to Mamluk Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil. A mere handful of Hospitallers, including seriously-wounded Grand Master Jean de Villiers, had escaped to Cyprus where they had re-established their Convent and Hospital at Limassol. Also escaping was Henry II Lusignan, King of Jerusalem and Cyprus, who eventually developed a concern that his sovereignty had been infringed by his new guests. At Constantinople off the diametrically opposite corner of Asia Minor (Anatolia) from Cyprus, Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (r.1282–1328), for reasons of Imperial impoverishment, relied increasingly on hired Genovese corsairs to operate the Imperial Navy, as had his father and predecessor Michael VIII Palaiologos (r.1259–82). This was partly a consequence of the rape and dismemberment of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 from which Venice emerged with ‘one quarter and one-half of one quarter of the Roman Empire’ (Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo), including most islands in the Aegean Sea. Rival mercantile republics, Genoa and Venice had never been friends and had twice been at war. To retain or recover its islands from Venice, the Byzantine Empire increasingly looked to these same Genovese corsairs to whom the islands were granted in fief, that is, in return for maintenance of an armed militia, keeping the peace, and, not least, remittance of taxes.

The first Italian to command the Byzantine Navy was Licario or, by his Greek name, Icarios. Licario had been born of a Vicenzan father and of a Greek mother on the Aegean island of Negroponte (Euboea) where he had come into conflict with Venetian overlords. Entering Byzantine service before 1270, by 1280 Licario had recovered much of the western Aegean while reaching the Byzantine rank of megas doux or Grand Duke, the first non-Greek to do so. He had also been granted the entire island of Negroponte in fief, which with exception of the capital city he had subsequently wrested from Venetian overlords. Among successors, each contributing an unknown number of vessels to the hired navy, were Giovanni dello Cavo, Andrea and Lodovico Moresco, and Vignolo di Vignoli, uncle of the two Morescos, each of Genoa.³

Cavo had served under Licario during the 1278 seizure of the small Aegean island of Anafi, 20 nautical miles east of Thera (Santorini). Immediately thereafter he had been ceded the island in fief, succeeding Venetian Leonardo Foscolo who had received it in fief from the shortlived 1204–61 Latin Empire of Constantinople. At or about the same time Cavo had also been ceded the eastern Aegean island of Rhodes in hope he might rid the island of pirates, including Nikos Krivikiotes called the Captain of Rhodes. While Cavo eliminated Krivikiotes in making himself master of the island, rather than rid Rhodes of pirates he made the island a sanctuary for pirates. At the same time Cavo had advanced in rank first to Imperial Admiral and then to Grand Duke in succession of Licario, the second non-Greek to attain the latter rank. Cavo’s tenures as both Lord of Rhodes and as Byzantine naval commander, however, appear to have ended in 1282, likely in consequence of disappointing results at Rhodes from which much of Cavo’s tenure was consumed by piratical raids as far afield as the Venetian Adriatic. Alternatively Cavo’s tenure was ended on Imperial succession at Constantinople where new Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos may have wished to sweep out some of the old. It was not for reason of a new naval policy; it was not until accession in 1328 of Andronikos III Palaiologos that Byzantine policy swung back to re-construction and maintenance of an Imperial Navy.⁴

While it is uncertain why Cavo’s Byzantine career ended, he was succeeded in Imperial Navy ranks by Andrea Moresco of Genoa. Also appointed Imperial Admiral, Andrea Moresco was next to be granted the island of Rhodes in fief. His authority over mercenary garrisons at Lindos and Rhodes Town, however, eventually became suspect, and he was succeeded as Imperial Admiral by the Catalan Company’s Ferran d’Ahones in October 1303. Meanwhile the Catalan Company’s larger-than-life Roger de Flor, an Italian by birth and Genovese by residence, had in 1303 become the third non-Greek to be appointed Grand Duke, and remained such until his April 1305 assassination. Never Grand Duke and last appearing as Byzantine Lord of Rhodes in June 1305, Andrea Moresco was that month apprehended by Cypriot authorities while raiding that island. It was not the first such raid, and no ransom was requested. Andrea Moresco’s brother Lodovico (Luigi) then became acting Lord of Rhodes.⁵

Together with the foregoing appointed overlords of Rhodes there was also a mostly un-appointed overlord, Leonidas or Leon Gabalas (Gavalas). A Greek from pre-Venetian Crete, Gabalas together with his brother, Yiannis, arrived at Rhodes at about the time of the Fourth Crusade sack of Constantinople in 1204 and by force of personality and a small band of adventurers crowned himself Lord of Rhodes and Karpathos. Leon Gabalas ruled these two islands and others intermittently until his death in 1240 when he was succeeded by his brother who ruled for another ten years. Yiannis Gabalis was succeeded by a mix of Gabalis descendants, others appointed by Byzantine Constantinople, and by the aforementioned Nikos Krivikiotes. During the first decade of the fourteenth century the Gabalas family remained the most influential on the island of Rhodes with both the Greek Orthodox and Latin communities as well as with resident and mercenary Turks.⁶

Grand Master Villaret was in attendance in April 1306 when barons of Cyprus presented a list of grievances to King Henry II concluding with the king’s deposition. Amaury de Lusignan, Prince of Tyre, Constable of Jerusalem, and brother of the king, had following the departure of the Templar Grand Master and Convent in 1305 reportedly conspired with Templars remaining on the island to remove the king from power. Amaury de Lusignan assumed the title of Governor and Regent of Cyprus and placed the king under arrest at Nicosia. In February 1310, the king would be exiled to Anatolian Cilicia where de Lusignan’s brother-in-law, King Oshin of Lesser Armenia, was the ruler. Tolerance of the Hospitaller presence in Cyprus did not improve under Amaury de Lusignan, and may have deteriorated as the Order of Jerusalem played no part in the king’s deposition.

By 1304 severance from Byzantine service Vignolo di Vignoli of Genoa had similarly been granted in fief the islands of Lango (Kos) and Leros proximate to Rhodes. Latterly a corsair (with sovereign authority) or pirate (without such authority), Vignoli also had residence and business interests in Rhodes where his nephew Luigi Moresco had in 1305 succeeded captive brother Andrea. These fiefs and interests were under threat from unstable sovereignty weakened by the April 1305 assassination of Roger de Flor and ensuing Catalan rampage, and were defended by an increasingly suspect Byzantine Empire, albeit an empire aided and abetted by the aforementioned family Gabalas and other Rhodian citizenry. Andrea Moresco, moreover, remained imprisoned at Cyprus on charges of piracy and perhaps more. Aware of Hospitaller interest in a new home, and of particular interest in Rhodes, Vignoli contacted Grand Master Villaret in May 1306 proposing an alliance which included union of naval and ground forces for the conquest of that agriculturally-bountiful and strategically-located island. He arrived secretly in Cyprus because, like his nephew Andrea, he had been involved in numerous acts of piracy against Cypriots and for that reason was liable to arrest.

On 27 May 1306, Vignoli met with Villaret in the Church of Saint George of Greece 2 miles from Limassol. In attendance was Marshal and Grand Commander of Cyprus Simon Le Rat of Touraine. Of the family of former Grand Master Geoffroy Le Rat, he was responsible for Hospitaller military activity ashore. Similarly attending was new Admiral Sancio de Aragona, bastard half-brother of both Aragon’s King James II and Sicily’s King Frederick III. Twenty-nine years of age, he was responsible for operations at sea. Also in attendance was the Order’s thirty-three-year-old Lieutenant Marshal Albrecht von Schwarzburg of Upper Saxony, third son of Count Günter V of Schwarzenburg and wife Irmgard, and offspring of a family the name of which resounded with combat success. He would command any siege of Rhodes. Among others attending was partner Fulco Peruzzi of Florence’s Peruzzi Company. Peruzzi would be lead banker of the consortium financing any siege of Rhodes. The two parties entered into a notarized treaty of alliance. Vignoli reserved in Rhodes possession of a castle at Lardos inland of Lindos, already his having been given to him by Emperor Andronikos, as well as a second site to be determined. In return for the Order’s disproportionate contribution to the joint enterprise, Vignoli assigned to the Hospitallers his fief or lease rights to the islands of Lango and Leros. Vignoli was re-assigned one-third of the income from Lango and Leros as well as the Ministry of Justice for those islands and all other territory occupied by the Hospitallers excepting Rhodes. By the same treaty, however, the Order of Jerusalem would retain possession or sovereignty of each and every island conquered irrespective of Vignoli’s interest.

A flotilla of two galleys, two oared fustas,⁷ and two sailing transports carrying thirty-five knights and 500 infantry sailed from the port of Limassol in June under command of Aragona and headed for the westernmost point of Cyprus at Cape Arnauti. There it combined with two of Vignoli’s galleys transporting a limited number of combatants and together headed for the island of Megisti or Kastellorizon off the SW corner of Asia Minor. From Megisti, Vignoli proceeded ahead to Rhodian waters, reached the island, and lay at the mouth of the river at Alia (modern Kharaki). A plan to surprise the local presidio at nearby Lindos was aborted on a report island garrisons had been forewarned and were prepared. The captains of the two galleys when questioned explained their presence as in service to Vignolo di Vignoli who was visiting his castle at nearby Lardos while the galleys took on fresh water, and were left to their own devices. One Hospitaller galley meanwhile proceeded to Lango where a detachment of Hospitallers and infantry were turned away at Narangia (Kos Town), the Byzantine commander unaware that the island had been ceded to the knights and uncertain Vignoli had authority to reassign a Byzantine fief. Hospitaller dominion of Kastellorizon was meanwhile established and a small garrison assigned. Galleys thereupon made a rendezvous with support vessels, and Rhodes Town was invested in August 1306.⁸

It is apparent from the limited number of Hospitallers involved that Grand Master Villaret never intended a siege of Rhodes involving combat. Hospitallers would, at most, regulate traffic through the ports and gates of Rhodes Town. Rather, his hope was to produce a sense of inevitability while winning allies and influencing decision makers. He would at the same time collect taxes and rentals due to authorities and landlords in Rhodes Town adding to the influence. Villaret was, after all, a realist. He was also a veteran of, or totally aware of, the 1291 Siege of Acre which had required 100,000 besiegers, and as 1522 was to prove, the fall of Rhodes itself would require an equal number.

The allies on 20 September occupied the vacant castle at Pharaklos (Feraklos) strategically situated atop an elevation 14 kilometers north of Lindos and 37 kilometers south of Rhodes Town, the latter remaining under passive siege, the former to shortly be taken under passive siege.⁹

Meanwhile at the beginning of November 1306 Villaret presided over a long-scheduled Chapter General convened at Limassol of Hospitallers able to attend, some from as far away as England and northern France. Chapters General were the source of all legislation and statutes the basis of Hospitaller governance. This Chapter General retroactively ratified the Sacred Council’s decision to relocate the Order from Cyprus to Rhodes while also ratifying promotions, reassignments, and financial commitments to date. There may also have been statute reviews and revisions. Summoned earlier by a letter dated 6 June 1306 to appear at the Papal Court at Poitiers to discuss a Crusade, Villaret in late-November was reportedly delayed in the Morea (Peloponnesus) due to damage to his ship.¹⁰

Hospitallers at Rhodes seized the fortress on Mount Filerimos overlooking Rhodes Town on 9 November, thanks to an insider who at sunset carelessly opened a postern to a flock of returning sheep. The mixed garrison included thirty or more mercenary Turks and a handful of Imperial soldiers, including the local commander who took sanctuary in the fortress chapel; any resisting Turks were subdued. The seized fortress had a commanding view not only of Rhodes Town but of its sea approaches, and would until August 1309 serve as Hospital headquarters at Rhodes. At about the same time, the ancient acropolis of Lindos situated on a peninsular prominence was taken under sea and peninsular watch while the small garrison was asked to depart peaceably.

In the spring of 1307, eight hired galleys sent by Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos reached Rhodes and temporarily lifted the Hospitaller siege of Rhodes Town, killing ten besiegers but reportedly losing more of their own embarked force while successfully resupplying the beleaguered garrison occupying a northern section of Rhodes Town, later called the Collachium.

Grand Master Villaret reached the Papal Court at Poitiers in August. His whereabouts during the intervening nine months since he was delayed in the Morea are unknown. Evidence suggests, however, Foulques de Villaret had a taste for the good life, but a distaste for both siegelife and Church oversight. That said, the evidence also suggests he was strong on forethought and decisive on conviction.

In September 1307, Pope Clement V confirmed possession by the Hospital of the island of Rhodes. By October Byzantine defenders at Lindos had yielded its acropolis to encirclement, but twenty Byzantineflag ships lying in Rhodes Town’s two harbours prevented the capital city’s subjugation.

On 13 October, a large number of Templars in France, including Grand Master Jacques de Molay were simultaneously arrested on charges of heresy by order of King Philip IV, which was the beginning of the end of the Knights Templar. These arrests, followed by fifteen months the same king’s expulsion of France’s Jewish population with confiscation of all Jewish property in that country. At about the same time outlines of Clement V’s Crusade were revealed. The Crusade was to be led by King Philip’s brother Charles, since 1284 Count of Valois and since 1301 titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople by virtue of his marriage to Catherine I, titular Latin Empress of Constantinople directly descended from Baldwin II, last Latin Emperor to have ruled from Constantinople. The Crusade was not proposing recapture of Acre or any other incursion into the Holy Land, but was rather proposing a second overthrow and looting of the Greek-Orthodox Eastern Roman Empire. On 22 October 1307 the Grand Master reached an undisclosed agreement with Charles II of Anjou before returning to southern France.¹¹

Hospitaller envoys were dispatched to Constantinople in April 1308 where Andronikos II indignantly rejected a proposal that would place Hospitaller Rhodes under Byzantine suzerainty in exchange for an end to siege resistance. Hospitallers continued a pacific siege of Rhodes Town. Reports meanwhile reached Villaret that the Gabalas family, fearful the island appeared ripe for picking by neighbouring Islamic entities, was entertaining plans for Venetian rule of Rhodes consistent with such rule in much of the western Aegean, as well as at neighbouring Stampalia (Karpathos) and Kaxo (Kasos) seized from Rhodes in 1306. It was while contesting seizure of Stampalia that Luigi Moresco lost his life and that the family Gabalas stepped into the regnal void thus created.¹²

Having scaled back hopes for a Crusade first expressed in his June 1306 letter to the Grand Master, Pope Clement V issued a Crusading Bull on 11 August 1308 summoning the faithful. The scaled back crusade was to be commanded not by a king or a prince but by Foulques de Villaret, and its destination was not Constantinople but the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. Villaret was to have under his command (to be shared with Papal Legate and Bishop of Rodez Pierre de Pleine-Chassagne) 1,000 knights and 4,000 foot soldiers. The Grand Master remained in southern France and northern Spain for the entire year of 1308, meeting with those who were able to make the Crusade happen while corresponding frequently with Charles II of Anjou. He also met, among others with his Aunt Jourdaine, sister of Grand Master Guillaume de Villaret and Abbess of the Hospitaller Nunnery at Fieux where he financed necessary repairs. Near the end of 1308 he collected 90,000 gold florins in working capital at Poitiers and departed for Italy.¹³

Pope Clement V’s modest Crusade continued to encounter delays collecting funds, assembling personnel, building ships, and gathering the accoutrements of war. Further delays seemed certain. Having overseen the arrival at Brindisi of half the 500 Hospitallers summoned from European commanderies, together with the assembly of 3,000 foot soldiers on the payroll since arrival, Grand Master Villaret with twenty-six galleys plus transports, many of them Neapolitan hulls, all flying the Church flag of crossed gold keys on a white field, sailed from Brindisi in the spring or early-summer of 1309 on his own recognizance. He did so with the logistical support of Charles II, French King of Naples, Count of Provence, and self-styled King of Jerusalem, but without cocommander Pierre de Pleine-Chassagne. His armada proceeded by way of Albania (Epirus), passed between the Morea (Peloponnese) and Candia (Crete), and pointed toward Cyprus, ignoring Rhodes. Reaching Limassol, Villaret ordered most knights and others of the Order, with their belongings, to embark aboard ships of the armada leaving behind only those assigned to the Order’s two Cypriot commanderies, to its infirmary, and to its hospice both at Limassol.¹⁴

Departing Limassol in July the armada sailed to the Gulf of Macri (modern Gulf of Fethiye) on the coast of Anatolian Lycia. There they paused at an ancient Roman city then abandoned at the south-west corner of the Gulf. It was thought by some to be the ancient city of Myra, by others ancient Caunos or ancient Daedala. Daedala was at the head of the Gulf, and Myra and Caunos not too distant. But whatever this city was called in antiquity (Lydae), its anchorage (modern Kizilkuyruk) was 30 nautical miles east of Rhodes Town. On arrival at Lydae, the Grand Master had the armada pause for no more than a day while drinking water was loaded and other final preparations were made. From Lydae most of the twenty-six galleys proceeded to Rhodes at night after the diurnal westerly (Meltemi) wind had subsided, and at first-light seized Rhodes Town’s ports, severing the city’s only remaining lifelines to the outside world. Agreement with the city’s military and civil leaders was reached on the anniversary of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on 15 August 1309. To the disappointment of some, there had been little resistance and would, therefore, be no sack. One Hospitaller fatality was recorded, that of Pontus de Pons, son of Geoffroy, Count of Bergerac and Montfort (north of Bordeaux). With conquest of Rhodes came possession of eight other dependent islands: Nisiros, Episcopia (Tilos), Carchi (Khalki), Limonia (Alimnia), Simi, Lango (Kos), Saria (Pserimos) and Leros.¹⁵

It is unclear when the Church armada departed Rhodes for Brindisi or under whose command, but it likely reached Brindisi before the winter weather set in and before 4 November 1309 when Pope Clement V wrote that the Crusade had emptied his treasury. There are also reports of Villaret’s presence in Italy after that date.¹⁶

During the spring of 1310, the Order of Jerusalem officially transferred its headquarters from Cyprus to Rhodes, formally concluding establishment of a sovereign republic situated at the crossroads of Eastern Mediterranean commerce. It was a republic governed by the elite mindful of Classical Athens, dispatching ambassadors, coining its own gold scudo, which was equivalent in weight and value to the Florentine florin and the Venetian gold ducat, and adjusting bank relationships in addition to establishing territorial integrity. But it also remained a hospital, immediately establishing an infirmary within the walled Byzantine enclosure, which would become the Collachium or City of the Knights, the infirmary available not only for Hospitallers but for Rhodian residents, Holy Land pilgrims, and all others needing medical attention.

Regent of Cyprus Amaury de Lusignan was assassinated on 5 June 1310. Cypriot King Henry II requested from detention in Cilician Armenia that Villaret act for him in Cyprus. Unable or unwilling to personally appear, in July Villaret beefed up Hospitaller presence in Cyprus with eighty additional knights including Marshal Thierry de Lorgues, Prior of France Raoul d’Orléans, Prior of Germany Helvicus von Rundersack, and Prior of Venice Guglielmo Bolgaroni,¹⁷ plus twenty cavalry and two hundred foot under command of Albrecht von Schwarzburg.¹⁸ Having vacated command of the de-mobilized expedition, Schwarzburg had that same July been appointed the Order’s Grand Commander of Cyprus. The appointment of Schwarzburg to a dignity attended by the Grand Cross¹⁹ theretofore deemed a preserve of the Langue of Provence was not well received by the latter. Schwarzburg, on the other hand, was attracted to his new position by its attendant award of the Grand Cross and its independence of Rhodes. He would, moreover, play a leading role in Henry’s August 1310 restoration, and three years later the Order would be assigned assets remaining upon dissolution of the Templars, including agriculturally lucrative property in Cyprus which could prove a valuable source of food supply during periods of harvest-shortfall at Rhodes. Making the assignment even more attractive, Villaret and Schwarzburg agreed that annual responsions would be remitted to the Common Treasury in the sum of 30,000 Byzantine bezants per year, compared to 60,000 bezants in earlier years. Albrecht Schwarzburg began to be seen by his peers as anointed successor to the Grand Master.

Early in the 1312 sailing season, a Hospitaller squadron intercepted twenty-three Mentese Turk vessels well off the Mentese coast and pursued them 60 miles to Amorgos, a sparsely-populated and uninviting island in the mid-Aegean Cyclades. Extenuating circumstances are few, and details are as scarce or unreliable. There had been no declaration of hostilities with the neighbouring Mentese Beylik, though there had reportedly been an attempt by Genoa to alienate the two neighbours to its own commercial advantage, resulting in the seizure of Rhodian merchants at sea and assets on the mainland. Debarking at Amorgos, the Turks abandoned their beached vessels. Pursuing Hospitallers burned them in place without opposition and then captured or killed many of the crews. Hospitallers themselves, however, reportedly lost fifty-seven knights plus 300 hired soldiery, devastating if not exaggerated numbers for a Convent still rebuilding from the handful of Hospitallers to survive Acre twenty-one years earlier. It is clear from Hospitaller numbers theirs was a war party in Mentese waters seeking to deter harassment of Rhodian shipping. The Mentese, on the other hand, appear more like fishermen aboard sea-going fishing craft operated then as today by families, fleeing downwind, debarking at the first island in their path. They and theirs were unlikely to forget or forgive.²⁰

Also in 1312–13, the Order seized Stampalia (Karpathos) and Kaxo (Kasos) from absentee Lord Andrea I Cornaro of Venetian Candia, thereby antagonizing the Serenissima, which sequestered Hospitaller funds passing through Venice. The islands had historically been an appendage of Rhodes or of the Church at Rhodes. The Eastern Byzantine Empire of Constantinople had, in 1304, ceded Stampalia in fief to its Genovese Admiral Andrea Moresco, as it had earlier ceded Rhodes, but in 1306 the islands had opportunistically been seized in turn by Cornaro as fiefs of the former Latin Empire of Constantinople (1204–61). In response to Cornaro protest, the Grand Master, among other things, pointed to historical Rhodian jurisdiction and to local welcome. He even offered to submit the matter to Holy See resolution, but Venice did not consider the Holy See impartial. Experience proved the islands too remote to be defensible with the Order’s limited resources, while Venetian sequestration of Hospitaller funds became a more acute concern. The islands would be returned to Cornaro on 20 June 1316.

Following the Fifteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church, which met between 1311 and 1312 in Vienne, France, Pope Clement V authorized a six year clerical tax to fund the next major Crusade to the east. Pope Clement also dissolved the Order of Templars even though the Council of Vienne refused to find any individual Templar or all as a fraternity guilty of heresy. Thirty-six Templars, though, had already died under torture by King Philip’s French Crown while fifty-four others had been burned at French stakes on findings of heresy. Clement V found it necessary to either repudiate King Philip or to dissolve the Order of Templars. He chose to dissolve the Order.

Upon dissolving the Order of Templars, the Pope ordered all Templar assets transferred to the Order of Hospitallers. Coffers long-since emptied, most Templar property in Bohemia and Italy excepting that in the Kingdom of Naples transferred to the Hospital within a few years. Templar property in France and Naples transferred somewhat later, in France frequently against payment. Templar property in England transferred over a period of twenty years, most seized by nobility never transferring at all. Templar property in the various states of Germany transferred early, late, or not at all depending on state and local Church. Templar property in Aragon and Castile, initially exempt from transfer as essential to the Reconquista, in the end transferred smoothly in 1319 insofar as Aragon was concerned. Castile never released any of its Templar property despite petitions as late as 1388. Templar properties in Albrecht Schwarzburg’s Cyprus, principally the Commandery of Templos near Kyrenia, were transferred to the Hospital earliest of all and in their entirety on 7 November 1313. The Grand Commandery of Cyprus (Kolossi near Limassol) was eventually, but one of three Hospitaller commanderies on the island, albeit the largest. The others were the Commandery of Phoinikas (Foinikas/Finica) and the former Templar Commandery at Templos.

In October 1312 Albrecht Schwarzburg had been appointed to additional and critical duties as Inspector-General responsible for receiving Templar properties, but on his initial meeting with Pope Clement V was not warmly received. Rather, he was informed that the Order of Saint John was the least poor choice to receive Templar properties by virtue of being the most likely to use them in service to the Church. During his assignment Schwarzburg visited the French Court at Paris and the English Court at Greenwich, both in 1313 and with his assistant, Prior of Venice Leonardo de Tiberti, who would later be appointed Grand Prior of England at the request of or with concurrence of King Edward III. Despite the Grand Master’s confidence, evidenced by his appointment, Schwarzburg would discover he had little patience for negotiation of royal and legal encumbrances, many of which would remain extant until the late-1330s before challenge to expropriation was abandoned, and as noted, some few for another fifty years. Albrecht Schwarzburg would be succeeded as Inspector-General by Tiberti in early-1314, and would leave the assignment convinced he must prove himself at sea, not in a court of any kind.

On 5 November 1312, forty-year-old Commander of Le Ruou Hélion de Villeneuve was appointed to additional duties as Commander of Manosque and Puimoisson in the eastern Provence. This appointment by Pope Clement V was taken without reference to the Grand Master, while the pope also similarly defrocked Castellan of Amposta Ramon de Ampurias charged with having a rich sex life. The Grand Master is not known to have protested about either of these infringements upon his authority. While Villeneuve was an inspired leader and would prove to be the next Grand Master, and while the Castellan’s responsions were in serious arrears, this inattention invited further liberties by still others with an attendant breakdown in discipline. By way of example, Ampurias refused to go quietly. When he did go in 1319 it was to accede to the new dignity of Prior of Catalonia where his rebellion would continue until his death four years later.

The island of Langò (Kos) had been ceded to the Knights of Saint John in 1306 by then Genovese overlord Vignolo di Vignoli who had the island in fief from the Byzantine Empire, but consumed by conquest and settlement of Rhodes, the Knights had acquired little more than nominal possession. Actual possession with presidios occurred in 1314–15, and to maintain possession of Lango construction commenced in 1315 on two large fortresses: one at Narangia (Kos Town) and the other at Andimachia. Around this time Vignoli died and Constantinople re-awarded Vignoli’s lapsed fief to Martino Zaccaria of Genoa. While possession was ninetenths of the law, the Order would acquire Zaccaria’s fief in 1318.

The Hospital seized the islands of Calamo (Kalymnos) and Leros in 1315, and Foulques de Villaret began to think of himself as having completed his Magisterial mission at age 75, and of having earned a life of leisure. Administrative detail, never Villaret’s strong suit, was ignored. The Convent became concerned.

Desirous of rewarding the valour of two brothers, one called Buonavita Assanti of Ischia and the other called Giovanni, and of recognizing the family’s service to the Order in the conquest of Rhodes, the Grand Master and Convent in August 1316 confirmed the nearby island of Nisiros in perpetual fief to the two brothers with the obligation of maintaining an armed galley ready for combat subject to call-up. The Assanti family of Ischia had originally been granted the island in fief in 1207 following the creation of the Latin Empire of Constantinople in 1204, and successive generations of the same family had ruled the island ever since.²¹ Also in August, following twenty-eight months of impasse since the death of Pope Clement V, Cardinal-Bishop Jacques Duèze was elected Pope as John XXII.

Since Villaret’s appointment of Schwarzburg in 1310 to the Grand Commandery of Cyprus at half normal responsions, initial disappointment with Villaret had progressed through discontent to increasing rebellion. This progression culminated in 1317 with a plot to arrest the Grand Master and bring charges of impeachment before the Sacred Council. Alerted to impending arrest Villaret fled Rhodes Town and found sanctuary in the acropolis at Lindos. In early-July, a General Assembly convened at Rhodes Town to which he was summoned to defend his conduct. Villaret failed to appear, and Draper Maurice de Pagnac was properly elected successor Grand Master by eligible voters attending. Pagnac assumed control of the Convent at Rhodes Town and both parties appealed to Pope John XXII, each against the other.

Still in his first year of incumbency and unaware of recent developments at Rhodes, Pope John XXII determined the Priory of France had become too large and was unmanageable, and so summoned Prior of France Simon le Rat to Rome to discuss spin-off territories and commanders. It is not clear when, if ever, the Grand Master was consulted. Within not much more than a week the Priories of Aquitaine and Champagne had been created to which Commander of Loudon Pierre de Maillé of Touraine and Commander Henri de Mesnil of Picardie had been respectively assigned as priors.

Reflecting real property additions from the former Order of Templars, Pope John XXII, in 1317, appointed Hélion de Villeneuve, the first and only Prior of Provence, a priory formed from that part of the Templarenlarged Priory of Saint-Gilles east of the Rhône River, snidely termed Lesser Provence by those from Greater Provence to the west of the Rhône. The western extreme of the Priory of Saint-Gilles was also separated from the central priory. This second new Priory, Toulouse, was assigned to Chancellor Pierre de l’Ongle. The central priory at Saint-Gilles lying midway between Arles and Nîmes remained the purview of Prior Bermond Maurin. Thus, even before becoming fully aware of leadership developments at Rhodes, the new Pope was exercising his supreme authority by creating four new priors entitled to the Grand Cross. Sometime following Villaret’s 1319 resignation as Grand Master, the Priory of Provence would be returned to the Priory of Saint-Gilles, not so the Priory of Toulouse. But Greater Provence and Lesser Provence would continue to have separate auberges at Rhodes, while each would have two of sixteen elector seats at General Assemblies and legislator seats at Chapters General; other langues would each be left with half as many.

Both Villaret and Pagnac were summoned to Avignon in 1318 by letters dated 18 September 1317. Similar letters of the same date were addressed to the senior conventual bailiff and Prior of the Church Simón de Cirauqui of Navarre, Prior of Castile Fernán Rodríguez de Valbuena, to Marshal Bérenger de Crosier, Grand Hospitaller Federico Malaspina of Brugnati, and to others concerned for the wellbeing of the Convent. By separate letter, Hospitaller Gérard de Pins of Provence was appointed Vicar General to administer the Convent during the absence of elected authority. Finally, by letter dated 4 October 1317, Schwarzburg was reaffirmed as Grand Commander of Cyprus at full responsions and nothing less. Around the same time, two Papal Legates accompanied by several Hospitallers assigned to the Holy See were dispatched to Rhodes to independently ascertain the process and status of developments. In addition, Pope John XXII, on 10 October, sympathetically dispatched Hospitaller Chancellor Pierre de l’Ongle, a confidant of the aging Grand Master, to more kindly explain Papal thinking.

Gérard de Pins, who had conveyed Villaret and Pagnac appeals to Avignon, as well as news of developments at Rhodes, arrived back at the Convent with the Papal letters sometime later, given winter sailing weather perhaps not until the new year. The timing of other arrivals is equally unclear. The conventual bailiff dignity of Draper (later Grand Conservator) responsible for provision of uniform attire and accoutrements was not permanently assigned to the Langue of Spain/Aragon until the Chapter General convened at Arles in November of 1320; Draper Maurice de Pagnac, appointed by the Sacred Council, was French and a senior Hospitaller of the Langue of Provence. Similarly, the other conventual bailiff dignities assigned in 1320 were Grand Commander to Provence, Marshal to Auvergne, Grand Hospitaller to France, Admiral to Italy, and Turcopolier²² to England. The dignity of Grand Bailiff would later be assigned to Germany, while the Langue of Spain/Aragon would, in 1462, spin off Castile, Léon and Portugal. The conventual bailiff dignity assigned to this new langue would be that of Chancellor.

Arriving in Rhodes during the winter of 1317–18 were the aforementioned legates and other emissaries of the Pope bringing with them the summonses to Avignon of the two Grand Masters. These Papal emissaries soon confirmed Hospital war debt of nearly 490,000 florins incurred during the siege of Byzantine Rhodes had received no more than minimum debt service in the years since incurred. Rather, the debt in some years had been allowed to compound at 6 per cent, and at the time, exceeded 665,000 gold florins.²³

The Pope’s emissaries also brought instructions concerning the Grand Commandery of Cyprus. Appointed Grand Commander of Cyprus in 1310 before his assignment as Inspector-General of Templar properties, Albrecht von Schwarzburg had by agreement with Foulques de Villaret for eight years been remitting responsions of 30,000 Byzantine gold bezants per year as compared to 60,000 bezants in earlier years, much to the irritation of his peers at the Convent who were wont to contend Schwarzburg had contributed to the increase in debt. In fact the annual shortfall was the equivalent of 4,500 florins. By letter accompanying newly-appointed Vicar General Gérard de Pins, Schwarzburg was informed Pope John XXII had ruled the Grand Commandery of Cyprus an indivisible asset of the Order which could not be shared with its commander who was simply the Order’s administrator. Schwarzburg resigned as Grand Commander of Cyprus and requested of the new Vicar General an opportunity to prove himself at sea.

The two nominal Grand Masters sailed separately for France where they in time met with Pope John XXII, by actions and edicts himself de facto Grand Master. Foulques de Villaret chose to pause en route at Naples where he was welcomed by Robert of Anjou, King of Naples and Count of Provence. Robert’s father Charles II had died around the time of Villaret’s 1309 departure from Brindisi culminating in conquest of Rhodes. The much younger incumbent, himself appointed by Pope John one year earlier as Vicar General of all Italy during the absence of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, on 25 May, requested of the Pope that he be accompanied by Villaret on a punitive expedition to the Piedmont by way of Genoa. Popularity of the Grand Master of which this was one example would weigh heavily on future Papal decisions. Reluctant to refuse his own Vicar General, the Pope waited until arrival at Genoa on 28 July to resummon the Grand Master who likely reached Avignon in August. Maurice de Pagnac likely arrived months earlier.

Under fire from his peers as Grand Commander of Cyprus, Schwarzburg in early-1318 had requested an opportunity to prove himself at sea. On advice of the proximity of a large Turkish Armada in late-summer, Vicar General Gérard de Pins granted the forty-five-year-old aspirant his wish. Orhan, son of and soon-to-be successor to Mesut Bey as Mentese Turk leader, conceiving nearby Rhodes easy pickings amid a leadership crisis, as well as adrift absent Grand Masters Villaret and Pagnac, embarked 5,000 settlers on eighty galliots and sailing vessels with which he descended on the island of Episcopia (Tilos) near south-western Rhodes. According to contemporary Florentine historian Giovanni Villani combatants among them were intended for a siege of Rhodes Town. These were put ashore at Episcopia while the Mentese Armada stood back toward the Mentese heartland 50 miles to the north to embark a further 5,000 settlers. Albrecht Schwarzburg meanwhile put to sea with the Order’s four war galleys, six hired Genovese galleys temporarily at Rhodes while returning from Lesser Armenia, and twenty galliots, brigantines and other oared vessels. These ships were packed with knights and soldiers prepared for hand-to-hand combat as boarding was the way of fourteenth century naval engagements.²⁴

With masts un-stepped, decks cleared, and bow spurs the weapon of choice, Schwarzburg broke the south bound (returning) Turkish line off Cape Crio (ancient Knidos) 15 miles north of Episcopia’s principal ports, Crio a cape at which sailing wind normally evaporated as it rose to cross the Knidos Peninsula. Breaking the approaching enemy at mid-formation and first taking the upwind half, Schwarzburg’s mobile oared vessels were more than a match for poorly-designed and poorly-sailed Turkish vessels slowly turning close under the Cape blind to what awaited them. Watched by the Lion of Knidos [now surveying the Great Court of the British Museum in London], these were forced onto shoals and defeated piecemeal while downwind vessels were unable to reverse course into the wind and instead fled. Downwind Turks, however, fled too slowly in light air to avoid being overhauled and overwhelmed, but for seven oared galliots, including the flagship, which were able to beach at ancient Triopium (modern Palamut) as Cape Crio and Knidos, and all nearby mainland was a part of the Mentese Emirate, if a Greek-speaking part.

While a critical reader might well doubt Villani’s foregoing Mentese purpose in relocating what appeared to be 10,000 settlers to what was then and now a sparsely populated island 40 nautical miles from Rhodes Town, when alternatively five mainland Mentese ports were available at half the distance, this was aggression, and history as well as contemporaries celebrated the Christian victory over Islam whatever its reason. The rout is depicted on a floor-to-ceiling oil on canvas rendering by Auguste Étienne Mayer said to have once been mounted in the Gallery of the Crusades at Versailles. Following the Crio engagement the Rhodian flotilla proceeded to Episcopia and evicted the Mentese earlier put ashore.

Cold weather and unseasonal rain throughout northern Europe from Britain to the modern Ukraine in 1315, 1316 and 1317 resulted in poor grain harvests and exorbitant prices for the little grain produced. Millions in Europe died of famine, and the Vienne Crusade contemplated by the Fifteenth Ecumenical Council at Vienne evaporated for lack of funds. While the normally verdant and productive island of Rhodes remained nominally self-sufficient, exorbitant prices throughout the Mediterranean lured away Rhodian production. Compounding the problem were faminereduced responsions from commanderies in Italy, Sicily and France since 1315 inhibiting the Hospital’s ability to purchase local production at higher prices. That said, agricultural produce from properties in remote Cyprus ameliorated shortages at Rhodes.

Naval Battle of Episkopi – Auguste Etienne François Mayer.

During the same period, the Langue of Aragon experienced a significant increase in landed wealth by virtue of Templar assets acquired which had previously been exempt from transfer to the Order of Jerusalem. This increase in wealth was notable not only at the Castellany of Amposta, which had been enriched by the Templar Castles of Cantavieja, Castellote and Challamera as well as by the Commanderies of Villel and Alfambra, among others, but also in Catalonia where new Templar assets including the Castle at Miravet and the Commandery of Commanderies at Mas Deu dictated creation of the entirely new dignity of Prior of Catalonia. Perversely, however, landed wealth was not cash wealth, and faminereduced responsions on top of the expense of relocation from Cyprus to and beyond Rhodes, not to mention inattention on the part of Grand Master Foulques de Villaret, had left the Convent cash-strapped with excessive debt.

On 1 March 1319, Pope John XXII celebrated at Avignon the 1318 victory at Cape Crio the reward for which included Schwarzburg’s appointment as Grand Commander (of the Hospital rather than of Cyprus) and lifetime assignment in fief of the island of Lango (Kos) through any loss and recovery. As Grand Commander, Schwartzburg became the senior Hospitaller at Rhodes, and in most matters effectively succeeded Gérard de Pins. Separately, and in part because the Hospitaller Grand Commander had traditionally