What was the Knights Hospitaller?

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The Knights Hospitaller was a group of holy soldiers who served as a model for the Knights Templar during the Crusades.

Founded after the First Crusade (1096-1099) and the need to safeguard pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land, the Hospitaller Knights were born. Pope Innocent III granted Papal approval to a new Medieval religious order, the Hospitaller Knights, in 1113. The Hospitallers used the Greek island of Rhodes as a base after the collapse of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291 and continued operations in the Near East until 1522.

It was in 1530 that they moved to Malta, where they lived until 1798. Hospitallers split into other groups after this, although their legacy can still be found in organizations such as St. John Ambulance and the Knights of Malta.

The beginnings and development

According to Jonathan Riley-Smith in his book "The Knights Hospitaller in the Levant: C.1070-1309," the Order of Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem can be traced back to a volunteer group running a hospice established in Jerusalem by Italian merchants trading with Palestine in 1070, who came from the coastal towns of Amalfi and Salerno (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, originally published in 1977).

Located adjacent to the Holy Sepulchre, the hospice was built on the site of a church consecrated to Saint John. The Order's name was derived from its location. Benedictine monks from the St. Mary of the Latins, a Catholic-run complex of church, monastery, marketplace, and convent built during the era of Muslim rule and upon the ruins of an older facility destroyed in 1009 by Egyptian Caliph al-Hakim (985-1021), were in charge of the hospices in the early years of their proto existence, according to Helen J. Nicholson, former head of the Hi (Boydell Press, 2006).

Jerusalem had been ruled by the Fatimid Empire and the Seljuk Turkish Empire before the First Crusade. According to Nottingham Trent University professor Nicholas Morton, the intricate and difficult position Christian pilgrims faced and how the Hospitallers came to be were detailed to Live Science via email by Morton's department. "In the beginning, this organization was neither large nor a formal religious order, but rather a small group of pious individuals who cared for the ill and tired. The Fatimid Empire (based in Egypt) and the Seljuk Turkish Empire (which included most of the Near East) were at war, and Jerusalem frequently changed hands. As a result, the early Hospitallers of both these countries were allowed to pursue their vocation, and the hospital remained to provide care for pilgrims until 1099, the year of the First Crusade."

According to Riley-Smith, favorable conditions following the First Crusade and the foundation of the Crusader States resulted in the hospice being granted independence from the Benedictine monks and given responsibility over its affairs. Pilgrimage traffic following the First Crusade made it an even more prominent part of the Latin East's cultural landscape.

It's a postdoctoral research fellow for Historic Royal Palaces at the Tower of London, Rory MacLellan, tells LiveScience, "To describe it as "hospice" is a bit of an oversimplification because it provides medical care and shelter for the homeless, but it's also a sort of "youth hostel" for people who are on the road and need somewhere to stay while they're on vacation. This is a conglomeration of various influences. Although they were referred to as "Hospitallers," they weren't entirely devoted to providing medical care."

Many believe that the Order's founder, Blessed Gerard (1040-1120), was a Benedictine monk, characterized by Nicholson as a "venerable and holy man," who arrived in Jerusalem around 1080 and was associated with St. Mary of the Latins, according to what little is known about him. When Godfrey of Bouillon (1060-1100) learned of Blessed Gerard and his Hospitallers' efforts to care for travelers and the sick and needy, he granted them several lands in Jerusalem. Also, Baldwin I (c.1060-1118), his successor, contributed to the nobles and the Catholic church establishing their credentials with the latter.

By 1112, the King of Jerusalem and the Patriarch of Jerusalem provided financial support to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. A papal bull, Pie Postulatio voluntatis (The Most Pious Request), issued by Pope Paschal II (c.1050-1118), officially recognized the Order on February 15, 1113, and was later ratified by Pope Calixtus II in 1119, according to Nicholson. It gave the Hospitallers the authority to nominate their Grandmaster, immunity from tithes, and bound their brothers and sisters to chastity, poverty, and obedience.

Growth and organization

Knights, clerics, and serving brethren were all used to describe the Hospitallers. Aristocracy in Europe gave rise to the knights' class. It is not known exactly when the Hospitallers became military. When the Hospitallers were first established, they were distinguished from other orders, such as the Knights Templar (who wore a white surcoat with a scarlet flag) by adopting the Amalfi cross eight-point star as their symbol.

Due to internal strife and external pressures from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers' military wing was necessary. "One of the biggest problems the Crusader States had is that there was quite a shortage of manpower, as most of the Crusaders went home after the First Crusade," MacLellan explained. "As time goes on, the Hospitallers become militarized because they will be there for the long haul, and they aren't able to leave after just one year of crusading.

"When exactly they began to militarize, we don't know, but by 1126, they had begun. One of the Hospitallers is serving as a Constable in the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Between 1120 and 60, the Hospitallers were involved in wars. It is not until 1120 that they become a militarized group, despite being a much older organization than the Templar order."

Morton adds that the precise date of the Hospitallers' militarization is unknown, although it must have occurred before 1136. According to him, a freshly constructed frontline fortification called Bethgibelin was handed over to the Hospitallers this year, showing their importance in the kingdom's defense.

Because of their twin roles as humanitarians and warrior monks, the Hospitallers welcomed both sexes into their ranks. The Crusader States, such as forts and a variety of estates. However, they flourished fast, receiving gifts of land and other tributes from all over Europe.

Morton walks us through the entire process. "Clusters of local assets—whether farms, mines, salt pans, mills, or churches—were co-ordinated around a central administrative center in 'commanderies' by the Hospitallers (normally the largest estate or house owned by the Order in that area).

"Their infrastructure in the west grew rapidly, which allowed them to send vast sums of money to support their military and medical operations in Jerusalem. The Crusader States were better able to safeguard their northernmost provinces, as the county of Tripoli and the principality of Antioch, with the help of the order's newfound resources."

Innkeepers in the aftermath of the Crusades

The Hospitallers were forced to flee to Cyprus after the Ayyubid Sultanate under Saladin conquered Jerusalem in 1187, and the last of the Crusader States fell altogether by 1291. They took Rhodes, a Greek island off the Turkish peninsula, in 1309 and utilized it as a base of operations for their operations. The Knights of Rhodes, as the Hospitallers came to be known, took up arms against the Muslim empires in the Mediterranean, this time from the sea. After the dissolution of the Knights Templars in 1312, Pope Clement V (c.1264-1314) gave the Hospitallers territories and donations from the disgraced group, albeit they had some difficulty in claiming them.

A comparable destiny for the Hospitallers was avoided due to the failings of the Crusader military instructions. Morton argued that the Hospitallers had advantages over the Templars. "If their military service failed, they could still present themselves to their contemporaries as important members of society due to their medical training. Apart from that, the Hospitallers moved to Cyprus shortly after the loss of Acre in 1291 and began building up a naval force to fight against the Mamluk Empire and other nearby powers.

"A naval force was established in Cyprus by both groups, but it was Hospitallers who were more successful in their efforts to reclaim the offensive once they went to Cyprus. The conquest of Rhodes began in 1306 with the help of Hospitaller warriors, who were officially part of the Byzantine Empire, but was under Genoese administration. The Hospitallers obtained full control of the island by 1310, which they afterward utilized as a base from which to assault Turkish ships and holdings in Anatolia."

A fortification in Rhodes harbor served as a headquarters for the Knights of Rhodes, who seized small islands like Kos and controlled their affairs from the fortification. The Turkish monarch, Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566), seized Rhodes in 1523 with 400 ships and 10,000 troops in a decisive fight, ending their time on the island. In exchange for the Viceroy of Sicily's annual gift of a falcon, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, granted the Order of St. John of Jerusalem possession of the island of Malta in 1530.

During their time as the Knights of Malta, they fought against Turkish naval forces, frequently in alliance with Catholic countries and monarchs, such as in the 1571 war for the city of Lepanto. They then created Malta's capital city, Valetta (c1495-1568).

Using MacLellan's analogy, this phase in Hospitaller history is a case of the Order being overly successful. "When they were in Rhodes and Malta, they were just excellent at what they did. As far as naval campaigns and piracy were concerned, they had great success. Before they were forced out of Malta in 1798, they had reduced their naval patrols since there were not enough pirates to combat."

Is there still a Hospitaller order today?

Napoleon Bonaparte expelled the Knights of Malta from Paris in 1798 (1769-1821). As a result, they were returned to Malta in the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, but the Treaty of Paris gave Malta to Great Britain in 1812.

The military wing of the Order dispersed to various European countries, and the Order as a whole ceased to exist. It remained a non-profit humanitarian and caregiving group. One Order branch goes to Russia to serve under Tsar Nicholas II as their Grandmaster, which MacLellan described as "a little odd" after Malta. "After that, they have a few decades without a Grandmaster and are not accorded the same respect. Since then, it has been their charitable effort that has kept them going. After Oxfam and Red Cross, I believe I heard a statistic stating that the Hospitallers are the third largest charity provider in the world now if you combine all of their successor organizations, so it's an important part of what keeps them going."

The Knights of Malta and the Hospitallers closely resemble several modern organizations. There hasn't been as much controversy surrounding the 21st-century incarnations of the Medieval Order as there has been surrounding the far-right revival of the Templars. As a Catholic organization with over 13,500 members spread across 120 countries, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta upholds a long tradition of humanitarianism and charitable work. Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum (Caring for the Sick and the Poor) is the organization's motto."

Israeli archaeologists discovered an 18-foot (5.5 meters) high, a ribbed vaulted section of the Hospitaller complex near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Christian Quarter, known as Muristan, in 2013, which was previously unknown. There were more than 2,000 patients who were cared for there in its heyday, which included orphans who later became members of the Order.

supplementary materials and reading

If you're interested in learning more about the many religious organizations that fought in the Crusades, you should read up on the Knights Templar and how they rose to prominence.

New facts and archaeological findings are always emerging for anyone interested in learning more about the Crusades. For example, in 2020, archaeologists in Israel discovered the site of Richard the Lionheart's victory over Saladin.

Reference : https://www.livescience.com/knights-hospitaller.html

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