The Fall of the Templars.
In the early fourteenth century, the future did not bode well for the military
religious knights. The Hospitallers could do nothing but stand back and watch as
their rivals, the Templars, were torn apart by King Phillip IV of France and his
puppet, Pope Clement V who wanted the order disbanded. Many saw it as the
fault of the religious orders that their hold on the Holy Land had been lost, and
this, along with the vast wealth and possessions the Templars had acquired, had
made them rather unpopular. The Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay,
was set up by King Philip of France and burnt as a heretic at the stake in Paris,
with many other Templar Knights suffering similar deaths.
Unlike the Templars, the Hospitallers had responded perfectly to the new
challenge and conditions and had already started looking for a new place to
settle. After loosing their land and fortifications in the Holy Land, the Order had
moved to Cyprus, but soon found their activities severely restricted as official
vassals of the Island's Frankish king.
Fulques de Villaret, The First Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes
As mentioned, by the end of the thirteenth century, Rhodes had become an
haven for pirates who were disrupting Christian trade throughout the
Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. Initially, this was the reason why the martial
monks of St John first occupied the Island of Rhodes. After sending several
spies, who reported back favourably, Master Fulques de Villaret, formerly the
Order's first Admiral, sailed for Rhodes on 13th June 1306 with two galleys and
some transports carrying only 35 knights and 500 infantry. On route he was
joined by a Genoese adventurer named de Vignoli who supplied a further two
galleys. Their first encounter was not very successful and the great ports
defences beat off their assault.
Not put off by this, de Villaret persevered, and in November of the same year the
key fortress of Philermo was taken by the military monks and they started to
seriously besiege the Island. The garrison at Rhodes hung on with the help of
some Greek troops, but de Villaret borrowed some money and hired more
soldiers to make a final assault. During the early months of 1307, the city of
Rhodes was stormed by these fresh troops and its defenders fled into the hills,
de Villaret had at long last won his sought-after prize and was later to be installed
as the first Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes.
Structure and organisation.
From 1299 onwards, an importance was developed within the order towards
maritime duties. This was to serve them well in the coming years as they
consolidated their power base on their new home at Rhodes. In the first decade
after the capture of the Island, things turned out to be more difficult than they had
expected. The knights initially had difficulties in adapting to the local Greek
element and they were constantly attacked by small raiding parties of Turks, who
were not at all happy at the threat posed by the martial monks being so near to
their coast.
The sweeping reforms which were also needed within the order were
implemented after the fall of the Templars, and the Hospitallers' survival was no
less spectacular than their rivals' fall. The threat of Phillip IV gave the order a
new impetus for structural reform, and although the order had been divided up
into the separate 'langues' in the past (those speaking the same tongue), this
was now officially adopted with the new order on Rhodes being divided up into
seven 'langues' or 'Tongues'.
Each 'langue' or 'tongue' comprised of several priories under a Grand Priory with
its own 'auberge' ( hall of residence) and they were later to become responsible
for the defence of their own part of the town and walls. The "tongues" on Rhodes
were made from the following countries: France, Auvergne, Provence, England,
Italy, Germany and Spain with the later addition of Castile.
The total strength of the knights was usually around 200 and although they
suffered to the ravages of the Black Death like everyone else, the numbers soon
climbed back again. In 1466 their numbers were to rise to 350 and in 1501 to
400. Finally in 1514 the total number was 550, but English numbers was never to
exceed more than a dozen knights. Despite this disparity in numbers between
the 'tongues', the system on the whole worked well, apart from the occasional
squabble over precedence.
The principal elements in the formation and general organisation of the Order at
Rhodes was based on the Hospitallers' rigid social system and hierarchy. They
comprised of three classes - knights, chaplains and sergeants and this
separation was a parallel of the social structure of western Europe with nobles,
clergy and common folk.
The Grand Master was elected for life by the majority of nationalities and 14 of
the 19 grand masters were French. Of the remaining five, three were Spanish
and two were Italian. The reason for there being so many French grand masters
was that the Inns of France, Auvergne and Provence would usually support each
other and they usually outnumbered the other nationalities. French was also the
spoken language although Latin was used in official documents.
The knights (milites) were always from a noble family and all the authority was
placed in their hands. All the major military offices such as the Grand Master and
Leader of the 'tongues' etc were always reserved for knights. To attain the rank
of Bailiff or become a leader of one of the 'tongues', it was necessary for them to
have spent fifteen years at Rhodes. and hey could be distinguished by the larger
cross they wore on their tunic which came to be known as the 'bailiff's grand
cross'.
The chaplains (cappelani) were not usually noblemen, but neither were they the
sons of common folk. They were the priests of the order and their duties were
limited to performing religious rights. The class of chaplains itself was again
divided into three grades: clerics, chaplains and priors with each 'tongue' having
its own group. Most were based at the headquarters on Rhodes, but some would
also accompany the Order's navy and army when away on military campaigns.
The sergeants (servientes armourum) were not nobles either, but were the sons
of freemen not serfs. They assisted the knights in warfare and administration and
were usually responsible for the welfare of the sick and poor. They were also
able to hold the lower command positions within the army, much the same as the
non-commissioned Officers of our more modern armies.
Each 'tongue' maintained its own inn on the Island where the members
assembled and offered hospitality to important visitors and pilgrims from Western
Europe. The leaders of each 'tongue' (pillerius), always came from a leading
family of their country and belonged to the highest category of officer. Each was
given specific duties within the Order and there had to be at least four leaders of
the 'tongues' residing on Rhodes at any one time. No-one could be absent from
the seat of council without permission of the council and whenever a leader was
away, the 'tongue' he belonged to were responsible for appointing his deputy.
Once the knights had finally settled on Rhodes and approval for the community
given by the Pope, they started to quickly rebuild the defences and reorganise
the Order. The Pope issued a bull giving the order the privilege of appointing the
Island's Latin archbishop, and he was given the grand title of 'Archiepiscopus
Colossensis'. The local Greek orthodox community were somewhat persecuted
by the knights and they cut off all spiritual connections with Constantinople soon
after establishing themselves. Subsequently, the Orthodox bishopric of Rhodes
was to remain a vacant see until the mid 15th century, when church unification
was initiated.
The cities defences at Rhodes were to take shape around the port, which was
divided up into two harbours. The outer harbour was formed by a long curving
neck of land reaching out into the sea and was the commercial area. The inner
harbour, or 'Harbour of the Galleys', lay in a land locked bay with a narrow
entrance guarded by the Fort of St Nicholas. The outer harbour defences were
formed by the twin towers of St Michael, or Tower of the Arabs, but better known
as the Tower de Naillac, and on the seaward side by the Tower of Angels which
is sometimes known as the Tower of Windmills or of France. Between these two
towers stretched a huge chain which protected and blocked the harbour.
The city itself was built in a semi-circle around these harbours protected by a
double wall with thirteen towers and five projecting bastions - one of which was
manned by the English brethren.
The fall of De Villaret.
In 1316, fairly soon after their establishment on the Island, a great scandal took
place which was to shake the very foundations of the Order. There were several
minor internal dissensions on Rhodes between the "tongues" and the following
year, an elderly commander named Fra' Maurice de Pagnac tried to arrest Fra'
Fulques de Villaret, the founder of the order on the Island and now Grand
Master.
De Villaret had been a capable commander, but was a rather overbearing sort of
character. He had become increasingly dictatorial in his running of the order but
suddenly went completely to pieces and started drinking in the taverns and
womanising. He managed to escape de Pagnac and his fellow brethren when
they came for him by fleeing and shutting himself away in the castle on the
acropolis of Lindos.
In 1319, De Villaret's abdicated as Grand Master and retired to a commandery in
Languedoc where he stayed until his death. Fra' de Pagnac had by now died and
so the brothers elected Fra' Elyon de Villeneurve as their superior and new
Grand Master. Life on the Island after this scandal remained monastic, with the
brethren eating and sleeping within their own 'langue' but attending chapters and
important feasts in the magisterial palace, matters soon returned to normal.
By the beginning of the fourteenth century, the concept of the Crusade was
dying, the loss of the sites in the Holy Land and the withdrawal to Cyprus by the
martial monks saw a sharp wane of interest in their causes. This was not a good
time for the Order of St John and despite their property gains at the expense of
the Templars, there was a steady all round decline in their revenues. The
financial collapse of the Florentine banks in the 1340's caused the Order some
problems, but they were also hit hard by the Black Death and lost almost a third
of their number. This not only affected them, but also the other commanderies in
Western Europe which lead to a further decline in their revenues.
The Knights Hospitaller: Naval Seamen & Pirates?
The Hospitallers'' had by now turned towards what was to become their chief
business, the sea. They saw it as their duty to protect Christian merchants and to
intercept or harass Moslem traders. The knights had their own cargo fleet and
pilgrim vessels, yet their battle flotilla was to become one of the most feared and
respected in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.
A Hospitaller battle flotilla seldom contained more than a dozen vessels and was
made up of small, extremely fast moving galleys. They were the hardest hitting
warships of their day and usually carried about twenty-five men-at-arms with
probably up to twice as many crossbowmen. Their torpedo of the day was a giant
iron ram which stove in the enemy ships timbers and mangonels were their
artillery. These techniques usually crippled the ship as opposed to sinking it,
enabling the knights to board and overthrow the crew.
All knights had to perform a certain amount of time at sea to gain promotion and
a patrol voyage would often last several months. They lived in great discomfort
on their tightly packed galleys, squeezing themselves into an vessel which was
designed and built totally for speed and fighting. The knights and their patrons
would sleep huddled together under a tent on the stern platform and their
provisions were mostly limited to oil soaked biscuits and watered down wine.
This was luxury though compared to the conditions the wretched galley slaves
had to endure, whose numbers were made up of criminals and captured
Saracens.
The Aegean Sea is often lashed by storms as the colder air streams from the
north meet the warmer air coming up from Africa. Experience of these difficult
conditions at sea soon turned the knights into very competent sailors, and it
wasn't long before the fighting monks of Rhodes became known as the greatest
fighting seamen of their age.
The sea-knights continued to win victory after victory and those who managed to
escape went home and told of the 'devil dogs of the infidel' in their fearsome
galleys. One such victory came when Grand Commander Albrecht von
Schwarzburg was escorting the Genoese governor of Chios to his Island when
they were attacked by a Turkish fleet. The Turks were routed with only six of their
ships managing to escape under the cover of darkness, most of the others were
drowned or killed in the water.
The ghazis wanted revenge and the following year in 1320, Rhodes was
blockaded by eighty warships. Albrecht, by now a naval commander of some
experience, sailed out to meet them with a battle squadron of four galleys and a
dozen other vessels. Most of the Turkish warships were either boarded or sent to
the bottom, leaving their entire force, who had landed on a nearby Island,
trapped and had little option but to surrender to the knights.
In 1334 a combined fleet of Hospitaller, Papal, Cypriot, French and Venetian
crusaders ambushed the port of Yakshi, emir of Marmora, off the Island of
Episkopia. This led to a running battle which lasted for nine days, with the
crusaders out-sailing and out fighting the emir's navy sending over 100 of his
vessels to the seabed.
Bad fortunes and the build-up to the first Siege of Rhodes.
By the last quarter of the fourteen century, the whole of the Latin East was
failing. The Turks were swallowing Greece, Bosnia, Serbia and the tsardoms of
the Bulgars were also conquered. In 1394, Rome had to endure the indignity of
Sultan Bayezid proclaiming himself 'Sultan of Rome'. The Pope answered in
1396 by launching a massive expedition to the Balkans which was supported by
troops from all over Europe. The Hospitallers were represented by Master
Philibert de Naillac and his galleys sailed up the Danube from the Black Sea to
join the expedition. It was a total disaster and the force was almost completely
annihilated by Sultan Bayezid at the Battle of Nicopolis on 25th September. The
future Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund and Master Philibert de Naillac narrowly
escaping in boats down the River Danube.
Things did not look good for the Christian west and matters were to take an even
worse turn for the knights on Rhodes. In 1426 Sultan Barsbei dispatched an
armada of 180 galleys to attack Cyprus. The Island fell and the Mamelukes burnt
Nicosia to the ground laying the whole kingdom to waste. King Janus of Cyprus
was captured and paraded through the streets of Cairo on a donkey and was
held for a year until an enormous ransom of 200,000 ducats was paid.
After the fall of Cyprus, matters were to never be quite the same for the
Hospitaller knights on Rhodes. The destruction of the Island meant a great loss
of wealth to the order, as for many years they had been the largest landowner on
the Island. Rhodes, it seems, was now standing alone as the last and only heir of
Crusader Jerusalem.
In 1453 the inevitable happened and the knights worst fear came true when
Constantinople fell to the Turks led by Mehmed the Conqueror. Building works
on Rhodes defences had been seriously stepped up since the fall of Cyprus and
after Constantinople fell, successive Grand Masters put considerable effort into
further fortification of the town and the harbour. The numbers of knights on the
Island increased considerable from this time onwards and were to more than
double in the next fifty years.
Grand Master Jacques de Milly launched attacks against the Turkish mainland
while Mehmed was indisposed subjugating the remnants of Romania. Then as
the knights awaited the major attack from the Turks, they concentrated their
efforts on gaining time by sending forth several delegations to Adrianople to
discuss a peace treaty with Mehmed. He demanded the knights pay him 2000
ducats a year and in retaliation for their refusal, he next demanded they pay him
tribute for the Island. This was totally unacceptable to the knights and
negotiations were to soon break down, time was running out for the knights.