The Knights Hospitaller
in Cyprus and Rhodes:
When the Crusades ended, the Hospitallers remained in the East, eventually
establishing headquarters on the island of Rhodes. Here they dreamed of launching
new Crusades and of founding an idyllic Arthurian kingdom. The reality of
their lives was a continual naval and economic war with Turkey, often
degenerating into piracy. The Order became increasingly aristocratic, and
the Greek Orthodox villagers over whom the Catholic Knights ruled felt
economically exploited and religiously harassed. At the same time, the Order
never abandoned its charitable activities, and the Knights' persistence in
their centuries-long war undoubtedly is part of the reason that Christian
Europe survived the Islamic challenge.
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The
Later Crusades, 1274-1580: A Bibliography, by Graham Smith. (University
of Leicester)
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Portrait
of a Knight of Rhodes, by Pinturicchio (British Orthodox
Hospitallers Page)
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Portrait of a Knight
of Rhodes, by Pinturicchio (University of Kansas Medical Center)
-
Regnal Chronologies
of the Southern Balkans: including the Ægean. (Obsidian Pages)
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Lycos
City Guide to Rhodes: Numerous links.
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The
Archeological Museum of Rhodes: Housed in what used to be the Great Hospital.
(Future Media).
-
View of the Palace of the
Grand Master with links to other views of Rhodes (Rhodes - the Sun Island
Site)
-
Heraldic
tour of coats of arms in Rhodes (François R. Velde's
"Heraldica")
-
Medieval
Fortifications of Cyprus: With numerous photographs. (Crusader Trading
of Australia - August 2000)
-
A
History of Cyprus: The Frankish - Italian era: An overview of Cypriot
history during the Crusader occupation. From the "Sxetikos" Byzantine Churches
of Cyprus Page.
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The Knights of Saint John
in England, Scotland, and Ireland before the Reformation, by Guy Stair
Sainty (Venerable Order)
-
The
Knights Hospitallers in Poland, by Darius von Güttner Sporzynski:
A fairly long historical account.
-
Lycos
City Guide to the Dodecanese Islands: The Twelve Islands were the heart
of the Order's empire in the Ægean.
-
Dodecanian
History, by S. Stefanidis.
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The Dodecanesian Island
of Nisyros: Site of a Hospitaller castle. (Dilos Holiday World)
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Lycos
City Guide to Kos, Greece: The Hospitallers had a base in the hometown
of Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine.
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University
of North Florida, History Department, Core Abroad Page 2000, Greece.
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Bodrum (Halicarnassus), Turkey: The Order's castle at Bodrum was built
partly out of wreckage from the ruins of the Mausoleum, one of the Seven
Wonders of the ancient world. Huge lion heads from King Mausolus' tomb once
peered out of the castle walls; in the XIX Century, some were pried loose
and taken to the British Museum.
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Triptych
for the high altar of the Knights of St. John, (external view), by
Geertgen
tot Sint Jans (XV Century): A very curious painting. The surreal quality
notwithstanding, it gives an excellent idea of how the knights must have
looked in Renaissance Europe; the artist, as his name implies, lived in a
Hospitaller community.
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The Sacred Infirmary, Rhodes: (University of Kansas Medical Center)
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