[History] The Knights of Rhodes

[Hader]

Author: Carl Von Döbeln
Thread: The Knights of Rhodes

The Knights of Rhodes

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The Knights of Rhodes.

The Knights period from 1309 to 1522.

The knights of the order of St John first arrived in Rhodes in 1306,when the Grand Master Foulqet de villaret ocupied-with the help of the west-the two main strongholds of Rhodes,Philermo and pharaklo.
Their settlement in the island was completed in 1309,with the ocupation of the town Rhodes.Together with rhodes,the knights captured Kos and Leros and strenghtened their position in the south-eastern part of the Aegean sea.

The first years were extremly difficult,as the knights had to confront on one hand internal instability and on the other hand the turkish threat.
The inability of the Grand Master Foulquet De Villaret to live up to his duties and provocative way of life forced the council of the knights to elect a new master,Maurice de Pagnac.
The situation was finally settled by the pope,who obliged the two masters to resign.in 1319,Helion De Villeneuve was elected Grand Master.


Helion De Villeneuve first dealt with the restructuring of the order and the adoption of its new rules.
Having ensured internal stability and dicipline,he aimed at and succeeded in strenghtening his position in the east of the mediterranean sea.
In 1334 ,he concluded an alliance agreement with the Holy Siege,Venice,France and cyprus and in 1344,the allies managed to capture Smyrna.

The action of the knights in the years of De Villeneuve in favour of the christian world continued with the support given to Armenians against the Sultan of egypt.
The following period is characterized by the strong imperialistic activity of the ottoman sultans,Orchan and Mourat,That caused the justified concern of the west.
The order of the knights responded once again to the appeal of the pope and participated in the effort to stop the Turkish Threat.

In 1365,The knights together with the king of Cyprus attacked Alexandria,setting fire to the egyptian fleet and to the town and liberated the christian prisoners.
They did the same in 1367 in the littoral towns of Syria and asia minor.
After the death of Mourat,his son Bayezid ,after having exterminated the local governors of asia minor,carried out a series of attacks in Hungary and in vlachia.
During the military operation of the french,the germans and the Hungarians against Bayezid in Nicopolis In 1396,which resulted in a legendary defeat of the allies,Philibert de Naillac,heading the knights,showed remarkable courage and put his own life in danger.

At the time of the civil war between the sons of Bayezid,the knights failed to reocupy the fortress of Smyrna,But they managed to build the castle of St Peter in a neuralgic position near ancient Alikarnassos.


Bayezid I

The first decades of the 15th century,Rhodes were repeatatly subject to muslim attacks.
In 1440,the egyptian fleet besieged The island in vain,while in 1444,the rhodians pushed back a new siege of the Mamelukes.
A year later The Knights signed a peace agreement with egypt and exchanged their prisoners of war.

The egyptian danger having been confronted,the turkish front still remained open.
The peculiar state of The Knights ,well established in the aegean sea and with an instensive military action,was an obstacle to turkisk imperialism.
The ottomans wanted this state out of the way at all cost,and their intention was made clear mainly after the conquest of Constantinople1453.


The Siege of Constantinople 1453

When, in 1455,the knights refused to pay Mehmet The second a tribute of 2000 ducats,the turkisk navy attacked Kos and Simi.
In 1457 the turkish army arrived in the village Archangelos Of Rhodes and caused Great Disaster,While during the occupation of Mitilini in 1462,the turks Threatened The island again.
The Knights,after taking into consideration the difficult position in which they where in after the conquest of Constantinople, Asked the support of the west and took measures in order to strenghten their defence.
They fortified the walls of the town,repaired the forts of the countryside,isseud decrees defining their defence plans and In 1477 they asked every Knight of the west to come back to rhodes,in order to confront the imminent Turkish attack.

In december 1479,the first turkish troops arrived in The island,looted the countryside and obliged the inhabitans to seek refuge in the Capital.


The Turks Arrive

In may the following year ,well organised Turkish troops under the leadership of Meshikh Pasha Palaiologos,attacked from land and sea.
The Knights only had 7,000 men(Only a couple of hundred knights) against 170 ships and over 100,000 turkish soldiers.
However,after bloody battles at the fort of St nicolas and at the position of the tounge Of italy,they obliged the enemy to withdraw.


Fort St Nicolas
Meshikh Pasha Ordered another attack on 9th July,but the turks were pushed back again.
On the 27th July The day of the celebration of St panteleimon,The turks launched again an offensive and in spite of the brave resistence of the defenders ,they managed to take the tower of italy.

The knights came quickly from the town and after great struggeling the Turks Retreated.
On 17th of august 1418, Meshikh Pasha broke the siege and Rhodes celebrated the victory and Praised god.

The following year,before Rhodes had recovered the from wounds of war,a strong earthquake completed the picture of disaster.
The Grand Master D’Aubusson took urgent measures to relive the people,exempted them from tax,distrubuted wheat and repaired the buildnings,thus showing the interest of the Knights in Rhodes and its population.


The Grandmasters palace during the siege


In the meantime,in turkey,after the death of Bayezid,a civil war burst out between his two sons,Bayezid The second and Djem.
Djem sought refugee in Rhodes And The Grandmaster D’Aubusson received him gloriously,as he belived that he would be in a position to blackmail Bayezid II and obtain peace.


Djem arrives in Rhodes

Bayezid was afraid that the lords of the west would help his brother to come to power and asked the Knights to extradite him.instead,The knights sent him to france in order to protect him.
Thus,using diplomatic means,the knights obliged Bayezid to conclude a peace agreement with them and to pay 40000 Venetian Florins per year for Djem’s alimony.

Peace with the turks did not last long.
Immediately after the death of Djem ,Bayezid made raids on villages of Rhodes and Egyptian ships looted Kos and other islands.
The Navy of the Order Reacted Immediately.
In 1507 it captured “Morgabina” The renowned Egyptian Ship,which was full of passengers and merchendise and converted it into a warship with the name “Santa Maria”
In 1510 ,two squadrons of the Knights navy attacked Egyptian Ships That were loading timber in the harbor of alexandretta,The Knights Captured the crew and cargo and transported them to Rhodes.


Map of the Castle


Overview of the Castle

In 1522,Suleiman The Magnificent came to power and that meant the beginning of new military operations that troubled the greek areas.
Rhodes became once again one of the targets of the turkish policy.After a couple of months,On 26th june 1522,The turkish troops disembarked in Rhodes.Their army was made up of 200,000 men and their fleet of 400 ships,whereas the military force of Rhodes Were 6000 men.
The Turks surrounded The fortification and started bombing the positions of the tongues of spain,England and provence,without any result.

Then Suleiman Himself came to Rhodes.


Suleiman arrives

The turks bombed the fort of St Nicolas,But as the resistance of the besieged was strong,many Turks died. The siege continued with attacks on the position of the tongue of Italy,Provance, and england,Where the turks lost 2,500 men.

On 24th september the turks attacked again the positions of Spain,Italy,Provence and england.
The Defenders,who had decided to sacrifice their lives for God,Fought bravely and manged to defeat the enemy.


The Sultan,disappointed by the incompetence of the Turkish troops to take Rhodes,was thinking of withdraw.
However The treason of the Grand Chancellor of The order,Andre d’Amaral,Changed the situation in favour of the turks.

D’Amaral,who was in charge of the supplies of Rhodes,Informed the sultan on the shortages of the defenders and indicated to him,with the help of his servant Blas Biaz,The weak spots of the fortification.
Altough the treason Was disclosed and the guilty ones were executed,it was too late for the Knights reverse the situation.

Suleiman attacked once again the positions of italy and spain,aiming at occupying the city before winter-time,But failed again due to the knights strong resistence.
His failure,in conjuction with the information about a possible alliance of the knights with Charles the 5th and the pope,prevented him from starting new military operations.

Taking advantage of the tragic situation of the besieged population,he proposed the handover of the town and promised good treatment for the Population.The Knights were foreced to accept the truce ,but demanded guaranties for their lives.
This caused the anger of the Sultan,who,after a new attack ,occupied the Tower of spain.
Finally,on 22nd December , a delegation of greeks and Latins visited the Sultan and declared that they accepted his terms.

The Last Grandmaster Villier de L’isle Adam,handed over the town to the turks,who,in spite of their commitment to respect the population,soon started to loot and kill.
On 1st of january,The Knights ,together with 4-5 thousand of rhodians,abandoned the island and thus ended a glorius period which had lasted two centuries.



The Last outpost of christianity had fallen.
The Turks remained the only masters of the island until the Italians ocuupied Rhodes in 1912.



The Gate Of Chivalry








The composition and organisation of the Order Of The Joannites.


The Knights Council

The History of the order of St John starts,according to most testimonies,in the 11th century in Jerusalem,where the “Order of the hospitallers” as they were often called,held a hospital-hospice for the pilgrims of the holy land.
In the 12th century,The Order of the joannites,which was named after it’s protector ,St John The Baptist ,Gained a military character ,apart from its charitable one.



The Joannites,together with The Templars,fought against the Muslims and became the main representatives of the Crusades.
By the end of the 13th century ,The joannites were sent away from the holy land to cyprus and from there they went to Rhodes in 1309 and were named The Knights Of Rhodes.

The internal organisation of the Order is particularly interesting and was regulated by statues.

According to the rules,there were 3 classes: The Knights ,Who were always of Noble origin and held the highest offices of the Administration and The army,The Chaplains,who had only religious duties and the Sergeants ,who did not have any Noble origin and held only the lowest offices.



The Members of the order came from different European nations.thus,they were first divided into 7 nations that were known as “Tongues”.

The “Tongue“ of Provance was hierarchically superior,because it was the oldest and followed the tongue of Auvergne,France,Italy, Aragon,England and Germany.

The Tongue of Aragon compromised of all the knights who came from the iberian peninsula.
Later,in 1462,in the years of the Grand Master Pierre Raymond Zacosta,its division into to tongues was decided;The Tongue of Aragon and the tongue of Castile,which became the eight tongue.

Every tongue had its own Inn and its own head,the Pilier.
Every leader held a particular Office.The Pilier of Provance exercised the function of The Grand Commander and replaced The Grand Master,when he was absent.

The Pilier of Auvergne was the Marshal,In charge of the defence and supplies of the army.
The Grand Hospitaller ,Pilier Of France ,was in charge of the hospital and welfare.
Head of the Navy was the admiral ,the Pilier of Italy.

The Drapier ,the pilier of Aragon,attended to dress the knights,while the Grand Turkopolier ,the pilier of England,was the governor of the chivalry.

The German pilier was the “Grand Bailiff”,and was responsible for the Castles.
Finally,the Pilier Of the tongue of Castille Had the office of the Grand Chancellor,who was in charge of signing all the official state documents.

The Grand master was the sovereign for life,managed the order and elected the officials.In his duties,he was helped by the Grand Council,which composed of The piliers of the tongues.


The Grandmasters seals.

The highest executive power was exercised by the Chapter General,in which participated all the members of the Order.
The Chapter General elected The Grand Master and controlled all the bodies of the state.
Apart from the central administration,there was a strong local power.
The commandery was the basic administrative unit,an area cultivated by the peasants,who gave the crops to the knights.
Its governor was the commander,who was designated by the prior of the area.
Many commanderies constituted one preceptory and the prior was its head,designated by the Chapter General ,after the proposal of the Grand Master.

Thanks to their disciplined internal organisation,the Knights were able to survive Wars,betrayals and internal problems.
And The Order it still active after all these years.



It took me quite long time to make all this I'm not so good at english
but i hope you enjoyed it,feel free to rep me if you think it was a good "Article"
I Hope the Article will be placed in the Musaeum some day.



My Honest regards/Carl Von Döbeln