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The Military Religious Orders of the Middle Ages: The Hospitallers, The Templars, The Teutonic Knights, and others
Full Title:
The Military Religious Orders of The Middle Ages: The Hospitallers, The Templars, The Teutonic Knights, And Others. With An Appendix Of Other Orders Of Knighthood: Legendary, Honorary, And Modern.
Published in 1879 in London by the Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge
Written by Frederick Charles Woodhouse 1827 - 1905
Contents:
PART I. —THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM, OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS — 20 Chapters
Appendix I.— List of the Convents of the Order in England
Appendix II.— Extracts from the martyrology of the Knights of Malta
PART II. —THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS — 7 Chapters
PART III. —THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS — 3 Chapters
PART IV. — PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH ORDERS
The Knights of the Order of Avis.
The Knights of the Order of St. James of Compostella.
The Knights of the Order of Calatrava.
The Knights of the Order of Alcantara.
PART V. — ENGLISH ORDERS
The Order of the Bath.
The Order of the Garter.
The Order of the Thistle.
The Order of St, Patrick.
APPENDIX.
Orders of Knighthood: Legendary, Honorary, and Modern
Excerpt:
.......If we can grasp the idea of European and English life and thought that all this implies, we shall see how much of present feeling and prejudice we must put away before we can be in a position to judge fairly of the age and the circumstances which gave rise to the Military Religious Orders, and to contemplate fairly the history of the Orders themselves.
The idea itself was certainly noble and grand. In those times the military and the religious life alone offered a promising field for great and energetic minds. But there would be men whose religious instincts drew them to the cloister, while their vigorous flames and fiery energy disposed them also to the soldier's life. It was a happy thought, therefore, that devised a method to combine these two vocations, and put a sword into the monk's hand who had little taste for the spade or the library.
The Christian calling is that of a soldier, and the exigencies of the times made it honorable to fight not only against spiritual but against human foes.
But in reality this idea, like all other great ideas, was one of gradual growth and development. It did not spring, Minerva-like, fully equipped from the head of any.
The hardships that pilgrims to the Holy Places endured led to the formation of societies of men who devoted themselves to their relief and maintenance, while they remained at Jerusalem.
And thus the terrors and dangers of the road became known, and the cruel sufferings and indignities that pilgrims were made to undergo before they could set foot in the Holy City, till those who sheltered and succored the pilgrim when he arrived at his destination saw that if their work was to be complete and thorough, they must protect him also on his way.
And so the nursing brother and the hospitable monk became an armed and fighting soldier.
Then as the Mahometan conquest advanced, and the birthplace of Christ, and the very tomb in which He had been laid, fell into the hands of the anti-Christian host. Christian men's blood boiled, and the cry went up from all Europe that this should not be. And so men bound themselves into bands and Orders for mutual support and to gain strength, and vowed to devote life and all to this great work, and to succeed, or to perish in the attempt.
So the work began, originating in the highest Christian instincts, and carried out with self-sacrifice and enthusiasm. It attracted many devoted men, and so grew and spread and flourished.
The Military Religious Orders of The Middle Ages: The Hospitallers, The Templars, The Teutonic Knights, And Others. With An Appendix Of Other Orders Of Knighthood: Legendary, Honorary, And Modern.
Published in 1879 in London by the Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge
Written by Frederick Charles Woodhouse 1827 - 1905
Contents:
PART I. —THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM, OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS — 20 Chapters
Appendix I.— List of the Convents of the Order in England
Appendix II.— Extracts from the martyrology of the Knights of Malta
PART II. —THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS — 7 Chapters
PART III. —THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS — 3 Chapters
PART IV. — PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH ORDERS
The Knights of the Order of Avis.
The Knights of the Order of St. James of Compostella.
The Knights of the Order of Calatrava.
The Knights of the Order of Alcantara.
PART V. — ENGLISH ORDERS
The Order of the Bath.
The Order of the Garter.
The Order of the Thistle.
The Order of St, Patrick.
APPENDIX.
Orders of Knighthood: Legendary, Honorary, and Modern
Excerpt:
.......If we can grasp the idea of European and English life and thought that all this implies, we shall see how much of present feeling and prejudice we must put away before we can be in a position to judge fairly of the age and the circumstances which gave rise to the Military Religious Orders, and to contemplate fairly the history of the Orders themselves.
The idea itself was certainly noble and grand. In those times the military and the religious life alone offered a promising field for great and energetic minds. But there would be men whose religious instincts drew them to the cloister, while their vigorous flames and fiery energy disposed them also to the soldier's life. It was a happy thought, therefore, that devised a method to combine these two vocations, and put a sword into the monk's hand who had little taste for the spade or the library.
The Christian calling is that of a soldier, and the exigencies of the times made it honorable to fight not only against spiritual but against human foes.
But in reality this idea, like all other great ideas, was one of gradual growth and development. It did not spring, Minerva-like, fully equipped from the head of any.
The hardships that pilgrims to the Holy Places endured led to the formation of societies of men who devoted themselves to their relief and maintenance, while they remained at Jerusalem.
And thus the terrors and dangers of the road became known, and the cruel sufferings and indignities that pilgrims were made to undergo before they could set foot in the Holy City, till those who sheltered and succored the pilgrim when he arrived at his destination saw that if their work was to be complete and thorough, they must protect him also on his way.
And so the nursing brother and the hospitable monk became an armed and fighting soldier.
Then as the Mahometan conquest advanced, and the birthplace of Christ, and the very tomb in which He had been laid, fell into the hands of the anti-Christian host. Christian men's blood boiled, and the cry went up from all Europe that this should not be. And so men bound themselves into bands and Orders for mutual support and to gain strength, and vowed to devote life and all to this great work, and to succeed, or to perish in the attempt.
So the work began, originating in the highest Christian instincts, and carried out with self-sacrifice and enthusiasm. It attracted many devoted men, and so grew and spread and flourished.
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263 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1879
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September 29, 2017
I wish the publishers of F.C. Woodhouse’s book, “The Military Religious Orders of the Middle Ages: The Hospitallers, The Templars, The Teutonic Knights and Others,” had been clearer that Frederick Charles had lived between 1827 and 1905, and that this tome dates from 1879. While it’s interesting to read older history books to get a sense of contemporary perspectives and prejudices, nothing about the book jacket or online description makes it clear that this is not a more modern publication which one might expect would be more balanced and factual.
Writing at the end of the 19th Century, Woodhouse appears quite the fan of the medieval warrior monks who were essentially the shock-troops of the Crusades, those bizarre foreign invasions and land-grabs guised at the time in a cloak of religious duty. Much as we know today that a jihadi holy war is a load of old cobblers, and that no divine entity is actually sanctioning any such campaigns of savagery or murder, we must surely also know that the true motivation of the Crusades could only have been colonial in nature: seize a bulwark, fortify a position, and the benefits in trade and riches would be enormous. Much of the wealth of Europe through the middle ages and beyond relied on finding more and more lands to plunder, such that Europe was driven to cross the oceans and “discover” countries that were already there, full of people that were in the way and were subsequently subjected to every manner of disease, war, abuse, enslavement, and genocide.
Yet the Crusades, at the time, were touted as a Holy War to regain a Holy Land. The Sky Wizard of the West had Spoken to His People and expressed dissatisfaction that the physical locations in which his earthly Sky Wizard entity had birthed, walked and died, was now no longer in the hands of His People. “Go then,” he commanded, “and wipe ye all of them out.” It’s nonsense, plain and simple, yet European populations bought the cover story, and Middle Eastern and North African populations bought the farm.
“Then as the Mahometan conquest advanced,” recounts Woodhouse, “and the birthplace of Christ, and the very tomb in which He had been laid, fell into the hands of the anti-Christian host, Christian men’s blood boiled and the cry went up from all Europe that this should not be.” Such notions of “the birthplace” or “tomb” of Christ are uncomfortable concepts when you consider whether Christ was simply a mythical composite of dying-resurrecting godman motifs cobbled together out of older Babylonian, Chaldean and Sumerian narratives, or whether in fact if there was a historical Christ that he was more likely a mortal human who became posthumously politicized by opportunists. Any such possibilities would be merely inconvenient truths, ignored back then, and ignored now. The fact remains that the worldview of the time, which pervaded society up until the time Woodhouse was writing his history of the knights, and which pervades society even today in various shades and strains, was that “ … the spread of Christianity was slowly working out its great and noble purposes.”
Without Christianity, humans would be lost in barbarity, and in fact Woodhouse is quick to remind us that the all non-Christian peoples, including the “Mahometans,” were savage:
"We know that [Chivalry, Knight-Errantry etc.] was carried to excess […] but still it had its place in the history of European civilization and progress. It did its work, and then passed away; but whatever may have been its faults, it certainly had its good side and helped to lift man from the savagery into which he naturally tends to degenerate, up towards the high and noble Christian ideal."
In fact, the noble Christian ideal looked a lot like colonial mercantilism, and not only did the European nations enrich themselves, but their storm-trooper warrior caste also grew wealthy and powerful, until they were practically their own sovereign state. Indeed, in 1310 Rhodes became sovereign territory owned and ruled by the Knights of St. John after they invaded and took it by force. All in the name of Christ, one assumes, and in the name of recovering the Holy Land, which was a bit of a distance from Rhodes. Whatever the inhabitants of Rhodes were fighting in the name of, Woodhouse considered their defense a “great obstinacy.”
Elsewhere Woodhouse writes how “the Knights had in their pay, and under their command, a large number of troops, both cavalry and infantry” and reports a contemporary account that “Their possessions are so vast, that there cannot now be a province in Christendom which does not contribute to their support, and their wealth is said to equal that of sovereign princes.”
The power of the orders did not stop at amassing wealth and ruling sovereign territories – even treaties with nations were within their authority to make, such as when “a second commercial treaty between the King of England and the Order [of the Teutonic Knights] was made in A.D. 1409.”
Not content with scourging the Middle East, some of the religious war orders were willing to invade European territories. The rout of Livonia, for example, appears to have taken place for no other reason than that they were “pagans.” This was followed by the invasion and colonization of Prussia:
"The Duke of Poland asked the aid of the Order [of the Teutonic Knights] against the pagan inhabitants of the country that was afterwards Prussia. These people were very savage and barbarous, and constantly committed horrible cruelties upon their more civilized neighbors, laying waste the country, destroying crops, carrying off cattle, burning towns, villages, and convents, and murdering the inhabitants with circumstances of extreme atrocity, often burning their captives alive, as sacrifices to their gods."
Clearly they were too savage and needed the some of those “high and noble” changes that were made under the guiding and “gentle hand of Christianity.” Jews were banned – “Thus it was commanded that no Jew, necromancer, or sorcerer should be allowed to settle in the country.” Slaves were permitted, as long as they were sent “to the parish church to be instructed by the clergy in the Christian religion.” The local language was outlawed – a typical colonial tactic used to disempower, disenfranchise, and break a subjugated population: “German alone was to be spoken, and the ancient language of the country was forbidden, to prevent the people hatching conspiracies, and to do away with the old idolatry and heathen superstitions.”
Some of the laws read like those passed by the Nazis, which might partly explain why Hitler was such a huge fan of the Teutonic Knights: “Prussians were not allowed to open shops or taverns or to act as surgeons or accouters.”
The relative lack of value placed on health care workers is noteworthy:
"The wages of servants were strictly settled, and no increase or diminution was permitted. Three marks and a half a year was the wages of a carpenter or smith, two and a half marks of a coachman, a mark and a half of a laborer, two marks of a domestic servant, and half a mark of a nurse."
This all sounds high and noble indeed. Meanwhile, back in the Holy Land, Crusaders were still in high demand.
“Earnest appeals were sent to Europe to try and rouse again the crusading spirit, and defend and retain at least this one city upon the soul of the Holy Land,” writes Woodhouse, recounting that having invaded a foreign sovereign land and founding settlements of Europeans a long way from home where they shouldn’t really have been, there was some belief that this foreign territory was theirs to regain.
Woodhouse superficially characterizes the various “mutual quarrels, jealousies, and intrigues for advancing their ambitious designs” which prevented the “courts of the Christian kings” from aiding in more crusades, while appearing to miss the obvious point that the Crusades themselves were clearly an “intrigue for advancing an ambitious design.”
What’s curious is that Woodhouse recognizes the role the East played in the gradual evolution of the West, while he is simultaneously unable to recognize that a “revival” of learning would not have been necessary had learning and knowledge begun to fester and recede in parallel with the rise of the Church. The Dark Ages spread throughout Europe with the spread of Christianity, and a careful study of history will help explain the concurrence. Woodhouse hints at this, but seems incapable or unwilling to read further into it:
"The siege and capture of Constantinople form an era in history. The event stands midway between medieval and modern civilization, and was fraught with far-reaching consequences. It broke the last link that held the world to the old Roman civilization; it sent into the west the learning and literature of the east; and paved the way for the revival of learning, and for the Reformation."
Not content to stop at a zealously Christian worldview, Woodhouse also embodies the chauvinism and sexism of his time – he laments not only that “Emperor after emperor was raised by faction, and put to death by violence,” which seems a reasonable lament, but also that “women and eunuchs ruled,” and that “the successor of Constantine” was “without manliness.”
The prevalence of spelling, grammar and typesetting errors, the absence of any page numbers, combined with the stilted 19th Century prose and the Christian zealotry diminish the value of this history of the warrior monks, though much of the basic narrative and sequence of events is indeed here to peruse. Woodhouse does make a very thought-provoking point about the Orders’ possible adoption of ancient Gnostic Christian practices or other mysticisms:
"There is no doubt that their intercourse with the East brought them into contact with many religious opinions and speculations which at the time were unknown in Europe, but which the loss of Constantinople and the immigration of so many Eastern refugees afterwards introduced to the thinking minds of the West. The revival of learning, the study of Greek, the rise of free thought, are by many dated from this event, which led to the importation of Oriental learning and Oriental mysticism into Europe. It does not seem impossible that the Templars may have anticipated something of this in their own Order by long sojourn in Palestine, and by their wider knowledge and more liberal opinions may have alarmed and scandalized the narrower minds of the clergy of the West."
Writing at the end of the 19th Century, Woodhouse appears quite the fan of the medieval warrior monks who were essentially the shock-troops of the Crusades, those bizarre foreign invasions and land-grabs guised at the time in a cloak of religious duty. Much as we know today that a jihadi holy war is a load of old cobblers, and that no divine entity is actually sanctioning any such campaigns of savagery or murder, we must surely also know that the true motivation of the Crusades could only have been colonial in nature: seize a bulwark, fortify a position, and the benefits in trade and riches would be enormous. Much of the wealth of Europe through the middle ages and beyond relied on finding more and more lands to plunder, such that Europe was driven to cross the oceans and “discover” countries that were already there, full of people that were in the way and were subsequently subjected to every manner of disease, war, abuse, enslavement, and genocide.
Yet the Crusades, at the time, were touted as a Holy War to regain a Holy Land. The Sky Wizard of the West had Spoken to His People and expressed dissatisfaction that the physical locations in which his earthly Sky Wizard entity had birthed, walked and died, was now no longer in the hands of His People. “Go then,” he commanded, “and wipe ye all of them out.” It’s nonsense, plain and simple, yet European populations bought the cover story, and Middle Eastern and North African populations bought the farm.
“Then as the Mahometan conquest advanced,” recounts Woodhouse, “and the birthplace of Christ, and the very tomb in which He had been laid, fell into the hands of the anti-Christian host, Christian men’s blood boiled and the cry went up from all Europe that this should not be.” Such notions of “the birthplace” or “tomb” of Christ are uncomfortable concepts when you consider whether Christ was simply a mythical composite of dying-resurrecting godman motifs cobbled together out of older Babylonian, Chaldean and Sumerian narratives, or whether in fact if there was a historical Christ that he was more likely a mortal human who became posthumously politicized by opportunists. Any such possibilities would be merely inconvenient truths, ignored back then, and ignored now. The fact remains that the worldview of the time, which pervaded society up until the time Woodhouse was writing his history of the knights, and which pervades society even today in various shades and strains, was that “ … the spread of Christianity was slowly working out its great and noble purposes.”
Without Christianity, humans would be lost in barbarity, and in fact Woodhouse is quick to remind us that the all non-Christian peoples, including the “Mahometans,” were savage:
"We know that [Chivalry, Knight-Errantry etc.] was carried to excess […] but still it had its place in the history of European civilization and progress. It did its work, and then passed away; but whatever may have been its faults, it certainly had its good side and helped to lift man from the savagery into which he naturally tends to degenerate, up towards the high and noble Christian ideal."
In fact, the noble Christian ideal looked a lot like colonial mercantilism, and not only did the European nations enrich themselves, but their storm-trooper warrior caste also grew wealthy and powerful, until they were practically their own sovereign state. Indeed, in 1310 Rhodes became sovereign territory owned and ruled by the Knights of St. John after they invaded and took it by force. All in the name of Christ, one assumes, and in the name of recovering the Holy Land, which was a bit of a distance from Rhodes. Whatever the inhabitants of Rhodes were fighting in the name of, Woodhouse considered their defense a “great obstinacy.”
Elsewhere Woodhouse writes how “the Knights had in their pay, and under their command, a large number of troops, both cavalry and infantry” and reports a contemporary account that “Their possessions are so vast, that there cannot now be a province in Christendom which does not contribute to their support, and their wealth is said to equal that of sovereign princes.”
The power of the orders did not stop at amassing wealth and ruling sovereign territories – even treaties with nations were within their authority to make, such as when “a second commercial treaty between the King of England and the Order [of the Teutonic Knights] was made in A.D. 1409.”
Not content with scourging the Middle East, some of the religious war orders were willing to invade European territories. The rout of Livonia, for example, appears to have taken place for no other reason than that they were “pagans.” This was followed by the invasion and colonization of Prussia:
"The Duke of Poland asked the aid of the Order [of the Teutonic Knights] against the pagan inhabitants of the country that was afterwards Prussia. These people were very savage and barbarous, and constantly committed horrible cruelties upon their more civilized neighbors, laying waste the country, destroying crops, carrying off cattle, burning towns, villages, and convents, and murdering the inhabitants with circumstances of extreme atrocity, often burning their captives alive, as sacrifices to their gods."
Clearly they were too savage and needed the some of those “high and noble” changes that were made under the guiding and “gentle hand of Christianity.” Jews were banned – “Thus it was commanded that no Jew, necromancer, or sorcerer should be allowed to settle in the country.” Slaves were permitted, as long as they were sent “to the parish church to be instructed by the clergy in the Christian religion.” The local language was outlawed – a typical colonial tactic used to disempower, disenfranchise, and break a subjugated population: “German alone was to be spoken, and the ancient language of the country was forbidden, to prevent the people hatching conspiracies, and to do away with the old idolatry and heathen superstitions.”
Some of the laws read like those passed by the Nazis, which might partly explain why Hitler was such a huge fan of the Teutonic Knights: “Prussians were not allowed to open shops or taverns or to act as surgeons or accouters.”
The relative lack of value placed on health care workers is noteworthy:
"The wages of servants were strictly settled, and no increase or diminution was permitted. Three marks and a half a year was the wages of a carpenter or smith, two and a half marks of a coachman, a mark and a half of a laborer, two marks of a domestic servant, and half a mark of a nurse."
This all sounds high and noble indeed. Meanwhile, back in the Holy Land, Crusaders were still in high demand.
“Earnest appeals were sent to Europe to try and rouse again the crusading spirit, and defend and retain at least this one city upon the soul of the Holy Land,” writes Woodhouse, recounting that having invaded a foreign sovereign land and founding settlements of Europeans a long way from home where they shouldn’t really have been, there was some belief that this foreign territory was theirs to regain.
Woodhouse superficially characterizes the various “mutual quarrels, jealousies, and intrigues for advancing their ambitious designs” which prevented the “courts of the Christian kings” from aiding in more crusades, while appearing to miss the obvious point that the Crusades themselves were clearly an “intrigue for advancing an ambitious design.”
What’s curious is that Woodhouse recognizes the role the East played in the gradual evolution of the West, while he is simultaneously unable to recognize that a “revival” of learning would not have been necessary had learning and knowledge begun to fester and recede in parallel with the rise of the Church. The Dark Ages spread throughout Europe with the spread of Christianity, and a careful study of history will help explain the concurrence. Woodhouse hints at this, but seems incapable or unwilling to read further into it:
"The siege and capture of Constantinople form an era in history. The event stands midway between medieval and modern civilization, and was fraught with far-reaching consequences. It broke the last link that held the world to the old Roman civilization; it sent into the west the learning and literature of the east; and paved the way for the revival of learning, and for the Reformation."
Not content to stop at a zealously Christian worldview, Woodhouse also embodies the chauvinism and sexism of his time – he laments not only that “Emperor after emperor was raised by faction, and put to death by violence,” which seems a reasonable lament, but also that “women and eunuchs ruled,” and that “the successor of Constantine” was “without manliness.”
The prevalence of spelling, grammar and typesetting errors, the absence of any page numbers, combined with the stilted 19th Century prose and the Christian zealotry diminish the value of this history of the warrior monks, though much of the basic narrative and sequence of events is indeed here to peruse. Woodhouse does make a very thought-provoking point about the Orders’ possible adoption of ancient Gnostic Christian practices or other mysticisms:
"There is no doubt that their intercourse with the East brought them into contact with many religious opinions and speculations which at the time were unknown in Europe, but which the loss of Constantinople and the immigration of so many Eastern refugees afterwards introduced to the thinking minds of the West. The revival of learning, the study of Greek, the rise of free thought, are by many dated from this event, which led to the importation of Oriental learning and Oriental mysticism into Europe. It does not seem impossible that the Templars may have anticipated something of this in their own Order by long sojourn in Palestine, and by their wider knowledge and more liberal opinions may have alarmed and scandalized the narrower minds of the clergy of the West."
June 20, 2015
I found this history fascinating, though a little difficult to read as it was written in the nineteenth century. Well worth preserving, though, as the long history of the Knights of St John was meticulously detailed and so well delineated that I felt I was there through the battles and trials they went through. To realise that this was the origin of the St John Ambulance Brigade was a revelation, although it's a far cry from the job the guys were doing in the Middle Ages. The book cleared up a lot of questions I'd had for a long time about the Religious Orders and why they were formed. It put the crusades into perspective as well, so a worthwhile investment of time to read this.
August 3, 2022
Frederick Charles Woodhouse (1827 – 1905) wrote this for the "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge" in London. The goal was to promote the value of the Christian knight-warriors to a new generation. This book was published in 1879 and was written in the prose style of the day. There is an Appendix with other Orders in Europe (see below).
These three military and religious groups took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Europeans were encouraged to donate to these groups because they were fighting against the Muslims far from home. Money, lands, and properties flowed to these three groups. The vow of poverty became less critical over time. The same principles bound all three groups: To defend and aid pilgrims during their vista to the Holy Land. Second, they waged war against enemies of their faith.
It is essential to note the differences between the three groups highlighted in this book. The Hospitallers began by helping others who were injured or ailing. Later, the Hospitallers added the role of warrior monks to protect those hospitals and other functions as time passed. The Hospitallers are associated with the hospital in Jerusalem, which was dedicated to St John the Baptist and founded around 1023 to provide care for poor, sick, or injured pilgrims to the Holy Land. After the First Crusade in 1099 CE, they received a papal charter to defend the routes to the Holy Land.
The Knights Templar was always a fighting force. However, over time, they emerged as Europe's bankers. Templars (and Hospitallers) always came from the nobility, even though they shed their wealth to become one of the Knights. They were the first banking system in Europe, perfecting the concept of depositing funds in one place and withdrawing those funds from another. Because they became so wealthy that European kings wanted to take their wealth. King Philip eventually arrested the Templars and tortured them for confessions. Although exonerated by the Pope, King Philip killed them due to his accusations of Templars' heresy.
Teutonic Knights were Germans who aided Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land. They also served as a military order in the medieval periods. Many of these knights came from the peasant class. These fighting monks accommodated the German-speaking Crusaders. Later, they worked to subdue the pagans in Prussia and the Baltic countries.
The Appendix briefly discusses other Orders of Knighthood: Legendary, Honorary, and Modern:
PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH ORDERS
The Knights of the Order of Avis.
The Knights of the Order of St. James of Compostella.
The Knights of the Order of Calatrava.
The Knights of the Order of Alcantara.
ENGLISH ORDERS
The Order of the Bath.
The Order of the Garter.
The Order of the Thistle.
The Order of St. Patrick.
These three military and religious groups took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Europeans were encouraged to donate to these groups because they were fighting against the Muslims far from home. Money, lands, and properties flowed to these three groups. The vow of poverty became less critical over time. The same principles bound all three groups: To defend and aid pilgrims during their vista to the Holy Land. Second, they waged war against enemies of their faith.
It is essential to note the differences between the three groups highlighted in this book. The Hospitallers began by helping others who were injured or ailing. Later, the Hospitallers added the role of warrior monks to protect those hospitals and other functions as time passed. The Hospitallers are associated with the hospital in Jerusalem, which was dedicated to St John the Baptist and founded around 1023 to provide care for poor, sick, or injured pilgrims to the Holy Land. After the First Crusade in 1099 CE, they received a papal charter to defend the routes to the Holy Land.
The Knights Templar was always a fighting force. However, over time, they emerged as Europe's bankers. Templars (and Hospitallers) always came from the nobility, even though they shed their wealth to become one of the Knights. They were the first banking system in Europe, perfecting the concept of depositing funds in one place and withdrawing those funds from another. Because they became so wealthy that European kings wanted to take their wealth. King Philip eventually arrested the Templars and tortured them for confessions. Although exonerated by the Pope, King Philip killed them due to his accusations of Templars' heresy.
Teutonic Knights were Germans who aided Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land. They also served as a military order in the medieval periods. Many of these knights came from the peasant class. These fighting monks accommodated the German-speaking Crusaders. Later, they worked to subdue the pagans in Prussia and the Baltic countries.
The Appendix briefly discusses other Orders of Knighthood: Legendary, Honorary, and Modern:
PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH ORDERS
The Knights of the Order of Avis.
The Knights of the Order of St. James of Compostella.
The Knights of the Order of Calatrava.
The Knights of the Order of Alcantara.
ENGLISH ORDERS
The Order of the Bath.
The Order of the Garter.
The Order of the Thistle.
The Order of St. Patrick.
January 29, 2019
Read this to get contextual background for the Knight's Watch in Game of Thrones. Written in 1879, 20 years after Civil War, when it was difficult to get historical information.
Must be more than one Barbarossa: Woodhouse talks about 2 pirate Barbarossa brothers who allied with Solyman. The other Barbarossa, is the nickname of Emperor Frederick I of Swabia. (1121-1190) a Crusader.
The Crusades had a naval component, Templars, Hospitallers.
The Venetians a trading state, had their own navy and army.
Phillip the Fair (French King) first to take assets from Templars, was followed by Henry VIII, etc. To justify takings used torture etc.
Interesting dynamics with Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Albania, ....up to Napoleon.
With edits and updates, this could be an addition to the "A Very Short Introduction"series published by Oxford University Press. (Medieval Religious Orders.)
The Popes abandoned the Knights of St John, Kings took their property, Martin Luther in Germany argued the Knights should marry. No country would support them, small contingent wound up in Russia as Teutonic Knights. Last Chivalrous Order of the Garter formed by Edward III of England and France, Order of the Garter, counts 8 emperors of Germany, 3 Spanish kings, 5 Kings of France, 2 of Scotland, 5 Danish, 5 Portugal, 2 Swedish, 1 Polish, 1 King of Aragon and 2 Kings of Naples as members.
Must be more than one Barbarossa: Woodhouse talks about 2 pirate Barbarossa brothers who allied with Solyman. The other Barbarossa, is the nickname of Emperor Frederick I of Swabia. (1121-1190) a Crusader.
The Crusades had a naval component, Templars, Hospitallers.
The Venetians a trading state, had their own navy and army.
Phillip the Fair (French King) first to take assets from Templars, was followed by Henry VIII, etc. To justify takings used torture etc.
Interesting dynamics with Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Albania, ....up to Napoleon.
With edits and updates, this could be an addition to the "A Very Short Introduction"series published by Oxford University Press. (Medieval Religious Orders.)
The Popes abandoned the Knights of St John, Kings took their property, Martin Luther in Germany argued the Knights should marry. No country would support them, small contingent wound up in Russia as Teutonic Knights. Last Chivalrous Order of the Garter formed by Edward III of England and France, Order of the Garter, counts 8 emperors of Germany, 3 Spanish kings, 5 Kings of France, 2 of Scotland, 5 Danish, 5 Portugal, 2 Swedish, 1 Polish, 1 King of Aragon and 2 Kings of Naples as members.
October 27, 2023
I was a bit disappointed that a book about Military Religous orders contains little information on the military campaigns of the orders. It does however contain a lot of information about major events of the Orders. Most of the book deals with the Knights Hospitlars, with a couple of short chapters on the Templars and Teutonic orders. There is an appendix which lists all known orders with brief descriptions which I found interesting. The book was originally published in 1870 and I enjoy reading history books from earlier times, gaining insight into the thinking of that time - a history lesson inside a history lesson.
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