Hospitaller Rhodes
1310–1522
Flag Coat of arms
Rhodes and other possessions of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John.
Capital	Rhodes
Common languages	Greek;French
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Government	Elective monarchy
Governor
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Hospitaller occupation of Rhodes	1310
• Ottoman conquest	22 December 1522
Preceded by Succeeded by Byzantine Rhodes(Palaiologos dynasty) Mentese Beylik Ottoman Rhodes
Today part of	Greece

Thehistory of Rhodes under the Order of Saint John lasted from 1310 until 1522. The island ofRhodes was a sovereign territorial entity of theKnights Hospitaller who settled on the island fromKingdom of Jerusalem and fromCyprus, where they did not exercise temporal power. The firstGrand Master was the FrenchmanFoulques de Villaret (1305–1319).

After the extinction of theKingdom of Jerusalem with the fall ofAcre in 1291, the order sought refuge in theKingdom of Cyprus. Finding themselves becoming enmeshed in Cypriot politics, their Master,Guillaume de Villaret, created a plan of acquiring their own temporal domain, selectingRhodes to be their new home, part of theByzantine Empire.

Due to repeated disagreements with theking of CyprusHenry II, which left the privileges of the Knights Hospitaller unaltered,Foulques de Villaret made the decision to transfer the Order to the nearby island of Rhodes which was under the formal authority of theByzantine emperorAndronikos II Palaiologos. He then went toAvignon andParis to ask for help and consent fromPope Clement V and KingPhilip IV of France. The pontiff approved the project and, without revealing the end of the mission, ordered the sending of new crusaders and in September 1308 a fleet ofGenoese andNeapolitan ships set sail fromBrindisi. The emperor had rejected the homage proposal made by Villaret and sent reinforcements to defend the island. The Knights repulsed them. On 15 August 1310, after overfour years of campaigning, thecity of Rhodes surrendered to the knights. They also gained control of a number of neighbouring islands and theAnatolian port ofHalicarnassus and the island ofKastellorizo.

At Rhodes, the resident knights of each langue were headed by abaili. The English Grand Prior at the time wasPhilip De Thame, who acquired the estates allocated to the English langue from 1330 to 1358. In 1334, the Knights of Rhodes defeatedAndronikos III Palaiologos and his Turkish auxiliaries. In the 14th century, there were several other battles in which they fought.^[1]

In 1374, the Knights took over the defence ofSmyrna, conquered bya crusade in 1344.^[2] They held it until it wasbesieged and taken by Timur in 1402.^[2]

On Rhodes the Hospitallers^[3] were forced to become a more militarised force, fighting especially with theBarbary pirates. They withstood two invasions in the 15th century, one by the Mamluk Sultan of EgyptSayf ad-Din Jaqmaq in 1444 and another by theOttoman SultanMehmed the Conqueror in 1480 who, aftercapturing Constantinople and defeating the Byzantine Empire in 1453, made the Knights a priority target.

In 1402, they created a stronghold on the peninsula of Halicarnassus (presentBodrum). They used pieces of the partially destroyedMausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient World, to strengthen their rampart, thePetronium.^[4]

In 1522, an entirely new sort of force arrived: 400 ships under the command of SultanSuleiman the Magnificent delivered 100,000 men to the island^[5] (200,000 in other sources^[6]). Against this force the Knights, under Grand MasterPhilippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, had about 7,000 men-at-arms and their fortifications. Thesiege lasted six months, at the end of which the surviving defeated Hospitallers were allowed to withdraw toSicily. Despite the defeat, both Christians and Muslims seem to have regarded the conduct ofPhillipe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam as extremely valiant, and the Grand Master was proclaimed a Defender of the Faith byPope Adrian VI.

• 
  Inn of Auvergne
• 
  Inn of England
• 
  Inn of France on theStreet of the Knights
• 
  Inn of Italy
• 
  Inn of Provence
• 
  Inn of Spain

• Hospitaller Malta
• List of Knights Hospitaller sites

• Alessio VariscoFides et Caritas. Il Beato Gherardo de' Saxo e i 900 anni dell'Ordine di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta (con catalogo delle decorazioni e gradi del Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta e dell'Ordine pro Merito Melitensi civile e militare), Arcidosso, Effigi, 2013
• Franco Baglioni,I cavalieri di Rodi, SEI, Torino 1954.
• Eric Brockman,The Two Sieges of Rhodes: The Knights of St John at War 1480-1522, Barnes & Noble 1995.
• Giulio Jacopi,Lo Spedale dei Cavalieri e il Museo Archeologico di Rodi, La Libreria dello Stato, Roma 1932.
• Elias Kollias,I Cavalieri di Rodi. Il palazzo e la città, Ekdotike Athenon S.A., Atene 1991.
• Luttrell, Anthony (1975)."The Hospitallers at Rhodes, 1306–1421". InSetton, Kenneth M.; Hazard, Harry W. (eds.).A History of the Crusades, Volume III: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 278–313.ISBN 0-299-06670-3.
• Luttrell, Anthony (1988). "The Hospitallers of Rhodes Confront the Turks, 1306–1421". In Gallagher, P. F. (ed.).Christians, Jews, and Other Worlds: Patterns of Conflict and Accommodation. New York and London: University Press of America. pp. 80–116.
• Anthony Lutrell,The town of Rhodes 1306-1356, Rodi 2003.
• Vassilia Petzsa-Tzounakou,Rodi la città dei Cavalieri, Bonechi, Firenze 1996.
• Jean-Christian Poutiers,Rhodes et ses chevaliers, ESTC, Araya 1989.
• Stephen C Spiteri,Fortresses of the Knights, Book Distributors Ltd, 2001
• Carlo Trionfi,Il segno degli eroi. Storia dell'assedio di Rodi, Ceschina, Milano 1933.
• Paulette Tsimbouki,Rodi l'isola dei fiori, Leonti, Pireo 1963.

• Crusader states
• Rhodes under the Knights Hospitaller
• States and territories established in 1310
• States and territories disestablished in 1522
• Former monarchies of Europe
• Military history of the Mediterranean
• 1310 establishments in Europe

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata