Richard the Lionheart led the Third Crusade taking the coastal town of Acre in 1191 after a siege. Before heading for Jerusalem, he ordered the slaughter of the 2,500 Moslem prisoners, including women and children – a barbaric act which stunned the Saracens and left a lasting legacy on Moslem/Christian relations. Richard’s army of 14,000, supported by the Hospitallers and Knights Templar, defeated the Saracens at Arsuf in 1191 but failed to regain Jerusalem or the Sacred True Cross captured by Saladin.
In 1197 the Hospitallers moved their headquarters from Margat to Acre, where they built a hospital larger than at Jerusalem. Before it became the Crusader capital, Acre was an important Phoenician trade centre and later a Roman port. The Crusader part of the City has been restored in recent years. From 1244 the Crusaders were on the defensive in their fortified towns and castles in Palestine. In 1291 the last great siege in the Holy Land began against Acre. 100,000 Saracens and 92 battering engines were too strong against the garrison of 15,000. Of the 140 Hospitallers present at the beginning of the siege only seven survived. The Hospitallers, under the injured Grand Master de Villiers, moved to Cyprus, so ending nearly two hundred years of occupation of the Holy Land by the Crusaders.
The Order of Hospitallers later developed a military as well as humanitarian role and, together with the Knights Templar and the Teutonic Knights, the Hospitallers of St John became the principal defence of the King of Jerusalem and a powerful protection for pilgrims journeying in the Holy Land. The survivors from Acre established their new headquarters in Cyprus (1291-1310). The Hospitallers already owned the castle of Kolossi, which had been given to them by the King of Cyprus 80 years before the fall of Acre. This castle is still standing and the Order of St John has an interest in it.
The Order was European and was organised into eight natural ‘Tongues’ – Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, England, Germany and Castile-Portugal. After their numbers were reinforced from the Tongues, the Hospitallers became one of the principal naval powers in the Mediterranean, fighting the many pirates. The Hospitallers had hoped that the Holy Land would be re-conquered, so that they could return to Jerusalem. However, that was not to be and after 19 years they left Cyprus and conquered the Byzantine island of Rhodes (1320 – 1522). The Hospitallers wished for complete independence to develop their activities. Rhodes, near the coast of Asia Minor, attracted the Hospitallers because of its fine harbour. The Hospitallers captured the island without serious loss, driving out the pirates. They later controlled a number of islands, including Cos to the north west of Rhodes. In 1334 the Christian Crusade League captured the important Turkish port of Smyrna. From 1374 to 1402 the Hospitallers were in possession of Smyrna.
In 1408 the Hospitallers captured Bodrum, on the mainland coast opposite Cos. There they made a fort, forty per cent of it from stones of the derelict mausoleum in Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, which the Knights found in a ruined state on the mainland overlooking Bodrum. At Rhodes the Order became a sovereign power and the main bulwark of Christendom in the Eastern Mediterranean. In the Street of the Knights several of the original Auberges (inns, where most of the members of the Order lodged) are still standing today. In 1919 a Knight of the Order of St John purchased and restored the Auberge which had been used by members from England. The Order rebuilt the hospital, the great ward being over fifty yards long. In this hospital for the first time those with incurable diseases were separated from other patients.
During the sojourn of the Knights of Rhodes, the strength of the Ottoman Turks grew until it exceeded that of the defenders of Christendom. By this time the Turks had replaced the Saracens as the principal Moslem power. In 1453 the Turks captured Constantinople, which had been until then the centre of the Christian Church in the East. In 1480 Sultan Mahomet the Great brought 160 ships and landed an army of 70,000 on Rhodes. To defend the island the Grand Master, Peter d’Aubusson and 450 members of the Order had in support 4,000 mercenaries and some armed citizens. After three months of fighting the Turks left. In that time 9,000 Turks and half of the members of the Order had been killed.
In the next forty years the Turks advanced into what advanced into what is now the Balkans and Hungary, but kept away from Rhodes. However, in 1522 Sultan Suleiman I sent a force which was twice as large as his grandfather had sent to the first siege in 1480. To defend the island the Grand Master, Philip de L’Isle Adam, had only 600 members of the Order and 4,500 other troops. The Order survived several major battles, but after six months, in order to save the entire population from a massacre, the Grand Master was persuaded to surrender Rhodes, Cos and the other islands as well as the fort at Bodrum. The Sultan chivalrously granted the most honourable terms. The Knights, and as many of the citizens as wished to accompany them, were allowed to leave the island in their own galleys and to take with them arms and property. For several years the Hospitallers had no home. The survivors went first to Crete and later to various towns in the South of Italy.
To be continued