The Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes and Their Involvement in the Balkan Political Affairs (1300-1421 AD)

Fig. 1. The Hospitaller’s Commanderies of the “German” Langue in 1300 AD

                The question about the once mighty and famous Order of the Knights Hospitaller (or just the “Hospital”, as it was called briefly; another official name was “the Order of St. John”), which for a period of more than 200 years (1306-1523 AD) was based at the Aegean isle of Rhodes, and its involvement in the Balkan political affairs between 1300 and 1421 AD is a historical problem that is somewhat neglected or have not deserved much attention in the contemporary historiography. This is due mainly, in my opinion, to the simple fact that this story is not particularly connected to the history of no one of the modern nations’ historical tradition, with the sole exception of the Maltese nation. However, the latter national historians are, for obvious reasons, interested mainly of the history of the Knights during their sojourn in Malta (1530-1800 AD), not in Rhodes. So, therefore, up until the world-wide historiography ceased to be concentrated chiefly on problems connected with their particular national history, this undoubtedly interesting and important subject would not receive the attention it should deserve. It should be considered exclusively as a problem of the “global” historiography, as far as the Order of St. John was one of the first international organizations in the Western world. Its history cannot be connected solely with one nation. Absolutely the same is fully valid to the age and the problems I will try to give a brief description here. 

                Between 1300 and 1421 AD the Order consisted of seven separate divisions called Tongues or Langues: Auvergne, France, Provence, Italy, Aragon, England and Germany. For example, "Germanic Europe" was separated into a “German” langue, comprising the lands (and the members of the Order) of all of the Holy Roman Empire, including its Slavic-speaking parts like Bohemia, as well as Scandinavia, Hungary and Poland. The land possessions were grouped in so called “commanderies” or “preceptories”, managed accordingly by a “commander” or “preceptor”. A commander was obliged each year to send to the Master (called later the Grand Master) at the headquarters of the Order responsiones– amounts that were estimated at nearly 15 % of the incomes of the commandery and represented a sort of “tax”, which was then distributed according to the needs of the Order; for example: to funding military campaigns. For commanders were appointed only old and honored members of the brethren. The commanderies themselves were grouped into provinces called priories, capitular commanderies or capitular castellanies, whose administrators ranked as capitular bailiffs, because they were theoretically appointed and recalled by the General Chapter of the whole Order. By the late twelfth century the priories had been collected into much larger units called grand commanderies, that by itself were divided to the aforementioned Langues. The headquarters of the Order, which chief mission was to fight the “infidels” in the East, were always situated as close as possible to “The Holy Land” and Jerusalem.

            I think that the main reason behind the nowadays' fairly weak interest towards the history of the Order of St. John is its “international” character that cannot involve one or another “national” historiography, as far as the Order was an organization with members from all Catholic countries obliged to guard the pilgrims during their travel to “The Holy Land”. Nevertheless, the Order’s general history and the problem I want to describe, have always attracted the attention of, for example, the “crusading” historians. Among the major Western and Eastern scholar’s works that are dealing larger or lesser with this problem, should be noted these of Vasil Gyuzelev, Christo Matanov, John W. Barker, J. Chrysostomides, J.M. Delaville Le Roulx, Norman Housley, Halil Inalcik, Anthony Luttrell, the contemporary German scholar Professor Jürgen Sarnowsky and many others. So, the subject has never been "fully" underestimated, and, if the (so called) “national” historiography wasn’t still predominant before the “global”, it would have certainly gained much more attention of the broader public.

After its establishment and militarization around the middle of 12^th century in the “Holy Land” of Palestine, the Order of the Knights Hospitaller became an organization, which chief mission could be labeled as a “permanent Crusade”. Afterwards, the Order of the Hospital rarely stayed aside from any crusading enterprise in all of the ends of the Catholic world. The Order’s military brethren, the Knights, represented a kind of crusading “elite”. They very rarely took participation in wars against Christians (even if they were “Schismatics”, i.e. Eastern Orthodoxic). Their forces were concentrated towards the most important tasks for the moment, like the defense of the Holy Sepulchre and Palestine. However, after the fall of the last crusading stronghold in the “Holy Land”, Acre, in 1291 AD, the headquarters of the Order was moved to the Aegean isle of Rhodes. With the abandoning the Holy Land, a removal of the main crusading goal occurred: from the struggle for defense of Jerusalem to the struggle with the growing Turkish expansion to Europe. For that reason, the most southeastern European part, the Balkan Peninsula, quickly turned into one of the most important, if not the chief in importance, region for the western crusaders. The latter conclusion applies the most for the Knights Hospitaller and the fateful for their Order age between 1300 and 1421 AD, a notion that I will try to justify with my next words.

            With the conquest of Rhodes and the nearby islands in 1306-1310 AD, the Knights de facto established their own, self-governed militarized state that served as a barrier to the recently started Turkish invasions against the Aegean islands and the adjacent Balkan littoral. Being a political organization depending only on the Papacy, the Order became the most zealous conductor of its policy in the East. In this age, the popes were mostly concerned with two problems: First was the safety of their subjects (i.e. the Catholics) in the, so called, Orient (lit. “the land of the rising sun”). The latter were presented mainly by the Italian merchants, their colonial government and settlers, and the Catholic population of the Frankish possessions that were left in the westerners’ hands after the re-conquest of the Latin empire of Constantinople by the Byzantines in 1261 AD. The second problem was the conclusion of the union with the Christian churches of the East (among which the most important was the Patriarchate in Constantinople) that had to recognize the papal supremacy over them.

The safety of the Latins was threatened badly by the Turks who had invaded the Byzantine Empire and, in the end of 13^th and the beginning of 14^th century, had conquered the whole Asian coast previously held by the Byzantines: from the Straits of Gallipoli and Bosphorus to the furthest continental south near Rhodes. The recently founded Turkish beyliks (semi-autonomous state-formations of warlike nomadic Turkic tribes, most of which had recently come to the region from the steppes of Central Asia) began to launch pirate raids against the Balkans coasts, Aegean islands and the merchant shipping (dominated almost entirely by the Latins in this period). The Turkish fleets, in a short period, grew to such extent that in the historiography their states are generally called the “maritime” beyliks. To deal with this serious problem threatening the Western interests in the region, the Knights, already based at Rhodes, since the very beginning of their establishment there had to fight against the Turkish pirates. The latter, in this age and region, appeared to be so dangerous that Crusades against them soon began to be announced in every major city and region of Western Europe (including the vast lands of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", theoretically the biggest and the most well-disposed towards the Hospitallers state-formation in the West). On the other hand, for example, the power and wealth of the pirate leaders, that were the western Turkish beys themselves, was such, that one of them – Umur Beg of Aydin, in the 30's-40’s of 14^th century became the most important political ally of the Byzantine emperors, and, ahead of his army on the boards of the numerous galleys and the other vessels of his war fleet, invaded the Continental Balkans not once or twice.

                If we base our diversification on the notion expressed above, i.e., about the two aforementioned main "concerns" of the Papacy in the Balkan region, so we can also split the historical age between the 1300-1421 AD into two separate parts, concerning the involvment of the Hospital in the Balkan political affairs. The first one, that continued since 1306 to the 60’s-70’s of the 14^th century, was devoted mainly to assuring the “safety” of the Latin subjects in the East, and the second – that lasted to the 20’s of the 15^th century – to the Church union. Certainly, even true in its core, that is too simplified point of view, but in such limited volume there would be no space for clarifying of every detail in length. Instead, I’ll try to give a brief description of the politics of the Knights of Rhodes in these, roughly characterized by me, two separate periods, and, in this way, to prove my hypothesis for this distinction:

            During the first period, continuing through the initial 7 decades of the 14^th century, the Order’s main political activities, mentioned by the historical sources, were connected with the fight against the western Turkish principalities and, at the end of the period, also against the Mameluke sultanate of Egypt. The Hospitallers participated in all of the many “not-so-big” Crusades, announced by the Papacy in these years against the Turkish pirates, including their chief accomplishment – the conquest of the “pirate’s capital” – Smyrna (today’s large Turkish city of Izmir) and inflicting a major defeat on the already mentioned greatest Turkish leader of his age – Umur Beg (who was killed by a Hospitaller’s arrow under the walls of Smyrna). Afterwards, the Knights of Rhodes garrisoned Smyrna in the name of the Holy See, and they held it until 1403 AD, when only the great medieval conqueror Tamerlane managed to drive them out. The Hospital also took participation in another memorable Christian victory: the sacking of the richest Egyptian merchant port, Alexandria, in 1365 AD, along with many other crusaders from all parts of Europe, including Germany. Therefore, their main influence on the political situation in the Balkans consisted of and was expressed in supporting the struggle led by the western trade-countries like Venice, Genoa and Kingdom of Aragon, and local Latin lordships, for maritime supremacy over the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, one really continuous and bitter, but largely forgotten today war, which was finally won by the westerners after seven long decades of victories and defeats. The consequences of this major conflict appeared very significant for the history of the region, because the previous strongest Turkish states in Asia Minor, namely the “maritime” beyliks, were significantly weakened by the war and thus the palm of supremacy between the various Turkish emirates passed from their hands to these of the Ottomans from Bythinia (in the northwestern corner of Asia Minor). The latter were initially not very skillful in the sea war, being situated inferior, but the conquest of one of the previously defeated by the Latins “maritime” principalities – Karasi, opened to them the gates to Europe. Afterwards, they succeeded in crossing the Strait of Gallipoli and conquered the whole Byzantine Thrace during the 60’s and the 70’s of 14^th century, attracting with their victories many Turks from other tribes and beyliks to join them.

            Then Byzantium, deadly threatened from the Ottoman advance, asked the Papacy for help. The Holy See agreed, with the condition for conclusion of the long-desired union between the churches and recognition of the supremacy of the pope. As a consequence, we can see how historically, after a certain delay, the politics of the Order of the Hospital gradually shifted from struggle with the western maritime principalities and Egypt, towards a fight against the growing power of the future Ottoman Empire – a move which could be attributed with great certainty to the change of the policy of the Curia. In accordance with this change, the Knights of Rhodes invented a plan which I personally have named “the Greek project of the Order of St. John”. This project presented a complicated political scheme for the transition of the headquarters of the Hospital from Rhodes to Continental Greece (or the so called “Romania” – all the southern part of the Balkans, including former Byzantine Thrace, was known by that name) where the Knights should serve as a barrier to the Ottoman invasion. The Order’s attempts for implementing the several aims of the project (among which the most important was the stemming of the Ottoman advance in Europe) had continued for more than a half century (1356-1404 AD), with significantly much more active efforts after the beginning of the 70’s of 14^th century.

In certain periods Byzantines were inclined to give to the Order the power over such important sites (strategically and economically) as Gallipoli and Thessaloniki, and even the whole Morean despotate in Pelloponessos. During that period, the Knights not once fought face to face combat against various Ottoman armies in the peninsula. In the famous battle of Nicopolis in 1396 AD their fleet led by the Hospital’s master Philibert de Naillac joined the crusader’s army of the future German Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg, coming through the Straits, the Black Sea and Danube. They suffered the defeat together with the rest of the crusaders but the Emperor was saved at the board of a Hospitaller galley. Sigismund and Philibert de Naillac sailed down following the same road the Knights had chosen to join the army at Nicopolis and he returned successfully in his Kingdom in Middle Europe through the Adriatic ports.

In the same age the Knights proposed many times conclusions of broader Christian military unions against the Sultans. However, the political discrepancies among the medieval Balkan and European Christian rulers were so big, that the realization of the “Greek” project finally proved impossible. So, after many glorious but inconclusive battles, the Knights were forced to abandon the peninsula in the late 10’s of the 15^th century, and began a new strategy for their struggle – the so called “corso” - a corsair war using their island bases at Rhodes and the Dodecanese archipelago. The “corso” surely played a certain role for the defense of the Aegean islands, but not so much to the Continental Balkans. The local Christian Orthodox and Catholic states were soon placed under the scepter of the Ottoman sultans.

            As a conclusion, I can say that during the years between 1300 and 1421 AD the Order of St. John presented a painful thorn in the Turkish heel, one serious enemy and significant obstacle to the Ottomans’ and other Turks’ advance from Asia to the Balkans. Many German Brethren Knights glorified their names in this unequal struggle, and were important leaders of the Order, like Albrecht von Schwarzburg in the 20’s of 14^th century or Hesso Schlegelholtz in the last decades of the same century. Unfortunately for the Christian political cause, the quarrels between the Balkan rulers and the Eastern and the Western churches did not allow the possibility for the Knights to take more active and, why not, possibly decisive participation in these earliest efforts for stemming the Turkish invasion. The Ottomans in that age had still not been that superpower they became later. It’s more, I think, a matter of a personal or a divine judgement, if this was for “good” or “bad” but, what could be said with certainty, is: the ineffective use of the largely forgotten today (but once significant) power of the Knights of Rhodes was one of the missed opportunities for a possible change in the course of history. That course was, for most of the Balkan Christian states, to lose their independence and become part of the Muslim Ottoman Empire for the next 500 years.

           

---

* This article is based on a report given at the Humboldt Kolleg Bulgarian-German Scientific Cooperation: Past, Present and Future (Sofia, November 2015). The full text (with the notes) shall be published in the volume of the Proceedings on the same event.

Fr. Juan Fernandes de Heredia's Crusade in Greece (1376-1379)

On 10 August 1376 at Rhodes the Master of the Hospital Fr. Robert de Juliac spoke about something that from our distance seems like a planned Hospitaller campaign ad partes ducatus Athenarum i.e. in the Duchy of Athens, then still ruled by the Catalan Company (or more precisely - by its descendants). Probably the reason for Master’s statement was that at the time this Frankish state was in a condition of civil strife because of the war between the Catalan lords of the Western and the Eastern part of the Duchy of Athens – the Vicar-General don Louis and his cousin don Pedro Fadrique . Other reason could be that it was threatened by Turkish invasion of some sort. Whatever the reasons were, the certain was that probably in the same month (August, 1376) the Queen of Naples Joan I d’Anjou, who after 1373 took personally the sovereignty over Achaia, leased her Peloponnese Principality to the Order of St. John for five years at a yearly rent of four thousand ducats . Thus, she became the only Western monarch who gave any assistance to the crusading plans of Holy See and the Hospital. Meanwhile King Louis I d’Anjou whom Pope Gregory XI and the Hospitaller envoy Fr. Hesso Schlegelholtz again approached for support in 1375-1376, entered into a quarrel with Papacy and the Order. The problem was that he refused to recognize the newly-nominated Hospitaller prior of Hungary and perhaps this cause contributed to the fact that he also declined in any way the proposals to join the Crusade .

The political situation in Latin Greece was aggravated in 1377 by the death of the feudal overlord of the Catalan Duchy of Athens – King Frederick III of Sicily (1355-1377) in January. He left no man heir and his death was immediately followed by a conflict between the partisans of his daughter Maria and King of Aragon Pedro IV the Ceremonious (1336-1387) which reflected also into the Duchy . Meanwhile, over the Latin possessions in Greece, unless the Turkish, more tangible appeared another threat of foreign conquest - the Albanian. The expansion of Albanian tribes in the western part of Central Greece had recently taken alarming proportions under the military leadership of the Despot of Arta Gjin Bua Shpata (1358-1399) . These problems were likely to be among the first, discussed by the summoned of the new Hospitaller Baillie of Achaia Fr. Danielle del Caretto parliament of the barons and the prelates of Principality of Achaia in its capital Clarentza in the late 1376 or early 1377 .

While the Hospital was still establishing and strengthening its power over Achaia, the Master Fr. Robert de Juliac died at Rhodes on 29 July 1377. His post remained vacant until 24 September of that year, when Pope Gregory XI gave with a special bull the leadership in the Order to his protégé Fr. Juan Fernandez de Heredia (1377-1396) . Descended from Iberian Kingdom of Aragon, Heredia was among the most iconic and important persons in the history of Knights of St. John in 14th century in the West as well in the East . Since the mid-century, he successively held several senior positions in the Order at his home-country and in the Pope’s court in Avignon, and was, significantly enough, admiral of the fleet of Gregory XI during his historic voyage from Provence to Italy in the early 1377.

By appointment of Heredia Gregory XI presumably aimed as well as raising his favorite, the forcing of a contrived for a long time yet Crusade pro liberatione partium Grecie . At the time, with the hiring of Achaia from Queen Joan I of Anjou in 1376, the Order had practically succeeded to implement the plans, supported by Pope Innocent VI still in the late 50’s of the century. In all likelihood, Knights Hospitaller even exceeded these schemes, taking the possession over the whole territory of Principaility of Achaia in the mainland and some of the adjacent archipelagos - from the isle of Cephalonia in the west to isle of Euboea in the east. Having such large and relatively secured foothold, the Crusade to the Balkans under the supreme leadership of Order of St. John could now begin.

The passagium had been postponed for a time while Gregory XI left Avignon for Italy. After re-establishing of the Holy See in Rome, the crusading forces also gathered in Italy. The point of departure was in fact the capital of Queen Joan I – Naples. The supposed question that faced the not-large crusading army in Naples in the late 1377 and early 1378 was again to which one part of Latin Greece to proceed.

In the same year the Order of St. John had secured a lease on the town of Vonitsa, situated in the Gulf of Arta, from Maddalena Buondelmonti of Florence who was a widow of Leonardo Tocco (1357-1376-77?), Duke of Leucadia and Count of Cephalonia. This act seemed to be in connection with the joining in Italy to the Crusade of a certain group of Florentines. According to Anthony Luttrell, they provided “the finance and provisions” for the passagium . With their participation in the Crusade they had to be exempted from the restrictions of the papal interdict upon them (at the time the Papacy was in state of war with Florence, the so called "War of the 8th Saints"). Among the Florentines in the crusading camp were the two brothers of Maddalena Buondelmonti – Esau (his name appears in some Balkan sources under the form of Izaul) and Francesco . They were probably presented in the army as representatives of the interests of their sister, the Duchess. At the moment she ruled as a regent of her under-aged son Carlo I Tocco this part of the Latin possessions in West Greece, which theoretically was administratively governed by the Principality of Achaia. Therefore, Maddalena after the conclusion of the Hospitaller’s leasing contract with Joan I of Anjou in 1376 had automatically turned into vassal of the Hospital. In the subsequent events, related to the choice of the direction, in which the Crusaders made, we could see also the “long arm” of the “Florentine lobby” in the Angevine Kingdom of Naples. The latter had strong influence and interests not only in that part of Italy, ruled by Naples, but also in Latin Greece, thanks mostly to the representatives of the Florentine families Acciaiuolli and the related to them Buondelmonti who, after the 50’s of 14th century, had acquired large powers and authority in this area. These Florentines probably affected the plans of the new Hospitaller’s Master Heredia, who, as we shall see, having left Italy, unexpectedly directed his fleet against the lands of Albanian Despot Shpata in Epiros and Aetolia. Meanwhile the latter, after the death of Count Leonardo I Tocco, had launched a massive offensive against the mainland territories of the County of Ceffalonia.

At the date of the departure of the Master from Naples Shpata held the just acquired fortress of the Order of St. John, Vonitsa, under siege and had (some time before) conquered another Frankish possession, which were even more important strategically – the fortified town of Lepanto (Naupactos). Lepanto was captured by the Angevins during their campaign in Western Greece in 1306, and subsequently incorporated into the Principality of Achaia . The loss of Lepanto, situated near the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth, threatened the communications of the Latins in Greece with the West, and seemed like a reasonable cause for a war of Achaia against the Despotate of Arta.

So, to assume, in the early 1378 the Crusader’s army, composed by the mobilized Knights Hospitaller from all Catholic Europe (ar. 200-300 Knights or less, each with a squire and, perhaps, some auxilliares hired from Italy where numerous mercenaries had turned the peninsula in a battlefield during these years) and certain Florentines, departed from Italy under the leadership of Heredia to attack subsequently the domains of Shpata in Western Greece. The exact course of the army’s military actions is still disputable but, according to the information of the known and available to me historical sources, I am inclined to agree with the reconstruction of the sequence of the events as it was proposed by the French historian Jean Delaville le Roulx in the early 20th century . According to his version, the fleet first debarked at Lepanto, the crusading army besieged and captured it after attack against the Shpata’s garrison, and then headed north by sea and entered the port of Vonitsa, where its presence was explicitly documented between 24 and 29 April 1378 . From Vonitsa the army, among the leading officers of which were, except Fr. Heredia, the Hospitaller priors of Venice, Pisa and Capua, as well as the Admiral of the Order - the Italian Fr. Palamedo di Giovanni , marched inland, setting out towards the capital of Shpata – the well-fortified town of Arta in Epiros, which was besieged.

This unexpected at first view direction that took the Crusade, in my opinion, could find its explanation besides in the defense of the interests of the vassals of the Hospital in Western Greece, next in the more general context of supporting the Latin cause at the Balkans against the expansion of the Albanians and the political power of their leaders. The Albanian invasion to the land of Greece had had its long history at that moment. Albanian tribes originally inhabited a comparatively small territory, called Arbanon – a harsh, poor and wild mountainous and semi-mountainous land between Lake of Ochrid and the rivers of Shkumbi and Devoli that was left almost unruled by the Byzantines and Bulgarians. In the late 13th and the early 14th century began the expansion of the mountain tribes against the neighboring lands. This migration, and especially its first wave was predominantly centered towards the territories of the modern state of Greece. Local Byzantine authorities had to deal with them, and Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos (1328-1341) was forced to fight with a few powerful Albanian tribes during his campaign for conquest of the Despotate of Epiros in 1338. In the next decade Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan conquered the whole territory of Modern Albania and the Greek regions of Epiros, Thessalia and Acarnania. It is presumed that at the time one of the ancestors of Gjin Bua Shpata was made Protovestiarios by Dušan, which is a testimony for the already big political significance of his family. In Epiros a certain role for the successful Albanians' expansion played the infamous plague epidemic of mid-14th century, i.e. the so called “Black Death” which presumably devastated the lowlands and the littoral of the area. Afterwards big masses of Albanians from the mountains, presumably untouched by the epidemic, invaded the depopulated lands. In the civil strife in the Serbian Empire that immediately followed the death of Dušan, his brother Tsar Simeon Uroš Nemanjić, nicknamed Siniša (1359-1370), who was previously appointed for governor of Epiros and Acarnania, gave the high titles of despots to two local Albanian lords then ruling over the tribes in Epiros and big portions of land and some fortresses in the south – Peter Losha (1359-1374, ruled in the region of Aetolia and Arta) and Peter Bua (in the region of Acarnania). Presumably Despot Peter Bua was the father of Gjin. The capital of his lands was the fortress of Angelokastron and he died before the spring of 1359, when his son defeated and killed the last descendant of the ancient Greek despots of Epiros: Nikephoros II Orsini, in a bloodshed battle, infamously known to the Greeks, at the river of Acheloos in Southern Epiros.

This was just the beginning of the rise of the warlike Gjin, who succeeded the title of Despot from his father. At the head of his forces he incessantly attacked the last Greek stronghold in the area – Ioannina, after managed in the first half of the 70’s to capture Arta, to conquer the lands of Losha and therefore almost the whole territory of the old Byzantine Despotate of Epiros including the lands of north to Delvino and Muzekeia. His obvious goal was to establish his power over as much land as possible and perhaps to renew the ancient power of the Despotate – but this time under Albanian domination. From all testimonies we have, it could be said that Gjin was perhaps the most warlike among the other warlike Albanian chiefs whose descendants were to create so big problems of the Ottomans during the time of Scanderbeg.

Thus, the aggressive policy, led by the Despotate of Arta under Gjin Bua Shpata, appeared as an undoubted threat to the vassal to Achaia possessions of Maddalena Buondelmonti on the mainland, and even for the very center of the leased by the Order of the Hospital Principality in the Pelloponessos peninsula. An additional indication of the scale of the invasion of the Albanian tribes and their military force at the end of the 70’s of 14th century was a mention in one Catalan document for the presence of a military unit of one thousand and five hundred Albanian horsemen in the territory of the Duchy of Athens, which, as it was mentioned above, at the time was in internal state of turmoil because of the dynastic struggles for its possession. The leader of these Albanians, whose name was probably “Demetrios” (there is also a possibilty he belonged to the clan of Bua, same as Despot Peter and Gjin), was titled Count (lo comte) by the Catalans of the Duchy .

The clarification of the problems, related to the campaign of Heredia against Arta, does not end with that. While Master of the Hospital was heading for Greece with his fleet and troops, the political situation in West Europe became further complicated by the sudden death of Pope Gregory XI on 27 March 1378. On 8 April 1378 in the new/old seat of the Holy See – Rome, was elected the new pope – Urban VI (Bartolomeo Prignano, 1378-1389) who was Italian. Almost immediately after his ascension he entered into a conflict with the French cardinals, with most of whom Heredia was in close relations. As a consequence, only five months after the election of Urban V, began the so called Great Church Schism in the West, which was to continue until 1417 . A little later we shall find the Master of the Hospital and the majority of the Knights of Rhodes among the supporters of the Avignonese Antipope Clement VII (Robert de Geneva, 1378-1394). This emerging in the spring and the summer of 1378 huge internal conflict within the Catholic Church probably contributed to a kind of “abandonment” of the crusading venture in Greece, and the possible failure to be sent the necessary (and perhaps the expected, as Luttrell thinks) reinforcements to the campaign from the West .

Still under question is also the probable inclusion of the members of the so called “Navarrese Company” coming from Durazzo, in the Heredia’s campaign against Shpata . Furthermore, although the Albanian Despot is certainly identified as the main target of the Crusader attack, there exists a problem with the clarification of his possible allies . In some later historical sources, such as the works of Giacomo Bosio and Abbot Vertot, was persistently argued that during this campaign the Master Heredia fought with some Turks in Greece and that had even been captured by them rather than Shpata . With no other historical evidence to confirm these reports, it is difficult at first glance to accept their credibility. Moreover, in 1378 the Turks still seemed at distance far from the lands of Western Greece – between them and Epiros were situated the appanage of Manuel Palaiologos at Thessalonica (rather, actually, the Byzantine province because Manuel was still inprisoned in Constantinople by his brother Andronikos), the state of the Vukašin’s son King Marko (1371-1395) and a few other smaller Christian lordships (ruled by Albanian and Serbian nobles). However, a closer look at the political map of the region and the course of the events seem to indicate otherwise. A letter of Pope Gregory XI to the Hungarian king Louis I of Anjou shows that after the battle of Chernomen the Ottoman raids had already in 1372 reached “the borders of the Principality of Achaia and the Duchy of Athens”. In the next year at the request of the Venetian Senate the Amir Murad I sent a whole army of five thousand of his own troops in the Adriatic and Italy itself to fight as paid mercenaries for the war the Serenissima led against Padua . After the seizure of the power in Constantinople by Andronikos IV Palaiologos (1376-1379), his brother Manuel, who was at the time an active supporter of the anti-Ottoman policy, was removed from the appanage in Thessalonica and thrown as a prisoner into the tower of Anemas with his father. This event, together with the handing over of Gallipoli, in fact gave easier access and a new impetus to the Ottoman invasion on the ancient Roman road Via Egnatia (leading from Constantinople to Durazzo). By the evidence of the sources also seems likely that by 1377-78 the majority of the Christian lords (like King Marko, the brothers Dragaš, some Albanian chiefs - former vassals of Mrnjavčevićes, and, perhaps, Thomas Preljubović in Yoanina) of the present-day geographical region of Macedonia had already become vassals of the Ottoman Amir . The Byzantines, on the other hand, had been Ottoman vassals since 1371-72. In such conditions in 1378 the armies of Murad I should had had relatively free access to Western Greece, passing through their vassal territories. Therefore, in an acceptable explanation of the information, given by Bosio and Vertot, becomes the assumption that Gjin Bua Shpata hired some Ottoman soldiers from the forces of the Western udj that at the time probably reached the northwestern borders of Epiros (different names are mentioned in the sources about the towns used by the Ottomans as military bases in the region - that means they did not have such well established and constant center as Skopie and Elbassan later), and used them in the war against the controlled by the Order of St. John Principality of Achaia. Such a practice of hiring the Turkish troops by local Christian lords (or simply by those who got the money to pay, as the Venetians in 1373) was very well known in this age and common not only to the Ottomans but also to all of the other so called ghazi-beyliks in Anatolia. Furthermore, it was quite typical for the initial stage of the Turkish expansion into new areas, such as were the Western Balkans at this time.

If we turn for the last time to the motives for the campaign of Heredia against Arta, besides in the defense of the interests of the family of Buondelmonti and the Principality of Achaia they probably could be summarized in the following: the consolidation of the leased by the order of St. John domains that were threatened by the onslaught of Despot Shpata; the re-conquering of the previously lost Angevine possesions in Epiros and Aetolia, and, thus, probably the formation of a Frankish-Hospitaller hegemony over the most of the Mainland Greece. The last assumption could seem too ambitious, but in my opinion satisfactory explains the “so-strange” direction that took the Crusade and the circumstances about its conduct. As to the pure crusading goals and opportunities that could be pursued by such enterprise, they were expressed in the fact that the united under the leadership of the Order Latin possessions, ranging from Albania to the island of Euboea (real and fictitious by the summer of 1378), theoretically would constituted a serious barrier to the Ottoman advance in the Southern Balkans and the Turkish pirate raids in the Aegean. There existed also the possibility that the directing of the campaign towards Arta was something like a temporary deviation, and the true goal was to be the continuation to the already conquered by the Ottomans lands of Romania (at least, the direction was the same - to the north). However, even the Master and the Convent of the Order to have had such plans, serving probably the program-maximum of their old “Greek” project, they collapsed too soon, since on 23 August 1378 , while had still been besieging Arta, Fr. Juan Fernandez de Heredia fell into ambush along with his entourage and was captured by the troops of Gjin Bua Shpata.

This event constituted the end of the Crusade, and Heredia was held captive by Shpata until the spring of 1379 . For his liberation was demanded a huge ransom which at this point was clearly not within the reach of the Levantine treasury of the Order. For that reason the Knights Hospitaller borrowed large amounts of money from various local Frankish magnates, among them were the Grand Constable of Achaia Centurione I Zaccaria, the Florentine Rainerio (Nerio, Neri) I Acciaiuoli (1371-1394) and the wife of the Byzantine Despot of Morea Manuel I Cantacuzene (1349-1380) Isabel de Lusignan .

At the headquarters in Rhodes in February 1379, while the Master was still being captive to the Albanians, was held a General Chapter of the Order, which was attended by many Hospitaller senior dignitaries, who had gathered there on the occasion of the crusading campaign. Among the others there were presented personally the Prior of France Fr. Gerard de Vienne, the Prior of Auvergne Fr. Robert de Chatteneuf and the Prior of Thoulouse Fr. Gaucher (or Gautier) de La Bastide. The main question, discussed by the participants in the council was the recent non-canonical and inappropriate, according to the Statutes of the Order, election of Fr. Heredia for Master. At the meetings under the chairmanship of the eminent Grand Commander Fr. Bertrand Flotte, who was elected for a temporary deputy of the Master with the title of Lieutenant, had been adopted a number of regulations that restricted the power and the prerogatives of the Master and made him extremely dependant on the decisions of the Convent of the Order . On these decisions of the General Chapter undoubtedly held influence the inglorious defeat which the Aragonese brother suffered in Epiros several months earlier.

Thus, ultimately the project of Gregory XI for the papal-Hospitaller Crusade for “liberation of parts of Greece” proved a failure. One can speculate on the possibilities that could be found before the campaign of Heredia, if it was successfull, but all this remains in the field of the historical fiction. As a consequence of the defeat of this Crusade, led by the Master of the Hospital, in the late 70’s of the 14th century the long expected in Byzantium military aid from the West remained a distant mirage, and the political circumstances for further expansion of the Ottomans into the Balkans were better than ever.

The Medieval Government of Order of St. John

Настоящата публикация е в отговор на многократните и (вече) няколкогодишни запитвания от страна на група приятели и колеги относно устройството на ордена на хоспиталиерите през Средните векове. Съжалявам, че е на английски, но се надявам, че англо-говорящите и -четящите няма да са чак толкова разочаровани.

(primarily due to the brilliant exposition of Prof. Jonathan Riley-Smith)

In the XIII century the Order of St. John gained more power in the Outremer, its politics became independent of any other central government in the region, and its members grew more numerous. The membership in the Order could take several forms. There were brother priests and, by the XIIIth century, brother knights and sergeants. There were also sisters of the Order of St. John by the later XII century. There were lay associates: confratres and donats. The brethren lived a common live in houses that were all known as "convents", although they varied greatly in size.

In the two centuries of its existence as an institution in Outremer, the administrative structure of the Hospital (a popular and shorter name for the Order) gradually cleared. With the increase of the donations, and sometimes the conquests of new large land estates, appeared the need for their more efficient administration. The land possessions were grouped in so called “commanderies” or “preceptories”, menaged accordingly by “commander” or “preceptor”. A commander was obliged each year to send to the Master (called later the Grand Master) at the headquarters of the Order responsiones – amounts that were estimated at nearly 15 % of the incomes of the commandery and represented a sort of “tax”, which was then distributed according to the needs of the Order; for example: to funding military campaigns. For commanders were appointed only old and honored members of the brethren. The commanderies themselves were grouped into provinces called priories, capitular commanderies or capitular castellanies, whose administrators ranked as capitular bailiffs, because they were theoretically appointed and recalled by the General Chapter of the whole Order. By the late twelfth century the priories had been collected into much larger units called grand commanderies, while by the late XIIIth century they were also grouped into seven Tongues or Langues (literally: "languages"). In the East there were commanderies and castellanies too but, as a rule, the eastern commander governed a larger area than his western counterpart, while he ranked as a capitular bailiff and was therefore equal to European prior.

The headquarters of the Order (it changed its place in XII-XIVth centuries first from Jerusalem to Acre, then to Limassol and, finally, to Rhodes) was also called a convent. Its structure differed little from the humblest house of brethren, although it was far larger and its officers were much more important. By the early XIVth century there were eight of these central officers, seven of whom were normally called the conventual bailiffs: the Grand Commander, the Marshal, the Hospitaller, the Drapier, the Treasurer, the Admiral, the Turkopolier and the Conventual Prior. At their head and entrusted with the government of the Order was the Master. But his power, like that of the least important commander, was limited by the communal decision of his brethren, who met in the Chapter on Sundays in every house of the Hospitallers. Once a year was held a prioral Chapter in the provincial headquarters; and at irregular intervals the capitular bailiffs and the brethren of the Convent in the East met in a General Chapter. All these bodies exercised jurisdiction and increasingly assumed administrative powers, but the Chapter General also legislated for the whole Order.

In Jonathan Riley-Smith’s opinion by the 1270’s no high office could be held by those who were not knights. This testifies for the complete dominance, which the military class in the Order had acquired at this time. I shall describe a little more-detailed the senior ruling postions who were held by the knightly brethren. At first place was the Master, the ruler of the Order. He exercised direct and personal government, but always shared authority with his Convent in the East and with the Chapter General. His deputy was called Lieutenant or Lieutenant-Master. In his administration of the Order the Master was assisted, and controlled, by the prud’hommes of the Convent. The term “convent” was applied to any house where brethren resided permanently, but, in a narrower sense, it was always used of the seat of the government i.e. the headquarters. Firstly: there were conventual bailiffs, the great officers of the Order. They were already mentioned, but not that the most important among them were the Grand Commander and the Marshal (later, with the transformation of the Order into predominantly maritime power, a certain and gradually larger significance acquired the position of Admiral). The Grand Commander was the chief officer after the Master. He administered the Order in the absence of the Master and in the interim between the magistracies. At any time he might be called upon to be Lieutenant Master and as such commanded the military force in battle. He was also responsible for the supplies of the headquarters and everything for the equipment of the ships of the Admiral in XIVth C. The Treasurer was appointed by the Chapter General immediately after the Grand Commander and was responsible for the finances. The function of the Drapier was to take care of the clothing of the brethren which were under strict regulations according to the Rule of the Order. The Marshal was the leader of the military element within the Order that, as I've already mentioned, became predominant soon after its establishment. On campaign, he commanded those present in the Hospitaller force, although the Master or the Lieutenant exercised supreme authority. He had power over the Turcoplier and the Admiral. The Marshal also had many other responsibilities, obviously connected with the militarization (i.e. the military functions) of the Hospital.In their offices these capitular bailiffs were regarded as representatives of the Master. 

A second group of the Convent was made up of the Companions of the Master. They, as the conventual bailiffs, had the privilege to be exempted from the authority of the Marshal (the supreme military commander). Thirdly, there were the Ancients. They were brethren with special merits, such as had been more than 20 years on service of the Order. Finally, there were the conventual brethren, the most numerous compared to the others that were divided into Tongues or groups of those who spoke the same language. It was necessary because of the practice that various provinces of the Order sent their brethren to serve in the East and they needed to understand each other. The brethren of the Convent in the East took part in all conventual, provincial and General chapters. They, therefore, exercised great power in the Order. So, to assume, it could be said that the center of the government of the Order was in the East on the all levels of administrative power.

The “Greek” project of the Order of St. John

In the summer of 1356 AD two ambassadors of the Byzantine emperor John V Palaeologos – the Latin archbishop of Smyrna Paulus and the great hetheriarchos Nicolay Sigeros delivered in Avignon one of the most famous documents in the XIVth C. European history – the chrisoboul with which the emperor desperately pleaded the Catholic West for help against the Turks. This appeal coincided with the aftermath of the so called Great Plague, the ending of the bitter struggle between the Western Turkish Emirates and the crusaders in the Aegean region during most of the 40’s of XIVth C. and, finally, with a crisis in the development of the military catholic order of St. John of Jerusalem, which had established its headquarters at the Aegean isle of Rhodes a half century ago. The promises of the emperor for conclusion of an union with the Papacy at Avignon and therefore for bringing to an end of the Eastern Schism, dated back to 1054 AD, served – in my opinion – as a stimulus for the Order and the Papacy to connect their activities with the declining under the Turkish blows Byzantine empire and for the emerging of the so called by me “Greek” project of the Order of St. John.

The first reason for this project were the papal critics against the Hospitallers’ inactivity at Rhodes. As the only sovereign whom the Knights obeyed, in 1355 AD the then pope Innocent VI intended to move the headquarters of the Order in “Turchia” – in that age this meant Asia Minor, where it would be more active in the war against the - so called -infidels. But symptomatically after the receiving of the message of John V Palaeologos the project for Asia Minor was abandoned, and instead the direction of the holy war of the Hospital had been pointed to Continental Greece. It was an event that largely determined the politics of the Order of St. John for the next half a century and the fulfilling of this project dominated the eastern political aims and activities of the Knights in big part of that time.

At short, the main goal of this project was the establishing of a strong Hospitaller possession somewhere in Continental Greece or Continental Balkans and its use as a crusader shield or a base for a struggle with the invading infidels – i.e. the Turks and in this case particularly the Ottoman Turks.

The first trial for the realization of this project was carried out in the second half of the 50’s. The Knights’ representatives, supported by Avignon, tried to buy out the rights over the Frankish Principality of Achaea from one of his heirs – Giacomo di Savoya-Acaia. Since the beginning of XIVth C. the once flourishing principality had been in internal crisis and the chances for buying the rights over it seemed good. But the Angevin rulers of Southern Italy spoiled the deal as the real power in Achaia belonged to them and not to the distant Piedmontese noble Giacomo di Acaia. The Angevins were reluctant to sale the principality to the Hospital rather preferring to give parts of it to some of their strongest vassals as the Florentine Nicollo Aciaiuolli.

As the negotiations between the Papacy and the Byzantines in the end of 50’s also led to nothing, the “Greek” project of the Order of St. John had been temporarily abandoned even if the military force of the Hospital under the papal legate fr. Pierre Thomas fought some battles with the Ottoman Turks in Byzantine Thracia and the Straits. The project was revived in the beginning of the 70’s with the end of the crusader’s war fought between the Knights of Rhodes, the Kingdom of Cyprus and the Mameluke Sultanate of Egypt, the renewed appeals for help against the Turks from John V Palaeologos and the ascension of the last Avignonese pope – Gregory XI. The event which attracted the attention of the Papacy to the Balkan affairs was the great Christian defeat at Cernomen in 1371 AD. Afterwards Gregory XIth directed his politics towards the organizing of a crusade against the victorious Ottoman Turks. The main supporter of this effort in the region was the Order of St. John at Rhodes. Between September and November 1373 in Avignon was carried on a council of the Hospital at which the decision was taken about launching of a crusade and starting of the collection of the funds necessary for it. In 1375 two Hospitaller knights, serving as papal ambassadors in Constantinople, brought to Avignon the news that the emperor John V had promised to give the Order two of his most important cities – Gallipoli and, presumably, Thessalonika, to defend them against the Turks. That forced the preparations for the crusade in the West and some 400 Knights Hospitaller were called from most of the European priories to set out to the Balkans on 8th of December 1375. But the civil strife in Byzantium between John V and his son Andronikos IV literally closed the Straits for the crusaders in 1376 AD.

Out of that in the same year Gregory XI had been involved in a war in Italy, while preparing his return in Rome. The Hospitallers supported actively his actions on the Appenines. Simultaneously with the closing of the Straits the “Greek” project’s variant with Achaea again became actual – this time the principality could be used as a bridgehead for the prepared crusade. In the second half of 1376 AD the Angevin queen Jean I gave the Order of St. John Achaea for rent for 5 years period. One year later a new Grand Master of the Hospital was chosen – it was fr. John Fernandes de Heredia, a favourite of Gregory XI. He already was the most influential hospitaller brother in the West and had commanded the fleet of Gregory during the return of Holy See from Avignon to Rome. With his appointment the pope probably aimed at forcing the launching of the long planned crusade. In the spring of 1378 AD the crusade, led personally by Heredia, finally set out from Italy to the lands of Continental Greece.

But the direction of the crusade forces was not against the Ottoman Turks, but towards Western Greece and the possessions of the Albanian despot Gjin Bua Shpata. In my opinion this historical fact is connected exactly with the “Greek” project of the Order of Saint John i.e. the establishing of a stronger continental base of the Order on Balkan soil. The crusade ended at the beginning of the second half of 1378 AD at the walls of Shpata’s capital Arta in Epirus with disastrous defeat. The Grand Master Heredia had been captured in ambush by the Albanians and maybe some Turkish mercenaries of Shpata and was ransomed later by the Order’s officials in Achaea for a large sum of money.

Meanwhile a large western mercenary force arrived in Continental Greece – namely the Navarrese company. The Navaresse were hired by the Hospitallers in Achaea in 1378 AD, but soon they started to act on their own and became uncontrollable. With the disorder, caused by the Navarrese and the Western (so called Great) Church Schism in the West, which understandably affected the Order of St. John, the Knights of Rhodes decided to give back the rule over the principality to queen Jean of Anjou. But that didn’t mean the end of their efforts to establish his power over Achaea. During the 80’s there were continuous Hospitaller attempts in the West for buying out the rights over the possession of the Frankish principality. But even after the Grand Master Heredia succeeded in buying the rights of the House of Anjou, the opposition for this transfer – out of the Navarrese who held the real power in Achaea – was too strong. Another pretender emerged – he was Amaedeo di Savoya-Acaia, lord of Pinerolo and descendant of Giacomo di Savoya-Acaia. The lack of support both from the Holy Sees in Avignon and Rome, the opposition of the Navarrese and the influential Savoyan nobles finally caused the withdrawal of the Knights from their ambitions towards Achaea in the beginning of 90’s of XIVth C.

This seemed like an inglorious finale of the “Greek” project of the Hospital, but soon an unexpected opportunity for its realization emerged. It surprisingly came from the Orthodox Byzantine empire. The 90’s in Byzantium were marked by the dynastic struggle between the pretender John VII Palaeologos and the ruling emperors Manuel II and John V and the increasing Ottoman dependancy. In 1390 AD Manuel II concluded a military alliance with the Knights of Rhodes in order to take back his throne in Constantinople. After 1394 AD Byzantium was at war with the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I Yildirim. Except Constantinople the other threatened territory was the Byzantine Despotate of Morea, which occupied the eastern half of Peloponnesos peninsula. The Turkish attacks against the Despotate were intensive and followed one after another. In 1397 AD the despote Theodore I Palaleologos with the approval of his brother Manuel II and the empress-mother Helene decided to turn for help to the Knights of Rhodes. He sold them one of his most important fortresses – Corynth, the “key” to Peloponnesos.

The sale was the beginning of the last phase of the “Greek” project of the Order. During the next years the Knights successfully repelled several Turkish attacks against Corynth. Simultaneously they tried to buy out from despote Theodore more fortresses and presumably their final aim was to buy the rights over the whole territory of the Despotate. Around 1401 AD the despote sold them even his capital – the famous Mistra. But there emerged problems with the local Orthodox population which was not inclined to be ruled by a catholic military order. Despite of that and the incessant Turkish incursions the Hospitallers succeeded in keeping a firm hold over the former Byzantine fortresses. But it was a mere, even if a curious historical moment, in the history of Greece. On 20th of July 1402 AD at Ankara the great army of the Mongol conqueror Timur decisively defeated the forces of Ottoman sultan Bayezid I. This event led to the temporarily extinction of the Turkish threat and despote Theodore used the opportunity to take back the control over his lands. To 1404 AD he was in full possession of all the fortresses previously sold to the Knights. “The swan-song” of the “Greek” project was the attempt of the Knights to take the control over the former County of Salona, which had been promised to them by the new Ottoman sultan Suleiman according the conditions of the Treaty of Gallipoli. This undertaking was also unsuccessful.

As a conclusion I can say that during the second half of XIVth C. and the first few years of XVth C. the crusader Order of St. John of Jerusalem tried several times to establish its strong base in the territory of contemporary state of Greece. This prolonged and interesting story has never been studied and presented yet in all its length – since 1356 AD when was the first attempt of the Order to buy the rights over the Frankish Principality of Achaea until 1404 AD when the last Knights of St. John left their recently bought strongholds in the Byzantine Despotate of Morea. I think that this undertaking was similar in many ways to the activity of the Teutonic order in the Eastern Baltic region during the same age, but was launched in very different and somewhat more difficult political conditions. The aims and motives of the Knights Hospitaller were doubtless crusaderly approved and therefore their “Greek” project could be well connected with the advance of the Turks (and especially the Ottomans) against the Christian states in the Balkans since its very beginning. That became obvious at the end of XIVth C. when the Order of St. John actively took participation in the military defense of the gravely threatened by Ottoman’s conquest Byzantine Despotate of Morea. The Knights of Rhodes also launched one crusade – passagium particulare that was against the Albanian chief and warlord Ghjin Bua Shpata (1358-1400), but one should not forget that it had been originally organized in response to the pleads for help against the Turks of the Byzantine emperor John V Palaeologos (1341-1391). Out of the pure crusade’s aims in their attempts for realization of the “Greek” project the Knights very often pursued their own separate goals, connected with the intention to create a strong and vast continental base under the leadership of the Hospital. Almost every time they enjoyed the support of the Papacy – sometimes active, sometimes not so. The political environment in the region of Greece between 1356 and 1404 was extremely complicated – except the Turks there were other invaders – Albanians and the so called Navarrese Company of mercenaries, almost constant war among the different states in the area – the Catalans of Thebes and Athens, the Principality of Achaea, the Despotate of Morea, the colonies of Venice and various other lords and powers. The local rulers were almost without exception connected with stronger lordships as vassal states. This political situation made the task of the Knights Hospitaller even more difficult. My opinion is that if this “Greek” project was eventually finalized, it could have led to the establishment of a strong military barrier against the Turkish advance in Greece and to a change in the course of the history of Order of St. John and Southern Balkans.