A History of the Crusades (59 page)
Read A History of the Crusades Online
Authors: Jonathan Riley-Smith
But if holy violence, in this case armed rebellion, has returned to the Christian scene, those institutions which date from the crusades and have survived have long since rejected it. Of course the association with crusading of the Maronite and Armenian uniate Churches, many of the titular bishoprics of the Catholic Church, and some of twenty-six chivalric and religious orders, such as the Order of Preachers (the order of the Dominicans) is indirect, while others, like the Spanish military orders, have changed their functions so much that they are scarcely recognizable. But two orders are what they always were and the line to them from the crusades is clear, even if as living institutes they have developed in different ways. The first of these is the
Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta
(the Order of Malta). This is the same order of Knights Hospitallers which in Palestine and Syria, Cyprus, Rhodes, and Malta, played so important a part in the crusading movement’s history.
After the loss of Malta to Napoleon in 1798, the demoralized and impoverished order fragmented, with its provinces, or what was left of them, functioning with little regard to the central government, which was anyway thrown into chaos by the election by a group of brothers of Tsar Paul I of Russia—not professed, Catholic, or celibate—as grand master. Paul’s mastership, which was tacitly recognized by the papacy, did not last long. After his assassination the order endured three decades of unsettled existence before establishing its head-quarters in
Rome in 1834. It then gradually rebuilt itself, abandoned its ambition to re-establish itself as a military power on independent territory—a Greek island to be won from the Turks in the 1820s; Algeria, which was being suggested as an order-state in the 1830s—and reverted to its original and primary role, the care of the sick poor, at first in the Papal State and then throughout the world. Although the number of fully professed knights is relatively small, over 10,000 Catholics are associated with them as lay members of the order.
Also associated, although less directly, are four other orders of St John which, being predominantly or solely Protestant confraternities, are not orders of the Church but orders of chivalry under the patronage of, or legitimized by, recognized founts of honours, the federal German parliament and the crowns of Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Three of them,
Die Balley Brandenburg des Ritterlichen Ordens Sankt Johannis vom Spital zu Jerusalem
(generally known as Der Johanniterorden),
Johanniterorden i Sverige
and
Johanniter Orde in Nederland
, are descended from the Bailiwick of Brandenburg, a Hospitaller province which became a Protestant confraternity and broke away from the rest of the order at the time of the Reformation, although it maintained a distant relationship with the government on Malta. The fourth,
The Grand Priory of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem
, originated in an attempt by the French
langues
in 1827 to raise money on the London market and to equip a small naval expedition to sail from England to the assistance of the Greeks who were fighting for independence from the Turks. In return the
langues
had been promised an island in the Aegean which would serve as a stepping stone for a reconquest of Rhodes. All investors in the enterprise and all officers in the mercenary force were to become knights of Malta. The English order of St John that resulted was not recognized by the grand magistry in Rome, but the good work it undertook, which bore fruit in the St John Ambulance service, brought recognition from Queen Victoria, who took it over as an order of the British crown in 1888.
The second surviving crusading institute is
Der Deutsche
Orden
(The Teutonic Order), which has its headquarters in Vienna, although since 1923 it has been an order of priests. Teutonic knights are still to be found only in another interesting survival,
Ridderlijke Duitse Orde Balije van Utrecht
(
The Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order
). Like the Hospitaller Bailiwick of Brandenburg, this commandery turned itself into a noble Protestant confraternity at the time of the Reformation.
These survivals are active Christian charitable institutes engaged in pastoral work or the care of the sick or the elderly. They had always combined fighting the infidel with ministering to the sick, showing how closely related in medieval thinking were war and nursing, and it was this tradition that enabled them to withdraw from their military functions while remaining true to their roots. In their present activities can be heard a distant echo of the medieval conviction that crusading was an act of love.
1095 | (Mar.) Council of Piacenza (July–Sept. 1096) Pope Urban II’s preaching journey
(Dec.–July 1096) Persecution of Jews in Europe |
1096–1102 | The First Crusade |
1096 |
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1096–7 |
|
1097 | (1 July) Battle of Dorylaeum (21 Oct.–3 June 1098) Siege of Antioch |
1098 |
(28 June) Battle of Antioch |
1099 | (15 July) Jerusalem falls to the crusaders
|
1101 |
|
1107–8 | Crusade of Bohemond of Taranto |
1108 | (Sept.) Bohemond surrenders to the Greeks |
1109 | (12 July) Capture of Tripoli |
1113 | First papal privilege for the Hospital of St John |
1114 | Catalan crusade to the Balearic Islands |
1118 | Crusade of Pope Gelasius II in Spain (19 Dec.) Saragossa falls to the crusaders |
1119 | (27 June) Battle of the Field of Blood |
1120–5 |
|
1120 | Foundation of the Knights Templar |
1123 | (Mar.–Apr.) Crusade decree of First Lateran Council |
1124 | (7 July) Capture of Tyre by crusaders |
1125–6 | Raid of Alfonso I of Aragon into Andalusia |
1128–9 | Crusade to the East recruited by Hugh of Payns |
1129 |
(Nov.) Crusaders attack Damascus |
1135 |
|
1139–40 | Crusade to the East |
1144 | (24 Dec.) Fall of Edessa to the Muslims |
1145 |
|
1146–7 |
|
1146 | Persecution of Jews in the Rhineland |
1147–9 | The Second Crusade |
1147 |
|
1148 |
|
1149 |
|
1153 | Crusade in Spain |
1154 | (25 Apr.) Occupation of Damascus by Nur al-Din |
1157–84 |
|
1157–8 | Crusade in Spain |
1158 | Foundation of the Order of Calatrava |
1163–9 | Expeditions to Egypt of King Amalric of Jerusalem |
1169 |
(23 Mar.) Egypt submits to Saladin, acting on behalf of Nur al-Din |
1170 | Foundation of the Order of Santiago |
1171 | Crusade in the Baltic region |
1172 |
|
c | Foundation of the Order of Montegaudio |
1174 | (15 May) Death of Nur al-Din (28 Oct.) Saladin takes over Damascus |
1175 | Crusade in Spain |
c |
|
1177 | Crusade to the East of Philip of Flanders |
1183 | (11 June) Aleppo submits to Saladin |
1186 | (3 Mar.) Mosul submits to Saladin |
1187 | (4 July) Battle of Hattin (2 Oct.) Jerusalem taken by Saladin
|
1188 | (Jan.) Imposition of the Saladin Tithe in England |
1189–92 | The Third Crusade |
1189 | (3 Sept.) Fall of Silves in Portugal to crusaders |
1190 |
|
1191 | (June) Richard I of England takes Cyprus
(7 Sept.) Battle of Arsuf |
1192 | (2 Sept.) Treaty of Jaffa |
1193–1230 | The Livonian Crusade (renewed 1197, 1199) |
1193 | Crusade in Spain |
1197–8 | German Crusade to Palestine |
1197 | Crusade in Spain |
1198 | Foundation of the Teutonic Order
|
1199 |
|
c | Foundation of the Order of San Jorge de Alfama |
1202 | Establishment of the Order of Swordbrethren |
1202–4 | The Fourth Crusade |
1202 | (24 Nov.) Crusaders take Zara |
1204 |
(12–15 Apr.) Sack of Constantinople by crusaders
|
1204–5 |
|
1206 | Danish Crusade to Ösel |
1208 |
Proclamation of the Albigensian Crusade |
1209–29 | The Albigensian Crusade |
1209 | (22 July) Sack of Béziers |
1211 |
|
1212 | The Children’s Crusade Crusade in Spain (17 July) Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa |
1213 |
(12 Sept.) Battle of Muret |
1215 | Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in Toulouse
|
1216 |
|
1217–29 | The Fifth Crusade |
1218 | (27 May–5 Nov. 1219) Siege of Damietta |
1219 | Danish Crusade to Estonia |
1221 |
|
1225 | Teutonic Order invited to Prussia |
1226 | Albigensian Crusade renewed |
1227 |
|
1228–9 |
|
1229–33 | Civil War in Cyprus |
1229 | (18 Feb.) Jerusalem restored to Christians by treaty (12 Apr.) Peace of Paris ends Albigensian Crusade Teutonic Order begins conquest of Prussia |
1229–53 | Crusade in Spain |
1229–31 | Crusade of James I of Aragon to Mallorca |
1231 |
Crusade of Ferdinand III of Castile in Spain |
1232–4 | Crusade against the Stedinger heretics in Germany |
1232–53 | Conquest of Valencia by James I of Aragon |
1236 |
(29 June) Ferdinand III of Castile takes Córdoba |
1237 | Teutonic Order absorbs Swordbrethren in Livonia |
1239–40 | Crusade in aid of Constantinople |
1239–41 |
|
1239 |
Swedish Crusade to Finland |
1241 |
|
1242 | First Prussian Revolt against the Teutonic Order (5 Apr.) Battle on Lake Peipus |
1244 | (16 Mar.) Fall of Montségur
(17 Oct.) Battle of La Forbie |
1245 |
|
1248–54 | First Crusade of St Louis (King Louis IX of France) |
1248 |
(23 Nov.) Seville taken by Ferdinand III of Castile |
1249 | (6 June) Capture of Damietta |
1250 | (8 Feb.) Crusaders in Egypt defeated at al-Mansura |
1250–4 | St Louis in Palestine |
1251 | First Crusade of the Shepherds |
1254 |
|
1255 |
|
1256–8 | War of St Sabas in Acre |
1258 | (10 Feb.) Mongols sack Baghdad |
1259 |
|
1260 |
Second Prussian revolt Castilian Crusade to Salé in Morocco (3 Sept.) Battle of Ayn Jalut (23 Oct.) Baybars becomes sultan of Egypt |