The Fall of Rhodes

The Order of the Knights of St John, or Knights Hospitallers, was founded in Jerusalem before the First Crusade to care for the sick, elderly and poor among the Christian pilgrims who were already flocking to the Holy Land. After the crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099, the Order continued its charitable and medical activities. The Master was both the ‘guardian’ and the ‘serf’ of ‘the poor of Christ’, but the Order drew no lines between different religions and cared for Jews and Muslims as well as Christians. Meanwhile, it developed into a major fighting order, which defended Krak des Chevaliers in modern Syria and other crusader castles. After the Muslims regained Jerusalem in 1187, the knights were eventually driven from Palestine in 1291 and forced to move to Cyprus.