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The Knights Hospitallers: Difference between revisions
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In 1523, after six months of siege and fierce combat against the fleet and army of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the Knights were forced to surrender and abandon Rhodes. The Order remained without a territory of its own until 1530, when Grand Master Philippe de Villiers de l'Isle Adam took possession of the island of [[Useful Notes/Malta|Malta]], granted to the Order by [[Holy Roman Empire|Emperor Charles V]] with the approval of [[The Pope|Pope Clement VII]]. In 1565 the Knights, led by Grand Master Jean de la Vallette (after whom the capital of Malta, Valletta, was named), defended the island for more than three months during the [http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=finnemore&book=barbary&story=knights1 Great Siege] by the Turks. In 1571, the fleet of the Order, then one of the most powerful in the Mediterranean, contributed to the ultimate destruction of the Ottoman naval power in the Battle of Lepanto.
Two hundred years later, in 1798, [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] occupied the island for its strategic value during his Egyptian campaign. Because of the Order's Rule prohibiting them from raising weapons against other Christians, the knights were forced to leave Malta (ironically, the very anti-Christian sentiment of the [[The French Revolution|Revolutionary French]] helped provoke a rebellion among the Maltese only two years afterwards). Although the sovereign rights of the Order in the island of Malta had been reaffirmed by the Treaty of Amiens (1802), the Order has never been able to return. After having temporarily resided in Messina, Catania and Ferrara, in 1834 the Order settled definitively in Rome. In the 20th century the original Hospitaller mission became once again the main activity of the Order and lives on today as the [
It should be noted that there are various Protestant honorary societies, such as the German and Dutch ''Johanniterorden'' and the English Venerable Order of St. John, that claim descent from the original Roman Catholic military order. These groups served largely as honors for the nobility of their respective countries, but have also performed important charitable works, such as the well-known St. John Ambulance service.
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