A SHORT HISTORY OF THE KNIGHTS OF SAINT JOHN

Around A.D. 1048 some pious merchants from Amalfi, in Italy, established a small hospice in Jerusalem primarily to care for the sick or injured pilgrims who were journeying to the Holy City. They did not, however, turn away local Moslems who might be in need of help; and the construction of their hospital, named for Saint John the Baptist, was authorized by the Fatimid Caliphs who were then masters of Palestine.

The arrival of the Christian army of the First Crusade, liberating Jerusalem on the 15th of July 1099, brought many more sick and injured. These necessitated the enlargement of the hospital which was carried out by its director, the Blessed Gerard. The following year this confraternity, living under the Benedictine rule, was converted into an Order under the fons honorum of the newly-established Crown of Jerusalem. In A.D. 1113, Pope Pascal the Second, in recognition of their outstanding work with the sick and injured, gave them the status of a religious Order under the protection of the Holy See, with Saint John the Baptist as their saint and protector. Their mission was henceforth to serve the sick, injured, and the poor.

After his death in 1120, the Blessed Gerard was succeeded by an equally remarkable man, Fra’ Raymond du Puy, who was the first head of the Order to receive the title of Master. This was a period of brigandage: travel was unsafe for pilgrims, even in groups. While the original members of the Order had been concerned with the hospital, the feeding of the poor, and the treatment of the sick and injured; a new function now developed, and the Order would hereafter be concerned with the protection of the pilgrims enroute from the sea to Jerusalem. The physical protection of the pilgrims and the hospital might seem little more than a logical extension of the Order’s principal role – to look after the poor and disabled – but it was to evolve into a militant Christianity designed to fight Moslems wherever they might be found. Thus, to a hospital intended for the poor and sick was grafted a whole body of Medieval chivalry.

The Order of Saint John, both during its years in the Holy Land and later, was a religious and military Order, a knightly vocation committing its members to the highest chivalric ideals of succoring and supporting the poor, the needy and the sick – who were not then cared for by other institutions – and also of opposing and fighting the enemies of society.

From the vary start the Order was strict concerning the character of those who were admitted. In later years only men of noble birth were accepted for knighthood. Still later, worthy men of lesser birth were accepted as knights “of Grace”. Whereas the members of other religious orders occupied their time with gardening, farming, illuminating manuscripts, etc., the Knights of Saint John spent their time drilling, training, and performing the arts of war. They did not, however, neglect their hospital duties pr their religious duties, since they were still basically members of a religious community.

In the constant warring against the Moslem armies, along with their contemporary orders such as the Teutonic Knights and the Knights Templar, they became a force with which to be reckoned. They became not only the best disciplined fighting force of the Medieval world, but also the first truly “United Nations” type of fighting structure. Since they had by now established priories in the various European countries for, among other purposes, the raising of funds and the recruiting of members, their ranks included French, German, Spanish, Italian and English Knights, with a scattering of other nationalities.

Under Raymond du Puy the Order fought six battles against the Moslems between 1137 and 1153. Under Gilbert d’Assailly, the fifth Rector, the Order’s Knights took part in three expeditions against Egypt. Roger des Moulins, their eight leader, died in fierce fighting near Nazareth. After Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in 1187, Acre became the new center of Christian endeavor in the Holy Land. Led by the 14th Grand Master, Garin de Montaigu, the Order fought in campaigns of the Third Crusade.

When the Christians were finally driven from the Holy Land in 1291, the Order moved its headquarters to Cyprus, then later to the island of Rhodes, becoming a fief of the Byzantine Empire. In the course of these moves the Order was transformed form a strictly land force to a notable sea power. Thus was undoubtedly the Order'’ finest hour; and, as the “Knights of Rhodes”, its fame spread throughout the known world from Britain to China.

The Order’s defeat of a Moslem fleet in 1347 established its position. The protection of the Cross of Saint John was now extending itself throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The next year the Order captured Smyrna, one of the most important trading posts on the coastline. In little more than thirty years the Knights had extended over all of the southern Aegean.

In 1440 the Order defeated a large Turkish naval force, and four years later they defeated the Egyptians. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Rhodes became the last bastion of Christendom in the Eastern Mediterranean, and was now completely surrounded by determined enemies who were not only growing in strength, but were preparing a campaign of conquest on Christian Europe.

On the 23rd of May, 1480, a Turkish army of 70,000 experienced fighters, in addition to its navy, attacked Rhodes, which was defended by some 600 Knights of the Order and an additional 1800 paid foreign troops and local militia. After a two month siege and tremendous losses on their part, the Turks withdrew from Rhodes and returned home. The main result of the siege of 1480 was the restoration of the Knights to a new prominence in Europe. Donations poured in, as did recruits for the Order. The Order enjoyed a forty-year period of prosperity: Rhodes was completely rebuilt with new and better fortifications, new arms were acquired, the galley fleet was improved, and action against Turkish and Egyptian shipping was stepped up.

By June, 1522, Sultan Suleiman was prepared to take his revenge against the hated Knights of Saint John. He now had amassed a fleet of 700 ships and an army of 200,000 though fighting men. The Order, for its part, had probably no more than 1500 trained mercenary and local troops commanded by less than 500 Knights. For six months the siege went on with dreadful bombardments and enormous casualties on both sides. Finally, on Christmas Eve, Sultan Suleiman made it clear to the Grand Master that he was offering the Order peace with honor. The Knights, their followers, and any Rhodians who cared to accompany them might be free to leave the island unmolested. Two days later the Grand Master agreed to leave Rhodes. It was indeed astounding that a handful of men could have held out so long against an army and navy the size and strength of those which the Sultan had brought to bear against them.

From Rhodes the Order eventually settled on the island of Malta. There in 1530, in token payment of an annual and very famous falcon, the Order became the fief of the Emperor Charles the Fifth of Spain. During the next three decades the Knights built fortifications, churches and medical facilities on the island. In addition they gradually subdued the corsairs of the Barbary Coast, bringing peace and order to the Western Mediterranean and making the sea safe for Christian commerce.

In May, 1565, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent once again laid siege to the Order with a huge army and navy. More than three months later, with some 30,000 of his men dead, the Sultan withdrew. During the siege of Malta 250 Knights died, and practically all that remained were wounded or crippled for life. This was the last attempt by the Turks to subdue the Order. After 1565 and the great sea battle of Lepanto in 1571, the expanding power of Islam was checked. The Crusades were history.

In 1575 the Order built a very efficient hospital on Malta, consisting of eleven wards for five hundred patients, with a School of Anatomy and Surgery, a School of Pharmacy, and an illustrious medical team. This was a remarkable enterprise of world-wide renown, the first international hospital in history.

Since 1581 the Grand Master wears a special crown. In 1607 the Grand Master was granted the title of “Prince of the Holy Roman Empire” by the Emperor Rudolph the Second, whose successor, Ferdinand the Second, granted him the title of “Most Serene Highness”, still in use. No longer was there an interest in freeing the Holy Land from the Moslems. The Knights fought some 24 more battles form 1601 to 1798, but no major attacks came. Military efficiency in the Order began to wane. It took on more and more the characteristics of an Italian princely state.

Long before the horrors of the French Revolution could even be imagined, the Order’s commitment to religious orthodoxy had begun to crack. With the triumph of Lutheranism in much of northern Germany, the Knights of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg had embraced the new faith. Ties were never severed between these Protestant Knights and their Roman Catholic brethren in other parts of Europe. As the 18th century progresses, religious ambiguity, and in many cases a lack of strong religious convictions by its members, had a serious influence on the Order. In France a group of disaffected knights under the leadership of Duc d’Orleand, a Prince of the Blood, reformed themselves into “Malta Knights”. The main Order continued, but recruits dropped in both numbers and quality, as did the revenues. By 1797, the Order of Saint John had reached a low ebb with a weak Grand Master, Ferdinand von Hompesch.

The pernicious influences of the Age of Enlightenment, and the subsequent French Revolution, did more to undermine the Order of Saint John than had seven centuries of attack by the Moslem hordes and the Barbary pirates. Thus it was that Napoleon Bonaprate, on his way to Egypt, could capture without a battle what had alluded the Turkish sultans for so long. Thus it was also that the Order was compelled to surrender its territories, army, fleet, and possessions, and to leave the island of Malta, which it eventually lost to the advantage of Great Britain, although the Treaty of Amiens of 1802 had established that the island was to be restored to the Order. Since then the Saint John Knights have been in exile.

The Knights quickly dispersed, some back to the countries of their origin and their priories there, but some sought out a new protector. In a Europe wracked by revolution and unrest, those Knights who refused to surrender turned eastward, to Russia. In the relative calm of Saint Petersburg they sought and obtained the protection of Tsar Paul of Russia. There, far away form the Mediterranean, it seamed as if the Order would begin a new life, The Russian Emperor, caught up in the romance of the Order’s glorious history, endowed it with estates and honored its Knights. In return, however, he desired the Grand Mastership, notwithstanding the facts that he was Russian Orthodox and not a Roman Catholic, that he was married, and that there was still an elected Grand Master alive in Italy. Bowing to both reality and necessity, the Knights of Saint John who were still functioning in Russia duly elected him. Tsar Paul accepted his election, ant it was recognized as a de facto reality by most of Europe’s leaders, a thing that was made easier by von Hompesch’s forced abdication shortly thereafter. From this point the unity of the old Order of Saint John was forever eclipsed, and confusion reigned for decades to come. Thereafter for many, many years all idea of the traditional role of the Saint John Knights was forgotten as they strove in one way or another just to preserve their very existence.

In Spain the Order, which had refused to recognize the Russian Tsar, went its own way. By Royal Decrees of 1802 the sovereignty and government of the Order were vested in the King of Spain. It was more than eighty years later that this Spanish Catholic Saint John Order, retitled the Association of Spanish Knights, merged with the Catholic Order, established at Rome.

In 1801, following the assassination of his father, the new Tsar Alexander the First invited Pope Pius the Seventh to elect a new Grand Master, His first nominee, Prince Ruspoli, refused; and it was not until 1803 that Giovanni Tommassi was named and accepted. Two years later he, too, was dead. Thus with neither a sovereign nor a sovereignty, and only the protection of a Pope who was himself the sometimes prisoner of Bonaparte, this Order began a rule by its Sovereign Council and six successive Lieutenants that would last the next three-quarters of a century. In spite of various failed plans to find a new home, this Order maintained its headquarters in Sicily – as a guest.

Jealous of the wealth and prestige conferred on it by his father, Tsar Alexander began suppressing the Order within his empire around 1810, as did the Emperor of Austria within his own realm in 1813.

Suppression was in the air. Even the Brandenburg Bailiwick of the Order of Saint John, dating from 1350, and, which, having become Protestant during the Reformation, was independent of the Roman Catholic Order, saw its properties seized by the King of Prussia, who created his own Order of Saint John.

In France a group of French Knights of Saint John, unable to get satisfaction from the Order’s hierarchy in Sicily, established a Capitular Commission, operating under a Papal Bull that sanctioned their actions. Unfortunately they and the Grand Magistracy in Sicily seamed always at cross purposes. Through mutual misunderstandings and obstinacy all chances for a new home for the Order following the downfall of the Bonaparte regimes were lost. The Grand Magistracy was sinking into impotent oblivion in Sicily, while the French Commission proposed to summon a Chapter General of French Knights to elect their own leader for the Order. The Sicily-based hierarchy now disolved the French Commission and thereafter ignored its acts, including the creation of some English members.

To save the Order from utter dissolution, Pope Gregory the Fourtheenth allowed it to transfer from Sicily to first Ferrara in the Papal States then, in 1834, to Rome itself. From there it began the slow renaissance that has resulted in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, that premier Order of Saint John which is the pride of the Roman Catholic world.

In this atmosphere of confusion and recrimination the Order of Malta, which had formed much earlier with a Prince of the Royal House of France as its leader and now had become more Protestant oriented since moving to Great Britain, chose as its own Grand Master the Duke of Cumberland, fifth son of King George III, who would himself become King Ernst August of Hannover in 1837.

On the 13th of October 1852, King Frederick William the Forth abolished the Royal Prussian Order of Saint John, created in 1812, and established once again the Lutheran Bailiwick of Brandenburg “for the purposes of carrying out its original purposes”. The headship of it has been permanently vested ever since in a prince of the House of Holenzollern.

The next Saint John group to establish independence was in England. When the Lieutenant Grand Master refused to entertain any type of union between the Sovereign Military Order and the English knights created by the French Commission, the next step was inevitable. The English members formed themselves into the Venerable Order of Saint John which, after a fitful and sometimes very lean fifty years existence was rewarded by the grant of a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria on the 14th of May 1888. Although its actual knighthoods are confined to subjects of the Crown, this Saint John Order works for the welfare of all in need.

Following the Royal Charter of Queen Victoria, it was over half a century before the next Saint John Orders came into being, and these in the aftermath of the Second World War. The first was the Johanniter Order in Sweden. Its antecedents were a group of Swedish Knights of the Bailiwick who formed a national association in 1920. In 1945 this association transferred its allegiance to the King of Sweden and became a Swedish National Order. Membership in the Order is restricted to Swedish Lutheran nobles, and is by invitation only.

The Protestant Reformed Knights in the Netherlands were directly attached to the Bailiwick of Brandenburg until 1909, when they were formed into the Commandery of the Netherlands of the Order of Saint John. In 1946 the Commandery also transferred its allegiance form Brandenburg to the Dutch Crown.

We now come to our own Hospitaller Order of Saint John, most recent to be chartered, but whose association with the Knights of Saint John goes back two and a half centuries. Beginning in the early part of the eighteenth century with a confraternity of French Knights of Malta, this restructured organization embraced the popular philosophies of Freemasonery and Jacobitism. By 1807 this Order, having crosses the English Channel and, calling itself Knights of Malta, had elected the Duke of Cumberland, later King of Hanover, to be its Grand Master, an office he occupied until his death in 1851. In the intervening years its religious requirements had changed and it had taken on decidedly political overtones. The Malta Order was first introduced to Canada in 1829, when a regimental “lodge” attached to troops stationed at London, Canada West (afterwards Ontario) was instituted. By 1845 these Malta Knights were firmly established in Canada. From there they branched out into the United States in the 1880s. Having changed their character since leaving France, and through radical fluctuations in membership, they, nevertheless, maintained their corporate existence in Pennsylvania and California into the 1960s. The knights of the California Priory also included at that time some who had been dubbed under authority of the Royal Spanish Order of Malta before its reunion with the Sovereign Order.

In 1964 King Peter the Second of Yugoslavia became aware of these American Knights. The King was very interested in both the work of the Venerable Order, of which he had become a member during the Second World War, and the history and activities of the Order of Saint John form its inception in the Holy Land in the days of the Crusades through the twentieth century. On at least one occasion before he had even considered the institution of a national Yugoslavian branch. Thus when he was approached by the American Knights, he readily acquiesced. King Peter was elected Grand Master of the Order on the 13th of March 1965; and on the 19th of that same month he granted the Order a new Charter and Constitution. Three years later, on the 28th of December 1968, the King signed a new Constitution, withdrawing from the Grand Mastership to become “Royal Head” of our Order.

Following the King’s death in 1970, a Lieutenant Grand Master served until the next year. He was succeeded in 1970 by Robert Sanguszko-Formhals, as President of the Council. In 1972 the Sovereign Council nominated its president to be Grand Master. This nomination was approved by the Chapter General of the Order, and on the 9th of December 1972 Prince Grand Master Robert Sanguszko-Formhals was invested in the City of Toronto, Canada. His eighteen year reign steadied the Order as he continued to pursue the ideals that motivated King Peter’s initial interest in it. On the 19th of September 1990, the Prince Grand Master, who was already quite ill, appointed the then Chancellor of the Order, Bailiff Michael Duff Newton to be his Lieutenant. In less than three weeks the Grand Master was dead.

At the Sovereign Council meeting on the 20th of October of that year, Baron Flach de Flachslanden was nominated to succeed him. Following the approval of this nomination by the Chapter General of the Order, Prince Grand Master de Flachslanden was invested and enthroned in the City of London, Ontario, Canada, as the third Grand Master under the King’s Charter, and the 95th in succession from the Blessed Gerard, founder of the historic Order of Saint John.

Image 1 - Gerard, the founder of the Order of the Knights of Saint John in Jerusalem (Italian work of the 1930s)

Image 2 - The first Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, F. de Villaret (Italian work of the 1930s)

Image 3 - Turkish attack on the St Nicholas Tower, over a pontoon. Left, the city walls, in the backgound the Turkish camp (Caoursin)