The Knights Hospitaller: The History and Legacy of the Medieval Catholic Military Order by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2019-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

Indeed, despite its initial success, the Empire of Nicaea, now effectively the restored Byzantine Empire, rapidly lost territory to new waves of Turkish invaders, in particular a new tribe known as the Ottomans. Already in the 14th century, there were many Turkish emirates along the Asia Minor coast. Despite their small fleet and low numbers, the Knights Hospitaller used their position in Rhodes as the basis to continue their Crusading activity, mainly but not exclusively against these new enemies. Demonstrating their effectiveness as pirates, the Knights of Rhodes mounted several stunningly successful raiding campaigns against the richest ports of the Orient, managing to pillage the major coastal city of Smyrna in Asia Minor in 1341, and even Alexandria, the richest port in Egypt, in 1365. The knights also conducted military campaigns against the Turkish emirates of Menthese and Aydin, and helped in the Crusaders’ recovery of Smyrna for Christian forces in 1344. They also began to acquire holdings on the mainland of Asia Minor, officially taking control of Smyrna in 1374 and holding the city until it was taken by none other than Tamerlane in 1402, but not before a heroic defense by no more than 200 knights under the command of the Aragonese Iñigo de Alfaro (Moeller, 1910; Talbot 1991; Nicholson, 2001: 54).

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