Knights Hospitalier

This article is about the specific polity Knights Hospitalier and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.

If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics

Is a Catholic Order that was founded in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. The order hold political power over various territories throughout its history, the most important being Rhodes, that was lost to the Ottomans, and then Malta until 1798, when the island was conquered by France.

Establishment

August 1310: On 15 August 1310, after over four years of campaigning, the city of Rhodes surrendered to the Knights Hospitalier. They also gained control of a number of neighbouring islands and the Anatolian port of Halicarnassus and the island of Kastellorizo.

Chronology

Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation

1. Conquests of Suleiman I (Ottoman)

Conquests and wars with Ottoman involvement during the rule of Suleiman I.

January 1523: The Knights were ousted by the Ottomans from the island of Rhodes (and neighbouring islands of the Dodecanese island group).

August 1551: Tripoli (1510-1530), then ceded to the Knights Hospitaller, was lost in 1551.

1.1.Siege of Rhodes (1522)

The Siege of Rhodes of 1522 was the second and ultimately successful attempt by the Ottoman Empire to expel the Knights of Rhodes from their island.

December 1522: With the the Siege of Rhodes of 1522, the Ottoman Empire expelled the Knights of Rhodes from their island, removing the last serious threat to Ottoman naval power in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean.

2. French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Were a series of conflicts between France and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompass first the French Revolutionary Wars against the newly declared French Republic and from 1803 onwards the Napoleonic Wars against First Consul and later Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. They include the Coalition Wars as a subset: seven wars waged by various military alliances of great European powers, known as Coalitions, against Revolutionary France - later the First French Empire - and its allies.

2.1.War of the Second Coalition

Was the second war that saw revolutionary France against most of the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria, and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples, and various German monarchies. Prussia did not join this coalition, and Spain supported France.

2.1.1.Malta during the War of the Second Coalition

During the War of the Second Coalition, Malta, at the time controlled by the Knights Hospitalier, was conquered by France but shortly after occupied by Great Britain.

June 1798: The Maltese troops refused to continue the fight without support from their government and negotiations followed in which Hompesch and the knights agreed to abandon Malta on condition of financial compensation amounting to 3 million Francs. Bonaparte gained the entire Maltese archipelago, including fortresses, military stores and cannon, the small Maltese Navy and Army and the entire property of the Roman Catholic Church in Malta.

3. Further events (Unrelated to Any War)

January 1315: Whole Rhodes conquered by the Knights Hospitalier.

January 1405: The Despot Theodore I Palaiologos sold Salona to the Knights Hospitaller in 1404.

January 1411: Salona fell again to the Ottomans in 1410.

July 1530: During an Ottoman siege in 1522, the Knights Hospitaller were expelled from Rhodes. They subsequently entered negotiations with Spanish Emperor Charles V. The Hospitallers eventually accepted Tripoli, Malta and Gozo as a fief on 23 March 1530, and they took control of the city of Tripoli on 25 July.

January 1531: Malta was ruled by the Order of Saint John as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1530.