Knights Hospitaller

Also known as Order of Saint John, Hospitallers

Originally a hospital fraternity in Jerusalem; militarised in the mid-12th century and became, alongside the Templars, the second great fighting order of the Crusader states.

The Hospital of Saint John was founded as a pilgrim hospice in Jerusalem during the late 11th century, by Amalfitan merchants attached to the church of St. Mary of the Latins. After the First Crusade it expanded enormously under its first rector, Brother Gerard, and his successor Raymond du Puy reorganised it as a religious order of brothers under the rule of Augustine, papally recognised in 1113.

Through the 1130s and 1140s the Hospital gradually added a military arm to its hospital and pilgrim work, taking over fortresses on the strategic margins of the kingdom: Bethgibelin, Belvoir, and most famously Crac des Chevaliers in the Homs Gap, which became the most formidable single fortress of the Crusader states. By the time of the Battle of Hattin the Hospitallers were a heavy-cavalry shock force on a par with the Templars.

After 1291 the Order moved first to Cyprus, then to Rhodes (1310–1522), and finally to Malta (1530–1798), reinventing itself successively as a maritime power. Unlike the Templars it was never suppressed, and survives today as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Read more on Wikipedia: English article