Foulques de Villaret

Foulques de Villaret (Occitan: Folco del Vilaret, Catalan: Folc del Vilaret) (died 1 September 1327), a native of Languedoc-Roussillon, France, was the 25th Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, succeeding his paternal uncle Guillaume de Villaret in 1305. His uncle had done much to foster his early career in the Order. He was appointed Admiral in 1299, and Grand Commander two years later. By 1303 he was Lieutenant of the Master, and so advanced to Master on his uncle's death.

Under his leadership they launched a successful attempt at the conquest of Rhodes, in the years 1308 and 1309. Other islands were also taken, including Kastellórizo and Bodrum. The Hospitallers then moved their headquarters to Rhodes.

However, despite the huge benefits to his Order from the suppression of the Knights Templar (the Templars' assets were assigned to the Hospitallers by the Pope in 1312), Villaret's campaigns of territorial expansion ran the Order heavily into debt, and these debts were not paid off until the mid-1330s. Villaret seems to have been a difficult and overbearing man, and eventually alienated his Order. Allegations were made of increasingly arrogant, even tyrannical, behaviour, although none of the allegations are specific, and one Italian account of the lives of the Grand Masters claimed that he was treated unjustly.

In 1317, the Order attempted a coup against Villaret. A group of knights went to assassinate him at his residence at Rhodini, but his chamberlain aided his escape. He fled to the Hospitaller castle at Lindos, where he was besieged by his own Order. They had, in the meantime, elected Maurice de Pagnac as Grand Master in his place, and wrote to Pope John XXII in July to justify their actions.

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