Hospitaller conquest of Rhodes

Part of the Crusades

Date	23 June 1306 – 15 August 1310
Location	Rhodes, Dodecanese
Result	Rhodes comes under Hospitaller control

Belligerents

Knights Hospitaller

Byzantine Empire

Commanders and leaders

Foulques de Villaret

Andronikos II Palaiologos

The Hospitaller conquest of Rhodes took place in 1306–1310. The Knights Hospitaller, led by Grand Master Foulques de Villaret, landed on the island in summer 1306 and quickly conquered most of it except for the city of Rhodes, which remained in Byzantine hands. Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos sent reinforcements, which allowed the city to repel the initial Hospitaller attacks, and persevere until it was captured on 15 August 1310. The Hospitallers transferred their base to the island, which became the centre of their activities until it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1522.

The conquest of Rhodes by the Knights Hospitaller is narrated by a large number of sources of varying detail and reliability. The most reliable sources include the contemporary Byzantine historian George Pachymeres, whose History only extends to 1307, and the various biographies of Pope Clement V (r. 1305–1314), which offer different details, but do not contradict each other, and are generally reliable. These are complemented a number of papal ordinances and correspondence in the archives of the Holy See and the Crown of Aragon, as well as the 14th-century French chronicle of Gérard de Monréal (or Chronicle of the Templar of Tyre), and the 16th-century Italian chronicles of Francesco Amadi and Florio Bustron. These are chiefly concerned with the affairs of Cyprus and the troubled relationship between the Hospitallers and the Lusignan kings of the island, and are not very reliable as histories, containing much popular tradition and anecdotal or legendary information.

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Wikipedia