1309 Knights Hospitallers capture Rhodes.
1311 Catalans conquer central Greece.
1386 Peloponnesian baron Nerio Acciaiuoli expels Catalans from Greece.
1522 Turks capture Rhodes.
1530 Emperor Charles V grants Malta to Knights Hospitallers.
1565 Knights repulse Turkish fleet.
1814 Britain gains jurisdiction over Malta.
1960 "Knights of Malta" are a Catholic noblemen's charity.
When my father converted to Catholicism, he was invited to join the Catenians, a Catholic business men's charity, founded in 1908.
This evening (see previous post), we ate in the Borough.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
We see the Eastern Roman Empire in some of the works of Poul Anderson: THE LAST VIKING, THERE WILL BE TIME, and here in ROGUE SWORD (and some glimpses in THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS). For the most part, when the Eastern Empire was beginning to decline or declining. I would have liked Anderson to have shown us, at some length, the Empire when it was a powerful and vigorous state (e.g., during it's truly astonishing revival from about AD 790 to the death of Basil II in 1025). Another interesting period would have been during the reigns of Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118) and his son John II (r. 1118-1143) when the Empire made a determined effort at rallying and recovery.
I am sorry that two of the three Knights of Malta you knew had worldly motives for joining that order. As you may know, fully professed Knights have to be not only aristocrats but also take monastic vows, with some becoming priests.
I mentioned, not long ago, a truly execrable "historical" novel about the Eastern Emperor Marcian (btw, he seems to have been quite and decent and able man). A vastly more satisfactory was was William Stearns Davis'THE BEAUTY OF THE PURPLE, about the rise to power of the Emperor Leo III (r. 717-741) and his wife Anthusa Maria. Set during the greatest and most determined attempt of the early Muslims to conquer the Eastern Empire during the Siege of Constantinople in 717-18. I had some quibbles here and there with Davis' book, but I greatly enjoyed it!
Ad astra! Sean
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