Gordon Ellyson Abercrombie

The Hospitaller Knights of Saint John 1565-1623 (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

This third of four volumes of Hospitaller history is believed to be the first in depth treatment of Hospitaller history during the years 1565 to 1623 since Bartolomeo dal Pozzo's Historia della Sacra Religione Militare di S. Giovanni completed in 1703. Following a post mortem on the 1565 Ottoman Siege of Malta, this third volume moves quickly into accounts of 1570's Hospitaller raid on the Ionian island of Santa Maura (modern Levkas), of the 1570 naval Battle of Cape Passero (Sicily), of the 1570-71 Ottoman Siege of Famagusta, Cyprus, and of the 1571 Naval Battle of Lepanto in Greece's Gulf of Patras, the most deadly naval battle in history. While mention is made in the latter instance of Christian Commander Don Juan, half-brother of Spain's King Philip II, there is lengthier treatment of Juan's Ottoman counterpart Muezzinzade Ali, and even lengthier treatment of numerous Hospitallers and lower-ranking Ottomans participating. It is by intention that these histories bring to light contributions of lieutenants, allies, and enemies as well as descriptions of events, heroism, agony, and even tedium leading to the headlines. Hence these four histories also deal with the Hospital's long war against bubonic plague, its prolonged suffering from the greed of Papal nepotism, its constant struggle to remain financially viable, its consequential participation in state-sponsored piracy, and its survival only on the backs of slaves. It is important to realize that Hospitallers were agents of a vast Catholic organization blanketing Europe, and while the largest group of Hospitallers were knights, perhaps half were Chaplains or Serving Brothers. In Europe there were an unknown number of commanderies or local concentrations of knights, chaplains, or serving brothers, perhaps a thousand, many with their own medical facilitity, each with one to thirty Hospitallers operating for-profit enterprises expected to support headquarters with a portion of the profit. And while history focuses on the headquarters, in these volumes at Rhodes, Malta, and in between, by far the majority of Hospitallers rarely or never visited headquarters. Furthermore, the Hospitaller Bailiwick of Brandenburg was a virtually independent organization said by some to be of a size approaching the remaining Hospital, electing its own Herrenmeisters, and with the coming of Martin Luther even abandoning Catholicism. But never quite severing all ties to the parent organization. Similarly the Hospital itself was a semi-independent arm of the Church at Rome. One might conclude, a long-suffering arm of the Church at Rome. The author hopes the reader finds this history as interesting and stimulating as did he.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Grosvenor House Publishing
• Seitenzahl: 421
• Erscheinungstermin: 29. Mai 2025
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781803810836
• Artikelnr.: 74248281

Autorenporträt

The son and grandson of naval officers and a naval officer himself, Gordon Abercrombie has spent most of his life at sea and much of it sailing the eastern Mediterranean aboard both warships and his own 44-foot sailboat. A Royal Navy sea cadet early in life at Plymouth, England, he is also a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he earned a degree in Naval Science. There followed nine years of naval service much of it with the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and Black Seas as well as one year attached to the Navy of the Republic of South Vietnam. As a naval officer he was awarded the U.S. Navy's Air Medal and two Commendation Medals as well as the Republic of Vietnam's Medal of Honor. The author acquired his sailboat in 1981, and for the next thirty-seven years she became both his home away from home as well as his platform for the study of history, all but two of those years in the Mediterranean. During those years he visited and studied most of the locales cited in his Hospitaller volumes. As an amateur archaeologist he has delighted in tracing the footsteps of England's George Ewart Bean, turning over stone slabs along the coast of Anatolia and among neighboring islands of Greece in search of an inscription shedding light on history. It was a similar curiosity concerning the massive walls at Rhodes 39-feet in width which led him to Hospitaller historians Giacomo Bosio and Bartolomeo Dal Pozzo, the latter himself an Hospitaller. An avid student of history, Gordon Abercrombie believes he has crawled through every Hospitaller structure west of Cyprus, not once but often, describing its purpose and history to family and friends. He has excerpts of historical interest from all four of his Hospitaller volumes posted on Facebook at The Hospitaller Knights of Saint John which may be of interest to those seeking further information. Gordon and wife Jennifer reside in Derby, England.