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Knights Hospitaller

Web information about the Military Orders, Hospitallers (Hospitalers) and Templars, can get a little nutty. It was probably less nutty prior to the publication of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code...but then, there it is. I have attempted to find reputable history sites for my links. My intent here is to get to the basics and not spin out too crazily across the universe. The core of this page is comprised of information from Abbot Gasquet's book English Monastic Life. Gasquet published the book through The Antiquaries Book series in 1904. It is now out of print and not generally available. There may be a number of factual errors in the text, or points on which historians or theologians do not agree. Gasquet's text, notes & links>>

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Knight Hospitallers

The Hospitallers began in A.D. 1092 with the building of a hospital for pilgrims at Jerusalem. The original idea of the work of these visiting knights was to provide for the needs of pilgrims visiting the Holy Land and to afford them protection on their way. They, too, followed a rule of life founded upon that of St. Augustine, and their dress was black with a white cross upon it. They came to England very shortly after their foundation, and had a house built for them in London in A.D. 1100. They rose in wealth and importance in the country ; and their head, or grand prior as he was called, became the first lay baron in England, and had a seat in the House of Peers.

Upon many of their manors and estates the Knights Hospitallers had small establishments name commanderies, which were under the government of one of their number, called the commander. These houses were sometimes known as preceptories, but this was a term more generally used for the establishments of the other great Military Order, known as the Templars. An offshoot of both these orders was known as “The Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem.” There were a few houses of this branch in England, which was founded chiefly to assist and support lepers and indigent members of the Military Orders. They are, however, usually regarded as hospitals. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem had their headquarters at the Hospital of St. John, near Clerkenwell, to which were attached some fifty-three cells or commanderies.

English Monastic Life by F.A. Gasquet. (page 230.)

Hospitaller Houses in England (Combined Hospitaller & Templar houses on the Templar page. For more English Religious Houses, see the index page):

Anstey		Wilts.
Barrow		Derbyshire.
Battisford		Suffolk.
Beverley		Yorks, E. R.
Bretesford		Suffolk.
Brimpton		Berks.
Bruerne, or Temple Bruer	Temple	Lincoln.
Buckland Minchin		Somerset.
Carbroke		Norfolk.
Chippenham		Cambridge.
Clerkenwell (see London).
Combe	Temple	Somerset.
Cowley, or Sandford	Temple	Oxford.
Dalby		Leicester.
Dingley		Northants.
Dinmore		Hereford.
Dunwich		Suffolk.
Egle, of Eycle		Lincoln.
Friermagna (see Mayne)		Dorset.
Godesfield		Hants.
Gosford (Kidlington)		Oxford.
Greenham		Berks.
Hampton		Middlesex.
Hawstone		Salop.
Hither, or Hether		Leicester.
Hogshaw		Bucks.
London, Clerkenwell		Middlesex.
Louth, or Maltby		Lincoln.
Maplestead		Essex.
Mayne, or Friar Magna		Dorset.
Melchburne		Beds.
Mount St. John		Yorks.
Newland		Yorks.
Peckham, Little, or West		Kent.
Pooling		Sussex.
Queinington		Gloucester.
Ribstone		Yorks.
Rockley	Temple	Wilts.
Sandford (see Cowley)		Oxford.
Shengay		Cambridge.
Skirbeke		Lincoln.
Slanden		Herts.
Slebach		Pembroke.
Sutton-at-Hone		Kent.
Swinford		Leicester.
Templecombe (see Combe)		Somerset.
Trebigh, or Turbigh		Cornwall.
Wilhelme		Lincoln.
Wilketon		Gloucester.
Willoughton		Lincoln.
Yeveley, or Stede		Derby.

Hospitaller Links:

'Houses of Knights Hospitaller: Preceptory of Balsall and Grafton', A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 2 (1908), pp. 100-01. British History Online

'House of Knights Hospitaller: Preceptory of Battisford', A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2 (1975), pp. 120-21. British History Online

The Order of Malta. Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta official site.

The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.

The Alliance of Orders of St. John of Jerusalem.

Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem (Also known as Knights of Malta), an article from Newadvent.org.

Military Orders, A Guide to Online Resources. An ORB Encyclopedia Page.

The Crusading Orders, a page that links to articles and information from Crusades-Encyclopedia.

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