The Leper-King of Jerusalem Rides Again. A review of Susan Peek's Crusader King

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This is a review I wrote many years ago (and never posted here) for a book that has stood the test of time: Crusader King: A Novel of Baldwin IV and the Crusades by Susan Peek.

Peek's rendition of the story of the leper king of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV, is at the same time a tragic and uplifting tale. Young Baldwin was stricken with leprosy as a boy and ascended the throne of the tottering Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem at age 13. Despite scheming nobles angling for his crown even among his own family, and the omnipresent threat of Saladin and his Islamic hordes, the sickly Baldwin managed to hold his throne and safeguard his kingdom for nearly 11 years. 

Crusader King tells one of the great tales of history, and one feels genuine empathy for Baldwin as he struggles to do what he believes God has called him to do. Though his faithless nobles undercut him at every turn, Baldwin is supported by several very loyal Templars, one of whom, Theo, is his boyhood friend. Theo's loyalty and self-sacrificing excellence is really the heart of the book. While everyone else around Baldwin grasps at power, Theo refuses it at every turn, deciding instead to stick by his dying friend, no matter what the cost. Baldwin himself is presented as a devout, strong, and decidedly Catholic hero, suffering his dreadful crosses with courage and trust in God. As a Catholic myself, I found this to be a particular strength of the book.

Crusader King is an easy and quick read. The prose is rather light, even when dealing with difficult subjects—like Baldwin's progressing leprous disfigurement. Peek does use some modern colloquialisms, but mainly in an attempt to portray the informal banter between friends, or the cutting sarcasm among estranged family members. As such, it was wholly appropriate. I found this book to be an engrossing read and it made me seek out the historical accounts to get the actual story. If this was Ms. Peek's intention, she succeeded brilliantly. 

If you enjoy this type of book, or this particular time period in history, I encourage you to seek out Crown of the World: Book 1: Knight of the Temple by Nathan Sadasivan. This historical novel covers the time period immediately before the accession of Baldwin IV and the two books complement each other nicely.

“What wonder that the whole world was prey to disturbance and confusion?” – Fulcher of Chartres on the relationship between dysfunction in the Holy See and disasters in the world

Scene from the Apocalypse from an illuminated manuscript, ca. AD 1430.

If the world is a complete disastrous mess, blame the Catholic Church. 

Throughout history, this aphorism has popped up with some frequency and in various forms. And while this condemnation has frequently been issued by those of an anti-Papist stripe, it has just as often been uttered by devout Catholics themselves, even saints and popes. How is this possible, you ask? Well, let’s check in with Fulcher of Chartres who in AD 1105 penned the quote that may be seen in the image at the beginning of this post:

“What wonder that the whole world was a prey to disturbance and confusion? For when the Roman Church, which is the source of correction for all Christianity, is troubled by any disorder, the sorrow is communicated from the nerves of the head to the members subject to it, and these suffer sympathetically."

Fulcher was a French priest who took up the cross of the First Crusade in the late 11th century AD. He would later become the chaplain of Baldwin of Boulogne, who would later become the first King of Jerusalem. Fulcher is best known to history for his work, The Deeds of the Franks and the Expedition to Jerusalem, a first-hand chronicle of the great events of his age. Having apparently witnessed everything from the Council of Clermont where the Frankish knights first cried, “Deus vult!” to the re-conquest of Jerusalem and events beyond, Fulcher’s work is among the most valuable accounts of the early crusading era. 

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Let's dip into that work and look at the context of the above quote. All of the quotes from Fulcher in this post are taken from August Krey's excellent compilation, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eye-Witnesses and Participants. 

Near the beginning of his work, Fulcher records the situation in Europe prior to the Crusade, and in particular notes the chaotic situation of the Holy See which was beset by an anti-pope who was the darling of great political powers, particularly Henry IV, Emperor of Germany. Fulcher writes: 

But the devil, who always desires man’s destruction and goes about like a raging lion seeking whom he may devour, stirred up to the confusion of the people a certain rival to [Pope] Urban [II], Wibert, by name. Incited by the stimulus of pride and supported by the shamelessness of the aforesaid Emperor of the Bavarians, Wibert attempted to usurp the papal office while Urban’s predecessor, Gregory, that is Hildebrand, was the legitimate Pope; and he thus caused Gregory himself to be cast out of St. Peter’s. So the better people refused to recognize him because he acted thus perversely. 

Wibert would be known to history as anti-pope Clement III. Fulcher continues: 

After the death of Hildebrand, Urban, lawfully elected, was consecrated by the cardinal bishops, and the greater and holier part of the people submitted in obedience to him. Wibert, however, urged on by the support of the aforesaid Emperor and by the instigation of the Roman citizens, for some time kept Urban a stranger to the Church of St. Peter; but Urban, although he was banished from the Church, went about through the country, reconciling to God the people who had gone somewhat astray. Wibert, however, puffed up by the primacy of the Church, showed himself indulgent to sinners, and exercising the office of pope, although unjustly, amongst his adherents, he denounced as ridiculous the acts of Urban. 

But in the year in which the Franks first passed through Rome on their way to Jerusalem, Urban obtained the complete papal power everywhere, with the help of a certain most noble matron, Matilda, by name, who then had great influence in the Roman state. Wibert was then in Germany. So there were two Popes; and many did not know which to obey, or from which counsel should be taken, or who should remedy the ills of Christianity. Some favored the one; some the other. But it was clear to the intelligence of men that Urban was the better, for he is rightly considered better who controls his passions, just as if they were enemies. Wibert was Archbishop of the city of Ravenna. He was very rich and reveled in honor and wealth. It was a wonder that such riches did not satisfy him. Ought he to be considered by all an exemplar of right living who, himself a lover of pomp, boldly assumes to usurp the scepter of Almighty God? Truly, this office must not be seized by force, but accepted with fear and humility.

Fulcher is by no means the first to condemn the intrusion of worldly politics into the nomination and election of popes. Recall that Hermias Sozomen, writing in the mid-5th century AD, offers a similar viewpoint when discussing the deposition of Pope Liberius by the Emperor Constantius II, the subsequent election of Pope Felix II, the return of Liberius creating a situation where there were two Popes in Rome. Sozomen denounced this occasion and mentions that having two men occupy the seat of St. Peter is a sign of discord and is foreign to ecclesiastical law.

Similarly, when Vigillius participated in the unlawful political deposition of Pope St. Silverius in AD 536 and was later elected Pope while Silverius still lived in exile, his reign quickly descended into discord. War, natural disasters, famine, and death on an unimaginable scale due to plague followed all throughout his miserable reign. When he was later seized by agents of the Empress Theodora and put on a ship to Constantinople, the Liber Pontificalis claims that the Roman people threw rocks at the ship in which he was imprisoned, shouting: “Your hunger go with you! Your pestilence go with you! You have done evil to the Romans; may you find evil where you go!” And it did. Vigilius would spend over a decade in Constantinople as a veritable prisoner under intense pressure from the imperial court to alter Church doctrine. Finally, he would acknowledge: “I am receiving the reward for my deeds.”

Getting back to Fulcher, we next see how he connects disorder in the Church at Rome to catastrophic disorders within Christendom and indeed, the world at large, beginning with our quote from above:

What wonder that the whole world was a prey to disturbance and confusion? For when the Roman Church, which is the source of correction for all Christianity, is troubled by any disorder, the sorrow is communicated from the nerves of the head to the members subject to it, and these suffer sympathetically. This Church, indeed, our mother, as it were, at whose bosom we were nourished, by whose doctrine we were instructed and strengthened, by whose counsel we were admonished, was by this proud Wibert greatly afflicted. For when the head is thus struck, the members at once are sick. If the head be sick, the other members suffer. Since the head was thus sick, pain was engendered in the enfeebled members; for in all parts of Europe peace, goodness, faith, were boldly trampled under foot, within the church and without, by the high, as well as by the low. It was necessary both that an end be put to these evils, and that, in accordance with the plan suggested by Pope Urban, they turn against the pagans the strength formerly used in prosecuting battles among themselves....

Fulcher then commences his account of Urban II’s address at the Council of Clermont and the vast Crusading movement he inspired. This effort lasted nearly four centuries, and was still inspiring men of action even into the late 15th century.

By the time the Crusading effort completely petered out in the 16th century, the Church was rent by the rebellion of Protestantism and threatened by the scourge of resurgent Islam which, by this time, had annihilated the Eastern Empire forever and positioned armed forces at the very doorstep of divided Christendom. In frustration, a saintly pope of this time reportedly echoed Fulcher, saying: “All the evils of the world are due to lukewarm Catholics.” He was fortunate enough to find enough men whose faith still burned hot, and inspire the Holy League which beat back the Islamic menace decisively at Lepanto in AD 1571,

It is perhaps apt to consider such things when reflecting upon the wretched state of the Church and the world in our own times. 

"Don John of Austria is going to the war." ~ October 7, feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

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October 7 is the Feast of our Lady of the Rosary, formerly the feast of Our Lady of Victory. The date marks the 448th anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, AD 1571.

The Battle of Lepanto was a miraculous victory in which the combined ships of the Christian Holy League under Don John of Austria, defeated the fleet of the Ottoman Empire in a decisive battle that blocked Turkish imperial aggression from the western Mediterranean. Six years before in AD 1565, the Knights of Saint John had gained a similarly miraculous victory over the Turks at the Siege of Malta which prevented the invaders from establishing a base from which to attack Italy. With the triumph of Lepanto, Turkish sea-power would never again threaten western Christendom on such a scale and with such high hopes of success.

Prior to the Battle of Lepanto, Pope Pius V had enjoined all of Christendom (sadly fractured by the Protestant revolution) to pray the Rosary for the success of campaign. The sailors of Don John also recited the Rosary prior to the battle. The resulting victory was attributed completely to the intercession of our Lady.

The quote on this image is taken from G. K. Chesterton's poem, Lepanto, which reads in part:

But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces--four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey at the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth."
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still--hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar."

Read this entire work here at the American Chesterton Society website.

Or listen to a nice reading of the poem here done by the folks at Unam Sanctam Catholicam.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for the Church which is in distress!

The Incorrupt Body of Justinian the Great

19th century print showing soldiers of the 4th Crusade
discovering the incorrupt body of Justinian I in AD 1204.

On November 14, AD 565, the Roman Emperor Justinian passed to his eternal reward after a long and extraordinarily eventful reign of 38 years. But this post is not about Justinian's legendary works or even the circumstances surrounding his death. It is, instead, about an event that happened a full 639 years after his death.

On the fateful day of April 13, AD 1204, the knights of the Fourth Crusade, driven mad by thoughts of vengeance and visions of tremendous wealth, successfully breached the massive sea-walls of Constantinople. Once the city had fallen and most resistance had been quelled, the disgraced crusaders began a systematic search for loot of all kinds. In this effort, they did not spare even the wondrous churches of Constantinople, and one of their targets was the Church of the Holy Apostles which had served as an imperial tomb for centuries. The Byzantine historian, Nicetas Choniates, an eye-witness to the siege writing only a few years after the event, picks up the tale from here:

Exhibiting from the very outset, as they say, their innate love of gold, the plunderers of the queen city conceived a novel way to enrich themselves while escaping everyone’s notice. They broke open the sepulchers of the emperors which were located within the Heroon erected next to the great temple of the Disciples of Christ [Holy Apostles] and plundered them all in the night, taking with utter lawlessness whatever gold ornaments, or round pearls, or radiant, precious, and incorruptible gems that were still preserved within.

Here's where things get really interesting, however. When the disgraced crusaders violated the tomb of the emperor Justinian the Great, they received a severe but momentary shock. Choniates continues:

Finding the corpse of Emperor Justinian had not decomposed through the long centuries, they looked upon the spectacle as a miracle, but this in no way prevented them from keeping their hands off the tomb’s valuables. In other words, the Western nations spared neither the living nor the dead, but beginning with God and his servants, they displayed complete indifference and irreverence to all. [Taken from Magoulias: O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniatēs

Most Catholics are familiar with incorruptibility as the remains of some of the best known saints -- from Saint Cecilia in antiquity, to Saint Bernadette in the 19th century, to Saint Pio of Pietrelcina in modern times, have displayed the phenomenon. The origins of incorruptibility are mysterious and it is normally considered a sign of extraordinary sanctity, though clearly some of the saints' bodies considered among the incorrupt have been embalmed, coated with wax, or otherwise preserved through some very non-spiritual means.

While Orthodox Christians have considered Justinian a saint for centuries, he is not considered such by Catholics. It is a shame that no Western ecclesiastic or historian saw fit to record the remarkable occurrence of his exhumation. Equally sad is that no remnant of the emperor's relics or the accouterments seem to have survived the desecration of his tomb.

It is interesting to note, however, that within a year of his death in AD 565, Justinian seems to have adopted a heretical position known as Aphthartodocetism. A semi-Monophysite heresy, Aphthartodocetism held that the body of Christ was incorruptible, impassible and that the incarnation was real only in appearance. Given the central tenet of this heresy, it is interesting to speculate on the state of Justinian's corpse when discovered by the fallen crusaders and the message, if any, worldly or divine, it was meant to send.

If there was a message there, however, the disgraced crusaders were too busy worshiping Mammon to catch it.

"The Great Siege Had Ended" ~ The year that September 11 brought tidings of victory

The Flight of the Turks by Matteo Perez d' Aleccio, early 17th century.

September 11 is known in our times as the date of a cowardly suicide attack by Islamic radicals which resulted in the massacre of over 3,000 innocents in New York City in 2001.

But on September 11 nearly five hundred years ago, another Islamic attack was coming to its ignominious conclusion for the invaders. For on this date in AD 1565, the Great Siege of Malta was drawing to a close. The Turkish army, under the command of Mustapha Pasha, was making preparation to withdraw after a stunning defeat by the Knights of Saint John after a four month long siege.

Worn down by the ironclad resolve of the Knights whose fortifications he could not take, Mustapha decided to evacuate his still-superior forces upon the arrival of a relief army from imperial Spain. With the Turks on the defensive, the combined Catholic forces attacked. Here is how the scene is described in Angels in Iron, a brilliant novel by Nicholas C. Prata:

A Knight raised his sword into the sky, his powerful voice carrying over Naxxar.

“Attack!”

With that the mounted Knights thundered down the ridge toward the Turkish infantrymen. Many foot soldiers followed.

De la Corna decided it wiser to harness the emotion than to attempt a recall. He ordered a charge and his men responded with cries of delight. They descended on the Turks even as Don Mesquita’s cavalry arrived from Mdina to worry the Moslem flank.

The Hospitaller horsemen smashed through Mustapha’s lines like hammers through glass. Many Turks, dejected by the endless siege and overmatched by the fresh enemy, broke and fled.

“Saint Elmo!” the Knights cried as they bathed their swords in blood.

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It took only a short while for Mustapha to see that the islands reinvestment was ill-planned and potentially disastrous. He ordered a retreat north toward St. Paul’s Bay and, all that day, conducted a difficult rearguard action. Finally, after untold carnage, the Turks reached St. Paul’s Bay and found Piali waiting. The maddened Knights, who outdistanced their foot soldiers, pushed the Turks into the sea. Moslems were killed on the beach, struck down in the shallows, crushed beneath the hooves of angry warhorses.

“Saint Elmo!” the Knights bellowed.

Not all Mustapha’s army wilted, however. A daring counterattack by Hassem’s Algerians saved the Turks from obliteration. Hassem, eager to redeem his disastrous assault on Senglea, arranged arquebusiers in the hills around the bay and directed heavy shot at the Knights. The Hospitallers, still without their infantry, were obliged to fall back.

The Turks abandoned many wounded in the frantic surge to reach the anchored ships and Piali wasted no time sailing to safety. The fleet was on the move long before the Christians could bring up artillery. Three thousand Turks floated dead in narrow St. Paul’s Bay.

The Great Siege had ended.

Mustapha watched Malta shrink on the horizon. He had said nothing since his flagship had got under oar. A physician tugged his robe. “Lord, Pasha,” he said. “May I dress your injuries?”

Mustapha had been wounded in numerous places. His had been a desperate, valiant effort on the long retreat from Naxxar to St. Paul’s Bay and his old body had paid the price. Two horses had been shot out from beneath him and, when the Knights had killed his bodyguards, only the Janissaries had prevented him from falling into Christian hands.

“Lord Pasha, you’re bleeding,” the physician said.

Mustapha leaned against a rail, regret blurring his vision. “Two years for nothing,” he whispered.

“Pasha?”

Mustapha drew his jeweled scimitar and dropped it into the water. It barely left a ripple as it disappeared into the blue sea. He turned and walked away from the surgeon.

I posted another excerpt from Angels in Iron about the beginning of the siege here.

And here is another one about the surrender of Rhodes which precipitated the siege.

 If you haven’t experienced Angels in Iron yet, do yourself a favor and read it. You'll thank me later.

"We live in a period of chastisement" ~ August 20. Feast day of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux preaches the Second Crusade at Vezelai in Burgundy.

August 20 is the feast day of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), abbot and doctor of the Church, and one of the greatest minds of Medieval Europe. Late in his life in AD 1146, Bernard was called to preach the Second Crusade throughout Europe. In the course of doing so, he gave a speech every bit as stirring as Pope Urban II's call for the original Crusade in AD 1095. Here is an excerpt from that speech, as recorded in The History of the Crusades by Joseph Francis Michaud:

You can not but know that we live in a period of chastisement and ruin; the enemy of mankind has caused the breath of corruption to fly over all regions; we behold nothing but unpunished wickedness. The laws of men or the laws of religion have no longer sufficient power to check depravity of manners and the triumph of the wicked. The demon of heresy has taken possession of the chair of truth, and God has sent forth His malediction upon His sanctuary.

Oh, ye who listen to me, hasten then to appease the anger of Heaven, but no longer implore His goodness by vain complaints; clothe not yourselves in sackcloth, but cover yourselves with your impenetrable bucklers; the din of arms, the dangers, the labors, the fatigues of war are the penances that God now imposes upon you. Hasten then to expiate your sins by victories over the infidels, and let the deliverance of holy places be the reward of your repentance....

Fly then to arms; let a holy rage animate you in the fight, and let the Christian world resound with these words of the prophet, “Cursed be he who does not stain his sword with blood!” If the Lord calls you to the defense of His heritage think not that His hand has lost its power. Could He not send twelve legions of angels or breathe one word and all His enemies would crumble away into dust? But God has considered the sons of men, to open for them the road to His mercy. His goodness has caused to dawn for you a day of safety by calling on you to avenge His glory and His name.

Read the rest of Bernard's speech along with additional context here.

Sadly, the Second Crusade ended in disaster as the Christian princes could not cooperate effectively with each other and their discord gave the advantage to the enemy. Bernard bitterly regretted this failure and wrote an apology to Pope Eugenius III in the form of book called On Consideration. In this book, Bernard offers some useful advice for how an ideal pope should behave. Included among his admonitions is the following:

You ought not to be the last to know the faults of your household, which, as we are aware, is the experience of very many. Wherefore, as I have said, let another manage the rest, but do yourself see to the discipline. Trust that to nobody. If in your presence there is any tendency to arrogant conversation, or showy dress, stretch out your hand against such offences; be yourself an avenger of the wrong done to you. Impunity is the mother of audacity, audacity brings forth excess. 

Holiness becomes the house of a bishop, modesty becomes it, good repute becomes it; the guardian of all discipline. The priests of the household are either more highly esteemed than others, or they are the common talk. In the look, dress, gait of the priests about your person you should allow no trace of immodesty or indecency. Let your fellow bishops learn from you not to have about them boys with their hair curled, or effeminate youths. It is surely unbecoming for a bishop to go hither and thither surrounded by fops who wear the turban and use the curling iron.

Given the sad state of Church today, our bishops would do well to heed this good advice.

St. Louis IX ~ "We should not fight against God with his own gifts."

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"If God sends you adversity, receive it in patience and give thanks to our Savior. Think that you have deserved it, and that He will make it turn to your advantage. If He sends you prosperity, then thank Him humbly so that you do not become worse from pride or any other cause....For we should not fight against God with His own gifts."

Tomb of St. Louis IX in Sicily.

August 25 is the feast day of Saint Louis IX, king of France. This day also marks the anniversary of his death, which took place outside of Tunis while on crusade in AD 1270. After Louis perished of dysentery, the crusade quickly broke up. His remains were transported back to France and Sicily where they became objects of veneration among the faithful.

During the French Revolution, all of the relics of Saint Louis in France were destroyed by anti-Catholic vandals. His heart and viscera remain interred in the Cathedral of Monreale in Palermo, Sicily to this day.

The words above are taken from St. Louis's last instructions to his eldest son as recorded by Jean de Joinville, a courtier of the king who wrote his biography in AD 1309.

Here is the complete quote with some additional context:

Then he [Louis] called my Lord Philip, his son, and commanded him, as if by testament, to observe all the teachings he had left him, which are hereinafter set down in French, and were, so it is said, written with the king's own saintly hand:

"Fair son, the first thing I would teach thee is to set thine heart to love God; for unless he love God none can be saved. Keep thyself from doing aught that is displeasing to God, that is to say, from mortal sin. Contrariwise thou shouldst suffer every manner of torment rather than commit a mortal sin.

"If God send thee adversity, receive it in patience and give thanks to our Saviour and bethink thee that thou hast deserved it, and that He will make it turn to thine advantage. If He send thee prosperity, then thank Him humbly, so that thou becomest not worse from pride or any other cause, when thou oughtest to be better. For we should not fight against God with his own gifts.

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"Confess thyself often and choose for thy confessor a right worthy man who knows how to teach thee what to do, and what not to do; and bear thyself in such sort that thy confessor and thy friends shall dare to reprove thee for thy misdoings. Listen to the services of Holy Church devoutly, and without chattering; and pray to God with thy heart and with thy lips, and especially at Mass when the consecration takes place. Let thy heart be tender and full of pity toward those who are poor, miserable, and afflicted, and comfort and help them to the utmost of thy power.

"Maintain the good customs of thy realm and abolish the bad. Be not covetous against thy people and do not burden them with taxes and imposts save when thou art in great need.

"If thou hast any great burden weighing upon thy heart, tell it to thy confessor or to some right worthy man who is not full of vain words. Thou shalt be able to bear it more easily...."

An excellent brief biography of Saint Louis IX may be found on the EWTN website.

If you're up for the original source, check out Chronicles of the Crusades which provides the works of both Joinville and Geoffrey de Villehardouin. These are excellent, if sobering, reads about the later crusades.

The Great Siege of Malta Begins, May 18, 1565

 A portrait of Grand Master Jean de la Valette by Antoine Favray.

Given the current tribulations of the Knights of Malta in our own time, it is well to remember that there were magnificent heroes among them in past days--men who did not shrink from combat even in their old age.

When the Turks attacked Malta with an armada of nearly 200 ships and 40,000 soldiers in May of 1565, about 1,000 knights of St. John (later the Knights of Malta) from all over Christendom had already assembled to repel them. These men arrived at Malta with the full knowledge that many of them would never leave the island alive.

The following is taken from the excellent historical novel, Angels in Iron, and describes the happenings on May 18, 1565 when the Turkish fleet appeared off Malta:

18 May

Suleiman’s armada was spotted shortly after dawn. The galleys materialized on the hazy horizon fifteen miles east of Malta. A Knight in St. Elmo roused the garrison to action, crying: “There they are!” Within moments men crowded the east walls and squinted toward the ships.

Di Corso stared at the gigantic fleet, eyes wide. Heavenly Father! It’s a wonder the sea can hold them!

Captain De Guaras and Governor Broglia scrambled up the steps and gazed toward the armada, their faces grim.

“God help us,” Broglia sighed, then told De Guaras: “Fire a shot to warn Birgu.”

“A volley!” De Guaras cried to the batteries on the cavalier. “Three shots!”

Cannon roared and iron whistled over water. White foam pillared skyward as shot plowed the lazy sea. Birgu’s guns echoed the alarm. 

Another volley thundered toward the distant Turks.

“Hold!” De Guaras shouted.

He and Broglia went back down the steps and disappeared into the governor’s chamber, flanked by three Knights Commanders.

“How far off?” Di Corso asked a scarred Spanish gunner.

“A few hours, sir.”

“Time enough for the chapel, then.” 

Oliver Starkey burst into La Valette’s quarters to find the Grand Master at his desk. 

“Master, they’re here!” he cried.

La Valette signed a document, blotted it. “Oliver?”

“My lord?”

La Valette rolled and sealed the scroll, pressed the wax with his signet ring and offered the letter. “Take this.”

Starkey accepted the parchment.

“This is my quint,” La Valette said, referring to the twenty percent of his belongings a Knight could bequeath outside the Order.

“I see, my lord,” Starkey said, studying the sealed will.

“Keep it safe.”

La Valette rose from the chair and placed a white-plumed helmet on his head, saying, “Let us go to St. Angelo.”

As they left the room they heard warning shots from inland Mdina, and Gozo to the north, where the respective garrisons had guessed Mustapha’s arrival.

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“They certainly didn’t catch us napping,” La Valette said.

In the dockyard between Birgu and Senglea, Mathurin d’Aux Lescout-Romegas, General of the Galleys and the greatest Christian seaman of the age, readied four small ships. Romegas had no intention of engaging the huge Turkish force; rather, he would reconnoiter Suleiman’s navy.

La Valette saluted Romegas and proceeded toward St. Angelo.

Drums, trumpets and shouts rose from Birgu and St. Angelo as men sprang hastily to arms. La Valette strode confidently into the chaotic fort. A group of knights surrounded him.

“The time is at hand,” he told them. “Let us acquit ourselves as knights of Christ.”

Thus begins the story of the epic battle, one of the most harrowing and bloody sieges in all of recorded history. To read the tale in the epic prose of Nicholas C. Prata, go ye and purchase a copy of Angels in Iron here or here.

December 20, AD 1522 ~ The Knights of Saint John surrender the island of Rhodes to the Turks

Grand Master's Palace, Rhodes. Photo by Norbert Nagle, Wikimedia Commons.

Though this event may sound like a minor footnote in history, the surrender of Rhodes by the Knights of Saint John (aka, the Knights Hospitaller) was the prelude to a major historical turning point.

A relic of crusader times, the Knights had been fighting a rear-guard action against the armies of Islam for over 200 years, retreating first from the Holy Land to Cyprus, then from Cyprus to Rhodes. When the 28 year-old Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent arrived on Rhodes with over 100,000 men, he was met by a force of less than 8,000 knights and allied soldiers intent on holding the island. These gallant few held the fortifications of Rhodes for six months. Hopelessly outnumbered, the grand master of the order, Philippe Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, finally sought terms of capitulation with the invading Ottomans. The surviving knights and defenders were permitted to leave Rhodes with full military honors on December 20, 1522. The Knights of St. John then settled on the island of Malta, where Suleiman would again find them forty years later when seeking a base for his invasion of Italy.

Here is a description of that gloomy day in 1522 taken from the magnificent historical novel, Angels in Iron by Nicholas Prata. This scene comprises Chapter 1, and is a prelude to Prata’s masterful narrative of the Great Siege of Malta of 1565:

Rhodes, island home to the Knights of St. John of the Hospital, had endured an exhausting, relentless Turkish siege for six months. Sultan Suleiman’s vast forces had virtually destroyed the island in an attempt to dislodge the tenacious Knights from their residence of two hundred years. Buildings and walls lay in ruin. Gaping furrows stretched across the earth, testaments to exploded mines and collapsed tunnels. Turkish labor gangs dug in behind earthworks as weary Knights marked their movements from tall battlements.

For the moment, however, all was quiet. No cannon, Christian or Turk, challenged from land or sea. The Order’s Grand Master, Phillipe Villiers de l’Isle Adam, had accepted Suleiman’s invitation to parley, and rumor had it he would accept terms for an honorable withdrawal from Rhodes.

The Hospitaller standard, eight pointed white cross on a red field, drooped above the tower of St. Nicholas…


The winter-chilled battlements of lovely Rhodes, “the garden of the Mediterranean,” smoked behind the grim, armored figure of a towering Provencal knight. Jean Parisot de La Valette waited among his brethren for evacuation onto a galley. De l’Isle Adam had ensured the Order’s survival at the cost of its beloved island. The young sultan, impressed by the Knight’s stout defense and anxious to see them off Rhodes, had offered unusually gracious terms. The Knights would leave with all their arms, belongings and ships. All civilians who wished to leave with them might do so as well.

The Grand Master’s acquiescence, however wise, was unpopular with La Valette and his monastic brothers. But where La Valette, not yet twenty-eight, bore the defeat with mature silence, his comrades voiced their grief. Scion of a family whose sons had graced the crusading army of St. Louis the Pious, he viewed the defeat as an affront to God and a blow to personal honor.

Though the heroic defense of Rhodes would later be immortalized in Europe, and Hospitaller wounds salved with quotes such as “Nothing in the world was ever lost so well as Rhodes,” the Order’s future looked indeed bleak. In an age of dawning nationalism, a sovereign, multi-national religious order with papal allegiance was an unwelcome anachronism. Few European kings viewed the Order’s continued presence as necessary or beneficial.

A powder cask exploded in the Turkish lines and suspicious Knights turned toward the noise. Many feared Suleiman had broken truce after tricking them from their strong positions. A clamor arose over the pier as men reached for their weapons.

La Valette remained motionless. He feared neither treachery nor death after ceding territory to the enemies of Christ. True, the Grand Master had accepted Suleiman’s terms at the behest of the battered Rhodian population, but such considerations did not allay La Valette’s grief.

La Valette dropped a gauntlet and rubbed red eyes which stared from his sternly handsome, soot-encrusted face. He thought:

I find no fault with the Grand Master, but I would have defended this place though all Islam attacked. He leaned upon his sword. To the very last man.

La Valette’s mind wandered. Where would the order relocate? He was overcome by a sudden wave of homesickness, as though already a thousand miles away. This defeat is a bitter pill! He thought of his young sister back in France.

Will my kin see the Turkish crescent raised above our lands? he wondered with shame.

La Valette slid the open-faced salade off his curly head. “God, how we’ve failed,” he sighed.

“Brother Jean?” a Knight said.

La Valette looked at the man, an Italian whom the siege had made closer than family.

“Yes?”

The Italian motioned up a gangplank. “It’s our turn.”

It was then the Order struck the colors above the Tower of St. Nicholas. Gazing across the Mandraccio’s calm waters, La Valette watched the Hospitaller cross descend the flagpole and disappear behind Nicholas’ walls.

La Valette felt as though he had been stabbed and silently prayed he might go blind before ever again witnessing such a sight.

You can order a copy of Angels in Iron by clicking here.

For a good summary of the siege of Rhodes, see this multi-part article from The Gates of Vienna blog.

Deus le vult! Remembering the forgotten Defenders of Christendom

Quick quiz: You are Catholic, correct? How many of the following can you identify?

Bohemond
Dieudonne de Gozon
Janos Hunyadi
George Castriota (Skanderbeg)
Jean de la Valette
Don Juan of Austria

Can you identify any of them? Do you know when they lived or what they did? Why not? My excuse is that my 12 years of Catholic education was woefully deficient in teaching me much about actual Catholic history. What's yours?

In any event, every one of these men was called by God to play a particularly heroic role in preserving the Christian world. If not for their courage and sacrifice, it's not much of a stretch to say that most of us would not be Catholic today. In fact, it's likely many of us would never have existed at all.

Sadly, we live at a time when American civic leaders at the highest levels speak with profound ignorance about the Crusades and Catholic history in general. They are only able to get away with such statements because American Catholics have largely forgotten their patrimony. Defenders of Christendom by James Fitzhenry aims to remedy this deficit, offering an engrossing and enjoyable journey to the days when men "cared less about death than about shame" and were wiling to sacrifice everything to defend the helpless, particularly from the drawn sword of Islam.

Following on the heels of two outstanding previous efforts in the same vein (see also El Cid: God's Own Champion and Saint Fernando III: A Kingdom for Christ), Fitzhenry has done a remarkable job making the Crusading era approachable for modern youth. Though very much a history book, it is written in a narrative style that is far from boring. Including about a dozen spot illustrations, Defenders of Christendom is probably best suited for young people ages 10 and up, but I found it to be an engaging and educational read as a parent of kids that age. I particularly appreciated the way Fitzhenry cited the historical works he consulted throughout the text, giving me a pathway back to his original sources, one of which was very familiar: Krey's The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eye-Witnesses and Participants.

What made Defenders of Christendom most compelling, though, is the immediate parallels that jump to life of their own accord between the Crusading era of the Middle Ages and our own time, when militant, barbaric Islam has risen from the crypt to prey upon innocent Christians without pause or pity. For example, in chronicling the bloody reign of the Islamic conqueror Tamerlane, Fitzhenry describes an incident in India when Tamerlane "ruthlessly ordered the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of helpless captives that he thought of as nothing more than 'food for the sword.'" It is hard to read such words and not immediately flash to the massacres inflicted upon men, women and children in Iraq and Syria today for the heinous crime of following Christ. One must pray that God will raise up Hunyadis, Skanderbegs, and La Valettes in our present generation to meet the modern challenge from both barbaric Islam and hedonistic secularism, and revivify the dream of a unified Christendom.

If you or your kids enjoyed Angels in Iron by Nicholas Prata or Crown of the World by Nathan Sadasivan or my own books on Belisarius, you will find this book right in your wheelhouse.