Abstract

The Military Orders were religious orders originally founded to protect Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. They gradually became responsible for the defence of the Holy Land itself and throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they played a major role in every crusade to the Holy Land. Historians have long disagreed over how contemporaries viewed these institutions. Were they accepted as valid religious orders? How far did criticism reflect a decline in support for crusading? This book sets out to examine the contemporary primary sources without preconceptions, considering a wide variety of written evidence from across Europe and the Middle East, including literary sources and the legends which grew up around the Military Orders during the crusades.