The Siege of Rhodes, 1480
A.D. Lacy describes how, under the leadership of Pierre d’Aubusson, the Knights Hospitallers at Rhodes withstood a ferocious attack by the Turks.
Many years before the norman conquest of England, Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre were the goal of Christian pilgrimages from all over Europe. Frequently ill after their long journey, the pilgrims found themselves harassed and robbed by the nomadic Bedouin tribes of Palestine. Touched by their sufferings, some pious Italian merchants from Amalfi constructed in a.d. 1050 a church and hospice within the Holy City where pilgrims could take shelter in safety. This establishment was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and those who served it were known as the Brotherhood of the Hospitallers, afterwards to become the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
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