"The Last Crusade: Napoleon and the Knights Hopitaller" Topic

"Knights on horseback, charging beneath a cruciform banner—the red cross on the white background of surcoats, shields and swords at the ready, heading across the hard plains of the Levantine coast. This is the image of the crusades, and when they end, we imagine in our minds Orlando Bloom exiting the fallen Jerusalem, or an animated lion coming home from crusade to marry Robin Hood and Maid Marian, or, even, Harrison Ford riding out of the Canyon of the Moon having found the Holy Grail. These popular conceptions of crusading bear little resemblance to the reality of the last crusades, where the final crusaders fell to muskets and cannon fire. And those muskets were not held by Mamluks, or Ottoman Turks, but by the French. "Here, we might reflect that the end of the crusading movement came not in the Middle Ages—however they are defined—but in 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the island of Malta from the Knights Hospitaller and took what remained of their military order with him on an invasion of Egypt that echoed the last great French crusades.

The Crusades began in 1096, but the Knights of Malta, as the Knights Hospitaller were known for their last three centuries, could claim to predate the crusades themselves. The Knights Hospitaller lasted 685 years, longer than any military order, having relocated after the loss of Acre to the island of Rhodes, then being driven to Malta from 1530 until 1798. By the eighteenth century, the Knights Hospitaller were ailing. Their high point was the successful defense of Malta against the Ottoman Turks during the "Great Siege" of 1565, followed shortly by their role in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. From the sixteenth century, however, though their naval strength was at its peak, their utility slowly diminished. The number of "Holy Leagues" decreased as the French and Italian kingdoms and city-states slowly made treaties with the Ottomans and focused on trade rather than attempted conquest; by the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the Knights Hospitaller were primarily focused on keeping the pirates of the Barbary Coast in check, crusading in name rather than any major deed. The Order maintained holdings throughout western Europe, primarily in France from which almost half of all knights came, but their peak was centuries earlier…"
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Amicalement
Armand

That was quite interesting. Although I wish he'd gone into more detail about what happened to the knights who accompanied Napoleon.

Me too… (smile)

Maybe Kevin knows….

Amicalement
Armand

'S' missing in title?

Probably….

Amicalement
Armand

Napoleon's Egyptian expedition has nothing to do with the Crusades.

Malta fell to Napoleon without a struggle as the Knights Hospitaler were corrupt and degenerate by that time.

They gave up without a fight and the story is quite interesting. There is an excellent account of the episode in JC Herold's Bonaparte in Egypt, 40-51. He took over 300 of the Knights' best troops to Egypt with the expedition and left General Vaubois on Malta with a 3,000-man garrison. Apparently, 50 French knights of the order embarked with Napoleon for Egypt.

The article covers them going to Egypt, but doesn't give details about what happened to the knights that went.

Yes… we need to know!… (smile)

Any book which mention what they did there?

Amicalement
Armand

They obviously served with the French, or at least remained with them. They probably went back to France when the army was repatriated.

Maybe Nap put them in some garrison… not much expertice in combat… (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

They probably went back to France when the army was repatriated.

What was left of the 35,000 army? A few thousand maybe?