F.C. Woodhouse's The Military Religious Orders of the Middle Ages: The Hospitallers, The Templars, The Teutonic Knights and Others is a lengthy history that looks at the medieval history of the most famous Christian military orders, groups that continue to fascinate the world today. While looking at the history of the organizations, the book also examines the roles they played in the Crusades and after.

Knights of the sword and Cross The principal tenets of the chivalric code of the Christian Knights of the middle ages were to fear God, to protect the afflicted and to serve ones master faithfully. The foundation of these essential principles were inevitably fertile ground for the emergence of the military religious orders of the medieval period. All was in place but the organisational structure in which the individual could live out his vows and these were introduced in several organisations of varying size and influence. This book explains the creation, activities, campaigns and battles and the knights who lived and fought under the banner of Christ often in opposition to the forces of Islam in the Middle East of the Crusades period. Within its pages the reader will discover the Knights of St. John-the Hospitallers, the Knights Templars and many minor, but interesting orders-including the Order of Avis, the Order of the Holy Ghost and the Order of Our Lady of the Lily-which flourished in Britain and Europe during the period. This is an invaluable insight into the organisation of knights of the medieval period. Available in softcover and hardback with dust jacket.

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As elite communities in medieval societies the Military Orders were driven by the ambition to develop built environments that fulfilled monastic needs as well as military requirements and, in addition, residential and representational purposes. Growing affluence and an international orientation provided a wide range of development potential. That this potential was in fact exploited may be exemplified by the advanced fortifications erected by Templars and Hospitallers in the Levant. Although the history of the Military Orders has been the subject of research for a long time, their material legacy has attracted less attention. In recent years, however, a vast range of topics concerning the Orders’ building activities has become the object of investigation, primarily with the help of archaeology. They comprise the choice of sites and building materials, provision and storage of food and water, aspects of the daily life, the design and layout of commanderies, churches and fortifications, their spatial arrangement, and the role these buildings played in their environmental context. This volume contains ten articles discussing the archaeology and architecture of buildings erected by the three major Military Orders in different geographical regions. They cover most countries of Western Europe and include a number of important fortifications in the Levant. These studies break new ground in the investigation of the built fabric of the Military Orders. Written by noted international scholars this publication is an important contribution to modern research on these institutions, which, in their association of monasticism and knighthood, were so typical for the Middle Ages.