The Knights of Rhodes. Bo Giertz
de Gozon: 1346–1353
Philibert de Naillac: 1396–1421
Pierre d’Aubusson: 1476–1503
Emery d’Amboise: 1503–1512
Grand Crosses :
Andrea d’ Amaral: around seventy years old, Portuguese, Chancellor.
Gabriel de Pomerolx: Frenchman, Grand Commander, Grand Master’s deputy, Pilier for the Provençal langue
Paolo d’ Acola: Italian, Admiral, died in 1521.
Bernardino d Airasca: Italian, Admiral 1521–1525.
John Burk: Englishman, Turcopoler, (commander of the Coast Guard).
Christopher von Waldener: German Pilier, given command of the German wall in addition to the castle; also responsible for order in the city.
Preian de Bidoulx: previously in French service, came to Rhodes in 1518, and became Prior of St. Gilles, the castle in Lango (Kos) m.m. One of the first to join the Provençal langue, died at the age of sixty from a small wound after a skirmish with the Turks just outside Marseille.
Knights:
Didier de Tholon: Provençal, Grand Master 1525–1526
Passim: (His real name was Antoine de Grolée) commander with a long service record behind him on Rhodes. Auvergnat. Entrusted with the order’s standard.
Raymond Rogier: commander of the Auvergne wall.
Jean de Fournon: commander of the artillery in the same sector.
Jean Beaulouys: called Le Loup, “The Wolf,” Auvergnat. One of the order’s best seamen.
Pierre Dumont: Auvergnat,
* Jean Chalat: Thirty-seven years old, Auvergnat.
* André Barel: eighteen years old, Auvergnat, came to Rhodes in 1521 and was received as a novice.
Jacques de Bourbon: “the Bastard of Bourbon”, Commander, later Grand Prior of France, was actually the son of Louis Bourbon, First Bishop of Liége (died in 1482). He wrote a detailed and vivid account of the siege: La grande et merveilleuse et très cruelle oppugnation de la noble cité de Rhodes, Paris 1526. Died in 1537.
* Antoine de Golart: twenty-one years old, a novice at seventeen, belonged to the French langue.
Lodovico de Moroso: Italian.
Gabriele Solerio: Italian,
Jacobo Palavisino: Italian,
Ramon de Marquet: Aragonian, commander of the reserves.
Juan de Barbaran: commander of the bastion of Aragon. (The so-called Spanish wall)
William Weston: Englishmen entrusted with the command of the English wall, was captain of Saint Anne, the world’s largest ship, and Grand Prior of England, said to have died of a broken heart on Ascension Day 1540, when Henry the VIII disbanded the order of St. John in England.
Henry Mansell: Englishman, entrusted with the Grand Master’s banner, was shot in the head during the fight on the English Boulevard on the ninth of September, lived on for one month, but died from the wound.
Thomas Pemberton: Englishman.
Serving Brothers;
Antonio Bosio: born in Lombardi, of Spanish descent. He had a brother, Tomaso, who became Bishop of Malta. The son of one of his other brothers was the Giacomo Bosio, who wrote a famous history of the order of St. John.
Bartholomeo Policiano: Italian, Vice Chancellor, the order’s “chief of expeditions,” responsible for the archives,
Brother François: called Shooter-Frans, about thirty-five years old, Provençal, born on Rhodes to a Greek mother.
Brother Gierolamo: around fifty years old, Italian, surgeon in the hospital.
Chaplains:
*Fra Giovanni: around thirty-eight years old, Italian, chaplain to the Grand Master.
*Father Dominique: around forty-five, Frenchman.
Remaining:
Gabriele Tadini da Martinengo: forty-one years old, born in northern Italy, officer and fortress engineer in Venetian service, became a knight of the order of St. John in 1522. He took part in many later campaigns, for example in service of the emperor in Pavia in 1525. He died in 1543 in Vienna.
Suleiman: called “the Magnificent” in western lands, in Turkey “The Law Maker” or “The Legislator.” Twenty-six years old. Sultan 1520–1566
Amuratte: (Murad) Turkish usurper of the throne, Son of Zizimi (Djem), who fled to Rhodes in 1482 to escape his brother Bajazet (who was Suleiman’s grandfather).
Jacob Fonteyn: (Jacobus Fontanus), lawyer from Brügge in Flanders, came to Rhodes in 1521 as a judge in the superior court. Later wrote a description of the siege, in Latin, De Bello Rhodio libri tres, Rome 1524.
(*) Richard Craig: Englishman, commander of the security troops.
Anasthasia: Fonteyn told her story without giving her name. Tradition says her name was Anasthasia.
Iaxi: supply master for the navy fleet.
(*) Father Gennaios: Greek Priest.
(*) Jannis: Greek from Rhodes, cook.
Leonardo Balestrini: Genoese, Archbishop of “Rhodes and Colossi” (for the Latin Church). There was also a Metropolitan for the Greeks of Rhodes (Klemens), unionate with Rome.
Gianantonio Bonaldi: Venetian. Merchant and ship captain, resident of Crete.
Apella Renato: Jewish doctor, convert, employed in the hospital.
Blas Diez: Spanish Jew, baptized, d’Amaral’s butler.
(*) Ibrahim: Turkish prisoner of war, d’Amaral’s gardener.
Roberto Peruzzi: Judge, belonged to one of the Italian families who resided in Rhodes.
The above people are all found in the sources of the time with exception of those who are preceded by an asterisk. The asterisk within parentheses means that the person is found in passing, but not given a name.
Prologue
The year 1521 began a new era in a new world, with new nations, new continents, new knowledge, new thought, and new rulers. Never before had so much power been gathered in such young hands.
In France, His Most Christian Majesty, the twenty-six year old King Francis I ruled when he cared to rule, and not hunt, dance, and write love letters in poor verse to Madame de Chateaubriand. Spoiled, admired, successful, and self-centered, he could already look back on great successes. Counted among the greatest of his successes were that he beat the invincible Swiss at Marignano, and his cousin Henry in wrestling when they met the summer before at Camp du Drap d’Or, the Camp of the Golden Cloth, the boasting camp, a most absurd gala and spectacle of luxury.
Henry VIII, the vanquished, was the oldest among the youngsters, already filling out twenty-nine years. He too had thrown himself with an insatiable appetite on all the possibilities that the monarchy and a full treasury offered. He was an impressive athlete with a lust for life. He hunted, reveled, loved, drank, rode, danced, and shot to his heart’s desire. He left the detestable paper work to his Lord Chancellor. But he was also an educated man, a driven disputer and author, who just finished a polemical pamphlet against the heretic Luther. Over the last year he had begun to slowly pull in the reins. After all the magnificence of Camp du Drap d’Or and the spectacular fraternization with his cousin Francis, he had very calmly dealt with Emperor Carl in order to keep other opportunities open.
Emperor Carl was the youngest of the youngsters, still only twenty years old. That past October he had been crowned as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nations. Commonly described as poorly gifted, a bungler when it came to foreign languages, ugly, serious,