Customer Reviews

The Knights of Malta

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sire has done a wonderful job of capturing the deep history and tradition of the Order of St John and its shaping the history of Europe and defending the Faith. I was particularly pleased that Sire had researched the book in the Library of the Grand Priory of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in London - the old Priory of Clerkenwell. The Most Venerable Order in the British Realm and its parent the Sovereign Order of St John, of Rhodes, and of Malta are truly the inheritors of the deep and rich tradition of the Order of St John as it has come down to us through the nine millennia of western history. I was also pleased that the author devoted an entire closing section to the future of the Sovereign Order and its plans to re-establish its presence on the island of Malta at Fort St Angelo. In fact the Order has now done just that and I think Sire deserves congrtulations on researching not only the Order's history but shall I say the present and future of the Order - into the next century and into the final century of its first millennia. With the granting of observer status to the UN in 1994, the Sovereign Order of St John has deepened its roots in the life and history of the world that will continue for another 900 years.

The Order of St John, in all four of its allied manifestations (The Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order; The Most Venerable Order; the Johaniterorden, and in the Order in the Netherlands)has a tremendous charitable benefit to the world, in its hospital works, its ambulance work through the St John Ambulance Brigade in 44 countries, its first aid training and its nursing and health care work in communities around the globe is a wonderful example of humanitarian service. The author captures this richness and I can only hope he'll produce more material on the Order of St John and its impending 900th anniversary in 1999.

In 1096, when the first Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem, they discovered the Hospital of St. John, which healed the wounds of the heroic knights. It would be this encounter that led the hospitallers to rally around their leader Brother Gerard de Saxo and created the Order of St. John. The knights returned to Europe, but they never forgot the kindness of the hospital that healed their wounded. After the first Crusade, the Order grew in importance and received many appreciative donations that helped solidify the future for the Order. The activities of the Order of St. John throughout its history assumed the role as the defenders of Christianity. The Order gained importance and power because the knights of the order fought bravely against the vigorous Islamic world. The knights defended the Holy Land for a long time, but were finally expelled at their last stronghold at Acre in 1291. The Order of St. John moved to Cyprus for fifteen years, then Rhodes, and lastly Malta.

If you are going to read Bradford's The Great Siege: Malta 1565, I would highly recommend that you read something on the Knights of Malta and their origins (this book would be a good choice). I give the book four stars because I really enjoyed reading Attard's Knights of Malta than this particular book. Perhaps, it was the trendy front over, the fewer pages, the comfortable feeling folding the pages or his better storytelling of the Great Siege in my opinion.

An excellent scholarly account of the Knights of St. John, Rhodes, and Malta. Very well researched, and I found the writing interesting and exciting, although others may find it tough to slog through. Absolutely the definitive work on the order.

If you are interested in an indepth history of this ancient religious order and its impact on Europe and the Catholic Church then this book is a good bet for you. Sire provides tons of historical data and you can tell that this text was very well researched. Having said that, Knights of Malta was a somewhat difficult read for me. The author assumes the reader has some fluency in Latin and in French as there are no translations of certain passages of text. Likewise the writing style is more reminiscent of a college text book. I can't fault Sire in providing so much historical detail but in so doing, the overall feel of this book is very dry.

This book was wonderful and didn't seem to leave anything out. It was interesting times. Good book.

Well, this work is certainly comprehensive, not to say exhaustive, so I give it three stars in deference to that. However, this is a recent piece of history writing, and it really doesn't show. Like the many 19th century histories you can find at your local library, Sire's book is conspicuously lacking in distance from the subject. He frequently displays a partisanship (I think) unsuitable for a historian, lacing his writing with condemnation of the "dishonorable" actions of the French knights and the paints a winning portrait of the SPanish. (I am particularly thinking of the section on Juan de Homedes, 1550's.) He presents his arguement as a 'debunking' of de Homedes' bad press, but never really addresses the issue. In short, I think the author is more interested in dreaming of the days of chivalry than seriously re-examining the controvertial role of the Knights.