Daily Medieval

Yesterday's post on Mesih Pasha mentions the Siege of Rhodes in 1480, when a small garrison of Knights Hospitallers at Rhodes withstood...

Mesih Pasha was chosen from obscurity—we don't even know his original name before Mehmed II forced him to convert to Islam and made him...

The Hospitallers were nicknamed thus because they were founded by members of the First Crusade who joined together to protect a hospital bui...

  Pope Clement V, who approved the order to arrest all the Templars, had earlier told them to merge with the Hospitallers, since it didn...

Why were two of the compounds for legal training in London named "Inner Temple" and "Middle Temple"? First, let's ex...

(This one may meander a little; just hang on.) A few days after William Tell shot the apple from his son's head in 1307, another si...

In 1307, on Friday the 13th of October, King Philip of France ordered the head of the Knights of the Temple, Jacques de Molay, arrested alo...

[Part 1 is here .] Saladin After Richard and Saladin each slaughtered their prisoners, Richard marched to Jaffa, which he hoped to mak...