3.6 Important Dates

-603: First Latin hospice founded in Jerusalem by the Pope Gregory the Great.
-1021: Dead of the Caliph Hakem who destroyed many Holy Places and persecuted the Christians.
-Mid-11th century: Foundation of the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary of the Latin in Jerusalem.
-1095: The Pope Urban II asked for a crusade to free the Holy Places in November in Clermont.
-1099: The crusaders invaded Jerusalem under the leadership of Godfrey de Bouillon.
-1113: The Pope Paschal II in a bull named Brother Gérard as the founder of the hospice that became the base of the Hospitaller Order.
-1120: Hugo de Payns created a group of knights to protect the pilgrims in their travel to the Holy Land.
Death of Brother Gérard.
-1136: The Hospitallers receive the castle and the town of Bethgibelin.
-1140/42: The Hospitallers defend the Eastern frontier and receive five castles including Crac.
-1153: The Hospitallers take Ascalon.
-1168: Ill fated invasion of Egypt.
Gilbert d’Assailly buys the Belvoir castle.
-1174: Death of Amalric.
-1186: Guy de Lusignan becomes King of Jerusalem.
Sale of the Margat castle to the Hospitallers.
-1187: Lost of the battle of Hattin and fall of Jerusalem.
Margat become the Hospitaller Headquarters.
-1191: Richard the Lionheart conquers Cyprus.
-1192: Acre is taken back by Richard the Lionheart and becomes the capital of the kingdom of Jerusalem.
-1206: Statutes of Margate that state that the Hospitallers are a military order.
-1225: The Emperor Frederick II becomes King of Jerusalem.
-1229: Frederick II recovered Jerusalem following a treaty with the Moslems.
-1244: Jerusalem is taken back by the Turks.
-1255: The Hospitallers receive the fortified monastery of Mount Thabor.
-1258: Agreement between the Templars and the Hospitallers to stop fighting and to collaborate against the Saracens.
-1267: The King of Cyprus inherits the crown of Jerusalem.
-1271: Crac falls to the Moslems.
-1285: Fall of Margat.
The Hospitaller Headquarters is transferred to Acre.
Philip the Fair becomes King of France.
-1286: King Henry of Portugal, 15 years old, becomes King of Jerusalem.
-1289: Fall of Tripoli.
-1291: Fall of Acre.
-1292: A Temple Convent is established at Limisso, Cyprus.
-1293: The Hospitaller ships go to the help of Armenia.
-1301: Creation of seven “Tongues”.
-1302: All of the Jerusalem Kingdom is in Moslem hands.
-1305: Foulques de Villaret is elected Master.
-1312: Suppression by papal decree of the Templar Order.
-1314: The Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, and the Preceptor of Normandy are burnt at the stake.
Death of the Pope Clement V.
Death of the King Philip IV of France.
-1306: The Hospitallers attack Rhodes and take Filermo its capital.
-1307: Clement V confirms the possession of Rhodes by the Hospitallers.
-1309: The Hospitallers take the city of Rhodes.
-1310: The Hospitallers control the totality of the Rhodes island.
-1346: Death of Villeneuve, important Master. He was followed by Dieudonné de Gozon.
-1476: Pierre d’Aubusson is elected Grand Master.
-1480: Mahomet II of Turkey attacks Rhodes.
-1489: The title of Grand Master of the Hospitallers is made official by Pope Innocent VIII.
-1502: Death of the Grand Master Pierre d’Aubusson.
-1522: Soliman the Magnificent attacks Rhodes.
-1523: The Hospitallers abandon the island of Rhodes.
-1527: The majority of the Chapter general accept to go to Malta but their move was made impossible by the opposition of the French Langues.
Due to the effect of war and plague the Hospitallers had to leave Viterbo for Nice.
-1530: The Hospitallers move to Malta.
-1534: Death of L’Isle Adam, Grand Master.
Barbarossa takes Tunis for the Turks
-1536: Election of the Aragonese Juan de Homedes as Grand Master.
-1553: The Turks and the French take Corsica.
Death of Homedes.
-1557: Jean de la Valette Parisot is elected Grand Master.
-1564: Spain and the Hospitallers recapture the island of Velez de la Gomera off the Moroccan coast.
-1565: The Turks land on Malta but they were finally defeated.
-1566: The decision to built the new capital on Sciberras was taken by La Valette on 28 March.
-1568: Death of La Valette.
-1571: The Grand Master and the Convent were transferred to Valletta on 18 March 1571.
-1572: The Turks take Cyprus.
-1574: The Turks take Tunis.
-1614: New invasion of Malta by the Turks but they were defeated.
-1754: Charles VI of Naples imposed an eleven-month embargo on Malta.
-1775: Absorption of the ancient Hospitaller Order of St Anthony of Vienna.
-1776: Creation of the Grand Priory of Poland.
-1780: Creation of the Grand Priory of Ebersberg or Bavaria.
-1782: Reform of the juridical system or “Code Rohan”.
-1792: The King of France is imprisoned in the Temple.
The Order’s properties in France are confiscated.
-1793: The king Louis XVI is guillotined.
-1796: Malta exchange Ambassadors with the French Republic.
-1797: Death of Rohan in July.
-1798: Malta falls to the French.
The Tsar Paul I of Russia is elected Grand Master against all the rules.
-1800: Nelson takes over Malta for England.
-1803: Giovanni Tommasi is nominated Grand Master by the Pope.
-1805: Pius VII refuses to confirm Caracciolo as Grand Master for political reasons.
-1814: The Order of St John is by now regarded as a thing of the past.
The Treaty of Paris confirms that Malta belongs to Britain.
-1823: A treaty between the French and Greece provided for the Order to receive a Greek island to establish its sovereignty.
-1826: Busca moves the Convent to Ferrara.
The kingdom of the Two Siciles suppresses the priories on its soil.
-1834: Death of Busca.
Carlo Candida is the new Lieutenant.
The Convent is transferred to Rome.
-1879: Pope Leo XIII nominate Ceschi a Santa Croce Grand Master.
-1926: Creation of the American association of the order of Malta.
-1928: An international assembly of the knights took place in Rhodes. The Governor offered them the symbolic key to the Magistral palace and gave them back the Auberge of Italy.
-1929: Signature of the Lateran Treaty.
-1958: Death of Pope Pius XII.
-1961: Pope John XXIII adopt the new Constitution of the Order.
-1962: The Chapter General elected Fra Angelo de Mojana as Grand Master.
-1965: Creation of a Sisterhood of nurses.
-1988: Death of the Grand Master Fra de Mojana and election of Fra Andrew Bertie from England as his successor.