3. Internal Structure and Organisation

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the internal structures of the military orders. How did they operate? How were the led? As we move through the module, we consider: (i) the sheer number and scale of the estates belonging to the various military orders, both in the Crusader States and in Western Europe; (ii) the key figures within at the headquarters of the military order: the Grand Master, the Marshall, the Grand Commander, the Treasurer and the Hospitaller; (iii) the location of the headquarters of the military orders, and the changes necessitated by the conquest of Jerusalem in 1187; (iv) the key figures in Western Europe, including commanders (in charge of a commandery) and (by the 13th century) visitors, who travelled between commanderies; (v) the importance of Rules, codes of behaviour for the military orders (e.g. the Latin Rule for the Knights Templar); (vi) the means by which the various nodes in the network communicated with each other, including: in-person travel, the use of letters, the transport infrastructure owned and operated by the military orders, and the use of the commandery network when gathering personnel for crusade.

Course

In this course, Dr Nicholas Morton (Nottingham Trent University) thinks about the military orders in the Crusader States between 1119-87, focusing in particular on the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller. We begin in the first module by thinking about the origins of the military orders: where did the idea come from? After that, we consider the growth and development of the military orders in the 12th century, before turning in the third module to their internal structure and organisation: how did they operate? how were they led? Finally, in the fourth module, we think about the role of the military orders in the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, focusing in particular on events in the run-up to the disastrous Battle of Hattin in July 1187.

Lecturer

Dr Nicholas Morton is a specialist in the history of crusading and the Medieval Mediterranean between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. More recently he has begun to focus specifically upon the theme of inter-faith relations between Christianity and Islam in this region. He has published extensively on topics connected to this subject area, writing a range of monographs and scholarly articles. He is also an editor for the Ashgate series Rulers of the Latin East.

Currently Dr Morton is completing a monograph exploring the First Crusaders' attitudes and behaviour towards the various non-Christian peoples they encountered during their campaign. This will be a highly revisionist work addressing many key scholarly and public orthodoxies surrounding the nature of Christian/Islamic interaction during the crusade.