MY PPT on the Military Orders

I spent the morning giving a lecture on the Crusader states and the Military religious orders.  Here are my slides.  There is no text.  Make up your own.  pl

Download The Crusader States2

I was a bit tired yesterday when I put this up.  I felt something like that Templar to the left.  forthose who might want to reac something about this general subject I suggest:

Zoe Oldenbourg, "The Crusades," out of print but available.

Sir John Runciman "A History of the Crusades," 3 volumes

Anything by Joshua Prawer

There is some new research concerning the origins of the people of the 1st Crusade and the demographic pattern of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

I recommend the director's cut of the movie, "The Kingdon of Heaven,"  There are a number of ahistorical things about the film but I think it captures the spirit of the thing well.

I would welcome comments that add to the bibliography of this subject.  800 years ago wasn't really so long as one might think.  pl

Comments

[Charles I]

Class just never lets out here. Thanks Pat.

[pbrownlee]

Thank you, sir, for sharing. Lots of slides -- how long was the lecture? (I ask because I usually find I over-furnish with "ancillary" materials and then skim through/drop a lot -- but any effective pedagogical methods/wheezes are well worth sharing -- but are also -- usually -- highly personal.)

And "Kingdom of Heaven" is still so much better than the usual pap. I remember fuming and snorting through "Troy" -- becoming explosive at the highly premature death (!?!) of Agamemnon.

[David E. Solomon]

Colonel Lang,

Post college, but many, many years ago I read and enjoyed both the Alexiad (by Anna Comnena) and Saladin (by Beha ed-Din).

I still think they would make great reading for today's close minded anti-intellectuals.

Regards,

David

[Nevadan]

I'm sorry I didn't get to hear your lecture. The slides were wonderful. Thank you.

[Francis Egan]

Dear Pat:
Brilliant slide presentation. It will prompt me to study more.
Best, Francis Egan

[Kevin]

What about the occultic charactoristics of these orders? Most people have no clue as to their concealed influence on shaping important historical events nor of their current aristocratic memberships. For instance, when the knights templars were slaughtered on Friday October, 13, 1307(this is where we get "friday the 13th"), they had an entire fleet of ships mysteriously disappear from La Rochelle. Not far after, piracy against the popes navies and shipping lanes began to proliferate under the "jolly roger" flag, (named after Norman templar King Roger the II of Sicily)- perhaps in retaliation. I believe these same templars have been coming to north america among other places long before any mainstream history class would like for you to believe. They named the distant land after a star that aided the long navigation, the star was called "merica". Even Christopher Columbus was a proto-templar, his ships had red templar crosses on their sails. Colubus was not even his real name but a title, in name of the goddess columbia- the same lady holding a torch today in New York harbor and the namesake of our nations capital! The knights hospitalers who later became the knights of malta are another interesting group. They recieved all the wealth, rights, and privilages that were stripped from the templars. Today this order of knights has their own internationally recognized sovereignty; members even recieve diplomatic passports. Their grandmaster has the ranking of a cardinal in the catholic church and a prince in the royal families. Membership is exclusive and by invitation only; to become a member, one must be able to prove their family lineage back 500 years! If you were to see a list of current knighs of malta, you would realize they make up the whos who of high government and industry. GHW Bush is a knight of malta, so is Tony Blair, even Ruppert Murdoch among many others!

[Patrick Lang]

pbrownlee

I had an hour. This was inadequate but one does what one can.

kevin

There is no "occultic" aspect to these orders. They were created solely for the purpose of providing enough dedicated manpower to defend the Latin East, and have been continued (except for the Templars who do not exist any longer) as charitable and devotional establishments for people with money who like to dress up. pl

[michael palmer]

Kevin: your tinfoil is showing.

[Kevin]

When I use the word "occult", it means secret, mysterious, or hidden from view. I believe it is a little more than just rich people dress up and medals, especially during and after the cold war. I am curious if this is how US intelligence is tied into the vatican in respect to fighting shared enemies(ie communism, poverty, injustic, ect); there is still a reason why heads of state kneel and kiss the piscatory ring. I also believe the templars exhist today through the freemasonry and Rosicrucianism.

[bstr]

Dear Sir, am I wrong to think the Knights of Malta to be a Catholic organization? I thought that GHW Bush was a Protestant of some sort. Does this organization have honorary appointments as universities award honorary PHDs to non-academic worthies?

[Patrick Lang]

Kevin.

I do not think you will believe this but there is no connection between the Vatican and the US Government other than an exchange of ambassadors. I am available for the job.

BSTR

Yes. The SMOM is a Catholic order. I am not a member but I would suppose that they have an "Order of Merit" or some such things that can be given to non-Catholics, indeed to non-Christians.

Subject to correction by a Knight of Malta or ultimately by a Knight of Justice (the top in SMOM), I would add that there are parts of the Hospitallers that "went Protestant" in the Reformation but continue to exist. They and their Catholic brethren have a good deal to do with each other. The Vatican is not always happy about this, but...

The "Venerable Order of St John" is one of those groups. GHW Bush may belong to that. pl

[Will]

read the wiki about the knights of St John. After Malta, they even enjoyed the hospitality of the Tsar. There is a pix of the stupendous mortar that defended Rhodes in that article.

Yes, there are Protestant variations of the Orders.

when i am ribbed about my educational degrees i deflect i have at least 32 degrees , some of them conferred in two days, Scottish Rite freemasonry. Many of the degrees reflect the ignominy of Friday the 13th! My father was York Rite. They dress up like Crusaders and drink wine from skulls in their initiation ceremony. York rite takes acknowledges Jesus Christ. Scottish Rite a Supreme Being and thus has Muslim and Jewish and other people of the Book.

But the Shriners revel in Muslim feasts and are Ancient Arabic Noble Knights of the Mystic Shrine or some such- I can't remember. I quit after a friend started posting the tax returns of the temples- less than five percent of the revenue raised was going to the charity hospitals.

[Dan M]

"When I use the word "occult", it means secret, mysterious, or hidden from view."

That makes the IRS occult. This explains a lot.

[johnf]

I didn't like the Ridley Scott film.

I can't think of any film which has done the Crusades justice, but I did enjoy the opening 15 minutes of Robin and Marian.

I like Dick Lester's approach to historical subjects.

[Andrew Fisher]

Pretty slides, but a shame you couldn't track down more contemporary pictures. I think Matthew Parris' illustration of Hattin was about the closest and what is that, 60 years after the event?

I don't know what words you put behind it, but the slide on Crusading routes I thought pitentially very misleading. From the Third onward, sea routes were overwhelmingly used, and if you count all the small, non-royal expeditions even more so: your slide seemed to concentrate mainly on big and early expeditions where the land route was still used.

To be fair to Kevin, piracy was a big part of what the Knights of Rhodes and Malta did - it was all their resources would stretch to by then.

Andrew

[Albertde]

Belvoir is pronounced beaver for the castle.

[Kevin]

The order of malta in the york rite of freemasonry is in no way connected to the sovereign military order of malta. There is also a "knight of the holy sepulchre" under the massonic red cross of constantine appendage, I am guessing they also have any connection.

[rjj]

Here are some online resources.

FROM BYZANTIUM:

Byzantine Background to the First Crusade

The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World

FROM IBERIA:

Brodman, Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain

Forey, Templars in the Corona de Aragon

CHRONICLERS:

The Deeds of God Through the Franks by Guibert of Nogent

Memoirs of Jean de Joinville {Evan S. Connell's Deus Lo Volt ??}

IBERIAN CHRONICLER

The Chronicle of James I, King of Aragon Surnamed The Conqueror

MISCELLANEOUS

History - (need to click on the links here)

Papers from a meeting

COMPILED LINKS and SOURCES

Main set of links

Library of Iberian Resources online

[rjj]

PL, posted some links to online resources. It is in the spam filter.

[rjj]

forgot to add the online Alexiad.

[Kevin]

"That makes the IRS occult. This explains a lot."

Yes, in fact it is!

The Alchemical Dollar

[Charles Cameron (hipbone)]

Christopher Tyerman, God's War: A New History of the Crusades.

[G Hazeltine]

Some evidence of how Saladin was viewed in the middle ages, in this lovely story from the Decameron:

http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/decameron/engDecShowText.php?myID=nov1009&expand=day10

[William R. Cumming]

Interesting how the stupendous efforts put forth by Christendom and Islam in the period of the Crusades still resonates in the modern world, sometimes below the horizon. Interesting how we have referred to the West since Gibbon and not Christendom. A wonderful book by British Historian John Hale "The Civilization of Europe In the Renaissance" published in 1993 helps explain why.

[rjj]

Twenty years ago In Terry Jones' "Crusades" Suheil Zakkar talked about his newly published book on Saladin, but it has never been translated into English. Anybody know why?