The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders

"The Monks of War, The Military Religious Orders" is a very comprehensive yet succinct survey of the history of the Knights Templars, Knights Hospitallers, Knights of Malta, the Teutonic Knights, and the knights of the Spanish and Portuguese orders. At only 415 pages the sweeping story of these "noblemen vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience, living a monastic life in convents which were at the same time barracks, waging war on the enemies of the Cross" is explained in one concise volume. Appendices and photographs added in the 1995 printing provide a history for more modern events relating to the existing orders. Five stars. JP

This is a very good introduction to the history of the military religious orders: Templars, Hospitallers of Saint John (today Knights of Malta), Santiago, Calatrava, Alcantara, Teutons and others. The first ones, Templars and Hospitallers, were founded in the XII Century, after the First Crusade, in order to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land and to provide humanitarian and medical services. Soon, these monks became more warriors than anything else, true machines of war which came to be the first organized and properly trained and disciplined professional elite troops in the West since the Roman Empire. The West and Islam lived then (and still do) in a permanent state of threat and holy war. Although these warriors made vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, they soon accumulated enormous riches, fighted one another and their discipline, especially in sexual matters, relaxed. The first part of the books tells the two centuries of Christian occupation in the Holy Land, which the Islam had taken by force centuries before, and where, despite some resounding successes, the Christians ended up being totally defeated and expelled, to this day. The second part tells the story of the Crusade in the Baltic, performed by the Teutonic Knights against the pagan Slav Prussians, terrifying cannibals adoring spirits in trees, as well as snakes in the woods. These Teutonics founded what was probably the first "modern" state: Prussia (the German one). This story is practically unknown, in spite of being totally fascinating. The third part is the Reconquest of Spain, where the orders were crucial in defeating the Moors. Then come the stories of the Hospitallers in Rhodes and Malta -also wonderful- and then what became of the existing orders today. One striking common theme during the thousand years covered is the permanent and bloody conflict between the West and Islam. In spite of the torrent of names, places and dates, this book is an incredible collection of adventures and improbable deeds, especially the sieges of Acre, Rhodes and Malta, as well as the Spanish Reconquista and the Prussian episode. The tone of the book is apologetic, the author himself being a Knight of Malta, but it also vividly portraits the terrible atrocities committed by both sides. It fills a huge vacuum in the historical and political education of almost any reader, besides being an impressive saga of courage, dedication, violence, survival, glory, triumph, defeat and corruption at the same time. It really motivates you to read more about this subject.

Seward has written a wonderful and readable book here. It is sometimes a bit choppy going from minute to general detail, but the remains of history unfortunately make this inevitable. You can have a first hand recountin of one day and then hearsay about the next. Seward's biggest accomplishment in this book, I feel, is its inclusiveness. Most books on the Crusades cover only Palestine and the later years of the Hospitallers of St. John. This book covers all but the ALbigensian Crusade centered in Languedoc, France. He has major sections devoted to not just the Templars and Hospitallers, but also the Teutonic Order and the various orders that took part in the Reconquista in Spain. This book is a complete success in showing the many aspects nad directions of crusading and is much more balanced than most books on the Crusades, showing the positive and negative influences the Crusades and crusaders had.

We Americans don't really stray far from Western Europe in our knowledge of history. But from its very beginnings, Islam presented a clear and palpable threat to the West. Spain had already succumbed, and France was threatened by the Moors. Most shocking, the Holy Land was occupied by Turks. (Think of the response if we were to occupy Mecca and Medina!) Europe responded by the Crusades, about which we know a little, and with the military monastic orders such as the Knights Templar and Knights of St John Hospitaller, about whom we know next to nothing. These were men who lived a monastic (or at least semi-monastic) life and who acted as Christendom's shock troops in the war against the Saracen. The Crusader kingdoms of the Middle East finally fell after 300 years of constant strife, but the idea caught on in Spain in the drive to expel the Moors and in Prussia against the surrounding Northern Slav Pagans. Perhaps the most stirring tale Seward tells is of the strife between the Knights of St John, having been expelled by the Turks from Rhodes, recovering brilliantly in the siege of Malta in 1565. After demolishing a force of 30,000 with only 6,000 men, the Knights ever after became known as the Knights of Malta. Other reviewers have complained that this is a difficult book. It has to be: Almost a thousand years are covered, not to mention a score of countries. Think of it as a very dense appetizer to lead you further into what is surely one of the most exciting epochs of our history.

After about 4 years of researching the medieval military orders, I've found 'the Monks of War' to be a most resourceful book. It runs you through the basics of the main orders, along with offering numerous anecdotes, factoids, and curiosities. While each entry may not be conclusive - a conclusive book on the orders would be of about Encyclopedia Britannica size - it lets you know exactly which names to look for, and in what context. It is the perfect platform to launch a subject-oriented study of one of the orders, or even a member of one of the orders, from. I'm glad I got it. It's saved me tons of time.