The Knights of St. John: with the Battle of Lepanto and the Relief of Vienna by Augusta Theodosia Drane

Published in 1858 London, The Knights of St. John details the history of this Crusade-era order, also known as the Knights Hospitaller. Their original purpose was to build hospitals and tend to the wounded pilgrims. They later became militarized and were charged as the defenders of Jerusalem.

After Islam recaptured the Jerusalem, the knights moved to Acre, then to Cyprus, then Rhodes and finally Malta, each of those cities or islands being attacked and eventually conquered by Islamic aggressors. Only at the Siege of Malta were the knights able to win the day and maintain their presence.

Also discussed are the Battle of Lepanto, a naval battle in which the Knights Hospitallers were a minor player and a decisive defeat of an Ottoman navy, and the Siege of Vienna, of which the knights played little or no part, which prevented the Ottoman Empire from pushing into central Europe.

This IS a public domain work. Most editions you will find are unedited OCR versions that contain frequent errors, no formatting (like bold or italicized text) and large gaps where one page ends and the next begins. This version has been restored.

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