There was only minimal manufacture of military equipment in the Crusader States, so the Hospitallers brought materiel from Western Europe and were often exempt from the taxes imposed on those exporting armaments. Siege machinery was made locally, however, and Hospitaller castles often had stone-throwing mangonels in their arsenals. How the materials were purchased, and how specialist operatives were recruited remains unknown, but the Hospitallers were clearly capable of sending a substantial siege train on major expeditions.
Horses were similarly in great demand, the First Crusade having rebuilt its devastated supply from local stocks at the beginning of the 12th century. Horses were generally cheaper in southern Europe than in the Middle East. Throughout the Crusader period the cost of an ordinary warhorse was around the same as 12 head of cattle. Ordinary riding horses were cheaper still, and packhorses even more so. Recent archaeological evidence from Western Europe indicates a remarkable range in the size of horses used in the Middle Ages, from animals comparable to Shetland ponies to horses as large as 16 hands.
The Hospitallers raised some horses on their own farms, but most horses and mules still had to be shipped from Sicily to the Crusader States in great numbers during the 13th century. Brothers-in-arms of the Military Orders could not choose their own mounts, although they could request a change if they found themselves with a ‘puller, stopper or thrower’. On campaign such troublesome horses were returned to the supply train. A regulation issued between 1287 and 1290 by the commander of Cyprus said that all horses had to be clipped ‘in accordance with custom’, but further details are not known.
The Hospitallers had only a few transport ships of their own in the 12th century. By the 1230s they were based at Marseilles where the Order also had a convent which dealt with merchants who traded to the east. The Hospitallers’ Commander of Ships was probably based at Marseilles from the mid-13th century, being responsible for the construction and fitting out of vessels. His main task was to ship material east, and the ships usually made two passages each year in spring and autumn, sailing in convoy. The Commander of Ships was also responsible for feeding the brothers at sea, though a sergeant-at-arms was in charge of the actual provisions, and a commander of brothers commanded the men while at sea. He also had authority over the commander of the ship.
A: possessions of the Hospitallers in the Crusader States around 1185 and 1265 (after M. Balard.
B: Hospitaller religious installations in the kingdom of Jerusalem.
C: main areas of Hospitaller agricultural estates in the kingdom of Jerusalem (after M. Balard).
The numbers of people which such ships could carry sometimes seems astonishing, but the evidence is quite consistent. During the 13th century it seems to have been common for 450 pilgrims to sail aboard an ordinary transport ship; nor were the fares particularly expensive. The 1,000 troops who crowded aboard the largest transports during the Fourth Crusade might be a special case, but a quarter of a century earlier, a Venetian transport ship squeezed almost 1,500 refugees aboard in an emergency. When Acre fell in 1291, most of those who escaped seem to have been taken by small coastal vessels to larger vessels off-shore or directly to Cyprus, and the Hospitallers played a leading role in organising this evacuation.
The extensive but undecorated chambers on the north side of the huge Hospitaller castle of Krak des Chevaliers may have been used as barracks. (Author’s photograph)
Occasionally medieval carvings show armoured men wearing civilian hats, as was also suggested in some of the written sources. This little corbel dates from the late 13th or early 14th century and portrays a man with a mail coif plus a large hat. (In situ church, Bures, Suffolk, England; author’s photograph)
The Hospitallers’ first attempts at naval warfare were on a small scale and in 1291, when Acre fell, some Hospitaller galleys were sent east on the Pope’s direct orders. By 1300 the Hospitallers had ten galleys based in Cyprus and they joined Templar and Cypriot vessels in raiding the Egyptian and Syrian coasts. They also tried to police the trade between Italy and Mamluk Egypt, a large part of this having been declared ‘illegal’ by the Pope, but the naval power of the Hospitallers, Templars, Cypriots and papal ships remained far less than that of Genoa or Venice and the trade in strategic goods such as timber and weaponry continued.
The eastern side of the early Hospitaller castle of Belvoir, overlooking the deep Jordan valley. A small arch near the centre of this picture was the main entrance. (Author’s photograph)
This early Islamic khan for merchants in Acre was incorporated into a huge complex of buildings forming the Hospitallers’ hospital or hospice, headquarters and offices in the 12th and 13th centuries. (Z. Goldman photograph)