Hospitaller Diplomatic Texts Intro

Hospitaller Diplomatic Texts in French

A little over one percent of the diplomatic texts housed among the collections of the Hospitaller’s legal documents appear in French. These texts worked to establish the rights and privileges accorded to the Order as well as to document agreements and negotiations among third parties, who relied on the Hospitallers as a neutral party in their affairs.

The central archives for the Hospitallers were moved from their initial repository in Jerusalem to Tyre (in 1187), to Acre (in 1191) and then to Cyprus (1291), Rhodes (1310), and finally to Malta (1530), with a large collection of charters moved to southern France in the late thirteenth century, until a number of them were sent the central archive in Malta in the eighteenth century. The collection from Southern France never arrived but the remaining documents are a testament to the importance of the French language to the Hospitaller Order. The peripatetic nature of the archives, however, does lead to some difficulties in pinpointing the locale of production for many of these French texts.

The diplomatic texts written in French from the Hospitaller archives demonstrate how the Order interacted with a varied and expansive group of organizations and individuals over the course of its history. At times, the reasons for choosing French as the language of contract are more evident than others, but looking at the collection of French-language documents as a whole can reveal patterns or suggest rationale for why the parties preferred French as the language of record for that particular exchange. For example, women appear frequently in the early French-language Hospitaller documents from Acre, inviting and inquiry into the relationship between language, gender, and power in this early frontier society. Many times, one household appears repeatedly as the originator of a transaction, suggesting that the French language held some comfort or meaning for this particular kinship group. The analysis of this body of French-language texts is a field ready for exploration, and should yield much information about the Hospitaller’s culture and that of their interlocutors in both the East and the West.

The links below provide a summary of individual documents according to their locale of production, with accompanying bibliography and manuscript citations. The texts listed below have no known location of production.

Links to Hospitaller's Diplomatic Texts:

From the Levant

From Acre

From Cyprus

Printed Source Editions:

Delaville le Roulx, J. Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem. Paris : Leroux, 1894-1906, vol. 1-4.

Secondary Sources:

Burgtorf, Jochen. The Central Convent of Hospitallers and Templars. History, Organization and Personnel, 1099/1120-1310. Leiden: Brill, 2008.

Johnathan Riley-Smith, The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, 1050-1310. London: Macmillan, 1967.

Anthony Luttrell, "The Hospitallers' Historical Activities: 1291-1400," Annales de l’ordre Souverin Militaire de Malte, XXIV. Rome, 1966, 126-9.
Ibid. "Fourteenth-Century Hospitaller Lawyers," Traditio 21 (1965), 449-465.
Ibid."The Hospitallers' Early Written Records,"in The Crusades and their Sources: Essays presented to Bernard Hamilton,ed. J. France and W.G. Zajac, Aldershot, 1998, 135-54.

Hospitaller Diplomatic Texts - Production Locale Unspecified

Date: 1 March, 1254

Locale: unspecified, but probably near Tripoli

MS: Malta, Archives of the Order of St. John, div. 1, vol. 5, no. 34.

Type/Summary:

agreement - land transfer

Agreement between Jean of Bubie, chatelaine of Margat, and Sir Hughes de Barlais, concerning the properties of Bocombre and de Remesque, situated near Tripoli.

SourceEdition:

Delaville le Roulx, J.Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894-1906), vol. 2, 755.

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Date: August, 1254

Locale: unspecified

MS: Malta, Archives of the Order of St. John, div. 1, vol. 5, no. 39.

Type/Summary:

property transfer

Julien, lord of Sidon and Beaufort, with the assent of his wife, Euphemia, sells the Castle Robert to Guillaume of Chateauneuf, Grand Master of the Hospitallers, for 24,000 Saracen bezants of Acre.

Source Edition:

Delaville le Roulx, J.Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894-1906), vol. 2, 761-63.

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Date: April, 1255		Locale: unspecified	MS: Malta, Archives of the Order of St. John, div. 1, vol. 5, no. 48.
Type/Summary: property transfer	Jean the German, lord of Cesaria, and Marguerite, his wife and daughter of Jean, lord of Cesaria, sell the Castle of Chatillon to the Hospitallers, for 50 bezants.
Source Edition:	Delaville le Roulx, J.Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894-1906),vol. 2, 776.

Date: June, 1255		Locale: unspecified	MS: Malta, Archives of the Order of St. John, div. 1, vol. 5, no. 46.
Type/Summary: oath	Jean the German, lord of Cesaria, and Marguerite, his wife, heving become confreres of the order, promise to defend the order and, in the case of charges against them, to take recourse to an arbitraitor to settle the charges.
Source Edition:	Delaville le Roulx, J.Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894-1906), vol. 2, 783.

Date: July, 1255

Locale: unspecified

MS: Malta, Archives of the Order of St. John, div. 1, vol. 5, no. 43

Type/Summary:

property transfer

Henry, Archbishop of Nazareth, donates four properties, including Rome, Romene, Cafreezeir and Cane Galilee, owned by the diocese of Nazareth for cultivation by the Hospitalers.

Source Edition:

Delaville le Roulx, J.Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894-1906), vol. 2, 787

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Date: August, 1255

Locale: unspecified

MS: Malta, Archives of the Order of St. John, div. 1, vol. 5, no. 44.

Type/Summary:

property transfer
Jean III of Ibelin, lord of Asur, constable of Jerusalem, cedes two pieces of land on the plain of Acre to the Hospitallers, for 2,000 bezants.

Source Edition:

Delaville le Roulx, J.Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894-1906), vol. 2, 790-91.

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Date: March, 1256

Locale: unspecified

MS: Malta, Archives of the Order of St. John, div. 1, vol. 5, no. 47

Type/Summary:

bestowal and confirmation of privileges
Bohemond IV, prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli, gives to the Hospitallers, represented by Hughes Revel, grand commander of Acre, a concession of water to tend to the Gloriette gardens, which are in front of the doors to their house in Tripoli, and the tithe on the fish taken in front of this garden and the right to unload their goods in front of their house in Tripoli, and a confirmation of all their possessions in the county of Tripoli.

Source Edition:

Delaville le Roulx, J.Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894-1906), vol. 2, 807-8.

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Date: April, 1256

Locale: unspecified

MS: Malta, Archives of the Order of St. John, div. 1, vol. 5, no. 50.

Type/Summary:

renunciation of grievances

.Bohemond IV, prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli, declares to Guillaume of Chateauneuf, grand master of the Hospitallers, that he renouces all grievences that he and his predecessors had levied against the Hospitallers.

Source Edition:

Delaville le Roulx, J.Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894-1906), vol. 2, 813.

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