Well, this work is certainly comprehensive, not to say exhaustive, so I give it three stars in deference to that. However, this is a recent piece of history writing, and it really doesn't show. Like the many 19th century histories you can find at your local library, Sire's book is conspicuously lacking in distance from the subject. He frequently displays a partisanship (I think) unsuitable for a historian, lacing his writing with condemnation of the "dishonorable" actions of the French knights and the paints a winning portrait of the SPanish. (I am particularly thinking of the section on Juan de Homedes, 1550's.) He presents his arguement as a 'debunking' of de Homedes' bad press, but never really addresses the issue. In short, I think the author is more interested in dreaming of the days of chivalry than seriously re-examining the controvertial role of the Knights.

In 1096, when the first Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem, they discovered the Hospital of St. John, which healed the wounds of the heroic knights. It would be this encounter that led the hospitallers to rally around their leader Brother Gerard de Saxo and created the Order of St. John. The knights returned to Europe, but they never forgot the kindness of the hospital that healed their wounded. After the first Crusade, the Order grew in importance and received many appreciative donations that helped solidify the future for the Order. The activities of the Order of St. John throughout its history assumed the role as the defenders of Christianity. The Order gained importance and power because the knights of the order fought bravely against the vigorous Islamic world. The knights defended the Holy Land for a long time, but were finally expelled at their last stronghold at Acre in 1291. The Order of St. John moved to Cyprus for fifteen years, then Rhodes, and lastly Malta.

If you are going to read Bradford's The Great Siege: Malta 1565, I would highly recommend that you read something on the Knights of Malta and their origins (this book would be a good choice). I give the book four stars because I really enjoyed reading Attard's Knights of Malta than this particular book. Perhaps, it was the trendy front over, the fewer pages, the comfortable feeling folding the pages or his better storytelling of the Great Siege in my opinion.

An excellent scholarly account of the Knights of St. John, Rhodes, and Malta. Very well researched, and I found the writing interesting and exciting, although others may find it tough to slog through. Absolutely the definitive work on the order.