Warrior Monks : Politics and Power in Medieval Britain

1298: Alexander of Wells watches William Wallace’s army across the field at Falkirk. Hours later, he would be dead, cut down by the Scots. 1381: Hated collector of the Poll Tax, Robert Hales is dragged from the Tower of London and executed. His head is paraded through the streets before being placed on a spike on London Bridge. The 1490s: John Kendal sends coded letters to the supporters of Perkin Warbeck and hires an astrologer to murder Henry VII. These men were not scheming lords, they were Knights Hospitaller, churchmen dedicated to the crusades and supposedly above war and petty politics. Soldier-monks who fought to defend the Holy Land, the Hospitallers were an international military and charitable organisation, a sort of medieval NATO and Red Cross combined. But in Europe, they were instead drawn into local politics, becoming royal commanders, administrators, and politicians. Hospitallers led armies, attended Parliaments, and joined court intrigues and civil wars. They were part of the most famous episodes of medieval British history, but their role has been overshadowed by their fellow military order the Knights Templar. The Hospitallers’ side of the story has not been told before, until now. From the English invasion of Ireland, the Scottish Wars of Independence, and the Hundred Years War, through to Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries and beyond, the Hospitallers’ story in Britain and Ireland sees the brethren drawn into civil war, violent feuds, duels, assassination, and witchcraft. Drawing upon the latest research, and written by an expert historian of the military orders, Warrior Monks reveals the fascinating story of medieval Britain through the eyes of the Knights Hospitaller, a powerful order which made kings and broke them, won battles, and shaped history.