Knights of the Order

by Ernle Bradford

Book Overview

An authoritative history of the Knights of St. John, from Jerusalem to Malta, told by the bestselling author of The Great Siege. Known by many names through their centuries-long career, The Knights... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0880297271
• ISBN13: 9780880297271
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble Inc
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.

Customer Reviews

HIGHLY Recommended

This book covers an amazingly interesting topic and the story is told by a truely great storyteller. It recounts the story of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem from their beginning during the Crucades to the present day with special attention given to pertinant battles that forced them out of Jerusalem, then out of Rhodes, then their victorys in Malta. Very exciting story that anyone would love.

Best history book I've ever read. Period.

This book takes the cake as a history book. It's almost like your reading a novel, but then you flip the pages and see the back cover where it says "history" and you curse, just a little, because you normally have sworn off history after high school but just can't find yourself able to throw the book down. Bradford's enthusiasim for the history part isn't lost though; oh no, by far it's transformed into an endearing and worthwhile tale of the Knights of St. John. His prose is so gentle yet sweeping that he easily delves into and out of side-descriptions and filler information, in fact a lot better than most modern novels do. He gets you to feel the Aegean sun that battered the backs of these superb soldiers and first rate monks when they were at Rhodes, and I can tell you that from word one to word end "The Shield and the Sword" is the book to read for history, whether you like the Crusades, adventure, war-stuff, or heck, you just want a good read. I'd personally recommend it for anyone- the stuffy nosed scholar or the curious child, the wondering joe off the street or the guy who sits at his computer screen reading this review (yes you, oh great and enlightened one!). So yeah, five stars, it's excellent.

Comprehensive history

From its birth in the first Crusade, through the possession of the isle of Rhodes to its lost of the island against the forces of Suleiman the Magnificent, to making a home on Malta; the great siege of Malta by Suleiman again, Mr Bradford is able to make well researched material interesting. After Malta, the Knights were on top, how they dropped to the bottom as they lost Malta to Napoleon, were they are now in the world as a humanitarian organization. If you have any interest in this subject, this is a good book. It could have used a few more maps (I read the 1973 hard back version), and three times it seemed the author was taking sides with the Knights on some minor old debate. His book "The Great Siege; Malta 1565" is an excellent book.