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  • The Prior of the Knights Hospitaller in Late Medieval England
  • Jürgen Sarnowsky
The Prior of the Knights Hospitaller in Late Medieval England. By Simon Phillips. Rochester, NY: Boydell Press. 2009. Pp. xiv, 210. $95.00. ISBN 978-1-843-83437-3.)

In the later Middle Ages, the Hospitallers were the only greater military order still active in the eastern Mediterranean. Since the convent at Rhodes depended completely on the supply of men, materials, and monies from the West, the order's network of twenty-five priories had to be well organized. The priors functioned as important links between the convent and the regional authorities. They were closely involved in the affairs of their own country while answering the requests from Rhodes and propagating the order's image as defenders of Christianity. The English prior was insofar exceptional as his priority was, in fact, identical with the English realm while, for example, France was divided into six priories. There has already been intensive research on the English Hospitallers in the last decades, namely articles by Anthony Luttrell and Helen Nicholson as well as the monograph of Gregory O'Malley on the English Langue between 1460 and 1565. Now this book by Simon Phillips promises a new perspective by concentrating on the English priors of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries as senior political figures.

Based mainly on an intensive review of the English sources from the National Archives, the British Library, and printed materials, the book analyzes the different roles of the priors in English politics. Following the introduction into the history of the English priory, state of research, and methodology, chapter 2 deals with the priors as treasurers of England and as a financial source for the Crown, lending money or negotiating loans and tax grants.Chapter 3 reviews the different military duties for the Crown taken over by the priors such as keeper of Southampton, admiral of the fleet, and other roles pertaining to military operations. Chapter 4 analyzes the engagement of the priors in international politics, in which they became important as diplomatic envoys and Crown ambassadors from the 1440s, culminating with Thomas Docwra (1501-27) in the time of Kings Henry VII and Henry VIII. This is complemented in chapter 5 by a study of the priors as lay lords in England, especially at parliaments and in the kings' council, and on their general role in English politics. Finally, chapter 6 is dedicated to the developments leading to the secularization of the order in England, based on an analysis of the lease books of the last three priors. In sum, the study demonstrates that the Hospitaller priors were increasingly involved in English politics since the beginnings of the Hundred Years War, which also served the order when the Crown, in consequence, allowed the exchange of brethren and the export of the order's monies (responsions) to Rhodes.

The author unnecessarily takes great pains to justify his approach by contrasting it with earlier studies. But it is certainly not correct that "modern historians present the crown-Hospitaller relationship as one of frictions" (p. 162) or that these "works rely mainly on Hospitaller sources" from Malta (p. 60), as [End Page 809] it is rather inadequate to return to the national perspective of military orders that flourished mainly in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. In addition, the bibliography, which lists nearly exclusively studies in English, omits even relevant works in other languages that would have allowed comparisons to other priors. This tendency should be replaced by a comparative approach as practiced in the networks of modern research on military orders.But, although the results of the book are not completely surprising, this is the first detailed, well-founded analysis of the important role of the English priors of the Hospitallers in English politics from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.

Jürgen Sarnowsky
University of Hamburg
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