ABSTRACT
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a new type of institution evolved in the Crusader states in the Near East. Historian Joshua Prawer referred to it as one of only two original contributions made by a society in which ‘the social and intellectual climate . . . stunted the new and original’.1 This was the Military Order, in essence a lay order of knights and sergeants living their daily lives according to monastic rule. Prawer’s remark was an overstatement. There are other areas in which the Franks in the East introduced innovations, but the Military Order was certainly a novel idea. The combination of soldiering activities and a monastic lifestyle was a remarkably practical conception. It provided the Latin East, and subsequently much of Europe, with a welltrained and well-equipped fighting force consisting of individuals who were free from family ties and responsibilities. The strict, organised monastic regime was an ideal framework for the promotion of a well-disciplined armed force. The Military Orders were to play an important role in the defence of the Frankish states, guarding roads, building castles, and supplying the armed and trained soldiers, knights and sergeants who formed one of the most valuable components of the Crusader army. With their expansion throughout the West they came to play a similar vital role in Europe.
