ABSTRACT

Material and documentary evidence for the deeds of the three great international military orders in mainland Greece is not abundant for the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It is, however, sufficient for certain hypotheses to be advanced. We know that the Templars took an active role in conquest of central Greece in 1205–10 and that the Hospitallers, as allies and rivals of the Venetians, tried in vain to stem the Turkish advance around 1400. Paradoxically the Teutonic Order has left the best documented, yet most elusive, sites for archaeological fieldwork.