ABSTRACT
Jeanne de Châtillon was most likely in Athens with their infant children, Walter and Isabelle, at the time of the defeat of Walter V. The Catalan Company occupied first Thebes, then Athens, while some of the towns of the duchy happily surrendered to the victors. Jeanne left Athens with her young children and went to Naples, where she was under the protection of King Robert the Wise, the senior member of the de Brienne family, since he owned the counties of Lecce and Conversano. The Order of St. John proved its effectiveness in various meanderings of events in the eastern Mediterranean: they survived the fall of Acre and were capable of military expansion, which they proved by conquering Rhodes between 1306 and 1310 and scoring naval victories over the Turks in 1312, 1318 and 1319. The Hospitallers used this expeditionary force in Rhodes itself to strengthen their position; in turn they promised they would strive to recapture the Holy Land.
