ABSTRACT
Guillaume Caoursin, the vicechancellor of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in Rhodes, published the official Latin account of the victory of the Knights of St. John over the Ottoman Turks at Rhodes in 1480, the same year as the siege. As Caoursin's Latin text circulated throughout Europe, an English translation of it appeared in 1483, written by John Kay, who identified himself as Edward IV's poet laureate. For the English-speaking world, Kay's translation is more accessible and thus a frequently-consulted source for the Turkish siege of Rhodes in 1480. As a historian, Kay presents a different process of causation and a different context for the siege of Rhodes than Caoursin. Both men saw the siege of Rhodes as a natural consequence of the Ottoman capture of Constantinople, twenty-four years earlier. But they differed on why the Turks besieged Rhodes.
