History

Chrysa Savvidou

The island of Rhodes occupies a strategic position which contributed to the important role it played throughout its long history in the area of the south-east Aegean and the coast of Asia Minor opposite. The city of Rhodes, which lies at the northern end of the island, was the most important city on the island and experienced periods of very great prosperity.

In the Hellenistic period, the city was given a Hippodamean plan and adorned with resplendent buildings and powerful fortifications. This period of prosperity continued down to imperial times. In the Early Christian period it was the capital of the island province of the Byzantine empire and played a leading role in the Aegean. From the 7^th to the 9^th century the Arabs attempted repeatedly to capture the island in order to secure a base in the Aegean from which they could easily attack the coast of Asia Minor, or even the capital of the empire itself.

Relations between the island and the West were initiated in 1083, when Alexios I Komnenos allowed the Venetians to establish a trading post. Richard I the Lion Heart put in at Rhodes in 1191 and enlisted mercenaries for the 3^rd Crusade.

After the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, Rhodes entered a period when it was the object of rival claims and saw constant changes of ruler. It was ceded to the Italians, who encountered vigorous resistance and where unable to occupy it. The imperial governor Leo Gavalas proclaimed himself “Lord of Rhodes”, that is to say, ruler of the island. He retained this title until his death in 1240. Although he recognised the sovereignty of the empire of Nikaia, he maintained only loose relationships with it. After Leo’s death, the island reverted to the Byzantine empire, along with the rest of the Dodecanese. For a short period, in 1248, Rhodes was a possession of the Genoese and in 1275 the island was granted as a fief to Genoese nobles, the last of whom, Vignolo di Vignoli, surrendered it to the Knights of St John.¹

The principles of the Order of the Knights of St John and the religious-military character of the Order were established after the Knights settled in Jerusalem, at the end of the 11^th and beginning of the 12^th century, before the first Crusade. After the gradual withdrawal of the Western Europeans from the Holy Land and the loss of their final fortress, Acre, in 1291, the Knights also departed and settled at Limassol on Cyprus.² In 1306, after Vignolo di Vignoli entered into a favourable agreement with the Grand Master Foulques de Villaret, the Knights landed on Rhodes and completed the conquest of the island in 1309 with the capture of the town.

The order remained on the island until 1522 and throughout this period there was friction with the local population, though this receded when the Ottoman threat began to loom large. After a series of wars and sieges (the most important of which was that of 1480) the town was captured by the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.³