Stone Carving of The Hospitaller Period in Rhodes Displaced Pieces and Fragments 1st Edition Anna Maria Kasdagli

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Stone Carving of
the Hospitaller
Period in Rhodes
Displaced pieces and
fragments
Anna-Maria Kasdagli
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Gordon House
276 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 7ED
www.archaeopress.com
ISBN 978 1 78491 478 3

ISBN 978 1 78491 479 0 (e-Pdf)
© Archaeopress and A-M Kasdagli 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.
This book is available direct from Archaeopress or from our website www.archaeopress.com
This study is dedicated to the memory of Gregorios Konstantinopoulos,
archaeologist, administrator and man of letters
(1921-2001)
Contents
Introduction�� 1
Part One�� 3
I. Historical background�� 3
II. Topography�� 9
III. Stone carving and the art of Hospitaller Rhodes�� 15
Part Two�� 21
IV. Displaced carved pieces and fragments�� 21
V. Architectural members�� 23
VI. Heraldry from buildings�� 30
VII. Inscriptions�� 40
VIII. Funerary monuments�� 56
IX. Problems and conclusions �� 75
Bibliography�� 79
Appendix 1: The masters of Rhodes�� 101
Appendix 2: Location of listed pieces and fragments (December 2009).�� 102
Appendix 3: Statistical tables of magistral arms.�� 104
3.1 Shields in Rhodes, 1319–1522.�� 104
3.2 Shields of the masters in the defences of Rhodes, 1377–1522.�� 104
The Catalogue�� 105
Index�� 171
Plates and Figures�� 177
i
For the stone shall cry out of the wall...
Habakkuk 2:11
ii
Introduction
‘Rhodes of the Knights’- this is how most visitors remember the island which,
for 213 years, was ruled by the most unusual conquerors of the Latin East. And
not without reason. The graceful aspect of the fortified town of the Knights of
Saint John confronts anyone approaching the port by sea; this is but a prelude to
what he is going to encounter once he sets foot on land. The historic centre of the
town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, preserves its medieval street plan while
hundreds of the buildings contained within its walls date, at least in part, from the
15th century or even earlier. On the landward side, the medieval town is protected
from the encroachment of the modern conurbation by its solid Hospitaller
fortifications, whose moat cuts deep into the underlying ancient Greek city, and
by a barrier of wooded parks. Further afield, the countryside is dotted with castles
and watchtowers, and the occasional ancient chapel whose frescoes may contain
a heraldic shield or two.
A thorough acquaintance with the medieval monuments of the town and the island
is required for their protection and enhancement. Anyone privileged to serve this
World Heritage site has been marked by the experience. The remnants of the
medieval period are not all equally comprehensible because, apart from other
difficulties, they display localized cultural elements. Archaeological exploration
and the interpretation of its findings, restoration projects, the mounting of
exhibitions and the organization of heritage classes, and the strategies of
conservation, all need any tool which may provide additional information on the
period and its geography. The understanding of certain types of evidence requires
the contribution of specialist studies: the systematic examination of a particular
field may provide the key for the interpretation of specific features on individual
monuments.
It is hoped that the present study1 will contribute to a fuller appreciation of the
form and function of stone carvings2 of the Hospitaller period, whether still in
situ, reused or derived from excavations. It is based on comparisons between
displaced pieces and fragments with reference to similar examples still in their
original location. Its interpretations also draw from research on related works
from elsewhere, and from the character of medieval civilization in general.
1
Originally an MA Thesis in Greek at the University of Athens, 2010. Current English translation
by the author, with a few emendations.
2
The term is used to cover a wide range of work, which would have required different levels
of skill, much of which cannot be dignified by the word ‘sculpture’. In the Middle Ages a wide
range of terms designated craftsmen working in stone: hewers, marblers, image-makers, paviors
etc. Coldstream 2004: 19.
1
2 Stone Carving of the Hospitaller Period in Rhodes
The first part of the work (Part One, chapters I to III), examines the historical,
topographical and cultural background; in Part Two (chapters IV, V, VI and VIII),
displaced pieces and fragments are examined according to type and function:
architectural pieces, wall heraldry, and parts of funerary monuments. As the role
of epigraphics is essential in the review of the latter, a chapter devoted to this
subject on Rhodes (chapter VII) is interpolated between the chapters on Heraldry
(VI) and funerary monuments (VIII). The analysis closes with a summary of the
problems encountered in handling the material, and some conclusions derived
from its examination (IX). After the bibliography and three appendices intended
to help the reader, the work closes with the catalogue of 230 displaced pieces and
fragments in the inventory of the Ephorate of Antiquities in Rhodes; this includes
31 plates with photographs of the entries arranged according to type for ease of
reference.
This volume is dedicated to the memory of Gregorios Konstantinoploulos, a man

of remarkable perception and diplomatic skill who succeeded in safeguarding the
multicultural heritage of Rhodes in the difficult years of the colonels’ junta (1967-
1973). It was his earnest urging to the author, conveyed over an excellent lunch in
Athens sometime after his retirement, that inspired this endeavour to present the
stray Hospitaller stone carvings of Rhodes as a distinct corpus of material.
Part One
I. Historical background
The strategic location of Rhodes has ensured a strong presence in the politics of
the south Aegean Sea since the foundation of the ancient city in 408 BC. In its
heyday, Rhodes kept the wider area free of pirates; the celebrated adventure of
Julius Caesar with the pirates of Pharmakoussa was due, in the long term, to the
hostility Rome had shown the Rhodians.3 Successive disasters like the capture
of the city by Cassius in 42 BC and violent earthquakes in AD 155, 344/5 and
515 did not permit the recovery of its fleet. Nevertheless, its naval installations
were sufficiently important to the central government and Byzantine emperor
Anastasius I (491-518) took the trouble to repair them after the 515 earthquake.4
At the time Rhodes was the capital of the Province of the Islands.5 From the 8th
century on, after the administrative reorganization of the Byzantine Empire, it
maintained a preeminent position in the Cibyrrhaiote theme.6
Thus Rhodes was an important base for the Byzantine fleet from early on.
After a brief occupation by the Arabs c. 673-681, the island remained under
Byzantine control without many vicissitudes until the 11th century. Around
1090 it was occupied, along with the other major islands facing the Anatolian
coastline, by Tzachas, a Turkoman emir; this was over soon, as emperor Alexius
I Comnenus recovered control.7 The island’s hinterland produced timber suitable
for shipbuilding, and coastal settlements like Lindos provided expert oarsmen.
Medieval ships, slow and vulnerable to the weather, had to make frequent stops
for water, supplies and repairs, and also in order to recruit sailors and fighting
men. Thus, during the Crusades, Rhodes was in a position to serve shipping on
two major sea lanes: from Constantinople to Cyprus and Egypt and from the West
to Cyprus and Palestine. Naturally, it also served locally active mariners, who
were crisscrossing the Aegean between the Peloponnese, groups of islands like
the Cyclades, the Sporades and those of the eastern Aegean, and key Anatolian
ports like Smyrna and Ephesus.8 Relations with Crete are more difficult to assess:
apparently Rhodes was an alternative stop for anyone wishful, for whatever
reason, of avoiding the larger island. Besides its boatyards and two good harbours,
the town of Rhodes included a considerable Jewish community, solid evidence of
3
Papachristodoulou 1972: 95, 110. Grant 1979: 116, 122, 140, 165. Suetonius: 14-15.
4
Malalas: 406, 409.
5
Notitia Dignitatum (c. 408) in Jones 1978, 5, 100-101; Synecdemus of Hierocles (c. 530), in
Papachristodoulou 1972: 244.
6
Papachristodoulou 1972: 244 ff. Ostrogorsky 1980: 97 ff. Treadgold 1995: 68.
7
Papachristodoulou 1972: 244-250. Savvides 1995: 11-22. Kollias 2000: 299-308.
8
Riley-Smith 1991: 132-137.
3
its active role in the economy of the region.9 In the 12th century, besides normal
maritime activity, there were more unpleasant contacts with the West: the island
was targeted for reprisals during the conflict between emperor John II Comnenus
and the Venetians, who plundered it systematically. Nevertheless, Rhodes was
frequently used as a stopping place by Western travellers, crusaders, merchants
and soldiers of fortune. At the end of the century, during the Third Crusade,
Richard the Lionheart also visited Rhodes on his way to Cyprus and the Holy
Land.10
Western influence really began to be felt in Rhodes in the 13th century, when ties
with the ailing Byzantine Empire were loosened. For the population, even for
the local aristocracy, this does not seem to have been a particularly negative
development. The 13th century saw an expansion of the town, the construction
of churches decorated with quality murals11 and frequent changes in the local
administration, particularly after 1250. Several Aegean islands, including Rhodes,
were at times ceded by the emperor in various ways to Italian and native corsairs,
within the terms of a complex power game, in exchange for military support;
diplomacy replacing, as far as possible, the lack of means for direct control of
maritime territories of the Byzantine state.12
At this time, encouraged by political instability, both Italian soldiers of fortune and
Turkoman mercenaries seem to have established themselves on the island. Some
of these newcomers must have been chased out near the end of the period but
when, in the early 14th century, Rhodes became a target for the Order of St. John
of Jerusalem (otherwise known as the Order of the Hospital), there is evidence
for the presence on the island of Westerners who were in the process of being
assimilated into the local Greek Orthodox culture- a phenomenon not unknown
in other parts of the Byzantine Empire. Typical of the period is the upper part of
a tomb slab (113) belonging to a certain Ioannes [O]Pitzos who, judging from
the name and the display of heraldry, was of Italian origin. The incised epitaph is
in Byzantine Greek,13 but the dating method from the incarnation of Christ (year
ΑΤϛ= AD 1306)14 and the use of a heraldic tomb slab per se already display the
9
Efthymiou 1992: 19.
10
Papachristodoulou 1972: 250-255.
11
Katsioti 1996-7: 269-302.
12
Katsioti 1996-7: 256-265. Savvides 1987: 301-341; idem 1983: 405-425; idem 1988: 199-231;
idem 1995: 23-46. Kasdagli 2006: 40, 44-45.
13
+ЄKOIMHΘH O ΔOVΛOC TOV Θ(ЄO)V Iω(ANNHC) O ΠITZOC ⁛ ЄN MHNI I[...]Iω
/ ЄIΓC ⁛ ЄTOVC : A : T : ϛ’. Henceforth, bold characters will represent items included in the
Catalogue and Plates.
14
Byzantine epitaphs known to the author, until at least the year 1304, are dated by the anno mundi.
Imhaus 2004, vol. Ι: 285, Fiche No 548. Pazaras 1988: 21 no. 1, 56-57 no. 92, 22, no. 3.
I. Historical background 5
mixture of Western and Byzantine elements which later became dominant in the
town.
In the Hospitaller period (1309-1522), Rhodes and the neighbouring islands

became an outpost of crusader Europe.15 The Order of St. John16 was a multinational
religious organization, which developed in the 12th century to meet the needs of
the Latins in Palestine after the First Crusade. Initially, its primary role was the
protection of pilgrims and the care of the sick and needy. Later, however, with the
decline of the Crusader states, it emerged, alongside the Order of the Temple, as
the most reliable military power of the Latins in the Holy Land. Its superior was
the pope, who had approved its Rule. Its members were Westerners, and the French
element dominated, although not without friction. Officially, the Hospital was
divided into seven tongues: Provence, Auvergne, France, England, Germany,
Italy and Spain.17 It was ruled by a master18 who, once elected, normally held the
office for life. The election was a complicated internal process involving a group
of electors.19 Altogether nineteen masters successively ruled Rhodes.20 Besides
the Knights themselves, who were generally of noble or knightly birth and shared
between them the higher offices of the Order, there were the sergeants, military
brethren of lower social status, and the chaplains, who carried out ecclesiastical
duties.
After the fall of Acre in 1291, the Hospitallers had taken refuge in Cyprus to
regroup their forces.21 However, the island’s rulers proved inimical to their
presence and, in 1306, under the astute leadership of master Foulques de Villaret
(1305-1319), they initiated a project to set up an independent base on Rhodes,
which was crowned by success in 1309 with the capitulation of the town upon
terms.22
The Order was one of the most enlightened conquerors of medieval Hellenism.23 Its
members had no family ambitions on the island; extensive lands in the West were
15
Kollias 1998a, with bibliography. Luttrell and Zachariadou 2008.
16
Riley-Smith 1999.
17
From 1462 there were eight tongues, as the Spanish tongue was divided into two: the tongue of
Castile, also comprising Portugal, and the tongue of Aragon, also comprising Catalonia.
18
‘Grand’ master from the last quarter of the 15th century.
19
Riley-Smith 1967: 275-276.
20
Appendix 1.
21
Delaville Le Roulx 1904: 244-266. Riley-Smith 1967: 198-226. Luttrell 1987, II.
22
Luttrell 2003: 63 ff.
23
For the History of the Hospital in Rhodes and the Dodecanese Islands the main source is still
the monumental work of Bosio 1629. The treatment of the subject in later bibliography is uneven.
Delaville Le Roulx 1913 mainly examines the political history of the Order more thoroughly than
similar works spanning the whole of the Rhodian period. Vatin 1994 concentrates on the Order’s
relations with their great enemy, the Ottoman Turks, in the late Hospitaller period. Aspects such as
a source of regular income and, together with the constant influx of manpower,
ensured the defence of Rhodes for about two centuries. During this time Rhodes
developed into an important urban and financial centre with increased dynamism,
which was abruptly interrupted by the Ottoman conquest of 1522. The island
state of the Hospital did not fall after a decline, like the rest of Latin Greece.
There was no oppression by the Roman Catholic Church, as happened in Cyprus
and in certain Venetian possessions, because the Knights of St. John controlled
the involvement of other Latin churchmen in their territory, in order to promote
the cooperation of the native population. The establishment of fair government
and respect of the rights of the people, along with the encouragement of settlers,
were hallmarks of the Order’s rule of the Dodecanese islands. It appears that the
climate of trust between the Knights and their subjects was preserved till the end:
when they were forced to abandon Rhodes in 1523, they were followed in exile
by a considerable number of the urban population and the Rhodian community
on Malta survived for centuries.24
In the 14th century the Order succeeded, with proper management, in assimilating
a large part of the landed property of the Order of the Templars, which had
been suppressed by the pope in 1312 at the instigation of Philip IV the Fair of
France; and in recovering from the financial losses caused by the collapse of the
Florentine banking houses of Bardi and Peruzzi in the 1340s.25 The papal schism
(1378-1417) also affected the Hospital, but the Convent of Rhodes and most of
the tongues took the part of the Avignon popes, who were vigorously supported
by Juan Fernández de Heredia, master from 1377 to 1396. A second economic
depression, this time due to a combination of factors (currency problems in the
West and the high expenses incurred by the defence of Rhodes) was confronted
with determination by master Pere Ramon Zacosta (1461-1467), whose austerity
cast a shadow upon his reputation.
The masters of Rhodes minted their own coinage26 and encouraged trade with the
West, often favouring their country of origin.27 Thus, in the 14th century ties with the
south of France were close, particularly with the cities of Narbonne and Avignon.
There was a development of commercial and other relations with Catalonia under
masters Juan Fernández de Heredia and Αntoni de Fluvià (1421-1437), while the
administrative development, the history of the tongues and lands of the Order in various countries,
the politics, society, prosopography, relations with the West and the eastern Mediterranean
are examined in a wide range of articles and books by A. Luttrell, J. Sarnowsky, B. Waldstein-
Wartenberg, J.-B. de Vaivre, J.-M. Roger, P. Bonneaud and others, and described in a concise but
systematic way by Tsirpanlis 1995: 28-216.
24
Tsirpanlis 1988: 197-236. Fiorini 2000: 503-511.
25
Luttrell 2007: VI.
26
Schlumberger 1878: 242-268. Metcalf 1995: 295-305. Kasdagli 2002b, with basic bibliography.
27
Michaelidou 2000: 417-428. Kasdagli, Katsioti and Michaelidou 2007: 35-62.
I. Historical background 7
presence of Italian pottery grows impressive after the mid-15th century, when
two Italian masters, Giovanni Battista degli Orsini (1467-1476) and Fabrizio del
Carretto (1513-1521) were also active. The contribution of Italian engineers to the
planning of the defences of Rhodes was also important in the last twenty years
of the Order’s rule of the island. Relations with the kingdom of Cyprus, closer in
the 14th century, were maintained to a considerable degree, at least until queen
Carlotta, whom the Knights had supported, lost her throne (1460).28
On Rhodes, the Hospital followed a consistent and cautious policy, obedient to

the pope when he tried to coordinate crusading expeditions but also endeavouring
to guard the viability of its headquarters in the Dodecanese when the pope’s
demands became excessive.29 The Knights played an important role in the
expedition which led to the sack of Alexandria in 1365, in collaboration with
Peter I, king of Cyprus, and in the conquest of Smyrna in 1344; they held the latter
from 1374 until 1402, when the city fell to the troops of Tamerlane after a brief
siege.30 A few years later, but before 140831, the Knights built the strong fortress
of St. Peter at Halicarnassus (Bodrum),32 which they held until their departure
from Rhodes. The presence of the fortress ensured the control of the sea lane
connecting Constantinople with Cyprus and Alexandria and enabled the Knights
to rescue Christian refugees from Muslim-held Anatolia. The Order’s navy also
patrolled other parts of the Aegean Sea, particularly off Cythera (Cerigo) and
the Northern Sporades, annoying not only the Turks and Egyptians but also the
Venetians, with whom the Hospital’s relations were always tense- mostly because
of the profit-seeking policies of Venice towards Islamic powers.
After the battle of Nicopolis (1396), which essentially put an end to the mass
participation of Westerners against the Ottoman advance into Europe, Rhodes
became more isolated33 and its defences were expanded and modernized.34
The great sieges of 1444 by the Mamluks of Egypt35 and 1480 by the army of
Mehmed II the Conqueror36 did not limit the military presence of the Order or the
development of their island state. Grand master Pierre d’Aubusson (1476-1503),
a remarkable statesman and organizer, successfully confronted both external
threats by the Ottomans and internal problems such as the friction between Greek
28
Luttrell 1995: 733-757. Hill 1948. Mas-Latrie 1854.
29
Tsirpanlis 1991: 46-102.
30
Luttrell and Zachariadou 2008: 41-44, 51-56.
31
Luttrell 1999: VI.
32
Luttrell and Zachariadou 2008: 68-72.
33
Delaville Le Roulx 1913: 270-273. Runciman 1978: 455-462. Palmer 1972: 200-207. Setton
1975: 307 ff. Seward 1995: 239-240.
34
Gabriel 1921: 119-131.
35
De Riquer 1986: 305-314. Tsirpanlis 1995: 134-136.
36
Brockman 1969, with bibliography.
Orthodox and Uniates over the enforcement of the decrees of the Council of
Florence (1439) and the severe damage caused in the town by the siege of 1480
and the earthquakes of 1481.37 The rebuilding of Rhodes was continued by his
successor, Émery d’Amboise (1503-1512), with the support of his elder brother
Georges d’Amboise, minister of king Louis XII of France (1498-1515). In 1510,
in a historic naval victory at Alexandretta, the Hospital’s fleet put an end to
Egyptian efforts to build a Red Sea fleet; thus facilitating European penetration
of the Indian Ocean.38
In 1517, the annexation of Egypt by the Ottomans39 turned the need to expel
the Knights from Rhodes into a strategic imperative. Thus, after a long siege,
Suleyman II the Magnificent captured Rhodes in December 1522, uprooting
the Order which, a few years later, established itself on Malta.40 The terms of the
surrender were favourable: any Rhodians who wished to do so, could follow the
departing Hospitallers into exile. Soon, the walled town was inhabited exclusively
by Turks and Jews, while the remaining Christians were forced to settle outside
the walls, for reasons of security.41
37
Rossignol 1991. Brockman 1969: 63-69, 96-99. Tsirpanlis 1991: 287-330. Gabriel 1923: 155-
156. Kasdagli 2007a: 466.
38
Brockman 1969: 107-108.
39
Inalçik 1995: 66.
40
Brockman 1969: 111 ff.
41
II. Topography
In the first Christian centuries Rhodes followed the decline of most provincial
cities in the Roman Empire. In Byzantine times it did not withdraw to a more
defensible location such as, for example, Ephesus/ Theologos, but shrank to a
tenth or less of its Hellenistic size, to an area controlling the two most important
ancient harbours: the great harbour (modern tourist harbour) and the military
harbour (modern Mandraki) which, probably, continued to function as an arsenal
from the eighth century onwards, when Rhodes came under the jurisdiction of the
naval Cibyrrhaiote theme.42
The present walls surrounding the historic centre of Rhodes date, for the most
part, from the Hospitaller period. They have a circumference of about 3 kilometers
and enclose an area of about 45 hectares.43 These fortifications stand upon older
structures such as ancient revetments and street boundaries, the Byzantine defences,
and harbour installations of various periods. They developed gradually, beginning
from the Byzantine nucleus, with successive expansions to the west, east and south.
The extent of the Byzantine defences is in doubt to this day. It is certain that, in
the early 14th century, the strong defences of the Collachio, or upper town, were
already in place. This was a rectangular enclave, which dominated the two medieval
harbours. The northwest corner of the Collachio was occupied by the Byzantine
acropolis which, in Hospitaller times, sheltered the headquarters of the Order and is
now known as the Palace of the Grand Master.44 South of the Collachio stretched the
Byzantine lower town; whether it was fortified or not when the Hospital occupied
Rhodes is still occasionally questioned by scholars. Remnants of its defences are
visible to the east, while to the south and west their trace may be deduced from the
marks they have left on the street grid of the late Hospitaller period.
Surviving written sources and architectural remains seem to agree that the earliest
identifiable Hospitaller work was carried out under master Hélion de Villeneuve,
and concerned the Palace and some work on the southeast corner of the Collachio.
They were followed by the contribution of master Déodat de Gozon around the
great harbour, which has yet to be identified with full confidence; while two
mid-14th century references about a west wall of the lower town may well refer
to the Byzantine wall.45 More important fortification projects were carried out
by masters Heredia and Naillac in the late 14th and early 15th century at the
northeast and east part of the Collachio and the defences of the central part of the
42
Kollias 2000: 299-308.
43
Manoussou-Della 2001: 13.
44
Kollias 1992: 82-97. Manoussou-Della and Dellas 2004: 237-264. Manoussou-Della 2007b:
218-243.
45
Luttrell 2003: 130.
9
tourist harbour. The oldest phase of the extension of the enceinte to the west of the
Byzantine town probably dates from the period of Heredia. It is mentioned that
under Naillac part of the Ovriaki (Jewish quarter), east of the Byzantine lower
town, was already walled,46 but both its extent and boundaries are unknown. Also
unknown is the date of the construction of the wall dividing the Collachio in about
1420.47 The extension of the defences to the south and east began under Fluvià
and continued until its completion by his successors, masters Lastic (1437-1454)
and Milly (1454-1461).
From then on, the Knights were busy reinforcing this defensive line and avoided
further expansions. The landward wall was thickened, strong bulwarks and
bastions of experimental form appeared, and the surrounding dry moat was
widened and made much deeper. The north and sea walls, which had been
renovated around the third quarter of the 15th century, retained a more primitive
form, protected as they were by the strong towers built somewhat earlier on the
three harbour moles: the towers of Naillac, of the mole of the Windmills and of
St. Nicholas, which could hold the enemy at a distance.48
During the development of the defensive line, the town within was dynamically
evolving, incorporating or, more often, obliterating older defensive lines;
indications of those survive in the descriptions included in documents concerning
properties within the town.49 The prevalent continuous system of construction often
caused (as it still does) conflicts between neighbours. Apart from the Collachio,
which contained most of the Order’s public buildings (the master’s palace, the
lodgings of the Knights, the auberges (Inns) of the tongues, the hospital, the
mint, the arsenal and the conventual church of St. John) the town appears to have
been free of social segregation. Christians also inhabited the Jewish quarter, in
the easternmost part of the town. Latin and Orthodox churches were scattered
throughout the urban grid, while mansions with inner courtyards and arcaded
balconies on their upper floors, tall decorated ceilings and stone fireplaces are
encountered all over the town, cheek-by-jowl with humbler dwellings, shops
and warehouses.50 Vigorous economic activity led to frequent modifications
and additions to buildings, possibly also a result of the periodic seismicity of
the island. Public buildings directly associated with the life of the town such
as the Commercium, the Loggia, the Hospice of St. Catherine and the Monte di
46
Tsirpanlis 1995: 233.
47
Manoussou-Della 2007a: 334-335.
48
Gabriel 1921: 137.
49
References in many documents, Tsirpanlis 1995. For the topography of the early Hospitaller
town Luttrell 2003: 78 ff. For the general topography of medieval Rhodes and the late Hospitaller
period Gabriel 1921: 1-15, 19-29.
50
Kollias 1998a: 89-109.
II. Topography 11
Pietà51 were strategically located along the high street (magna et comunis platea)
which crossed the town from west to east and then, turning southeast, reached the
Jewish Quarter following the curve of the sea wall. A row of several windmills
stood on the east mole of the great harbour, known for this reason as the Mole of
the Windmills.
Although excavations in the town have mostly investigated the interior of

churches and revealed quantities of human remains under their floors, small
burial grounds also existed around some of them, as in the cases of St. Mary of
the Castle (the Latin cathedral),52 St. Mary of the Borgo,53 ‘SS. Constantine and
Helena’54 and the ‘Holy Trinity’.55 The existence of suburban Greek Orthodox
cemeteries is also possible, similar to the cemetery of St. Anthony north of
the town, where most members of the Order were laid to rest.56 Most of the
churches preserved in the town have not been identified yet, and are known by
conventional names, although it is hoped that many topographical problems will
be solved in the future, when surviving documents of the late Hospitaller period
are published.57 The conventual church of St. John, St. Mary of the Castle and St.
Mary of the Burgh are securely identified,58 while recent research has produced
arguments for the identification of the Orthodox cathedral (Demirli Mosque or
‘St. Michael’), the Holy Apostles, St. Mary of Victory (‘anonymous church on
Kisthiniou Street’),59 St. Michael (‘Holy Trinity’ on the Street of the Knights) etc.
Doubts and differences of opinion exist for the identification of several public
buildings, such as the auberges of the tongues, the mint, the Castellania and
the Commercium, and for the location of others which no longer survive but are
mentioned in the written sources.60
The Ottoman conquest of 1522 did not result in dramatic changes to the town
until the nineteenth century.61 After the lengthy siege the fortifications were
repaired by the Turks and a battery was added to the mole of the Windmills. The
sloping ground (glaçis) encircling the outer perimeter of the moat was turned into
a burial zone, whose most important nuclei were the mosque of Murad Reis to
51
Gabriel 1923. Kollias 1992: 98 ff; idem 2007: 286 ff. Tsirpanlis 1999: 239.
52
Archaiologikon Deltion 25 (1970), Chronika, 521-523 (E. Kollias).
53
Psarologaki and Zerlendis 1997.
54
Archaiologikon Deltion 46 (1991), Chronika, 499-502 (Ε. Papavassileiou).
55
Archaiologikon Deltion 34 (1979), Chronika, 473-475 (E. Kollias).
56
Cf. Gabriel 1921: 14. Luttrell 2003: 112.
57
Kollias 2007: 283-296.
58
Luttrell 2003: 94-109, 141-144. Dellas 2000: 351-366; idem 2007: 370-393.
59
Μεσαιωνική Πόλη Ρόδου. Έργα Αποκατάστασης 2000-2008: 125-127.
60
Both documents of the Hospitaller period and descriptions by later travellers of Hospitaller
buildings which have now disappeared.
61
Manoussou-Della 2001: 30-34.
the north and the Jewish cemetery at Acandia to the southeast. The Palace of the
Grand Master was first used as a residence for eminent political prisoners and,
more recently, as a common prison. Churches were turned into Islamic houses of
prayer, with the addition of mihrab (prayer niches) in the interior and minarets
outside, while their murals were scraped off or plastered over and most tomb
structures above ground were removed. Some large mosques, and a few smaller
ones, were erected; to these may be added two bath complexes (hammam) and
several street fountains, some of which were also used for ritual ablutions.62
In time, many of the houses were modified, with changes in the placement of
windows and doorways and additions to the first floor, while in some parts of
the town ruined structures and gaps in the street grid were turned into gardens,
often raised and supported by revetments. Gradually, houses started to appear on
the perimeter of the medieval fortifications. In 1856, the explosion of a powder
magazine underneath the complex of the conventual church of the Hospital -then
the principal mosque of the town- levelled the area within a radius of about 60
metres,63 bringing about the first major change to the urban grid through the
opening of new streets and the disappearance of others. In late Ottoman times
(end of the eighteenth/ early twentieth century) some important public buildings
were erected in the neoclassical style such as the hospital which formerly stood
on the bastion north of the Palace, schools, the Fethi Pasha Library, the Clock
Tower and the imposing private mansion on Pythagora St.64
In this state Rhodes came into Italian hands in 1912. Political motives led the
Italians to undertake extensive interventions, particularly in the Collachio, in
order to enhance its Western medieval character and restore it where it did not
survive as fully as they desired. The partial rebuilding of the Palace, which was
intended as a summer residence for the king of Italy, was a particularly aggressive
operation, and the landscaping of the environs to include a parade plaza, verandas
and gardens without proper documentation, destroyed important elements of
the local heritage.65 The restoration of other medieval monuments in the town
was carried out with greater sensitivity, although the works effaced construction
phases that were either not recognized in time or were not considered important
according to the conventions of the times. Many Ottoman buildings were
pulled down, particularly in the area of the Palace, the great harbour and the
62
Balducci 1932.
63
Major damage to buildings occurred over a much larger perimeter, including the façade of the
Palace and the upper part of the Street of the Knights. Gehlhof-Volanakis 1982: 52-59.
64
Maria 2008. Konuk 2008.
65
What remains is mostly photographic material without labelling, assembled without discernible
method or purpose. A large part of this archive, containing about 15,000 glass plates, has now been
digitized by the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese and is at the disposal of researchers
interested in local history and archaeology.
II. Topography 13
fortifications; most of the cemeteries surrounding the latter were also dismantled
and turned into parkland. The lack of records concerning all these changes still
hampers research in the history of the town.66
66
Livadiotti and Rocco 1996: 211-250. Tsirpanlis 1998: 79-94, 110-111, 223-227. Manoussou-
Della 2001: 35-43.
Allied air raids during World War II brought about a last wave of destruction
to the urban grid, levelling important medieval buildings or inflicting serious
damage; not all of these could be restored after the Dodecanese became officially
part of the Greek State (1947). Some of the areas worst affected, the so-called
‘bombed squares’, were preserved as open spaces, and until recently were areas
of urban blight.67 From the Italian restorations and the ruins later left behind by the
raids, many stone carvings of the Hospitaller period were recovered; those judged
more important for the history or the art of the period were later put on display
in archaeological exhibitions while others are still in storage under the care of
the local Archaeological Service. Unfortunately, the difficult conditions of the
immediate post-war period did not permit proper records of their provenance to be
kept, a fact that limits the benefits that may be expected from their examination.
67
III. Stone carving and the art of Hospitaller Rhodes
The conquest of Rhodes by the Order of St. John in 1309 was decisive for the
island’s art. Due to their multinational origins, the Hospitallers serving on Rhodes
represented a broader cultural spectrum than the Western rulers of other parts of
Latin Greece. Moreover, since they usually had no legitimate children and were
periodically replaced in the various offices of the Convent on Rhodes, they were
less prone to assimilation, at least socially.68.
After the dissolution of the Order of the Templars in 1312, the Hospital had an
added reason to stress the significance of its presence in the East, as much for
the assistance of Western pilgrims as for the conservation of the crusading spirit
so regularly exploited by Western monarchs in their political propaganda.69 It
was of vital importance for the Order to give the right impression to travellers
and Western rulers, maintaining a proper balance between austerity, social care,
piety and ideological correctness in its policies and the image of its Convent.
The competition frequently affecting relations between the various tongues of
the Order, led to initiatives aiming at the promotion of personal and national
status: these often took the form of funding secular and religious buildings and
the presentation of sumptuous furnishings for them.70
Depending on the financial means of those involved, the craftsmen engaged in

carrying out various projects of the masters and other officers of the Order could
be Westerners, hail from some part of the Latin East such as Cyprus, or locals
and other Easterners more familiar with the Byzantine style. However, in most
cases, the imported specialist craftsmen generally called upon local assistants
who, in the course of time, became acquainted with Western aesthetics and the
expectations of Latin patrons. Thus, very soon, craftsmen capable of meeting
the basic needs of an increasingly cosmopolitan society must have become
permanently available on the island.
68
The influence of the place and of Byzantine culture on certain Knights has been remarked.
Towards the end of the Hospitaller period in particular, where more evidence is available, there are
incidents of philhellenism, while the preference of some members of the Order for Byzantine-style
icon painting is well attested. Cf. Luttrel 1978: XII. Tsirpanlis 1991: 357-359, 382-387. De Vaivre
1999: 650-683. Kefala 2007: 448-449; eadem, 2009-2010: 143-157.
69
Cf. Palmer 1972: 180 ff.; or Tyerman 1988: 259 ff.
70
There are several examples. Cf. the foundation of the Hospice of St Catherine by Domenico
d’Alamania c. 1391-1392 (Anapolitanos, Kasdagli and Manoussou-Della 1997: 501ff.); the
murals in the chapel of St. George ‘of the English’ c. 1400 (Kasdagli and Bitha 2008: 47-48); the
construction of the ‘Auberge of France’ by Émery d’Amboise in the late 15th c. (Roger 2007a: 134-
159); the foundation of a chapel by Lodovico di Piossasco in 1499 (Cante 2000: 387 ff.); the gift of
furniture by Charles Aleman de la Rochechinard to the conventual church of St. John in the early
16th c. (Gabriel 1923: 168 n. 3; Rottiers 1830: 302, pl. LXXII).
15
The Hospital’s policies encouraged the settlement of immigrants of different

nationalities: Syrians who followed the Order into exile after the loss of Acre in
1291, Italians who were already active in the region, refugees from Byzantine
lands under pressure from the advance of Islam, trades and soldiers of fortune
from Aragon, Catalonia, Sicily and the south of France, and the personal servants
and attendants (familiares) of the masters and other officers of the Order as well
as slaves from the Balkans and the East. The Knights had many needs: they
required the services of notaries, doctors, lawyers, shipwrights, masons and other
craftsmen, traders to import goods lacking on the island, export local produce
(sugar, soap, wine, timber etc.) and transport the personnel and revenues from
the Order’s properties in the West and its commanderies in the East, as well as
farmers and oarsmen for the Order’s galleys.71 They also attracted temporary
allies of all kinds to strengthen their forces against Muslim powers and bolster
the strategic importance of Rhodes, in order to increase their influence on the
pope and European rulers.72
The influx of settlers and their interaction with the locals resulted in important
social changes. Among them were the emergence of a vigorous urban class, rising
living standards and competitiveness, collaboration between different social
groupings and the development of aesthetic styles for the promotion of specific
cultural and ideological attitudes.73
The use of separate styles was at first more clear-cut. Judging from the vestiges
of mural painting on 14th century monuments, the local Greeks maintained their
attachment to Byzantine models and sought craftsmen able to reproduce them,
albeit in a provincial manner. The rest, depending on their purse, either sought
imported artifacts and craftsmen familiar with Western art, or supervised local
craftsmen in order to obtain the desired effect. In 1322, for example, the Latin
archbishop obtained permission to purchase liturgical furnishings for his cathedral
from the canons of Beirut, who had taken refuge in Cyprus.74 However, surviving
murals in St. Mary of the Castle, the Latin cathedral, included, as early as the
mid-14th century, both purely Western art (a figure of St. Lucia) and eclectic
examples combining Western with Byzantine elements (a Virgin and a pair of
female saints).75 A few decades later, in the chapel of St. George ‘of the English’,
the oldest mural layer, probably dated to the last quarter of the century, mingles
distinctive Western and Byzantine features: although the painter seems more
71
72
Delaville Le Roulx 1904: 92-98, 152-155. Tsirpanlis 1991: 78, 87.
73
Kollias 1991: 243-261; idem 1998, 109-131; idem 2000. Katsioti 1999: 327-342. Sigala 2000:
329-381. Archontopoulos 2010. Bitha 2000: 429-448.
74
Luttrell 2003: 177.
75
For eclectic painting in Rhodes see Kollias 2000.
III. Stone carving and the art of Hospitaller Rhodes 17
familiar with the Byzantine style, in the apse the Mandylion76 is accompanied by
a caption in Latin, while the kneeling angel Gabriel in the Annunciation is clad
in a fur-lined mantle.77 In later paintings the combination of elements is more
practiced; thus, establishing the dogma served by a particular church becomes
a challenge, especially since, at least in the mid-15th century, Roman Catholic
services in churches under the control of the Latin archbishop were performed
in Greek.78
In architecture we have early examples of Gothic influence, such as the cross-

vaulted ceiling of St. Mary of the Castle (first half of the 14th century), the Old
Hospital of the Order (before 1365) and St. Mary of the Borgo (first half of the
14th century). These edifices are very plain in comparison to the most prominent
Gothic monuments of Palestine and Cyprus, and it is therefore not easy to judge
whether the craftsmen who worked on them came from the West or the Latin
East.79 Their restrained decoration consists of mouldings and vegetal motifs
in relief on the façade, the corbels supporting cross vaults, and the doors and
windows, and they display the arms of the rulers of the Order responsible for their
construction. The decoration of architectural members, which are usually carved
in the local calcareous sandstone and are generally rather battered, has nothing in
common with the Byzantine art of the period. Indeed, even in the masonry, where
some evidence of traditional local technique might have been expected, the early
Gothic monuments of Rhodes show a break with the past: the old system of
construction, with its use of tiles to level courses of irregular stones and fill gaps
in the joints, is replaced by masonry laid in regular courses with dressed, almost
cubical small stones,80 or large ashlars, bound by extremely strong lime mortars.81
It is clear that the sculpture of Hospitaller Rhodes began as an accessory of the

newly introduced Gothic architecture. For most of the 15th century the Gothic
style must have coexisted with the eclectic, but few remnants of the first have
come down to us- fragments from the tracery of Gothic windows, pieces of
mouldings and cross-vault ribs of composite section, mullions, some corbels.
The most typical examples of Gothic stone carving in medieval Rhodes are some
funerary monuments which are most likely the work of Western craftsmen, as are
the figures of saints decorating the gate of St. Anthony, the tower of the Virgin
at the bastion of England, the central tower at Fort St. Nicholas and the Marine
76
Latin Veronica, i.e. the Holy Face.
77
Kasdagli and Bitha 2008.
78
Andreas Chrysoverges, Latin archbishop of Rhodes (1431-1447), had obtained special permission
to use a version of the mass translated into Greek, probably to facilitate proselytization; this was not
a unique case. Tsirpanlis, 1991: 212; idem 1995: 293. Kasdagli 2007a: 467.
79
Luttrell 2003: 94-109, 141-144, 267-278.
80
E.g. Virgin of the Castle, Old Hospital.
81
E.g. conventual church of St. John in the Collachio.
Gate.82 These, though, have been so damaged by erosion and vandalism that it
is hard to appreciate their artistic value. Among surviving funerary monuments
most notable is the sarcophagus lid from the tomb of master Jacques de Milly
(†1461), now on display at the Musée des Thermes de Cluny (Musée national du
Moyen Âge) in Paris. Of similar quality must have been the lid of the tomb of
master Giovanni Battista degli Orsini (†1476), a fragment of which has recently
been located in the depots of the Archaeological Service in Rhodes.83
The reason that the Gothic architecture of Rhodes left few traces must be due, at
least in part, to the fact that it was mostly used to decorate the upper storey of the
buildings. The ground floor was usually taken up by storerooms or shops, which
were, as a rule, solid vaulted constructions with thick carrying walls. The first floor
formed the residential part of the houses and had thinner walls, more and larger
openings and high, usually timber ceilings. Thus, it was particularly vulnerable
to earthquakes, and apparently few examples survived the violent tremors that
shook the town in 1481. In addition, most of the large Latin churches had been
built in the 14th century, in a more austere style. Evidence exists for decorative
modifications in the Gothic style from their interiors, of vividly coloured plaster
mouldings and fragments of stained glass recovered in excavations,84 but no such
additions have survived in situ.
The rebuilding of upper storeys after 1481 must have been almost total. The
arrival of capable Western craftsmen under the patronage of eminent members
of the Order such as Pierre d’Aubusson and Émery d’Amboise is evident, as
these influential Knights were not active builders only during their tenure of
the mastership. The dominant feature in the architecture of the late Hospitaller
period is the appearance of the Italian Renaissance, which also affected the
aesthetics of funerary monuments.85 This period, although comparatively brief,
must have been particularly dynamic. What remains of medieval Rhodes after
four centuries of Ottoman occupation, when the town was no longer inhabited
by Christians, is mostly its legacy. Typical decorated examples of this period are
the so-called ‘Castellania’ on Hippokratous Square,86 the Zaccaria mansion on
82
Manoussou-Della 2007b: 234, fig. 24, 238, fig. 29.
83
Gabriel 1921: 30, 65, 87, 44. Gerola 1914: 239 and 244 fig. 37, 232-233 fig. 28, 247, 22 and
244 fig. 37. Kollias 1998a: 132-141. De Vaivre 1998: 35-88; idem 2006: 254-263. Kasdagli 2002a:
254-256.
84
More specifically in Our Lady of the Castle (1970) and the conventual church of the Hospital
(1990). Cf. Rottiers 1830: 299 and pl. LIII, 279, 283 and pl. XXXVII.
85
Gabriel 1923: 145-146, 155-156.
86
Gabriel 1923: no. 26, 2-4, 93. It is probably the building of the Commercium.
III. Stone carving and the art of Hospitaller Rhodes 19
Evraion Martyron Square,87 the ‘Auberge of France’ on the Street of the Knights88
and the recently restored ‘House of Djem’ off the same street.89 Of the funerary
monuments the most typical example, probably an import from Italy, survives in
part, incorporated in the doorway of the Suleymaniye Mosque on the junction of
Sokratous and Orfeos Streets.90 In contrast to monumental tombs, a number of
tomb slabs have been preserved, and help us draw some conclusions about the
wider context of stone carving of the Hospitaller period.
Dozens of standing buildings still preserve on their façades and interiors decorative
architectural elements which have not been thoroughly studied, although the
heraldry and inscriptions on the façades of secular buildings and the fortifications
have been systematically inventoried.91 The heraldry on the buildings, much of
which survives in place, is a dominant feature of Hospitaller architecture. The
carving of coats-of-arms in relief, with the exception of some late examples, did
not require particular skill. These arms enable us to date and identify buildings
and are sometimes accompanied by precise dates and inscriptions, while the
rules of heraldry provide additional information concerning the social context of
building activity.
Funerary monuments were the structures most adversely affected by Ottoman

practices. The floors of medieval churches were, according to available
archaeological evidence, laid with marble slabs or terracotta tiles,92 but most of
them have been destroyed; any tomb slabs or standing tombs were plundered for
building material by people who sometimes exploited their decorative qualities93
87
Gabriel 1923: no. 31, 2-4, 110. Recent identification: De Vaivre 2010: 71-74. In the past it has
been referred to as the ‘mansion of the Greek archbishop’ and as the ‘Admiralty’.
88
Gabriel 1923: no. 5, 2-4, 39.
89
Gabriel 1923: no. 6, 2-4, 47. The present early 16th century building is assumed to stand on the
site of Djem’s lodgings.
90
Balducci 1931.
91
Gerola 1913-14: 730-742, 81-91, 164-174, 332-339, 399-407, 443-452. Gabriel 1921: 93-103
and idem 1923: 3 ff.
92
Examples of marble-paved churches were the conventual church of St. John, where excavation
brought to light the traces of the lime mortar that cemented the irregular slabs together (the slabs
themselves had been preserved only underneath the mihrab, Archaiologikon Deltion 50 (1995):
821-822 and plan 1) and the Virgin of the Burgh, Archaiologikon Deltion 52 (1997): 1151-1152
(Α. Psarologaki), while a pavement of ceramic tiles was found in a comparatively good state of
preservation in a chapel of the ‘anonymous church on Kisthiniou Street’ (Μεσαιωνική Πόλη Ρόδου.
Έργα Αποκατάστασης 2000-2008: 126). It may be that other churches were paved with sandstone
slabs, pebbles or lime cement, materials encountered in other Hospitaller buildings but also used
in the Ottoman period.
93
Intact or almost intact tomb slabs were reused in the floors of Ottoman public buildings such as
the Suleymaniye (1808) and Ibrahim Pasha (1540) mosques, the New Baths or Baths of Suleyman
(Yeni Hammam, 1558) and also the bastion of the tongue of Spain on the fortifications, which was
restored by the Turks. It is interesting that medieval tomb slabs have not been found in the other
or, if made of marble, were frequently broken into pieces and fed into lime kilns.94
What we see today are scattered survivals, while some of the most important of
those have been taken abroad.95
On surviving tomb slabs, features that the Ottomans disliked were often removed.
In many effigies and statues of saints the head is missing or has been deliberately
damaged; opposing arms of the cross on the Hospitallers’ mantle and on the
heraldry are often abraded off (161, 164, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 186, lid of the
sarcophagus of Jacques de Milly). This, in certain cases at least, must have taken
place soon after the conquest of Rhodes, because it shows familiarity with the
details of the Hospital’s habit.96 Less common, but not unheard of, is the erasure
of features from the heraldry mounted on buildings, such as the lions of Guy de
Blanchefort on the ground floor of the auberge of Auvergne or the cross on 70, a
shield from Lindos.
In more recent times, a popular belief is recorded among the local Muslims which
ascribed the solidity of the fortifications to the ‘magic influence’ of the heraldry
on them.97 Thus, when part of the counterscarp collapsed in the sector of the
tongue of Provence, its restorers put back the shields recovered from the rubble,
though they placed them upside-down through error. However, the heraldry on
the walls seems to have also been used for target practice by the Ottoman cavalry
who regularly exercised in the moat (63).
two major mosques of Rhodes, those of Redjep Pasha (1588) and Mustafa Pasha (1765). Decorative
use is seen in the doorway of the Suleymaniye. For the dating of Ottoman monuments see Balducci
1932: 45-47, 93-138.
94
This must have been the lot of marble lay tomb slabs 190 and 191, of which numerous small
fragments were recovered from the burial crypt of St. Spyridon. Archaiologikon Deltion 39 (1984):
340 (E. Kollias).
95
Du Sommerard 1883: 39-41. Rossi 1920: 331-340.
96
As in the case of the small cross decorating the ending of the cord that fastened the Knights’
mantle (165 and possibly also 180).
97
Information by E. Kollias, who had it from discussions with elderly Ottoman inhabitants of the
Old Town, still alive in the 1970s.
Part Two
IV. Displaced carved pieces and fragments
Carved pieces and fragments not preserved in situ belong to two broad categories:
decorated architectural pieces (door- and windowframes, mouldings, capitals, rib
sections, heraldry etc.), and tomb slabs and markers, often inscribed. To date no
full inventory exists for members bearing moulded decoration that are, for the most
part, carved in sandstone.98 Out of context they can provide only limited historical
information, in contrast to inscriptions. Also, they are less well preserved than other
stone carvings and more dispersed in the storerooms of the Archaeological Service.
The first 235 entries in the extant internal inventory are figured sculptures and reliefs,
inscriptions, heraldry and funerary slabs; they form the subject of this study.
Of the pieces under consideration 134 are of unknown provenance, and we do not even
know how or when they arrived at the depots of the Archaeological Service. Most of
them probably came from the clearing of the debris throughout the town after World
War II. They are 65 heraldic slabs from buildings or the fortifications, 50 tomb slabs
(or what survived of them), five figured capitals from mullioned windows, the torso
of a female statue, and 13 other pieces, mostly architectural members (mouldings,
lintels etc.) A further 37 inventoried pieces derive from Italian and more recent
archaeological activity, but their original position is also unknown. We are ignorant
of the conditions of discovery of two further pieces of known provenance. Finally, 62
pieces still remain where they were found, or come from excavations probably close
to their original position, or actually belong to the site under investigation.
Most of the pieces on display are kept in the great ward of the 15th century hospital
of the Order, housing the Archaeological Museum since the Italian occupation (1912-
1944);99 a further piece may be seen in the small courtyard of the same building.
Some others are part of the exhibition on medieval Rhodes at the Palace of the Grand
Master;100 two are in St. Mary of the Castle and three in the small display of the Holy
Apostles within the compound of the Ottoman soup kitchen (Imaret) at the upper end
of Sokratous Street. Three further pieces are on display at the ‘Auberge of France’, an
annexe of the French Consulate on the Street of the Knights. An architectural element
is kept at Fort St. Nicholas, and a tomb slab is still in situ at the ‘anonymous church
on Kisthiniou Street’ due to a legal dispute with a private citizen.101 Two heraldic slabs
are kept at the acropolis of Lindos, two more outside the conventual church of the
98
A. Gabriel, the principal researcher of the architecture of Hospitaller Rhodes, has made a brief
study of mouldings. Gabriel 1923, 130-138.
99
Maiuri 1921. Jacopi 1932a. Konstantinopoulos 1977.
100
Rhodes from the 4th c.: 52, fig. 45 and 46, 70-71, fig. 82 and 84, 78-79, fig. 91-92, 91, fig. 105.
101
Μεσαιωνική Πόλη Ρόδου. Έργα Αποκατάστασης 2000-2008: 126, fig. 31.
21
Virgin at Phileremos and one in the community office at the village of Salakos. The
rest are kept in various depots and courtyards of the Archaeological Service.102 Some
of them are not readily accessible and several require cleaning and conservation.
The already inventoried pieces are a rich source of information on Hospitaller

Rhodes. They contribute to the dating and identification of buildings, separate pieces
and archaeological contexts, provide a control for the written sources and the theories
of scholars in various topics, and add to the information elicited from standing
monuments. The 14th century is less well represented in the existing inventory. Indeed,
few standing buildings of the period remain, because the building activity attendant on
the development of the town in the 15th century was followed by intensive rebuilding
after the earthquakes of 1481. The stones used for the carving of 14th century pieces
generally indicate local work, if not necessarily indigenous craftsmen.103 The same
holds true for the late Hospitaller period, where more information is available, at
least in certain fields.104 For most of the architectural members the buff calcareous
sandstone of Rhodes has been used, although marble moulded frames, mullions
and capitals also exist. Most of the heraldic and tomb slabs are carved on a variety
of marbles, notably the rather coarse-grained, greyish local marble also known as
Lartian stone. Other kinds of marble are obviously imported, but most of them are
probably recycled ancient pieces. Stylistic similarities indicate the systematic reuse
of marble from the abundant ancient and Early Christian material ready to hand in
the extensive ruins surrounding the medieval town of Rhodes and the abandoned
monuments of the countryside. It is well known that the ruins of the ancient city were
systematically quarried during the execution of large-scale projects in Byzantine and
Hospitaller times, mostly on the fortifications.105 In some cases, however, we have
stones that present problems- such as a type of whitish, soft, fine-grained limestone
that may have reached Rhodes as ships’ ballast.
Elements stylistically related to similar pieces which are still in situ on standing
monuments are easier to date. Scholars, mostly antiquaries and architects of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, have already examined part of the material.106
Some displaced pieces, such as the sandstone figured sculptures, present difficulties.
Dating the heraldry and inscriptions, although not always with precision, is easier.
The pieces most securely dated, containing inscriptions and heraldry, usually belong
to the large category of funerary slabs.
102
See also Appendix 2 for the location of all the pieces included in the catalogue.
103
Gabriel 1923: 154-155.
104
Gabriel 1923: 155-156. Kollias 1998b: 152-164.
105
Manoussou-Della 2007b: 221-222.
106
Most significant for their research as well as their publications are Rottiers (1826-1830), Flandin
(1853), Berg (1862), Biliotti and Cottret (1881), Belabre (1908) and, during and after the Italian
invasion, Gabriel (1909-1923) and Gerola (c. 1912-1928), followed by Maiuri (1921-1928), Jacopi
(1927-32), Balducci (1931-1933) and Lojacono (1933-1936).
V. Architectural members
The architecture of secular buildings in Hospitaller Rhodes has been of interest

to a number of specialists. A detailed examination is not necessary here, but a
concise review of its typical features will be useful. They all were two-storeyed,
and shared partition walls with adjacent buildings; the vaulted roof of the ground
floor supported a first floor with a flat timber ceiling. The masonry was in regular
courses. Usually, ground floor vaults were slightly pointed but the occasional
cross vault also appears. The horizontal was accentuated on the façades, through
the use of moulded string courses (cordoni) at the level of the sills of the large
windows of the first floor. As the first floor was higher than the ground floor,
with small square ventilation windows just below the ceiling, these string courses
divided the façade horizontally in two nearly equal parts.
The main decorative elements of the façade were the openings: in the simplest
form, the frames had bevelled edges and large windows were supplied with
dripstones. Other ornamentation, mostly encountered in the houses of the wealthy
or public buildings, were moulded frames containing heraldry, figured reliefs or
murals, stone flag stands and projecting gargoyles along the roof. The ground
floor openings were supplied with wooden awnings supported by projecting
stone hooks. The entrance opened onto a vaulted passage that led to an inner
courtyard, generally supplied with a well. From the courtyard, a stone staircase
with a moulded outline on the free side led to the living quarters on the first floor,
often through an arcaded veranda. On this opened the doors of the various rooms
and some windows. Interiors displayed usually simple decorative stonework
in communicating doorways, fireplaces and window seats. The other notable
element was the frequently painted ceiling of cypress or cedar timber, with carved
corbels supported on stone projections along the top of opposed walls.
Some of these features, such as the string courses and moulded frames, the heraldry,
ribbed cross vaults and flag stands, are also encountered on some structures on
the fortifications107 and on churches. Thus, the category of architectural members
comprises moulded pieces from door- and windowframes, mullions, figured
capitals and tracery from Gothic windows, flag stands, monolithic Renaissance
lintels, the moulded frames of the heraldry, gargoyles, windowsills, staircase
edgings, corbels, bosses and pieces of vault ribs from cross-vaulted ceilings,
decorative fountain basins and a few other elements of doubtful function. To
these may be added figures carved in relief or in the round, which ornamented
gates and towers, supported coats of arms and occasionally may have graced the
interior of churches and secular buildings.
107
Some towers have fireplaces on the top floor. The graceful machicolations were standard in the
pre-1480 period.
23
Most of these pieces, some mullions excepted, were carved in the local calcareous
sandstone, the commonest building material in the town. A fair number of such
scattered pieces, collected from various sites and currently kept in the depots of
the Archaeological Service, were recently inventoried; their systematic study will
require time and a considerable amount of fieldwork. Only inventoried pieces
of hard stones (Lartian and imported marbles) will be presented here, as well as
some figured sculptures and a dated heraldic lintel.108 Dating is doubtful for some,
and they will therefore be examined according to type.
No 1 in the catalogue is a typical sandstone lintel from a Renaissance rectangular

doorway,109 broken into three pieces and bearing the date 1516. It bears the arms
of a family of Greek burgesses. It probably came from the clearing of World
War II bombsites and it must have originally belonged to a house on Athinas
Square near the church of ‘St. Spyridon’. This house was inventoried by Gabriel
(1923) as House No. 65, and in his Pl. XXX.1 Gabriel publishes a photograph
with a partial view of the façade, including a mullioned window with a figured
capital very similar to (if not the same with) No. 11. The decorative flower above
the arms recalls the characteristic Venetian shape of the shield used, some time
earlier, on tomb slab No. 191 from ‘St. Spyridon’- a church of which the same
family were the donors. The initials Γ Μ framing the arms on the lintel must
represent the George depicted on the mural of the Crucifixion in the burial crypt
of the church, to the right of the Cross, at the feet of St. John.110
The two pieces of 2 belong together, although they come from different parts of
the frame of a mullioned window with moulded and vegetal decoration. A partial
graphic reconstruction has been attempted as, unfortunately, the recovered pieces
do not suffice for a full reconstruction.111 It is probable, however, that the smaller
piece comes from the left light of the window. This frame recalls, in its decorative
motif, a window with an elaborate sandstone windowframe published by Gabriel
from his House No. 61, which is still standing on Aristeidou Street. However, 2 is
unique for Rhodes so far, due to the material and the quality of the carving. The
clarity of line and composite profile of the moudings forming the pointed arch of
the light recall the craftsmanship on the niches framing the effigies on the finest
funerary monuments of the third quarter of the 15th century.
From the few surviving examples of mullioned windows it appears that generally
the ratio of the height of the mullion against the total height of the opening was
108
It has to be stressed that imported marbles include those which reached the island in antiquity
and the Early Christian centuries, and were reused in the Hospitaller period.
109
Judging from the considerable length.
110
Kollias 1994: 41.
111
Drawing I facing Pl. 1 below.
V. Architectural members 25
about 3:5. If 3, a spiral colonnette with a trefoil section comes from a window
with similar dimensions, then the total height of the opening it belonged to must
have been about 2.5 metres, something exceptional for Rhodes. Its remarkably
good state of preservation makes it unlikely that it came from the ruins of a
bombsite. It is possible that it is an import,112 and stylistically related to pieces
seen in the cloisters of large Roman churches such as San Giovanni Laterano or
San Paolo fuori le mura.113
In contrast, square mullion 4 is definitely Rhodian, as it displays the arms of a

master of the Order and is carved in local stone. The piece possibly came from
the Latin church of St. Sebastian, which no longer exists.114 However, the most
interesting feature of the piece is the Latin monogram incised on the right side,
which may be the mark of the stonecutter: if this is true, it is the first time such a
mark is observed on Hospitaller Rhodes.
Figured capitals must have been a common element of mullioned windows on

Rhodes. So far eight pieces have been found, of which only one is of marble
(16), and appears stylistically different from the others (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15),
which are cut either in sandstone (the first four) or in porous limestone (the last
three). 16 might be the work of a craftsman specializing in figured sculptures
such as the relief of the seated Virgin with Child gracing the tower of the Virgin,
executed on behalf of master Jean de Lastic. Unfortunately, the faces on this
latter sculpture have been vandalised, and a comparison is not possible. The other
capitals are rather clumsy works, but from a distance must have enlivened the
rather austere façades they decorated. The moulding of the negroid features of
the girl’s face on 14 is of particular interest, and it is uncertain whether the effect
was accidental or deliberately achieved. Also worth noting is the face of a young
man, distinguished by a determined, rather grim expression (15).115 Extensive
damage does not allow us to judge whether the other pieces were individually
expressive or resembled each other in this respect as well- because it is clear,
from the rendering of the hair and the vegetal motifs, the shape of the face and the
material, that 10, 11 and 12 are closely related to each other, and may be the work
of the same craftsman. 9, reproducing a more naturalistic hairstyle, might have
assisted in the dating of the type, but unfortunately follows one of the commonest
of women’s fashions.116 No detail survives on 13, the head of a young page. Thus
112
Perhaps even during the Italian occupation of the 20th century.
113
Toman 1997: 89, 308-309.
114
Brouskari 1998: 440, n. 4.
115
Found in the fill of the vault at the east wing of the Villaragut building.
116
From 1330 onwards. Viollet-le-Duc 1978, vol. ΙΙ, Mobilier: 499-500, fig. 22. The back of the
head is covered by a coif, and the plaits twist from the temples towards the ears and the nape of the
neck. The coif was usually secured by a wreath or band: in this case a half-band recalling a tapestry
dating from the mid-15th c. Hansen 1962: 39, no. 205, 207.
the dating of these figured capitals is difficult. Although the rendering of the
vegetal motifs recalls the decoration of heraldic slab 35 (1365-1373), and shows
similarities with the decoration of the capitals in St. Mary of the Borgo (first
half of the 14th century), these elements do not suffice to date all the capitals
to the same period. Moreover, it appears difficult for so many examples to have
survived from this early; therefore it seems more likely that they are the products
of a local trend, still present in the 15th century.
The stylistic idiom of these capitals is not purely Gothic: it lies nearer to the
Romanesque. Elements of the earlier style were still utilized in 15th century
Sicily, with which Rhodes maintained close contacts throughout the Hospitaller
period. Similar examples have not survived in the rest of Latin Greece or in
Cyprus. Corbels from ribbed cross vaults decorated with human faces survive at
St. Sophia in Andravida and at Zarakas in the Peloponnese, but they date from the
first half of the 13th century.117 Related examples on Cyprus, mostly from the area
of Famagusta, are also early, and aesthetically distinct.118
5 is a cross-vault boss bearing the arms of the d’Alamania family. It probably

came from the ground floor of the first building phase of the Hospice of Saint
Catherine, a foundation of Domenico d’Alamania, raised in 1391-1392 at the
easternmost part of the town, the Ovriaki.119 6 is a massive impost from Fort St.
Nicholas, where it was found reused in a later fill on the platform of the outer
bastion built by grand master Aubusson and modified in Ottoman times. It dates
from the first phase of the fort, built by Pere Ramon Zacosta, when the Gothic
script was still in use on the fortifications. Perhaps it originally supported the
right end of a large arch, so that we may visualize a corresponding piece with the
arms of the master supporting the other end of the same structure.
7 is a small rectangular twin basin from a fountain that probably decorated the
façade or courtyard of a private mansion; it has spouts in the form of lionheads
and the arms of a burgess of the late Hospitaller period and is late in date. The
inscription with the name of the owner, MIKAEL CARBONVS, helps in the
interpretation of the objects accompanying the bend on the shield: they are
probably pieces of coal and this is an example of canting arms in Rhodes.120 It is
worth noting the use of K in the inscription, and the A with a broken horizontal
117
Bon 1969: pl. 17c, 126c. Kitsiki-Panagopoulos 1979: 73, fig. 46.
118
Enlart 1899: 115, 222, 231, 341, 384.
119
Anapolitanos, Kasdagli and Manoussou-Della 1997: 501. Manoussou-Della 2003: 136-141.
120
Most familiar canting arms in Rhodes are the crows (corneilles) of Corneillan, the pine-cones of
de Pins, and the crowned column of pope Martin V (Odone Colonna, 1417-1431). The arms of the
Peruzzi, Clouet, and Vavano (108: the ‘fan’ on the arms is probably a pun based on the name of the
owner: Va+Vano) families are also canting.
stroke, a detail that appears sporadically throughout the Hospitaller period.121

This piece testifies to the cultural and social status to which a prosperous burgess
of Rhodes might aspire towards the end of the Hospitaller period. That the owner
was a layman is made evident by the heraldic shield, which lacks the cross of
the Order, and by the plainness of the inscription, although the surname does not
necessary derive from the rather base trade implied by the chunks of coal on the
arms. It is more likely that the name itself inspired this unusual charge, which
might even refer to swarthy looks. Column 8, inscribed with a number of wise
sayings from Antiquity signed by the cleric Cristoforo Buondelmonti, must also
have been decorative (or an advertisement of scholarly erudition); the admonitory
content of the inscription may indicate that the column (or the inscription) was
gifted to a personage or a public building, or have given distinction to the house
of a wealthy patron of the arts.
A group of decorative members of doubtful function presents a number of

problems. Apart from 20, a reused piece from a Byzantine templon epistyle, 17
and 18 have no parallels on Rhodes. 17 possibly belongs to the experiments of the
mid-14th century also responsible for the decorative motifs on heraldic slabs 32
and 34, although it may be earlier still.122 The fragments ornamented with incised
fleurs-de-lys (18) come from the conventual church of St. John. It is recorded
that in the early years of the 16th-century French Knight Charles Aleman de la
Rochechinard was active in the embellishment of the church: furniture with his
arms still existed there in the nineteenth century.123 It is possibly not an accident
that the confident rendering of the motif, although simpler, presents similarities
to the technique on the decorative border of the tomb slab of Liberalis Thomaseus
(229).
Renaissance jambs 21 and 22 probably belong together, but it is not known

whether they decorated an arcosolium, arch or doorframe (or a pair of them) in
the church of the Holy Apostles, where they were found. The decoration on either
side is different, although the same basic theme appears with slight modifications
on the forward-facing side of both pieces. Related, although simpler, is the motif
on the intrados of 22. This kind of pattern, with stylized plants springing from
an ornate vase, was particularly popular in north Italy.124 Similar designs are
often encountered in the decoration of buildings, especially on square pillars and
121
Cf. the same letter on tomb slab 114, dated to 1318.
122
The pattern recalls the rows of interlaced Gothic arches of Norman Sicily, but also Venetian
motifs.
123
Rochechinard bore semy of fleurs-de-lys in the 1st and 4th quarters.
124
It is very commonly met in the decoration of manuscripts, in both Venice and Florence.
Armstrong 1981: pl. 58, 89, 90 (1472-1473). Manion and Vines 1984: pl. 18, fig. 61 (1452-1484).
Further elements of Rhodian stone-carving, such as the shield-of-arms within a wreath, also appear
in these manuscripts.
doorframes, in the painting of Renaissance Italy during the last quarter of the
15th and early 16th century. It is prominent in works by Perugino, Pinturicchio,
Ghirlandaio, Crivelli, Botticelli and Correggio.125 Its use on the frame of the Frari
Triptych in Venice, the work of Bellini, is typical.126 Architectural parallels of
these depictions are found in Renaissance mansions such as the Villa Madama in
Rome.127 The intrados of 21, with twisting vine tendrils, is different from the rest
of the decoration, recalling older designs. However, the subject is enlivened by
the presence of birds and a small lizard, which recall illuminated manuscripts but
also the panels and pilasters with vegetal decoration on the Ara Pacis Augustae
in Rome.128
Among the few figured sculptures of Rhodes, 23 is a possibly half-finished relief

representation of saint Michael, the most adventurous example of Hospitaller
period sculpture where pose is concerned. The angel is clad in contemporary plate
armour under a mantle wrapped diagonally across the chest. He raises a sword
above his head with the right hand, holding a shield low with the left. The face
and the surface of the left leg are broken off. The relief was probably intended
to decorate some part of the fortifications near the Amboise Gate, where it was
found during the Italian occupation. The proportions and shape of the body are
competently rendered, although in a simplified manner. This work, which in some
ways recalls the figure of the Virgin on the tower of England, provides striking
contrast to the rather dull shallow relief of 24 from the village of Asklipio and the
folk style lion of saint Mark on 25. This piece displays picturesque elements such
as the animal ears attached to a human head with a halo, the stylized bud-shaped
tuft of the tail, the clumsily shaped hind legs and the errors in the inscription. The
latter almost certainly betray the Greek origin of a craftsman illiterate in Latin:
two out of three involve the Latin characters R and G, and the third the omission
of Τ in the word EVANGΕLISTA. The relief might come from a Latin church
dedicated to St. Mark but its provenance is unknown. Thus, like 26, a piece from
Syros with the same general theme rendered much more competently, it may have
been recently imported from another island, where Venice held sway.
125
Perugino (Jesus Handing the Keys to St. Peter, 1481/2), Pinturicchio (Burial of St. Bernardine,
c. 1484 and Departure of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini for the Synod of Basle, 1507), Ghirlandaio
(Birth of the Virgin, c. 1485-1490), Crivelli (Annunciation, 1486), Botticelli (Scenes from the Life
of St. Zenobius, c. 1500-1505) and Correggio (Vision of St. John the Evangelist, c. 1520-1524).
Toman 2005: 289, 295, 298-299, 363, 385. Ettlinger and Ettlinger 1976: 105-109. The similarity
with the motifs in those works of Botticelli and Crivelli is particularly striking.
126
Virgin and Child with saints Nicholas, Mark and Benedict (1488), in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei
Frari. Woods 2007: 198-199.
127
Furneau-Jordan 1981: 244-245.
128
Castriota 1995.
Two further pieces belonging to the category of figured sculptures are female
figures carved in the round (28, 29). They are both missing their heads and arms.
The first was found in the excavation of the conventual church of the Order and
only the upper torso survives. It was probably carved in more than one piece, since
the underside is flat and preserves traces of lime mortar. The back is perfunctorily
worked, so the work may have been placed in a niche inside or outside the
church. The long flowing hair belongs to a young and attractive woman, perhaps
a Mary Magdalene, clad in a tunic with a squared neckline and a mantle over the
shoulders. The turning of the torso and head to the right are a possible indication
that the statue belonged to a group. 29 is enigmatic, but obviously designed to
be seen from all sides. The movement of the torso and the convincing shaping of
the body betray a competent artist and possibly recall the restrained style of 23.
Here, however, we possibly have to do with a secular subject, since the dress is
contemporary, with a wide skirt and narrow bodice pointed at the front and back,
which offsets the waist. The motion of the torso and the raised left knee forced
the sculptor to preserve part of the stone as an additional support round the lower
part of the skirt on the opposite side.
VI. Heraldry from buildings
Surviving evidence indicates that the use of heraldry on Rhodes antedates the
arrival of the Order of St. John: the lower half of the tomb slab of Ioannes Pitzos
(113), dated to 1306, is missing. However, the shallow carving in the lower part
of the extant piece may, without much effort, be reconstructed as the upper part
of a coat of arms parted per pale, with a single charge on the dexter side- either a
fleur-de-lys or, possibly, an estoile. The design cannot be otherwise interpreted,
and the name Pitzos or Opitzos is obviously the Hellenization of an Italian name
(Obizzo?). Thus, it appears that Italian soldiers of fortune active in Aegean waters
in the 13th century introduced heraldry to Rhodes, and were possibly in the
process of being assimilated by the indigenous Greek population when the Order
reached the island.
Heraldry is really a specialized kind of epigraphy, very important on Rhodes

because of the sheer quantity of specimens129 and can furnish important
information, provided particular contexts are taken into account. It is generally
associated with Westerners, and members of the Order in particular, with special
emphasis on late grand masters. It is frequently accompanied by other epigraphic
elements, mostly dates, although this is by no means the rule. The combination
of heraldry and script make the social context clearer. The heraldry accompanies,
in a few cases, inscriptions in Greek: they are examples representing the eclectic
mixing of cultural elements or Renaissance influence.130
Hospitaller heraldry has been a decisive factor in identifying and dating medieval
buildings in Rhodes. Western travellers of the nineteenth century,131 and scholars
of the early twentieth,132 employed their knowledge of heraldry in order to lay
the foundations of the research modern archaeologists and historians have since
added to. Today, the knowledge of heraldry is uncommon in Greece, because it
has been associated with social prejudices of the past and foreign oppression.
Thus, important information about various medieval artifacts that lies encoded
in its rules often escapes local scholars. When adopted by Greek folk art, it is
sometimes hard to even identify its presence.133 On Rhodes there is evidence that
craftsmen more familiar with Byzantine art were called upon to execute heraldic
designs. However, the importance given to this mode of expression by the foreign
129
Kasdagli 1988: 18-48; eadem 1992: 115-122; eadem 1994-1995.
130
This is also observed in Cyprus. Imhaus, vol. Ι: 263-286, 357-361, vol. ΙΙ: 202-204.
131
Rottiers. Flandin 1853. Berg 1862.
132
Gabriel. Gerola 1913-1914; idem 1914.
133
Cf. Pazaras 1988: 31, no. 25. The ‘pointed vessel’ is, in reality, a shield hanging from its
strap, with animal supporters. The introduction and handling of a distinctly Western element on
a Byzantine-style sarcophagus in northern Greece in the 14th century is particularly interesting.
30
VI. Heraldry from buildings 31
ruling elite prevented its adulteration by traditional elements. Thus Rhodes boasts
the richest collection of medieval heraldic monuments in Greece.134
In the late 14th century, an artist who had never seen a squirrel painted the arms of
the English Holt family on a mural of the chapel of St. George ‘of the English’;135
his design accorded with the rules of heraldry, but the squirrels look like the local
weasels. However, we encounter lifelike squirrels in the work of the carver of
piece 165b, who was probably a Westerner and knew what the animal looked like.
When the drawing and execution of a shield were carried out without supervision
mistakes occurred, as in the case of the shields in the chapel of St. Elias at the
village of Koskinou, where the quarterings on the arms of grand master Pierre
d’Aubusson are reversed.136
According to a recent count, about 860 medieval heraldic shields survive on

Rhodes. Of these, 807 are found in the medieval town of Rhodes, 220 represent
the Order of the Hospital itself and 353 belong to seventeen of its masters
(Appendix 3.1). Also, 178 of the magistral shields derive from the fortifications
or are still in place there (Appendix 3.2). These numbers have been affected by
the growing popularity of heraldry throughout the Hospitaller period and an
increased tendency to self-projection which may reflect competitive tendencies
within the Order. Whatever the reason, the phenomenon masks, to a certain
extent, the activity of earlier masters like Naillac, Fluvià, Lastic and Zacosta.
The fortifications resemble a heraldic palimpsest: more recent additions and
modifications cover earlier works whose heraldry is no longer visible.
The Hospitallers did not generally place on the defences other arms than those of
the grand master, apart from cases where a Western ruler had financed a particular
structure. Other than these, we have no examples datable after the period of Juan
Fernández de Heredia (†1396). Even then, they must have been exceptional. A
group of arms contemporary to that master once decorated the north tower of
the arsenal and were probably associated with its operation. These shields are
scattered today. The only other example may be seen in the chapel of St. George
‘of the English’, nestled within the southeast tower of the Collachio. This was a
Byzantine structure whose interior was converted into a chapel near the end of
the 14th century and is accessible only from the wallwalk. On the lintel of its
door figure the arms of Heredia, his lieutenant Pierre de Culant, and an unknown
Knight who may have been Spaniard Inigo d’Alfaro. The interior of the chapel
was covered in murals, and the surviving decoration includes several coats of
134
Kasdagli 1987-8, 18-48; eadem 1992: 115-122; eadem, 1994-5: 212-246.
135
The Holt arms were on a field argent a chevron gules accompanied by three squirrels of the
second.
136
Kasdagli 1987-8: 32-33.
arms. The royal arms of England crown the apse. On the west wall the arms of the
Order, master Philibert de Naillac (1396-1421) and of a member of the FitzAlan
family, accompany the representation of a mounted St. George. Another shield
to the lower left of the composition (barry of six argent and azure) has not been
identified. A similar shield figures on the south wall, together with other shields,
of which three belong to the FitzAlan, Holt and Skipwith families.137 Thus, the
unidentified arms probably belonged to Englishmen. It is not clear whether the
murals were paid for by the Order or by a group of laymen. Nevertheless, it is
interesting that a group of outsiders may have decided to commemorate their
presence on Rhodes in this way. The chapel recalls, on a smaller scale, the tower
of England at Bodrum with its numerous coats of arms. Although within a tower,
it is possible that the chapel was associated with the tongue of England, whose
auberge was close by inside the town.
The landward defences of the lower town, as we know them now, were started by
master Antoni de Fluvià (1421-37) and, for the most part, date from the period of
his successors Jean de Lastic and Jacques de Milly.138 The expansion of the town
and the increased danger from the East had made the new walls a necessity. On
the new fortification every tower, section of curtain and fausse-braye bore a pair
of shields: the Order’s to the left (dexter) and the master’s to the right (sinister).
At key points such as gateways there were often more than two shields, and
they might accompany relief sculptures of the saint the particular strongpoint
was dedicated to.139 Fluvià and Lastic both bore a fess and, without the tinctures,
could not be told apart. On the curtain all the shields are a combination of red and
white marble, rendering the arms of Lastic with precision: argent on gules. The
only recognized occasion where his arms are not composite is on the tower of
the Virgin (or Tower of England), where the dated inscription obviates the need.
Otherwise, the necessity for the distinction arose because Fluvià had also left his
arms on the new walls: other shields with a fess, usually cut on the greyish Lartian
stone, are found mounted on the square towers and some stretches of fausse-braye.
Most of these slabs share roughly the same measurements and carving style. It
seems reasonable to assume that they represent the contribution of Fluvià, whose
arms are rendered in simple relief because the need for differentiation had not
137
Help for the identification of the arms was graciously given by † Dr. Lawrence Butler, who
supplied the relevant bibliography: H. Chesshyre and T. Woodcock, Dictionary of British Arms:
Medieval Ordinary, I , London (1992). G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, London (1900
onwards). J. W. Papworth, An Ordinary of British Armorials, London (1874, repr. 1977). T.
Woodcock, J. Grant and I. Graham, Dictionary of British Arms: Medieval Ordinary, II, London
(1996).
138
Vestiges of earlier masonry incorporated in the curtain wall of Lastic have been identified,
and are tentatively assigned to the period of Heredia, but the extent and purpose of this defence is
unclear. Manoussou-Della 2007a: 338-339. Kasdagli and Manoussou-Della 2007: 124.
139
Gates of St. Anthony, St. George, St. Athanasius, St. John, Tower of the Virgin. Gabriel 1921.
yet occurred. Thus, using the testimony of the heraldry alone, we may conclude
that the new wall began as a row of square towers connected by a relatively low
curtain wall, which became a fausse-braye when Lastic constructed the present
curtain.140
Written records, dimensions and style indicate that some of the displaced heraldic
slabs included in the Catalogue come from the fortifications. Of them the earliest
are 37 and 38 (Heredia),141 39 (Heredia with Alamania and Clavelli, from the
north tower of the arsenal),142 and 41, 42, and 92, which were raised from the
waters of the great harbour during the Italian occupation and come from the
celebrated Tower of Naillac.143 Four other pieces bear the arms of Fluvià (44,
45, 46 and 47), of which the last originally displayed the arms of the master
twice, flanking the cross of the Order, and therefore must have come from a
tower- perhaps the tower whose construction Fluvià approved for the sector of
the tongue of Italy.144 The arms of masters Lastic, Μilly and occasionally Zacosta
are more fragile because they used inset shields of red and white marble. Thus
48 is the matrix for an inset shield, probably of Lastic,145 who used shields of
red marble on a white background, and 49 an inset shield of Milly. 50 is a shield
of Pere Ramon Zacosta, but does not belong to the inset category.146 51, with
the arms of the Order and of master Giovanni Battista degli Orsini, is part of an
ancient inscribed slab cut into pieces; part of the inscription is preserved along the
top surface of the block.147 Nine examples of the arms of grand master Aubusson
are included in the Catalogue, of which two (52 and 53) most likely come from
140
141
Probably from a tower, since it is identical with the heraldic slabs on the two surviving towers
of Heredia at the north wall. 75, with the arms of Culant respectant, may also come from the
fortifications - therefore there was another shield on a separate slab to the sinister side of the cross
of the Order.
142
The two smaller shields on the dexter are respectant because the shield of Heredia originally
occupied the centre of a row of five shields. Rottiers 1830: pl. IX.
143
Two bear respectant shields of Naillac due to the presence of the shield of the Order as a
centrepiece. This tower, the tallest of Rhodes (c. 37 metres high), collapsed in 1862. Gabriel 1921:
73.
144
Cf. Gabriel 1921: 96-97, no. 26 and 44. The piece had been reused as the top of the altar in the
‘anonymous church on Kisthiniou Street’ complex; this may have been the actual site of the Virgin
of Victory.
145
It is not impossible that the missing shield was that of Zacosta, but this master soon abandoned
the practice of inlaid shields, as may be seen at the middle gate of St. John and Fort St. Nicholas.
Moreover, the arms of Zacosta were complex, and where they are inset the piece is quite thick; yet
in this case the cavity is shallow. 50 is a shield of Zacosta where the inset technique was not used.
146
Although the use of inlaid red marble offset the arms of the Order, it made the composition more
vunerable, while the compex arms of Zacosta did not gain through the technique. Thus, during his
mastership, the inset technique went out of use on the fortifications.
147
Eight lines, height of characters 0.8cm The original thickness of the inscribed slab must have
been about 0.5 metres.
the fortifications, and may be dated to the period before 1489, on stylistic and
historical grounds. 58 may also be from the fortifications but is later in date,
like 56, whose elaborate style possibly indicates that it was mounted on a public
building. 55 is problematical: stylistically it diverges from over a hundred other
examples of the master’s arms and is unique.148 Also difficult to place are 57,
which is very large,149 and 54, which is double-sided.150 On 59 the arms of the
master are accompanied by those of his lieutenant Jaume de la Geltrú, something
that requires the presence of the cross of the Order as well, which would have
been placed either to the dexter of the other two, or above them. This piece,
however, should be from an urban context. Émery d’Amboise was the successor of
Aubusson; of the two examples of his arms in the Catalogue the one in the plainer
style with characteristic traces of erosion probably came from the fortifications
(63). The more ornate and massive 62, similar in size with 57, must be from a
public building built by the grand master or one of his officers. 61 is surprising,
because it is a shield of Guy de Blanchefort as grand master, although we know
that this Knight was elected master while in Western Europe and died on his way
back to Rhodes. It is obvious that, in his absence, an officer of the Order prepared
the arms of the new master, who enjoyed universal respect for his character and
integrity, for a public building under construction at the time. Finally, four other
pieces must come from the fortifications: three shields of grand master Carretto
(64, 65 and 66) and part of the eagle crest on a fourth shield of the same master
which is still in place on the Tower of Italy (27).
Displaced shields of the masters have also been recovered in the countryside,
on sites combining fortification with other uses such as the acropoleis of
Lindos and Phileremos (60, 67, 68). According to local reports, from the castle
of Salakos, which has completely disappeared, come the arms of the Genoese
family of Imperiale (73); they held the village as a fief from the Order at intervals
during the course of the 15th century.151 This rather clumsy piece is difficult to
date. The Catalogue includes two examples of the arms of 15th century kings
of England, probably through association with the English tongue (71 and 72).
Stylistic considerations place 72 in the period of grand master Aubusson, but the
148
The style varies widely from all other extant examples of the master’s arms, although the
hundred or so surviving examples of Aubusson’s arms were carved by a number of different hands
- cf. 52, 53, 56, 59. The general aspect of this piece would place it in the 14th or early 15th century
and it might belong to an entirely different individual. Cf. Roger 2012b: 315-340.
149
The original width of the shield may be calculated on the basis of the heraldic design, and
must have been about 64cm The shield, which probably decorated a public building or fortified
strongpoint, may well have broken when it fell from its original position.
150
99 is another heraldic plaque worked on both sides; it bears the arms of admiral Costanzo Operti
and the date 1517.
151
Tsirpanlis 1995: 42-43, 225-226. Gerola 1914: 328.
primitive-looking 71, which was probably part of a larger grouping of arms, is

hard to date.152
In the case of 31, 35, 36, 39, 59 and 91, the association of magistral arms with those
of other officers of the Order on public buildings has already been mentioned.
The cross of the Order never appears on medieval buildings of Rhodes on its own.
Thus, it is reasonable to assume that 69 and 70 were originally accompanied by
other arms, those of a master or some other Knight, as is the case with 75 and
80. However, in both these cases, there must have been other shields, of lesser
rank, to the sinister of the cross of the Order. In 75, although the lion of Pierre de
Culant, lieutenant of the master, is respectant, the small distance from the edge
of the Order’s shield to the right edge of the slab implies the presence of a third
shield next to it. In the case of 80, it is unthinkable that the arms of an unknown
Knight occupied the position of honour on the left: if another shield occupied
the space to the right of the slab, then the cross of the Order would be in the
heraldically correct central position of the composition. The category of heraldic
sculptures derived from public buildings or fortifications is completed by massive
slab 76. At the time, the highest ranking Hospitaller in Rhodes would be the
Knight represented by the arms on the left, Pierre de Culant. It is hard to believe
that the arms of the Order and of Juan Fernández de Heredia should be omitted
on a building of such importance. The shields alongside Culant’s have yet to be
identified. It is certain, nevertheless, that the shield on the right also belongs to a
Knight Hospitaller, since on 78,153 a much smaller piece, it is associated with the
cross of the Order. 78 and 77 were found a short distance from each other in the
area south of the conventual church of the Order, where the devastating explosion
of 1856 destroyed a number of Hospitaller buildings. It is very likely that the
lodgings of their owner once stood there. An indication of the nationality of this
Knight may be provided on the shield by the presence of the small crescent on the
point of the chevron: it was used in England as a cadency mark to distinguish the
second son of an armigerous father.154 The owner of the striped lion on the middle
shield of 76 should perhaps be sought between the Hospitaller officers from the
German-speaking lands, because this heraldic feature is more common there. The
function of the shields on slab 74 is unclear. They constitute the oldest examples
152
Half of the head of the left supporter is missing, but this does not mean the slab is incomplete:
It might originally have been joined to another one on the left. However the piece could be a failed
attempt to execute the upper row of shields now mounted on the façade of the auberge of England
rebuilt during the Italian occupation of Rhodes. The original version of these shields (Rottiers
1830: pl. 48 and 53) is dated by the arms of John Kendal to the last quarter of the fifteenth century.
O’Malley 2005: 351.
153
On the piece the crescent is not visible, but it seems fairly safe to assume that the arms are the
same.
154
Another example of the use of the crescent as a cadency mark survives on the Holt arms on
fragment 165b. The crescent is also used in a similar way in French heraldry.
of Hospitaller arms on Rhodes besides the masters’, since the shield on the left
belongs to Guillaume de Reillaune, grand preceptor and later lieutenant of the
master on Rhodes (c. 1328-1332).155
Shields mounted on buildings (or derived from buildings) may represent both
Hospitallers and laymen. The arms of Hospitallers are more often found in the
Collachio, where the members of the Order had their living quarters.156 They
often link specific officers with public functions, and therefore with the buildings
associated with them. Secular shields are not completely absent from the
Collachio, but they outnumber by far those of Hospitallers in the borgo or lower
town. About 220 lay shields correspond to some 170 different individuals; many
of them have yet to be identified. Usually the location, carving style and other
details on the heraldry assist identification: they occasionally distinguish laymen
from Hospitallers and the nobility from pretentious burgesses. Such details are of
interest because they shed light on aspects of social expression and hierarchy.157
In the 14th century, and more particularly in the period of masters Pins and
Bérenger, the vegetal decorative motifs that accompany 32,158 34, 35 and 43
betray eastern influence recalling, for example, the work of sculptors in the
church of St. Paul at Galata.159 The stylistic influences on the plaque of a lozenge
shield most probably belonging to a woman (107) are less clear, but it belongs to
the same decorated group. On the lozenge shield it is worth noting the hatching
on the charges, probably an example of ‘tricking’, representing colour. When in
position, the tinctures of the piece would be easily comprehensible.160
A substantial group of wall heraldry (82, 83, 84, 85,161 86,162 88, 89, 87, 90, 91,
92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 100, 101, 102163) may come mostly from the houses or
155
Luttrell 2003: 16, 28, 177, 183.
156
Kollias 1998a: 90.
157
Kasdagli 1992: 118-119.
158
The technique of the carving of the pine cones is very similar to that on piece 201.
159
Esp. 35. Cf. Cramer and Düll 1985: pl. 68.3 and 69.3.
160
Now it is impossible to decide whether the charges are two pallets gules or two bars azure.
161
Probably Michele di Romagnano, mentioned by Mesturino as envoy of the Order to the newly
elected master Orsini in 1467. Mesturino 1973: 15.
162
It comes from the building on no. 13, Athenodorou Street, an alley known as Via Piossasco
under the Italians: it runs north and west of the NE corner of the Street of the Knights (FERT Italian
Photographic Archive, nos. 303 and 602). The building was considerably altered by the Italians,
and the shield may have been in storage since then. Four branches crossed in saltire in pairs are
found on the arms of the della Rovere family, of which pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) was a notable
member, but there is a problem with the identification of the shield, because the tree of the della
Rovere was an oak, whereas on 86 the leaves seem to belong to a linden tree or something similar.
163
The arms displayed on the 2nd and 3rd quarter are those of Nesle (Néelle); the Knight’s mother
was an heiress of this family.
foundations of particular Knights in the Collachio. The chief of the Order dates
them all to the last fifty years of Hospitaller Rhodes.164 In some cases it is possible
to guess, with some caution, at their original location, as the arms of the same
people are still in situ on partially preserved buildings.165 It is hard to decide
whether older wall shields belonged to Hospitallers or not. 104, for example, is
a fragment, and originally had at least one other shield to its left. Stylistically it
belongs to the 14th century,166 so it might possibly be paired with the cross of
the Order. For 105 and 106 dating indications are missing, and they may even
have been tomb markers. 107 belonged to a woman, but we cannot say if she was
associated with the Order or not. 103, 108 and 109, with sufficiently illuminating
inscriptions,167 definitely belonged to lay people.
Two other shields are problematical. 79 may have belonged to an Englishman

contemporary with master Philibert de Naillac168 or to a relative of pope John
XXII (Jacques Duèze, 1316-1334) if not to the pope himself; and 81, the arms of
Jean Cottet, marshal of the Order (1457-1466),169 are carved on a reused ancient
cylindrical element and would be hard to imagine on the façade of a building.
Heraldry began to attract the local Greeks in the 15th century, although their
choices sometimes run counter to the rules of heraldry. For example, from the
164
The use of this element is fairly precisely dated on Rhodes. It first made its appearance on the
arms of Guy de Melay (1469) and cannot have been employed much earlier. The arms of Jaume
de la Geltrú on 82 are probably earlier, since the chief of the Order is disproportionately high
compared to the rest of the shield, but this piece bears no date. This Knight served the Order for
about sixty years: he is mentioned as castellan of Bodrum in 1433 and died in 1492. Nevertheless,
82 does not seem older than the period of Orsini. A Rhodian tomb slab of 1374, today in Istanbul,
has confused the issue. Düll 1989, 109. The inscription makes clear that the arms in this case belong
to a layman. The chief with the cross is very likely explained by the Genoese origin of the defunct,
since a chief of Genoa is attested in Italy fairly early on.
165
E.g. for 98 and 99, it might be suggested that they came from the Knight’s house to the west of
the great hospital, a building only the east part of which is still standing. 96 (Jean d’ Aunoy) may
be from the so-called ‘House of Djem’ on the north side of the Street of the Knights which has been
recently restored. 92 and 93 could be from the hospital annexe now known as ‘Villaragut building’.
Also the Cheron arms can still be seen in situ on the Street of the Knights, on the facade of the
‘house of the Prior of the Church’, dated to 1519.
166
Stylistically it is very close to the shields of the chapel of the Holy Trinity (St Michael according
to Luttrell) on the Street of the Knights. Luttrell 2003: 110-111.
167
For 109 see Kasdagli 2007a. 108 is late; if it belonged to a Knight Hospitaller it would be of
better quality and would bear a chief of the Order. 103, securely dated to the 14th c., should have
been paired with a shield of the Order if it belonged to a Hospitaller. It belongs to a member of
the Colloredo family from Friuli near Venice (information kindly furnished by A. Mazarakis). The
family supplied the Order with notable members after 1522.
168
A similar shield survives on the murals of the S wall of the chapel of St. George ‘of the English’,
but its state of preservation does not permit comparison of details which might link the two shields
with the same family. Kasdagli 2008a: fig. 8.3.
169
He was also grand prior of Auvergne until 1469. Sarnowsky 2001b: 653, 678.
surviving frescoes of ‘St. Spyridon’ we know that the arms of the Greek donor
broke the rules by bringing into contact gules, azure and purpure.170 Other
mistakes need not necessarily identify a coat of arms as Greek, since they may be
due to the lack of familiarity of a local craftsman with the job in hand, as probably
happened in the case of the arms of Guillaume Caoursin still in place on his house
in the lower town: the birds look to the sinister, probably because the pattern was
placed reversed upon the plaque when the design was copied.171 The degree of
assimilation varied greatly through time and according to class; thus, it is hard to
draw firm conclusions not only about the use of heraldry, but also about ritual,
language and dress. Greek inscriptions accompany urban heraldry, and latinized
Greek names appear on heraldic tomb slabs. The faded murals decorating a hall
in the lower town include a band of coats of arms,172 some of which probably
belong to Westerners while others seem more ‘Byzantine’ in style. But the fact
that they were found in a group shows a remarkable degree of affinity, apparent
in other media and sources.173
The carving style of the heraldry changed through time. Until the reign of master
Jean de Lastic most shields are flat, generally rendered in two-plane relief, often
with incised details. Abrading the edges of outlines made the carving more
durable and enhanced the design. For practical reasons, on tomb slabs incision
and/or two-plane relief was usually chosen, while for heraldry mounted on walls
projecting relief was preferred because it was easier to see from a distance. From
the times of Lastic onwards, the surface of most wall shields became slightly
convex, and from the period of Zacosta the relief became bolder.174 Charges were
now rendered in regular low relief. Such features occasionally also appear in the
14th century (74), emerging, one suspects, from the chisel of some abler artist
arrived from the West; while near the end of the Hospitaller period we also get
concave shields (66, 88, 92, 94, 102, 109) or even some with a wavy surface (62).
The shape of the shield is usually the classic triangle, with a somewhat truncated
base in later examples, and a flat top. Concave (56) and composite tops (221, 222)
occur occasionally, and in the arms of burgesses the typical Venetian top with a
flower in the middle and upturned ends (1, 191).175 Asymmetrical jousting shields
appear on the monument of Rainier Pot (226), on a Renaissance fountain basin
(7), and alongside chamfron-shaped shields on the lintel of the Commercium’.
170
Gules, two bars azure debruised of a bend purpure with three bricks or. The arms survive on
lintel 1 and fragmentary tomb slab 191 and must have been the centrepiece of tomb slab 224.
171
Caoursin bore argent, on a fess gules accompanied by three birds sable a mullet of six points of
the first. De Vaivre 2008c: 224-230.
172
Kasdagli 1994-5: 48-49, no. 35, 51, 82, 118, 182.
173
Kollias 1998a: 56-58, 123. Also Tsirpanlis 1995.
174
On 205 the shields are flat.
175
The wood-carved shields from the ceiling of the Zaccaria mansion (‘Admiralty’) on Evraion
Martyron Square have the same form.
The latter typical Italian shape also occurs on the tomb slab of Iacobus de Priolis
(220) and the Zaccaria mansion. The turnover of craftsmen in the local market
has made it impossible to date some specimens through style because, simply,
there is no available material to compare them to (105, 106).
111 is a piece in total contrast to the elegance of late Hospitaller heraldry, although
it may be nearer to the immediate contemporary perception of it. It belongs to the
vast category of graffiti, which in Rhodes is also represented by another example,
quarterly with a cross in the 1st and 4th quarters. This latter shield, scratched on
wet plaster on a harbour installation dated to the times of Naillac, may correspond
to the arms included at least twice in the frescoes of the chapel of St. George ‘of
the ‘English’. It may be that these examples of graffiti expressed the preferences
of their makers for a specific candidate for the mastership.
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Picture her now—that beautiful, clever woman—full of energy, of
vitality and of burning ambition, pacing the narrow room in the humble
hostelry of a second-rate city, up and down like some caged and exquisite
wild animal, the while that same fondly-adored brother sat there silent and
surly, his long legs, encased in breeches of delicate green satin, stretched
out before him, his not unattractive face, framed in by an over-elaborate
ruffle, bent in moody contemplation of his velvet shoes, the while his
perfumed and slender hands fidgeted uneasily with the folds of his mantle
or with the slashings of his doublet.
On the table before him lay a letter, all crumpled and partly torn, which
Marguerite had just thrown down in an access of angry impatience.
'By all the saints, François,' she said tartly, 'you would provoke an angel
into exasperation. In Heaven's name, tell me what you mean to do.'
Monsieur did not reply immediately. He stretched out his legs still
further before him; he shook his mantle into place; he smoothed down the
creases of his satin breeches; then he contemplated his highly polished
nails. Marguerite of Navarre, with flaming cheeks and blazing eyes, stood
by, looking down on him with ever-growing irritability not unmixed with
contempt.
'François!' she exclaimed once more, evidently at the end of her

patience.
'Gently, my dear Margot; gently!' said Monsieur, with the peevishness of

a spoilt child. 'Holy Virgin, how you do fume! Believe me, choler is bad for
the stomach and worse for the complexion. And, after all, where is the
hurry? One must have time to think.'
'Think! Think!' she retorted. ''Tis two days since M. d'Inchy's letter came
and he sends anon for his answer.'
'Which means,' he argued complacently, 'that there is no cause to come

to a decision for at least half an hour.'
An angry exclamation broke from Marguerite's full lips.

'My dear Margot,' said the Duke fretfully, 'marriage is a very serious
thing, and——'
He paused, frowning, for his sister had burst into ironical laughter. 'I am
well aware,' he resumed dryly, 'that you, my dear, look upon it as a cause
for levity, and that poor Navarre, your husband——'
'I pray you, dear brother,' she broke in coldly, 'do not let the pot call the
kettle black. 'Tis neither in good taste nor yet opportune. M. d'Inchy will
send for his answer anon. You must make up your mind now, whether you
mean to accept his proposal or not.'
Again Monsieur remained silent for awhile. Procrastination was as the

breath of his body to him. Even now he drew the letter—every word of
which he probably knew already by heart—towards him and fell to re-
reading it for the twentieth time.
II
Marguerite of Navarre, biting her lips and almost crying with vexation,
went up to the deep window embrasure and, throwing open the casement,
she rested her elbow on the sill and leaned her cheek against her hand.
The open courtyard of the hostelry was at her feet, and beyond it the
market-place of the sleepy little town with its quaint, narrow houses and tall
crow's foot gables and curious signs, rudely painted, swinging on iron
brackets in the breeze. It was early afternoon of a mild day in February, and
in the courtyard of the hostelry there was the usual bustle attendant upon the
presence of a high and mighty personage and of his numerous suite.
Men-at-arms passed to and fro; burghers from the tiny city, in dark cloth
clothes and sombre caps, came to pay their respects; peasants from the
country-side brought produce for sale; serving-men in drab linen and maids
in gaily-coloured kerchiefs flitted in and out of the hostelry and across the
yard with trays of refreshments for the retinue of M. le Duc d'Anjou and of
Madame la Reynede Navarre, own brother and sister of the King of France.
Indeed, it was not often that so great a prince and so exalted a lady had
graced La Fère with their presence, and the hostelry had been hard put to it
to do honour to two such noble guests. Mine host and his wife and buxom
daughters were already wellnigh sick with worry, for though Madame la
Reyne de Navarre and M. le Duc, her brother, were very exacting and their
gentlemen both hungry and thirsty, not one among these, from Monsieur
downwards, cared to pay for what he had. And while the little town seethed
with soldiery and with loud-voiced gentlemen, the unfortunate burghers
who housed them and the poor merchants and peasants who had to feed
them, almost sighed for the Spanish garrisons who, at any rate, were always
well-paid and paying.
Down below in the courtyard there was constant jingling of spurs and
rattle of sabres, loud language and ribald laughter; but when the casement
flew open and the Queen of Navarre's face appeared at the window, the
latter, at any rate, was at once suppressed. In the shade and across a narrow
wooden bench on which they sat astride, a couple of gentlemen-at-arms
were throwing dice, surrounded by a mixed and gaping crowd—soldiers,
servants, maids and peasants—who exchanged pleasantries while watching
the game.
Marguerite looked down on them for a moment or two, and an impatient

frown appeared between her brows. She did not like the look of her
brother's 'gentlemen,' for they were of a truth very much out-at-elbows, free
of speech and curt of manner. The fact that they were never paid and often
left in the lurch, if not actually sold to their enemies by Monsieur,
accounted, no doubt, for all the laxity, and Marguerite swore to herself even
then, that if ever her favourite brother reached the ambitious goal for which
she was scheming on his behalf, one of his first acts of sovereignty should
be to dismiss such down-at-heel, out-at-elbows swashbucklers as were, for
instance, Messire Gilles de Crohin and many others. After which vow
Marguerite de Navarre once more turned to her brother, trying to assume
self-control and calmness which she was far from feeling. He appeared still
absorbed in the contemplation of the letter, and as he looked up lazily and
encountered her blazing eyes, he yawned ostentatiously.
'François!' she burst out angrily.

'Well, my dear?' he retorted.
'M. le Baron d'Inchy,' she continued more quietly, 'hath taken possession
of Cambray and the Cambrésis and driven the pro-Spanish Archbishop into
exile. He offers to deliver up the Cambrésis and to open the gates of
Cambray to you immediately, whilst M. le Comte de Lalain will hand you
over, equally readily, the provinces of Hainault, of Flanders and of Artois.'
'I know all that,' he muttered.
'You might be Duke of Hainault and Artois,' she went on with passionate
enthusiasm. 'You might found a new kingdom of the Netherlands, with
yourself as its first sovereign lord—and you hesitate!!! Holy Joseph! Holy
Legions of Angels!' she added, with a bitter sigh of pent-up exasperation.
'What have I done that I should be plagued with such a nincompoop for a
brother?'
François d'Alençon and d'Anjou laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
'The provinces are worth considering,' he said coolly. 'Cambray is

attractive, and I would not object to the Duchies of Artois and Hainault, or
even to a Kingdom of the Netherlands. But...!'
'Well?' she broke in testily. 'What is the "but"?'
He sighed and made a sour grimace. 'There is a bitter pill to swallow

with all that sugar,' he replied. 'You appear to be forgetting that, my very
impetuous sister!'
It was Marguerite's turn to shrug her pretty shoulders.
'Bah!' she said contemptuously. 'A wife! You call that a bitter pill!
Jacqueline de——what is her name?'
Monsieur referred to the letter.
'Jacqueline de Broyart,' he said dryly.

'Well! Jacqueline de Broyart,' she continued, more composedly, 'is said
to be attractive. M. d'Inchy says so.'
'A merchant must praise the goods which he offers for sale,' remarked
Monsieur.
'And even if she be ill-favoured,' retorted Marguerite dryly, 'she brings

the richest duchies in the Netherlands and the influence of her name and
family as her marriage portion. Surely a kingdom is worth a wife.'
'Sometimes.'
'In this case, François,' urged Marguerite impatiently. Then, with one of
those sudden changes of mood which were one of her main charms, she
added with a kind of gentle and solemn earnestness: 'You in your turn
appear to forget, my exasperating brother, that 'tis I who have worked for
you, just as I always have done heretofore, I who made friends for you with
these loutish, ill-mannered Flemings, and who prepared the way which has
led to such a brilliant goal. Whilst you wasted your substance in riotous
living in our beloved Paris, I was half-killing myself with ennui in this
abominable Flemish climate, I was drinking the poisonous waters of Spa so
as to remain in touch with the governors of all these disaffected provinces
and insidiously turning their minds towards looking for a prince of the
house of France to be their deliverer and their ruler. Now my labours are
bearing fruit. Don John of Austria is more hated throughout the Netherlands
than he was before my coming hither, the provinces are more wearied of the
Spanish yoke—they are more ready to accept a foreign ruler, even though
he be a Catholic to boot. You have now but to stretch a hand, and all the
golden harvest prepared by me will fall into it without another effort on
your part save that of a prompt decision. So let me tell you, once and for all,
Monsieur my brother, that if you refuse that golden harvest now, if you do
not accept the Baron d'Inchy's offer, never as long as I live will I raise
another finger to help you or to advance your welfare. And this I hereby do
swear most solemnly and pray to the Virgin to register my vow!'
The Duke, unaccustomed to his charming sister's earnestness, had

listened to her without departing from his sullen mood. When she had
finished her tirade he shrugged his shoulders and yawned.
'How you do talk, my dear Margot!' he said coolly. 'To hear you one
would imagine that I was an incorrigible rogue, an immoral profligate and a
do-nothing.'
'Well, what else are you?' she retorted.
'A much maligned, overworked prince.'
She laughed, and despite her choler a look of genuine affection crept into
her eyes as she met the reproachful glance of the brother whom she loved
so dearly, and whose faults she was always ready to condone.
'By the Mass!' quoth he. 'You talk of having worked and slaved for me—
and so you have, I'll own—but, far from leading a dissipated life in Paris
the while, I toiled and slaved, intrigued and conspired, too—aye, and risked
my life a hundred times so that I might fall in with your schemes.'
'Oh!' she broke in with a good-natured laugh. 'Let us be just, Monsieur

my brother. You allowed others to toil and slave and intrigue and conspire,
and to risk their life in your cause——'
''Tis you are unjust, Margot,' he retorted hotly. 'Why, think you then, that
I was arrested by order of my brother the King, and thrown into the
dungeon of Vincennes——?'
'You would not have been arrested, my dear,' said Marguerite dryly, 'if
you had not chosen to be arrested.'
'The King, our brother, does not approve of your schemes, my Margot.'
'He is the dog in the manger,' she replied. 'Though Flanders and Hainault
and the Netherlands are not for him, he does not wish to see you a more
powerful prince than he.'
'So, you see——'
'But you knew,' she broke in quickly, 'you knew four and twenty hours
before the order of your arrest was issued that the King had already decided
on signing it. You had ample time for leaving Paris and joining me at Spa.
Six precious months would not have been wasted——'
'Well! I escaped out of Vincennes as soon as I could.'
'Yes!' she retorted, once more fuming and raging, and once more pacing
up and down the room like a fretful animal in a cage. 'Procrastination! Time
wasted! Shelving of important decisions!...'
He pointed leisurely to the letter.
'There's no time lost,' he said.
'Time wasted is always lost,' she argued. 'The tone of M. le Baron

d'Inchy is more peremptory this time than it was six months ago. There is a
"take it or leave it" air about this letter. The provinces are waxing impatient.
The Prince of Orange is rapidly becoming the idol of the Netherlands. What
you reject he will no doubt accept. He is a man—a man of action, not a
laggard——'
'But I am not rejecting anything!' exclaimed Monsieur irritably.
'Then, for God's sake, François——!'
Marguerite de Navarre paused, standing for a few seconds quite still, her
whole attitude one of rigid expectancy. The next moment she had run back
to the window. But now she leaned far out of the casement, heedless if the
men below saw the Queen of Navarre and smiled over her eagerness. Her
keen ears had caught the sound of an approaching troop of men; the clatter
of horses' hoofs upon the hard road was already drawing perceptibly nearer.
'Messire Gilles!' she called out impatiently to one of the dice-throwers,

who was continuing his game unperturbed.
In a moment the man was on his feet. He looked up and saw the Queen's
pretty face framed in by the casement-window; and a pretty woman was the
only thing on God's earth which commanded Gilles de Crohin's entire
respect. Immediately he stood at attention, silhouetted against the sunlit
market-place beyond—a tall, martial figure, with face weather-beaten and
forehead scarred, the record of a hundred fights depicted in every line of the
sinewy limbs, the powerful shoulders, the look of self-assurance in the
deep-set eyes and the strong, square jaw.
III
There was nothing very handsome about Messire Gilles de Crohin. That
portrait of him by Rembrandt—a mere sketch—done some years later,
suggests a ruggedness of exterior which might have been even repulsive at
times, when passion or choler distorted the irregular features. Only the eyes,
grey and profound, and the full lips, ever ready to smile, may have been
attractive. In a vague way he resembled the royal master whom he was
serving now. The features were not unlike those of François, Duc d'Alençon
et d'Anjou, but cast in a rougher, more powerful mould and fashioned of
stouter clay. The resemblance is perhaps more striking in the picture than it
could have been in the original, for the Duke's skin was almost as smooth as
a woman's, his hair and sparse, pointed beard were always exquisitely
brushed and oiled; whereas Gilles' skin was that of a man who has spent
more nights in the open than in a downy bed, and his moustache—he did
not wear the fashionable beard—was wont to bristle, each hair standing
aloof from its neighbour, whenever Messire Gilles bridled with amusement
or with rage.
Then, again, Gilles looked older than the Duke, even though he was, I
think, the younger of the two by several years; but we may take it that
neither his cradle nor his youth had been watched over with such tender
care as those of the scion of the house of France, and though dissipation and
a surfeit of pleasure had drawn many lines on the placid face of the one
man, hard fighting and hard living had left deeper imprints still on that of
the other. Still, the resemblance was there, and though Gilles' limbs
indicated elasticity and power, whereas those of the Prince of Valois were
more slender and loosely knit, the two men were much of a height and
build, sufficiently so, at any rate, to cause several chroniclers—notably the
Queen of Navarre herself—to aver that Gilles de Crohin's personality
ofttimes shielded that of Monsieur, Duke of Anjou and of Alençon, and that
Messire Gilles was ofttimes requisitioned to impersonate the master whom
he served and resembled, especially when any danger at the hand of an
outraged husband or father, or of a hired assassin lurked for the profligate
prince behind a hedge or in the angle of a dark street. Nor was that
resemblance to be altogether wondered at, seeing that the de Froidmonts
claimed direct descent from the house of Valois and still quartered the
Flower o' the Lily on ground azure upon their escutcheon, with the proud
device: 'Roy ne suys, ne Duc, ne Prince, ne Comte; je suys Sire de Froide
Monte.'[1] They had indeed played at one time an important part in the
destinies of the princely house, until fickle Fortune took so resolutely to
turning her back upon the last descendants of the noble race.
[1] 'Am neither King, nor Duke, nor Prince, nor Count; am Sire de
Froide Monte.'
Marguerite of Navarre was too thoroughly a woman not to appreciate the

appearance of one who was so thoroughly a man. Gilles de Crohin may
have been out-at-elbows, but even the rough leather jerkin which he wore
and the faded kerseymere of his doublet could not altogether mar a curious
air of breeding and of power which was not in accord with penury and a
position of oft humiliating dependence. So, despite her impatience, she
gazed on Gilles for a moment or two with quick satisfaction ere she said:
''Tis Monseigneur d'Inchy's messenger we hear, is it not, Messire?'
'I doubt not, your Majesty,' replied Gilles.
'Then I pray you,' she added, 'conduct him to my brother's presence

directly he arrives.'
And even whilst the sound of approaching horsemen drew nearer and
nearer still, and anon a great clatter upon the rough paving stones of the
courtyard announced their arrival, Marguerite turned back into the room.
She ran to her brother's chair and knelt down beside him. She put fond arms
round his shoulders and forced him to look into her tear-filled eyes.
'François,' she pleaded, with the tenderness of a doting mother. 'Mon

petit François! For my sake, if not for yours! You don't know how I have
toiled and worked so that this should come to pass. I want you to be great
and mighty and influential. I hate your being in the humiliating position of a
younger brother beside Henri, who is so arrogant and dictatorial with us all.
François, dear, I have worked for you because I love you. Let me have my
reward!'
Monsieur sighed like the spoilt child he really was, and made his
habitual sour grimace.
'You are too good to me, Margot,' he said somewhat churlishly. 'I would
you had left the matter alone. Our brother Henri cannot live for ever, and
his good wife has apparently no intention of presenting him with a son.'
'Our brother Henri,' she insisted, 'can live on until you are too old to
enjoy the reversion of the throne of France, and Louise de Lorraine is still
young—who knows? The Duchies of Artois and Hainault and the
Sovereignty of the Netherlands to-day are worth more than the vague
perspective of the throne of France mayhap ten or a dozen years hence——'
'And my marriage with Elizabeth of England?' he protested.
'Elizabeth of England will never marry you, François,' she replied

earnestly. 'She is too fanatical a Protestant ever to look with favour on a
Catholic prince. She will keep you dangling round her skirts and fool you to
the top of her bent, but Milor of Leycester will see to it that you do not wed
the Queen of England.'
'If I marry this Flemish wench I shall be burning my boats——'
'What matter?' she retorted hotly, 'if you enter so glorious a harbour?'
There was nothing in the world that suited Monsieur's temperament

better than lengthy discussions over a decision, which could thereby be
conveniently put off. Even now he would have talked and argued and worn
his sister's patience down to breaking point if suddenly the corridor outside
had not resounded with martial footsteps and the jingling of swords and
spurs.
'François!' pleaded Marguerite for the last time.
And the Duke, still irresolute, still longing to procrastinate, gave a final
sigh of sullen resignation.
'Very well!' he said. 'Since you wish it——'
'I do,' she replied solemnly. 'I do wish it most earnestly, most sincerely.
You will accept, François?'
'Yes.'
'You promise?'
Again he hesitated. Then, as the footsteps halted outside the door and
Marguerite almost squeezed the breath out of his body with the pressure of
her young strong arms, he said reluctantly: 'I promise!' Then, immediately
—for fear he should be held strictly to his word—he added quickly: 'On one
condition.'
'What is that?' she asked.
'That I am not asked to plight my troth to the wench till after I have seen
her; for I herewith do swear most solemnly that I would repudiate her at the
eleventh hour—aye, at the very foot of the altar steps, if any engagement is
entered into in my name to which I have not willingly subscribed.'
This time he spoke so solemnly and with such unwonted decision that
Marguerite thought it best to give way. At the back of her over-quick mind
she knew that by hook or by crook she would presently devise a plan which
would reconcile his wishes to her own.
'Very well,' she said after an almost imperceptible moment of hesitation.

'It shall be as you say.'
And despite the half-hearted promise given by the arch-procrastinator,
there was a look of triumph and of joy on Queen Marguerite's piquant
features now. She rose to her feet and hastily dried her tears.
There was a rap at the door. Marguerite seated herself on a cushioned

chair opposite her brother and called out serenely: 'Enter!'
CHAPTER III
HOW A CLEVER WOMAN OUTWITTED AN

OBSTINATE MAN
The door was thrown open and Messire Gilles de Crohin, Sire de
Froidmont, stood at attention upon the threshold.
'Monseigneur le Baron d'Inchy's messenger, is it not, Messire?' asked

Marguerite of Navarre quickly, even before Gilles had time to make the
formal announcement.
'Messire de Montigny has arrived, your Majesty,' he replied. 'He bears

credentials from Monseigneur the governor of Cambray.'
'Messire de Montigny?' she said, with a frown of puzzlement. 'In

person?'
'Yes, your Majesty.'

'Has he come with a retinue, then?' broke in Monsieur with his wonted
peevishness. 'There is no room in the city. Already I have scarce room for
my men.'
'Messire de Montigny is alone, Monseigneur,' replied Gilles de Crohin,

'save for an equerry. He proposes to return to Cambray this night.'
Monsieur uttered a fretful exclamation, but already Marguerite had

interposed.
'We cannot,' she said curtly, 'keep Messire de Montigny on the doorstep,
my dear brother. And you must remember that I have your promise.'
'Holy Virgin!' was Monsieur's only comment on this timeful reminder.

'Was ever man so plagued before by a woman who was not even his
mistress, Gilles!' he added peremptorily.
'François!' admonished his sister sternly.
'Mon Dieu, my dear!' he retorted. 'May I not speak to Gilles now? Gilles,
who is my best friend——'
'Messire de Montigny is in the corridor,' she broke in firmly.
'I know! I know! Curse him! I only wished to order Gilles—my best
friend, Gilles—not to leave me in the lurch; not to abandon me all alone
between an impetuous sister and a mulish Fleming.'
'François!' she exclaimed. 'What folly!'
'Gilles must remain in the room,' he declared, 'during the interview.'
'Impossible!' she affirmed hotly. 'Messire de Montigny might not like it.'
'Then I'll not see him——'
Marguerite de Navarre was on the verge of tears. Vexation, impatience,

choler, were wellnigh choking her.
'Very well!' she said at last, with a sigh of infinite weariness. 'I pray you,
Messire,' she added, turning to Gilles, 'introduce Monseigneur le Baron
d'Inchy's messenger and remain in the room, as Monsieur bids you, during
the interview.'
II
Messire de Montigny was a short, stout, determined-looking gentleman

who, very obviously, despite his outward show of deference to a scion of
the house of France, had received his instructions as to the manner in which
he was to deal with that procrastinating and indolent prince. He had clearly
come here resolved to be firm and not to yield an inch in his demands, nor
to allow any further delay in the negotiations wherewith he had been
entrusted.
But with François, Duc d'Alençon et d'Anjou, a promise given was not
of necessity a promise kept. No one knew that better than the sister who
adored him, and whose quasi-maternal love for him was not wholly free
from contempt. Therefore, all the while that Messire de Montigny was
paying his devoirs to Monsieur and to herself, all the while that the
preliminary flummery, the bowings and the scrapings, the grandiloquent
phrases and meaningless compliments went on between the two men,
Marguerite of Navarre was watching her brother, noting with a sinking of
the heart every sign of peevish fretfulness upon that weak and good-looking
face, and of that eternal desire to put decisions off, which she knew in this
case would mean the ruin of all her ambitious plans for him. At times, her
luminous dark eyes would exchange a glance of understanding or of appeal
with Gilles de Crohin who, silent and apparently disinterested, stood in a
corner of the room quietly watching the comedy which was being enacted
before him. Marguerite de Navarre, whose sense of the ridiculous was one
of her keenest attributes, could well appreciate how a man of Gilles' caustic
humour would be amused at this double-edged duel of temperaments. She
could see how, at Monsieur's perpetual parryings, Gilles' moustache would
bristle and his deep-set eyes twinkle with merriment; and though she
frowned on him for this impertinence, she could not altogether blame him
for it. There certainly was an element of farce in the proceedings.
'I have come for Monseigneur's answer,' Messire de Montigny had

declared with uncompromising energy. 'My brother de Lalain and M.
d'Inchy cannot, and will not, wait!'
'You Flemings are always in such a devil of a hurry!' Monsieur had said,
with an attempt at jocularity.
'We have endured tyranny for close upon a century, Monseigneur,'

retorted de Montigny curtly. 'We have been long-suffering; we can endure
no longer.'
'But, Holy Virgin, Messire!' exclaimed the Duke fretfully, 'ye cannot
expect a man to risk his entire future in the turn of a hand.'
'Monsieur le Baron d'Inchy had the honour to send a letter to

Monseigneur two months ago,' rejoined the other. 'The Provinces have
fought the whole might of Spain and of Don Juan of Austria on their own
initiative and on their own resources, for the recovery of their ancient civil
and religious liberties. But they have fought unaided quite long enough. We
must have help and we must have a leader. The Prince of Orange has his
following in Holland. We in the Cambrésis, in Hainault and Artois and
Flanders want a sovereign of our own—a sovereign who has power and the
might of a great kingdom and of powerful alliances behind him. 'Our choice
has fallen on Monsieur, Duc d'Alençon and d'Anjou, own brother to the
King of France. Will he deign to accept the sovereignty of the United
Provinces of the Netherlands and give them the happiness and the freedom
which they seek?'
With a certain rough dignity Messire de Montigny put one knee to the
ground and swept the floor with his plumed hat ere he pressed his hand
against his heart in token of loyalty and obeisance. Marguerite de Navarre's
beautiful face became irradiated with a great joy. Her fine nostrils quivered
with excitement and she threw a look of triumph on Messire Gilles, who
had, in his appearance just then, the solemnity of a Puck—and one of
encouragement on the beloved brother. But Monsieur looked as sullen and
as gloomy as he had done before. If there was a thing on this earth which he
hated more than any other, it was a plain question which required a plain
answer. He was furious with Messire de Montigny for having asked a plain
question, furious with his sister for looking triumphant, and furious with
Gilles for seeming so amused.
So he took refuge in moody silence, and Messire de Montigny, with a

flush of anger on his round face, quickly rose to his feet. Even to one less
keenly observant than was the clever Queen of Navarre, it would have been
obvious that all these obsequious marks of deference, these genuflexions
and soft words were highly unpalatable to the envoy of Monseigneur le
Baron d'Inchy, governor of the Cambrésis. They were proud folk, these
Flemings—nobles, burgesses and workers alike—and it had only been after
very mature deliberation and driven by stern necessity that they had decided
to call in a stranger to aid them in their distress. The tyranny of the
Spaniards had weighed heavily upon them. One by one they saw their
ancient privileges wrested from them, whilst their liberty to worship in
accordance with the dictates of their conscience was filched from them
under unspeakable horrors and tyrannies. They had fought on doggedly,
often hopelessly, loth to call in outside aid for fear of exchanging one
oppressor for another, and a while ago they had a goodly number of
victories to their credit. Orange had freed many provinces, and several cities
had driven the Spanish garrisons from out their gates. M. le Baron d'Inchy
had seized Cambray and the Cambrésis and driven the Catholic Archbishop
into exile. Flemish governors were established in Hainault, Brabant, in
Artois and in Flanders; the Dutch were the masters in Holland, Zeeland and
Frise—a splendid achievement! For, remember that these burghers and their
untrained bands were pitted against the finest military organization of the
epoch.
But lately, the Spaniards, alarmed at these reverses, had sent fresh troops
into the Netherlands, and Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, their most
distinguished soldier, had obtained signal victories over the war-wearied
Dutch and Flemish troops. Since Orange had suffered a signal defeat at
Gembloux three years ago several cities had fallen back once more under
the Spanish yoke. It was time to call in foreign aid. On the one hand,
Elizabeth of England had given assurances of money and of troops; on the
other, Marguerite of Navarre had made vague promises in the name of the
Duc d'Alençon. A Catholic prince was a bitter pill to swallow for these
staunch Protestants, but when d'Inchy offered Monsieur the sovereignty of
the Netherlands, with immediate possession of the Cambrésis, of Hainault,
Artois and Flanders, he had first of all insisted—respectfully but firmly—on
certain guarantees: the guarantee which to Monsieur's fastidious taste was
like a bitter pill in the sugary offer—a Flemish wife and a Protestant to boot
—one who would hold the new sovereign lord true to his promise to uphold
and protect the reformed faith.
III
"I hate being forced into a marriage!" Monsieur repeated for the third
time, as he cast lowering looks upon the bowed head of M. de Montigny.
'There is no question of force, Monseigneur,' rejoined the latter firmly.

'M. d'Inchy, speaking in the name of our provinces, had the honour to
propose a bargain, which Monseigneur will accept or reject as he thinks fit.'
'But this Jacqueline—er—Jacqueline——?' queried Monsieur

disdainfully.
'Jacqueline de Broyart, Dame de Morchipont, Duchesse et Princesse de

Ramose, d'Espienne et de Wargny,' broke in Messire de Montigny with
stern pride, "is as beautiful and pure as she is rich and noble. She is worthy
to be the consort of a King.'
'But I have never seen the lady!' argued Monsieur irritably.
'Jacqueline de Broyart,' retorted de Montigny curtly, 'cannot be trotted

out for Monseigneur's inspection like a filly who is put up for sale!'
'Who talks of trotting her out?' said Monsieur. 'Mon Dieu, man! Can I
not even see my future wife? In matters of beauty tastes differ, and——'
'You will admit, Messire,' here interposed Marguerite quickly, seeing that
at Monsieur's tone of thinly-veiled contempt frowns of anger, dark as
thunder-clouds, were gathering on Messire de Montigny's brow. 'You will
admit that it is only just that my brother should see the lady ere he finally
decides.'
'Jacqueline, Madame la Reyne,' riposted de Montigny gruffly, 'is wooed

by every rich and puissant seigneur in four kingdoms. Princes of the blood
in Germany and Austria and Spain, noble lords of England and of France
are at her feet. She is a mere child—scarce nineteen years of age—but she
has a woman's heart and a woman's pride. She is my cousin's child; d'Inchy
and my brother are her guardians. They would not allow an affront to be put
upon her.'
'An affront, Messire?' queried Marguerite coldly. 'Who spoke of an

affront to the Duc d'Alençon's future wife?'
'If Monseigneur sees the child,' argued de Montigny stiffly, 'and then
turns against her, she is quite old enough to look upon that fact as an
affront.'
'The devil take you for a stiff-necked Fleming, Messire!' quoth the Duke
angrily.
'Then Monseigneur refuses?' was de Montigny's calm retort, even though

his rough voice was shaking with suppressed choler.
'No, no, Messire!' once more broke in Marguerite hastily. 'Did

Monseigneur say that he refused?'
'Monseigneur seems disinclined to accept,' rejoined de Montigny. 'And

so much hesitation is a slur cast upon the honour of a noble Flemish lady
who is my kinswoman.'
'Believe me, Messire,' said Marguerite gently and with unerring tact,
determined to conciliate at all costs, 'that we of the house of Valois hold all
honour in high esteem. Meseems that you and my brother do but
misunderstand one another. Will you allow a woman's wit to bridge over the
difficulty?'
'If you please, Madame,' replied de Montigny stiffly.
IV
Marguerite de Navarre gave a short sigh of satisfaction. One look of

warning only did she cast on her brother, and with an almost imperceptible
movement of finger to lip she enjoined him to remain silent and to leave the
matter in her hands. François d'Anjou shrugged his shoulders and
smothered a yawn. The whole matter was eminently distasteful to him, and
gladly would he have thrown up the promised throne and be rid of all these
serious questions which bored him to tears.
De Montigny stood erect and stern; his attitude remained deferential, but
also unyielding. He was deeply offended in the person of the child who in
his sight stood for all that was most noble and most desirable in the
Netherlands. The indifference with which the offer of such a brilliant
alliance had been received by this Prince of France had angered the stiff-
necked Fleming beyond measure. But Marguerite, feeling the difficulties
around her, was now on her mettle. None knew better than she how to make
a man unbend—even if he be a bitter enemy, which de Montigny certainly
was not.
'Messire,' she said with that gentle dignity which became her so well, 'I
pray you be not angered with my brother. He has had much to worry him of
late. Indeed, indeed,' she continued earnestly, 'his heart is entirely given
over to your magnificent country and he is proud and honoured to have
been chosen by you as your future Sovereign Lord.'
But to this conciliating harangue de Montigny made no reply, and

Marguerite resumed, after a slight pause.
'Perhaps you do not know, Messire, that the King of France, our brother,
hath not such goodwill towards his kindred as they would wish, and that,
fearing that Monsieur would be overproud of your offer and would nurture
further ambitious plans, he did order Monsieur's arrest, thereby causing us
much delay.'
'Yes, your Majesty,' replied de Montigny curtly, 'I knew all that. But the
offer hath been made to Monseigneur now—and I still await his answer.'
'His answer is yes, Messire!' said Marguerite firmly.
'A grudging "yes," forsooth,' quoth de Montigny with an impatient shrug

of the shoulders.
'An eager "yes," an you'll believe me,' retorted Marguerite. 'All that he
asks is to see the noble Dame Jacqueline de Broyart and to pay her his
devoirs ere he is formally affianced to her.'
'Hang it all!' quoth Monsieur resolutely. 'You cannot expect a man to

wed a woman whom he has never seen!'
'A man in Monseigneur's position,' retorted de Montigny gruffly, 'must

do many things which humbler folk can afford to leave undone, and I have
explained my objections to that plan; so that if Madame la Reyne hath none
other to offer——'
'Nay! but I entreat you to listen to me, Messire,' urged Marguerite with
exemplary patience. 'And you, François,' she added, turning to her brother,
who at de Montigny's last words had muttered an angry oath under his
breath, 'I beg that you will let me unfold my plan ere you combat it.
Messire,' she continued earnestly, once more addressing the Flemish lord,
'let me assure you again that I both understand and appreciate your
objection and, on my soul I never dreamed of suggesting that so noble and
great a lady as Madame Jacqueline de Broyart should, as you justly remark,
be trotted out for the inspection of Monseigneur, like a filly which is put up
for sale.'
'Well, then——?' retorted de Montigny.

Stone Carving of The Hospitaller Period in Rhodes Displaced Pieces and Fragments 1st Edition Anna Maria Kasdagli

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Stone Carving of The Hospitaller Period in Rhodes Displaced Pieces and Fragments 1st Edition Anna Maria Kasdagli

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Stone Carving of the Hospitaller Period

in Rhodes Displaced Pieces and

Stakeholder Analysis and Sport Organisations 1st

Drawing on the Victorians The Palimpsest of Victorian

Violence in the Balkans First Findings from the Balkan

Fragments of Tragedy in Postmodern Film 1st Edition

All the Pieces of Me Rebecca Westcott

Wal■ya in the Formative Period of Shi ism and Sufism

Displaced Women Multilingual Narratives of Migration in

National Protection of Internally Displaced Persons in

ISBN 978 1 78491 478 3

© Archaeopress and A-M Kasdagli 2016

The Catalogue������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 105

Plates and Figures������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 177

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Gregorios Konstantinoploulos, a man

In the Hospitaller period (1309-1522), Rhodes and the neighbouring islands

On Rhodes, the Hospital followed a consistent and cautious policy, obedient to

Although excavations in the town have mostly investigated the interior of

Depending on the financial means of those involved, the craftsmen engaged in

The Hospital’s policies encouraged the settlement of immigrants of different

In architecture we have early examples of Gothic influence, such as the cross-

It is clear that the sculpture of Hospitaller Rhodes began as an accessory of the

Funerary monuments were the structures most adversely affected by Ottoman

The already inventoried pieces are a rich source of information on Hospitaller

The architecture of secular buildings in Hospitaller Rhodes has been of interest

No 1 in the catalogue is a typical sandstone lintel from a Renaissance rectangular

In contrast, square mullion 4 is definitely Rhodian, as it displays the arms of a

Figured capitals must have been a common element of mullioned windows on

5 is a cross-vault boss bearing the arms of the d’Alamania family. It probably

stroke, a detail that appears sporadically throughout the Hospitaller period.121

A group of decorative members of doubtful function presents a number of

Renaissance jambs 21 and 22 probably belong together, but it is not known

Among the few figured sculptures of Rhodes, 23 is a possibly half-finished relief

Heraldry is really a specialized kind of epigraphy, very important on Rhodes

According to a recent count, about 860 medieval heraldic shields survive on

primitive-looking 71, which was probably part of a larger grouping of arms, is

Two other shields are problematical. 79 may have belonged to an Englishman

'François!' she exclaimed once more, evidently at the end of her

'Gently, my dear Margot; gently!' said Monsieur, with the peevishness of

'Which means,' he argued complacently, 'that there is no cause to come

An angry exclamation broke from Marguerite's full lips.

Again Monsieur remained silent for awhile. Procrastination was as the

Marguerite looked down on them for a moment or two, and an impatient

'François!' she burst out angrily.

'I know all that,' he muttered.

François d'Alençon and d'Anjou laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

'The provinces are worth considering,' he said coolly. 'Cambray is

'Well?' she broke in testily. 'What is the "but"?'

He sighed and made a sour grimace. 'There is a bitter pill to swallow

It was Marguerite's turn to shrug her pretty shoulders.

Monsieur referred to the letter.

'Jacqueline de Broyart,' he said dryly.

'And even if she be ill-favoured,' retorted Marguerite dryly, 'she brings

The Duke, unaccustomed to his charming sister's earnestness, had

'Well, what else are you?' she retorted.

'A much maligned, overworked prince.'

'Oh!' she broke in with a good-natured laugh. 'Let us be just, Monsieur

'So, you see——'

'Well! I escaped out of Vincennes as soon as I could.'

He pointed leisurely to the letter.

'There's no time lost,' he said.

'Time wasted is always lost,' she argued. 'The tone of M. le Baron

'But I am not rejecting anything!' exclaimed Monsieur irritably.

The Catalogue�� 105

Plates and Figures�� 177