Jean de Villiers
Jean de Villiers , also Johannes von Villiers , Ioannes Villiersius , Iohannes de Villers († 1294 in Cyprus ) was the 22nd Grand Master of the Order of St. John from 1284/85 until his death .
Jean came from the noble De Villiers family from the Beauvais area in Picardy .
The order had already lost the fortresses Krak des Chevaliers and Margat in 1285 and then relocated its headquarters to the city of Acre , the last crusader stronghold of the Kingdom of Jerusalem .
In 1291 Acre was besieged by the troops of the Egyptian Mamluks under their sultan al-Asraf Chalil . Jean commanded the Order's troops during the siege. After seven weeks of siege, the city fell on May 18, 1291 . Jean was badly wounded that day, but he and several members of the Order managed to escape on a ship. Heavily decimated, the knights of the order settled in Cyprus, near Limassol .
On his sick bed in Cyprus he wrote to the future Grand Master William of Villaret (prior of St. Gilles at the time) and described the fall of Acre.
Jean began to fortify the Order's new headquarters in Cyprus and helped expand the Order's own fleet. He died in 1294, and Odon de Pins was elected as his successor .
literature
- Pierre d'Avity / Johann Ludwig Gottfried : Archontologiae Cosmicae. Book III, Frankfurt am Main 1628, p. 36 (online here)
Web links
- Jean de Villiers at cilialacorte.com (This link contains incorrect dates .)
- Jean de Villiers at smom-za.org
- The 79 grandmasters ( memento of December 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at orderofmalta.org
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Nicolas Lorgne |
Grand Master of the Order of St. John 1284–1294 |
Odon de Pins |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Villiers, Jean de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Grand Master of the Order of St. John |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 13th Century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1294 |
| Place of death | Cyprus |