The history of the Knights Hospitaller in the Levant is concerned with the early years of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, the Knights Hospitaller , through The Order was formed in the later part of the eleventh century and played a major role in the Kingdom of Jerusalem , in particular, the Crusades. This lasted until the West was expelled from the Holy Land, with the Order conquering Rhodes in the early fourteenth century.
Among the most important internal events of the early years of the kingdom were the foundation of the Military Orders , which included the Hospitallers, the Knights Templar and the Teutonic Order. Unlike the Hospitallers' beginnings as a benevolent organization, the Templars and Teutonic knights began with a military mission. These three major Orders would play a major role in the military activities of the kingdom, sometimes cooperatively, sometimes not.
On the battlefield they frequently shared among them the most important tactical roles, the vanguard and rear-guard. At the time of the Crusaders' capture of Jerusalem in , the master or regent of the Hospitallers was a certain Gerard who had helped found an Amalfitan hospital around The Hospitallers were formally recognized by the pope in Ruling the Hospitallers after , Gerard's successor Raymond du Puy decided that it was not enough for his Order to guide and entertain pilgrims, that it must also be ready to fight to keep the pilgrims' routes open.
The distinctive badge of the Knights Hospitaller was the white cross that they wore on their tunics over their armour, and they were a major force in the Holy Land throughout the West's entire enterprise there. The histories of the Order began with the original Latin sources of the First Crusade and related charters and papal bulls concerning the early Kingdom of Jerusalem. In the later twelfth century, William of Tyre offered an account of the Hospitallers, some of which has been verified, some of which was the fantastical story known as the Miracula.
By the end of the thirteenth century, an Italian nobleman published the first real Hospitaller history, although the legends of the Miracula continued to be promulgated. The definitive history of the Order was first written by French historian Joseph Delaville Le Roulx in the late nineteenth century.
