Tag Archives: Knights Hospitallers

By Jefferson P. Webb

Although people typically conjure up
mental images of battles fought in the deserts and cities of the
Middle East during the Crusades when names such as, Templars,
Hospitallers, or Teutonic Knights come into conversation, but these
monastic knights saw combat actions in a number of other places to
include Europe. Furthermore, Crusades were not only fought in the
Middle East, but also in Eastern Europe in an effort to expand the
influence of the Church for Christianity and to convert pagan
peoples.¹ While these knightly orders saw action against a
number of pagans and non-Catholic Christians, these knightly orders
along with secular knights, noblemen and the common soldier faced one
of the world’s best disciplined military forces in history. That
force was the invading Mongol army under the leadership of Batu Kahn. Continue reading “The Battle of Liegnitz: Duke Henry and the Mongol Invasion”