Date/Time
Date(s) - 15/02/2020
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Location
Market Lavington Community Hall
Categories
This year’s Winter Series Lecture will take place at 3pm on Saturday 15 February in the Community Hall at Market Lavington, SN10 4DG. The lecture will be given by Michael Hodges and is entitled The Knights Hospitaller in England in the Later Middle Ages.
The origin of the Hospitallers goes back to the late 11th century when they set up a hospital in Jerusalem for the benefit of Christian pilgrims. They were soon a military as well as a hospitaller order and built huge castles to defend the Holy Land against Moslem attacks. They arguably saved Christendom from Turkish occupation at the great siege of Malta in 1565. In order to support this military exercise the Hospitallers were given a huge amount of land throughout Western Europe, including becoming the largest individual ecclesiastical landowner in England. They were the last religious order to be dissolved by Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in 1540.
Michael Hodges is a Knight of Grace and Devotion of the Order of Malta and is currently Chancellor of the British Association, the Sovereign Military Order itself, under its Grand Master, now being headquartered in Rome. He has recently published “The Knights Hospitaller in Great Britain in 1540”. He will in his lecture trace something of the history of the Order and review its extensive landholdings in England.
The price of attending the lecture is £20 payable on the day. Tickets will not be issued but please register by email to martin@vintry.co.uk
We look forward to seeing you at what is sure to be a fascinating lecture.
With best wishes for 2020.
Martin Knight
Chairman