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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 271.791
EAN num: 9780140195019
ISBN number: 0140195017
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: March 01, 1996
Publishing house: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Sale Popularity Level: 49808
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Rated by buyers -
First published in 1972, revised in 1995, "The Monks of War" is a sweeping work on the military religious orders. Author Desmond Seward became a Knight of Malta himself, and his respect for the religious devotion of the military orders is always in evidence. This is a history of the deeds, military and political, of the military religious orders, including the Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights, Knights of Calatrava, Santiago, the Order of St. John, and various smaller orders. It is not a detailed study of the orders themselves. Seward outlines the structure of the organizations, provides limited information on the knights' way of life, but says subsequent to nothing about their beliefs, internal politics, personalities, or what went on within the orders. The style is almost reportage; its emphasis is events.
Each of seven parts addresses a particular time or place where military orders advanced the cause of Christendom, beginning with the Templars and Hospitallers in the conquest of Palestine. We get a whirlwind history of 6 Crusades and the Knights' role in them, 1099-1291. Then it is to Europe for the Crusade of Prussia and Livonia by the Teutonic Knights, 1200-1560. The military orders of Spain and Portugal chased the Muslims from Iberia in The Reconquista, 1158-1493. The loss in Palestine diminished the clout of religious military orders, but Seward follows the still-powerful Hospitallers in the Mediterranean and the persecution of Templars in France, 1291-1522. The Order of St. John battled the Ottomans in the 16th century. Seward concludes with a survey of the religious military orders during the 17th-18th centuries and a chapter on their contemporary roles as clerics, charitable organizations, and as "the final refuge of the ancien regime".
I found the very first three sections, which discuss the formation and prime of the orders, to have an unsettling lack of context. Seward doesn't tell the story of these military religious orders so much as he lists their triumphs and defeats, so there is almost no background on the politics or people involved in the action. This may be inevitable considering the enormous amount of history that "The Monks of War" covers. But the result is that events seem to appear out of nowhere, and my eyes sometimes glazed over from the parade of names and dates. The second half of the book, about the enduring orders after the loss of Palestine, is more readable. It doesn't suffer from lack of context, because the very first half of the book has given it context. "The Monks of War" cuts quite a swath through Christendom, but realize that it treats the military religious orders in breadth, not depth. The Appendices address the recent and contemporary history of surviving military orders.
Rated by buyers 
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The Monks of War is at once compelling, sweeping, scholarly, and evocative of the age and men on which it writes. From the Tuetonic forests of the north, to the deserts of Outremer, to the badland country of the Iberian peninsula and the wine blue seas of the Mediterranean, Seward amply covers the broad spectrum of the pious men whose gift to God was their sword and skill. Differing in focus from other Crusading works, Seward keeps his eye on the movements of the various church orders which so often spearheaded the advance of Christianity upon Christendom's borders; he never becomes bogged down by awkward background explanations of such and such a Crusade; only that it was, and that here these men were, and such was their fate. At times poetic, at times a glipse of ages gone by, The Monks of War is the perfect addition to the ernstwhile Crusader enthusiast. Or the research-paper driven college student; or that student's professor; or...well, I think you understand. It's good; it's excellent.
Rated by buyers -
"The Monks of War, The Military Religious Orders" is a very comprehensive yet succinct survey of the history of the Knights Templars, Knights Hospitallers, Knights of Malta, the Teutonic Knights, and the knights of the Spanish and Portuguese orders.
At only 415 pages the sweeping story of these "noblemen vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience, living a monastic life in convents which were at the same time barracks, waging war on the enemies of the Cross" is explained in one concise volume.
Appendices and photographs added in the 1995 printing provide a history for more modern events relating to the existing orders.
Five stars.
JP
Rated by buyers -
This is a very good introduction to the history of the military religious orders: Templars, Hospitallers of Saint John (yesterday Knights of Malta), Santiago, Calatrava, Alcantara, Teutons and others. The very first ones, Templars and Hospitallers, were founded in the XII Century, after the First Crusade, in order to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land and to provide humanitarian and medical services. Soon, these monks became more warriors than anything else, true machines of war which came to be the very first organized and properly trained and disciplined professional elite troops in the West since the Roman Empire. The West and Islam lived then (and still do) in a permanent state of threat and holy war. Although these warriors made vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, they soon accumulated enormous riches, fighted one another and their discipline, especially in sexual matters, relaxed.
The very first part of the books tells the two centuries of Christian occupation in the Holy Land, which the Islam had taken by force centuries before, and where, despite some resounding successes, the Christians ended up being totally defeated and expelled, to this day. The second part tells the story of the Crusade in the Baltic, performed by the Teutonic Knights against the pagan Slav Prussians, terrifying cannibals adoring spirits in trees, as well as snakes in the woods. These Teutonics founded what was probably the very first "modern" state: Prussia (the German one). This story is practically unknown, in spite of being totally fascinating. The third part is the Reconquest of Spain, where the orders were crucial in defeating the Moors. Then come the stories of the Hospitallers in Rhodes and Malta -also wonderful- and then what became of the existing orders today.
One striking common theme during the thousand years covered is the permanent and bloody conflict between the West and Islam. In spite of the torrent of names, places and dates, this book is an incredible collection of adventures and improbable deeds, especially the sieges of Acre, Rhodes and Malta, as well as the Spanish Reconquista and the Prussian episode. The tone of the book is apologetic, the author himself being a Knight of Malta, but it also vividly portraits the terrible atrocities committed by both sides. It fills a huge vacuum in the historical and political education of almost any reader, besides being an impressive saga of courage, dedication, violence, survival, glory, triumph, defeat and corruption at the same time. It really motivates you to read more about this subject.
Rated by buyers 
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Be prepared to sift through some slow and awkward writing and to figure what are the important parts on your own. Don't expect help on this from Seward, who seems unable to separate the wheat from the chaff of the history of the various orders.
I can understand giving short shrift to the trial of the Templars, for example. It's well covered in other works and anyone passingly familiar with pre-Renaissance Europe knows the basics of the story. But all the important, interesting, and exciting events in the history of the military orders are dealt with in the same cursory and bland tone that is used to describe who followed whom into this office or that one.
If you are looking for a book to capture the excitement of the crusades, the courage of the Knights of Malta, the passion of Teutonic Knights, this is not that book. If you are looking for reference material to write your own book, this might serve the purpose. If you are desperate to know more about the military religious orders, then perhaps this book will serve your needs.
It's about as exciting as reading the begats in the Bible. Sure there's a lot of information there, but you have to really care about the subject to make it all the way through.
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