Food and Drink among the Templars and Hospitallers of Lusignan Cyprus
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/OM.2025.003Keywords
Templars, Hospitallers, Food, Drink, Alms, history, the Middle Ages, Military OrdersAbstract
The Templars and Hospitallers based on Lusignan Cyprus throughout the thirteenth century were primarily fighting men sent there to defend the kingdom of Cyprus from external attack and to assist in the defence of Latin Syria. This is reflected in the regulations regarding food consumption, which show clearly that the brothers of both Orders had a varied diet enabling them to engage in the strenuous physical activity of combat. With the abolition of the Templars by 1312 and the Hospitaller conquest of Rhodes in around 1309 requirements changed, with the extensive Hospitaller estates on Cyprus, that included former Templar properties, being utilised to supply Rhodes with foodstuffs, although one can assume reasonably that the Hospitaller brothers on Cyprus consumed the same types of produce as what was sent to Rhodes.
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