“The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders”, by Desmond Seward

338 pages, The Folio Society, ISBN-13: 978-0751336788

The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders by Desmond Seward is, over-all, a well-written work that is intended as a concise introduction to the military religious orders of the Middle Ages. Seward covers the founding of the major orders, their organization and the major episodes of their history; consequently, the book sometimes has a superficial quality as he goes from one topic to another. Seward shows that the military orders were born in the Crusading zeal that infected Medieval Europe and were initially founded to safeguard pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land from Muslim raiders; they gradually evolved into a unique medieval hybrid, combining Cistercian monasticism and Chivalric knightly values, while rapidly gaining influence in the Crusader Kingdoms (and considerable wealth in Europe, to boot). Similar orders developed on other important frontiers between Christian Europe and non-Christian polities, notably in Spain – where they were the shock troops of the Reconquista – and the eastern Baltic littoral – where the Teutonic Knights, especially, led the conquest and Christianization of Prussia and what is now a good part of the Baltic States.

Seward shows well how the military orders become an integral component of religious and political life in Europe, and a consistent theme that flows throughout the book is how the growth in importance of the orders was accompanied by their complimentary involvement in the complex dynastic, political, and religious struggles of Medieval Europe and the Crusader States. The decline of the military orders in the Early Modern period was a result of the increasing power of European monarchies and the declining need for their essential mission, the military struggle against non-Christians. The military orders of Iberia were essentially absorbed by the Church and monarchies, the great Templar order was destroyed by the expanding power of the French monarchy, and the Hospitallers were marginalized by their expulsion from the Eastern Mediterranean and the ultimate success of European struggle against the Ottoman Empire. While some of these orders survive today as charitable institutions associated with the remains of the European nobility, their power has been forever crushed, for good and for ill.