Knightly order resources

███ Various links

http://medievalscotland.org/jes/OrderNames/HistoryAndTypesOfKnightlyOrders.shtml
http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Knightly_Orders_of_the_Empire
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/4b0chd/need_ideas_for_knightly_orders/
http://strolen.com/viewing/101_Knightly_Orders
https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/183594/ideas-for-knightly-orders

███ IRL knightly orders

●●● Hospitaller
The monastic hospitaller order was founded following the First Crusade by Gerard Thom, whose role as founder was confirmed by the papal bull Pie Postulatio Voluntatis issued by Pope Paschal II in 1113.[4] Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem and beyond. Under his successor, Raymond du Puy de Provence, the original hospice was expanded to an infirmary[1] near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Initially the group cared for pilgrims in Jerusalem, but the order soon extended to providing pilgrims with an armed escort, which soon grew into a substantial force. Thus the Order of St. John imperceptibly became military without losing its charitable character.[1]

●●● Hospitaller \ Malta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta
The birth of the order dates back to around 1048. Merchants from the ancient Marine Republic of Amalfi obtained from the Caliph of Egypt the authorisation to build a church, convent, and hospital in Jerusalem, to care for pilgrims of any religious faith or race. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem–the monastic community that ran the hospital for the pilgrims in the Holy Land–became independent under the guidance of its founder, the religious brother Gerard.

With the Bull of 15 February 1113, Pope Paschal II approved the foundation of the Hospital and placed it under the aegis of the Holy See, granting it the right to freely elect its superiors without interference from other secular or religious authorities. By virtue of the Papal Bull, the hospital became an order exempt from the control of the local church. All the Knights were religious, bound by the three monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

The constitution of the Kingdom of Jerusalem regarding the crusades obliged the order to take on the military defence of the sick, the pilgrims, and the territories that the crusaders had captured from the Muslims. The order thus added the task of defending the faith to that of its hospitaller mission.

As time went on, the order adopted the white eight-pointed Cross that is still its symbol today. The eight points represent the eight "beatitudes" that Jesus pronounced in his Sermon on the Mount.

●●● Templar
In 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and proposed creating a monastic order ●for the protection of these pilgrims●. King Baldwin and Patriarch Warmund agreed to the request, probably at the Council of Nablus in January 1120, and the king granted the Templars a headquarters in a wing of the royal palace on the Temple Mount in the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque.[13] The Temple Mount had a mystique because it was above what was believed to be the ruins of the Temple of Solomon.[6][14] The Crusaders therefore referred to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as Solomon's Temple, and from this location the new order took the name of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, or "Templar" knights. The order, with about nine knights including Godfrey de Saint-Omer and André de Montbard, had few financial resources and relied on donations to survive. Their emblem was of two knights riding on a single horse, emphasising the order's poverty.[15]

The impoverished status of the Templars did not last long. They had a powerful advocate in Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a leading Church figure, the French abbot primarily responsible for the founding of the Cistercian Order of monks and a nephew of André de Montbard, one of the founding knights. Bernard put his weight behind them and wrote persuasively on their behalf in the letter 'In Praise of the New Knighthood',[16][17] and in 1129, at the Council of Troyes, he led a group of leading churchmen to officially approve and endorse the order on behalf of the church. With this formal blessing, the Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom, receiving money, land, businesses, and noble-born sons from families who were eager to help with the fight in the Holy Land. Another major benefit came in 1139, when Pope Innocent II's papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the order from obedience to local laws. This ruling meant that the Templars could pass freely through all borders, were not required to pay any taxes, and were exempt from all authority except that of the pope.[18]

●●● Dominican

●●● Holy Sepulchre
The Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre (or the Holy Community of the All-Holy Sepulchre) is an Orthodox monastic fraternity that for centuries has guarded and protected the Christian Holy places in the Holy Land.