List of Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller
This is a list of Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller, including its continuation as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta after 1798.
It also includes unrecognized "anti-Grand Masters" and lieutenants or stewards during vacancies.
The title "Grand Master" is applied retrospectively; the medieval heads of the order took the title of custos ("guardian") of the hospital.
The title magister ("master") is used on coins minted in Rhodes, beginning with Foulques de Villaret.
The first to use the title Grandis Magister ("Grand Master") was Jean de Lastic (r. 1437–1454); the title Grandis Magister is found on coins minted by Pierre d'Aubusson (r. 1476–1503).
Later Grand Masters in Rhodes used Magnus Magister.After the loss of Rhodes, Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam and his successors went back to using simple Magister, abbreviated M.H.H.
for Magister Hospitalis Hierosolymae.
Use of Magister Magnus is taken up again in the 17th century, under Antoine de Paule (r. 1623–1636).
The title of Prince and Grand Master (Principe e Gran Maestro del Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta) is in use from 1880, when Franz Joseph I of Austria granted the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire to the Grand Masters.
The title has remained in use after the dissolution of the Austrian Empire in 1919.
Numbered lists of Grand Masters of the Order, with portraits and attributed arms, are published from the early 17th century, with updated editions appearing throughout the 18th century.
The numbering of Grand Masters in use by the Order by the early 18th century, published in the 1719 Statutes of the Order, lists the Blessed Gerard as founder without number, counting Raymond du Puy as first Master of the Hospital, Foulques de Villaret as 24th, Riccardo Caracciolo as 32nd, Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam as 43rd and the then-incumbent Ramón Perellós y Rocafull as 63rd.
Knights Hospitaller (Kingdom of Jerusalem)
Knights of Rhodes
Knights of Malta
Further information: History of Malta under the Order of Saint John
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
| Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta | |
|---|---|
| Incumbent | |
| Details | |
| Style | His Most Eminent Highness |
| First monarch | Gerard Thom |
| Formation | 1099/1879 |
See also
- Grand Master (order)
- Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg)#Herrenmeister
- Grand Magistry and Lieutenancies of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
- Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights
- Grand Masters of the Order of Saint Lazarus
- Grand Masters of the Knights Templar
- List of heads of state of Malta
Credits to the contents of this page go to the authors of the corresponding Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List of Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller.