Hospitaller conquest of Rhodes participant Order of Hospitallers
Aftermath
Following the completion of the conquest, the Hospitallers moved their convent and hospital from Cyprus to Rhodes. Efforts were made to attract Latin settlers, both to replenish the local population that had dwindled to some 10,000, and to provide men for military service. The Order lost no time in beginning military operations in the area: enforcing a papal ban on trade with Mamluk Egypt, the Knights did not hesitate to capture even Genoese vessels, although the Genoese had aided the conquest. A brief alliance of the Genoese with the emirate of Menteshe followed, but the Hospitallers scored a significant victory over the latter in 1312. Tensions rose with Venice at the same time, as the Hospitallers seized Karpathos and other Venetian-controlled islands. Eventually, the Hospitallers reached an agreement with both Italian maritime powers, and the seized islands were returned to Venice in 1316. The grand preceptor Albert of Schwarzburg led the Hospitaller navy to victories against the Turks in 1318, and at the Battle of Chios in 1319, after which he recaptured the island of Leros, whose Greek populace had rebelled and restored Byzantine rule. In the next year, the Hospitallers defeated a Turkish fleet of eighty vessels, preventing an invasion of Rhodes. With this success, Hospitaller control of the island was secured for the next century.