title: Knights in Rhodes
author: Stamoulis, Mary Lukes
description: Three boyhood friends join the Order of St. John, training as Knights within the three electors of Knighthood: 3rd class sergeant for Maurice, 2nd class chaplain for Sevastakis, and 1st class Knight for Gerard. Two girls grew up with the boys, Magdelin and Tasia, with obstacles of their own to overcome before they could mate with the loves of their lives. After losing Acre in Jerusalem, the Knights moved to Rhodes, which they were to occupy for 215 years. They fought and defeated the Ottoman armies many times over up to the last battle when Sultan Suleiman II, the “magnificent,” arrived in Rhodes with an enormous army of 200,000 and subdued them. The King of Spain, Charles V, gave them Malta thereafter, which they swore to defend up to the last Knight, a promise they kept as evidenced in the battle of St. Elmo. Less than 1,000 Knights fought and subdued the Ottoman’s army of 40,000 to gain fame worldwide and for all time as the acknowledged paragons of Christian bravery and chivalry.