The Knights Hospitaller: From Crusade to Malta

The Story of Italy: Rome, Renaissance, and the Birth of Modern Europe — Fexingo History · Sep 14, 2026 · 11m · transcript

We left Rome behind in previous episodes, tracing the bloodlines of popes and the engineering of empires, but the story of Europe didn't end with the fall of Constantinople or the sack of Rome. It moved east, then west again, onto a small, rocky island that became the shield of Christendom. This episode follows the Knights Hospitaller, originally a hospital brotherhood in Jerusalem, who transformed into one of the most formidable military orders in history. We explore how they survived the loss of the Holy Land, established their sovereign base on Malta, and prepared for the Great Siege…