Abandoning piety and pugnacity?

Abstract

This chapter shows that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the military order continued to appeal to many rulers, ecclesiastics, and nobles; people who saw a particular value in the knights of such an order, one that could not be found in a secular soldier. It argues that the idea of the military order changed drastically in the early modern period in order to remain relevant, becoming less austere to aid recruitment and taking on new duties in some cases rather distant from their original role in holy war. There are several pitfalls in studying the more obscure military orders like those founded in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In contrast, the older surviving military orders, the Teutonic Order, the Order of St Lazarus, and the Knights Hospitaller, maintain their religious role, yet have long since abandoned any military one. The Tudor proposal of 1540 demonstrates a military order being conceived for a specific purpose other than holy war: policing.