In 1345 a major success was achieved with the capture of Smyrna, one of the most important trading posts on the coastline. In little over thirty years the Knights had extended their protecting power and influence over all the southern Aegean, and they were now holding one of the major cities of Asia Minor. It was no small achievement. Smyrna remained an important advance outpost of the Order until 1402, when it fell before the inexorable advance of the Tartars under their ruler Timur the Lame.

In 1365 that dream of so many Popes once again revived and the crusading spirit flashed once more through Europe. Pope Urban V, moved by Peter I, King of Cyprus, and finding a useful tool in a well-known Carmelite preacher, proclaimed a new Crusade. Although few of the greater nobles came from England—with the exception of the Earl of Hereford—and none from Germany, there was a substantial French contingent. Many lesser knights and their men-at-arms came from all over Europe, even from as far afield as Scotland. In the vanguard of the Crusade were inevitably the Knights of St John. It was they who held the advance-post in the Holy War, and they who were familiar with the whole area and terrain; the nature and dispositions of their enemies.

In the midsummer of 1365 the watchers on the battlements of Rhodes looked down upon a sight that must have cheered their hearts. Certainly it was a sight that would have seemed almost unbelievable to Grand Master John de Villiers who had led the shattered remnant of the Order out of Acre seventy-four years before. Moored in the commercial harbour lay transport upon transport; others rode at anchor just beyond the encircling sweep of the harbour walls. In the Mandraccio the sharklike hulls of the galleys idled in the still water while their ships’ companies—anything but idle—hoisted aboard stores and weapons, and checked over details of masts, sails, rigging, oarports and oars. The armada that was designed to recoup Christian fortunes in the East numbered one hundred and sixty-five vessels in all. The bulk of them were provided by King Peter of Cyprus, the Venetians and the Hospitallers furnishing the spearhead of large fighting galleys. The destination of the armada was kept a secret, for the Moslems too had their spies operating throughout the ports of their enemies. Unlike some previous Crusades there was no division of command, for King Peter by the preponderance of Cypriot ships and men was the unquestioned leader. The Knights for their part were happy to accept this, just so long as they could fulfil their aim of chastising Islam wherever possible; the Venetians were concerned over and above all with the profit motive of the venture. King Peter, in order to fool the enemy into thinking that the attack was coming in Syria, sent word to all Cypriot citizens in Syria to return home at once and to cease all trade with that area.

The ruse succeeded. The fleet put to sea and not until they were well under way was it announced that the target was Egypt, or, more accurately, Alexandria. Alexandria, the greatest of all Moslem ports, was a sensible objective. If the crusaders could capture it they would have an excellent base for their fleet and army for a further campaign to free the Holy Land.

The fleet was off the island of Pharos and the great city by the evening of October 9th. The Alexandrians at first seem to have thought that it was no more than a large merchant fleet coming in to trade. (The Venetians conducted a large part of their eastern trade through Alexandria.) In the morning, however, the citizens saw how mistaken they had been. It was now quite clear that many of these ships—in particular the galleys of the Knights of St John and of the Venetians—could in no way be described as merchant ships. What was more, instead of coming to anchor in the eastern harbour (the only one to which Christians were allowed access) the fleet moved into the western harbour, the Harbour of the Happy Return as it had been known in the days of the Ptolemies. The governor of the city was away on a pilgrimage to Mecca; no attack had been anticipated; and the acting-governor failed to get his troops deployed quickly enough to prevent the crusaders from getting ashore.

Finding that the strong western walls were difficult to storm the crusaders sent the larger part of their forces round to the eastern harbour where they soon broke into the city. The inhabitants immediately began streaming out of the southern gates. Within twenty-four hours the crusaders were in possession of Alexandria. Once again, as at Antioch in 1097, Jerusalem in 1099, and Constantinople in 1204, these crusading soldiers showed that they had learned nothing from the bloodthirsty errors of their forefathers, and that they were still possessed by the maniac savagery of the furor Normannorum.

Making no distinction between Coptic Christians, Jews, or Moslems, they put the whole city to the sword, looting, ransacking, raping and murdering. In vain King Peter tried to restore order and discipline.