Jean de Villiers

Quarterly: 1 and 4, gu a cross arg; 2 and 3, or three chevrons az

Jean de Villiers
Ioannes Villiersius
Iohannes de Villers

Tenure 1288-1294

Nationality French

Birth ?

Death 1294 (Cyprus)

Notes
Jean de Villiers,wrote from his sickbed in Cyprus to Guillaume de Villaret, Prior of St Gilles, (later Grandmaster) describing the last dreadful hours of the fall of Acre:
They [the Muslims] entered the city on all sides early in the morning and in very great force. We and our convent resisted them at St Anthony's Gate, where there were so many Saracens that one could not count them. Nevertheless we drove them back three times as far as the place commonly called 'Cursed'. And in that action and other where the brothers of our convent fought in defence of the city and their lives and country, we lost little by little all the convent of our Order, which is so much to be praised and which is close to Holy Church, and then came to an end. Among them our dear friend Brother Matthew de Clermont our marshal lay dead. He was noble and doughty and wise in arms. May God be gracious to him! On that same day the master of the Temple also died of a mortal wound from a javelin. God have mercy on his soul!
I myself on that same day was stricken nearly to death by a lance between the shoulders, a wound which has made the writing of this letter a very difficult task. Meanwhile a great crowd of Saracens were entering the city on all sides, by land and by sea, moving along the walls, which were all pierced and broken, until they came to our shelters. Our sergeants, lads and mercenaries and the crusaders and others gave up all hope and fled towards the ships, throwing down their arms and armour. We and our brothers, the greatest number of whom were wounded to death or gravely injured, resisted them as long as we could, God knows. And as some of us were lying as if we were half-dead and lay in a faint before our enemies, our sergeants and our household boys came and carried me, mortally wounded, and our other brothers away, at great danger to themselves. And thus I and some of our brothers escaped, as it pleased God, most of whom were wounded and battered without hope of cure, and we were taken to the island of Cyprus. On the day that this letter was written we were still there, in great sadness of heart, prisoners of overwhelming sorrow.
[Source: Cartulaire général de l'ordre des Hospitaliers, ed. Joseph Delaville le Roulx, no. 4157; translated by Edwin James King, The Knights Hospitallers in the Holy Land (London, 1931), pp. 301-2: amended by H. J. Nicholson.]

21. Eodem anno [MCCLXXXVIII] electus fuit in magnum Magistrum frater Ioannes Villiersius, ex natione Francica. Ipsius tempore capta fuit Tripolis ab infidelibus, Christianis eiectis: quemadmodum et Sidon ac Berythus, anno MCCLXXXIX, quae urbes fuerunt direptae, vastatae et incensae, in Tyrus quoque in Sultani potestatem redacta fuit, cum quo Christiani, qui Ptolemaide erant, inducias pepigerunt: interea magnus Magister Brundusium venit, cum magno Magistro Templariorum, uti Principes Christianos ad cruce se signandum hortarentur.
Anno MCCXCI Sultanus urbem Ptolemaida obsidione cinxit, summa virtute eam defendentibus Equitib. Hospitalibus et Templariis, qui saepius eruptione facta cum hostibus conflixerunt:atque ipse magnus Magister, vulnere accepto, diu Barbrorum infidelium impetum sustinuit. Equites vero repagulis obiectis in quadam urbis platea se sepserunt: quae tandem capta fuit, die Veneris, XVIII Maii, anno iam dicto, MDXCI. Hac urbe amissa Christiani ex terra Sancta electi fuerunt, CXCI. annis, decem mensibus, tribus diebus, ex quo Godofredus Bullionaeus eam occupaverat. Magnus Magister cum reliquiis suorem Equitum per mare in insulam Cyprum confugit, ubi a rege benigne et humaniter exceptus fuit, qui Equitib. Hospitalibus et Templariis assignavit urbem Melilonam, ubi est portus maris, ut illic sedes figerent: In ea urbe magnus Magister Villie sius duo generalia capitula congregavit, unum anno MCC XCII. mense Decembrii alterum sequentianno, mense Octobri: ubi novas leges ordini praescripsit. Anno MCCXCIV. Melisone e vita migravit:cui successit.
Source:
Avity, Pierre d'; Gottfried, Johann Ludwig: Archontologiae Cosmicae, Liber III: Origo Ordinum Militarium, tam Regularium, Dissertatio de Ordine Equitum Melitensum, p.36 Frankfurt am Main, 1628

Blazon Quarterly: 1 and 4, gu a cross arg; 2 and 3, or three chevrons az [R]s
Quarterly: 1 and 4, gu a cross arg; 2 and 3, arg three chevrons az [ANF/V]

Engraving by Antonio F. Lucini of Matteo Perez d'Aleccio's fresco


Tenure	1288-1294
Nationality	French

Birth	?
Death	1294 (Cyprus)
Notes	Jean de Villiers,wrote from his sickbed in Cyprus to Guillaume de Villaret, Prior of St Gilles, (later Grandmaster) describing the last dreadful hours of the fall of Acre: They [the Muslims] entered the city on all sides early in the morning and in very great force. We and our convent resisted them at St Anthony's Gate, where there were so many Saracens that one could not count them. Nevertheless we drove them back three times as far as the place commonly called 'Cursed'. And in that action and other where the brothers of our convent fought in defence of the city and their lives and country, we lost little by little all the convent of our Order, which is so much to be praised and which is close to Holy Church, and then came to an end. Among them our dear friend Brother Matthew de Clermont our marshal lay dead. He was noble and doughty and wise in arms. May God be gracious to him! On that same day the master of the Temple also died of a mortal wound from a javelin. God have mercy on his soul! I myself on that same day was stricken nearly to death by a lance between the shoulders, a wound which has made the writing of this letter a very difficult task. Meanwhile a great crowd of Saracens were entering the city on all sides, by land and by sea, moving along the walls, which were all pierced and broken, until they came to our shelters. Our sergeants, lads and mercenaries and the crusaders and others gave up all hope and fled towards the ships, throwing down their arms and armour. We and our brothers, the greatest number of whom were wounded to death or gravely injured, resisted them as long as we could, God knows. And as some of us were lying as if we were half-dead and lay in a faint before our enemies, our sergeants and our household boys came and carried me, mortally wounded, and our other brothers away, at great danger to themselves. And thus I and some of our brothers escaped, as it pleased God, most of whom were wounded and battered without hope of cure, and we were taken to the island of Cyprus. On the day that this letter was written we were still there, in great sadness of heart, prisoners of overwhelming sorrow. [Source: Cartulaire général de l'ordre des Hospitaliers, ed. Joseph Delaville le Roulx, no. 4157; translated by Edwin James King, The Knights Hospitallers in the Holy Land (London, 1931), pp. 301-2: amended by H. J. Nicholson.] 21. Eodem anno [MCCLXXXVIII] electus fuit in magnum Magistrum frater Ioannes Villiersius, ex natione Francica. Ipsius tempore capta fuit Tripolis ab infidelibus, Christianis eiectis: quemadmodum et Sidon ac Berythus, anno MCCLXXXIX, quae urbes fuerunt direptae, vastatae et incensae, in Tyrus quoque in Sultani potestatem redacta fuit, cum quo Christiani, qui Ptolemaide erant, inducias pepigerunt: interea magnus Magister Brundusium venit, cum magno Magistro Templariorum, uti Principes Christianos ad cruce se signandum hortarentur. Anno MCCXCI Sultanus urbem Ptolemaida obsidione cinxit, summa virtute eam defendentibus Equitib. Hospitalibus et Templariis, qui saepius eruptione facta cum hostibus conflixerunt:atque ipse magnus Magister, vulnere accepto, diu Barbrorum infidelium impetum sustinuit. Equites vero repagulis obiectis in quadam urbis platea se sepserunt: quae tandem capta fuit, die Veneris, XVIII Maii, anno iam dicto, MDXCI. Hac urbe amissa Christiani ex terra Sancta electi fuerunt, CXCI. annis, decem mensibus, tribus diebus, ex quo Godofredus Bullionaeus eam occupaverat. Magnus Magister cum reliquiis suorem Equitum per mare in insulam Cyprum confugit, ubi a rege benigne et humaniter exceptus fuit, qui Equitib. Hospitalibus et Templariis assignavit urbem Melilonam, ubi est portus maris, ut illic sedes figerent: In ea urbe magnus Magister Villie sius duo generalia capitula congregavit, unum anno MCC XCII. mense Decembrii alterum sequentianno, mense Octobri: ubi novas leges ordini praescripsit. Anno MCCXCIV. Melisone e vita migravit:cui successit. Source: Avity, Pierre d'; Gottfried, Johann Ludwig: Archontologiae Cosmicae, Liber III: Origo Ordinum Militarium, tam Regularium, Dissertatio de Ordine Equitum Melitensum, p.36 Frankfurt am Main, 1628
Blazon	Quarterly: 1 and 4, gu a cross arg; 2 and 3, or three chevrons az [R]s Quarterly: 1 and 4, gu a cross arg; 2 and 3, arg three chevrons az [ANF/V]