Master of the Hospitallers (1277/1278-1285).
Nicholas enjoyed an illustrious career, starting as castellan of the Hospitallers’ most important Syrian castles: Mar-gat (1250/1254) and then Krak des Chevaliers (1254/1269). An inscription confirms his building activities at the latter.
During the mastership of Hugh Revel (1258-1277/1278), Nicholas occupied some of the order’s highest offices in the East, serving consecutively as marshal of the central convent (1269-1271), grand preceptor of Acre (1271), marshal (1273), preceptor of Tripoli (1275), and grand preceptor (1277). After Hugh Revel’s death (1277/1278), Nicholas was elected master. He presided over the general chapter that issued detailed statutes concerning the Hospitallers’ conventual seal and defined the role of some of the central convent’s high officials in the use of this seal (1278).
Nicholas corresponded regularly with King Edward I of England, and he served as arbiter in disputes involving Bohemund VII of Antioch-Tripoli and the Templars (1278) as well as the bishop of Tripoli (1278). In 1283 he joined the bailli (regent) of the kingdom of Jerusalem, the master of the Templars, and the marshal of the Teutonic Knights in concluding a truce with Qalawun, Mamluk sultan of Egypt. Nicholas died in 1285 and was succeeded by John of Villiers.
-Jochen Burgtorf
Bibliography
Riley-Smith, Jonathan, The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, c. 1050-1310 (London: Macmillan, 1967).
World History
