Hugh Revel (d. 1277/1278)

Master of the Order of the Hospital (1258-1277/1278).

During William of Chateauneuf’s mastership (12421258), Hugh served as castellan of the Krak des Chevaliers (1243), preceptor of Acre (1251), and grand preceptor of the order’s central convent (1252-1258). In disputes involving

The Hospitallers and John of Ibelin (1256), as well as Bohe-mund VI of Antioch-Tripoli (1256/1257), he served as arbiter.

Hugh was elected master after the death of William of Chateauneuf (1258). He reached an agreement with the Templars and the Teutonic Knights to establish procedures for the settlement of disputes between the military orders (1258); these procedures were successfully implemented when Hospitallers and Templars achieved a compromise over disputed possessions in Valania, Margat, Sidon, and Beaufort (1262). On the Hospitallers’ behalf, Hugh concluded truces with Baybars I, sultan of Egypt, in 1267 and 1271 (after the Mamluk capture of the Krak des Chevaliers).

Hugh is considered the most influential of the thirteenth-century Hospitaller masters. He played a crucial role in the order’s constitutional development and presided over several general chapters that confirmed old and enacted important new statutes (1262-1276). Hugh’s successful administration benefited from Joseph of Cancy’s long tenure as treasurer of the Hospitallers’ central convent (1248-1271). Hugh died in 1277/1278 and was succeeded by Nicholas Lorgne.

-Jochen Burgtorf

Bibliography

Humphery-Smith, Cecil R., Hugh Revel: Master of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, 1258-1277 (Chichester, UK: Phillimore, 1994).

Riley-Smith, Jonathan, The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, c. 1050-1310 (London: Macmillan, 1967).