Ermengard d’Aps

The chaotic years during the fall of Jerusalem and the transfer of the seat of the Order to Acre, has shrouded the period between Grandmasters des Moulins and de Duisson with uncertainty leading to varying interpretations of what actually happened in the intervening years.

Until more facts are brought to light, the sequence followed here is the theory supported by Vertot, Boisgelin, d’Avity (See below) and the Cartulary of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem in England, Secunda Camera, Essex.

Other authors, including Sire, hold that the Order was ruled by the Grand Commander (Lt Grandmaster Borrell) and the Provisor (Ermengard d’Aps) until the election of Garnier di Napoli, but nevertheless allocate the position of 8th Grandmaster to d’Aps in the following sequence:

8. Ermengard d’Aps 1188-1190
9. Garnier de Naplous 1190-1192

d’Avity’s account¹:

On the 20th July 1187 the knights who were in Jerusalem elected Fra Ermengard d’Aps. On the 2nd October of the same year  Jerusalem fell into the hands of Saladin, 88 years, 2 months, 17 days after it had been relieved from the infidels by Godfrey of Bouillon, in the second year of the pontificate of Urban III when Frederick I Barbarossa ruled the Western Empire and Isaac Angelos the Eastern Empire in Constantinople: and when Philip II Augustus, God-gifted and Conqueror ruled France. The Knights Hospitaller, Templar and all Latin Christians were then expelled: the Hospitallers ransomed 1000 of those Christians from the barbarians from their own funds. All the temples of the city were defiled and profaned, except for the Church of the Resurrection, which was redeemed by the Eastern Christians at a high price.

Jerusalem having been lost, the Hospitallers were  ever in arms, and came to the help of the faithful efforts of the Christian Princes, who signed the cross, to recapture the Holy Land, playing an important and strong role in the siege of Ptolemaide (Acre), which after a three year siege was captured and taken by force from the infidels on 12 July 1191. The Knights of St John established their Seat in that city which became their ordinary residence. In the same year the Christians gained a memorable victory against the Barbarians and Saladin, their leader, greatly assisted by the Knights Hospitaller and Templar. The following year, that is in the winter of 1192, Grandmaster d’Aps died in the city of Acre.

10. Die XX. eiusdem mensis Iulii, anno MCLXXXVII. Equites, qui erant Ierosolymae, elegerunt fratrem Ermengardum Apsensem. Die II. Octobr. eiusdem anni Ierosolyma in potestatem venit Saladini, LXXXVIII. annis, duobus mensibus, septendecim diebus, post quam inidelium manib. a Godofredo Bullionaeo erepta fuisset, anno secundo Pontificatus Urbani III. cum Fridericus I. cognomento Barbarossa occidentis, et Isaacus Angelus Constantinopoli Orienis imperium teneret: et in Gallia regnaret Philippus II. dictus Augustus, Deodatus et Conquestor. Tunc Equites Hospitales, Templarii et omnes Christiani Latini Ierosolyma pulsi fuerunt: ex quibus Christianis Hospitales sua pecunia mille ex Barbarorum captivitate redemerunt. Omnia urbis templa fuerunt polluta et prophanata, praeter templum Resurrectionis, quod a Christianis orientalibus magno pretio fuit redemptum.

Amissa Ierosolyma Hospitales semper in armis fuerunt, et fidelem operam Christianis Principibus, qui se cruce signarant, ut terram Sanctam recuperarent, navarunt, multis editis fortibus factis in obsidione Ptolemaidis, quae post longam trium annorum obsidionem a Christianis capta et infidelium manibus erepta fuit, XII. Iulii MCXCI. In hac urbe Equites S. Ioannis sedem fixerunt, et ordinarium suum domicilium habuerunt. Eodem anno Christiani memorabilem victoriam contra Barbaros et Saladinum, ducem ipsorum, obtinuerunt, ab Equitibus Hospitalibus et Templariis magnopere adiuti. Anno sequenti, qui fuit MCXCII. in hyieme mortuus est magnus Magister Apsensis in urbe Ptolemaide:

Sources:
Avity, Pierre d’; Gottfried, Johann Ludwig: Archontologiae Cosmicae, Liber III: Origo Ordinum Militarium, tam Regularium, Dissertatio de Ordine Equitum Melitensum, Frankfurt am Main, 1628

Boisgelin, Louis de. Ancient and Modern Malta, and the History of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, 3 Volumes bound together. G & J Robinson, London 1804.

1. Avity Lib III p.34

2. Boisgelin, Vol. 2 p. xviii