Tenurec 8.5.1187-14.7.1187
Nationality Palestinian
Birth ? Nablus, Palestine [The biblical city of Sichem, also called Neapolis, Flavia Neapolis and Naplous]
Death 14 Jul 1187(Ascalon) or 1191
Notes
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, d’Avity (See below), Boisgelin 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 account:
Fra Garnerius, born in Naples of Syria, which was in ancient times the city of Sichem in Canaan, was created Grandmaster. At that time a bloody battle was being fought between the Christians and the infidels, in which Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, who reigned illustriously under the true cross, as well as the Christians he carried in battle, were captured by the infidels and all the Knights of St John and Knights Templar were either killed in battle or beheaded later; however Fra Garnerius, after having fought bravely and received various lethal wounds to his body, escaped swiftly on his horse, and arrived in Ascalon, where he expired after ten days on the 14th July, after he had been Grandmaster for 2 months and six days. On the 20th of the same month of July 1187, the knights who were in Jerusalem, elected Fra Ermengar d’Aps.
9. Frater Garnerius, Neapoli Syriae, quod fuit antiquum oppidum Sichemum in Cananea, natus, magnus Magister creatus fuit. Ipsius tempore proelium cruentum inter Christianos et infideles commissum, in quo Guido Lusignanus, rex Ierosolymitanus, et proceres regni cum vera cruce, quam Christiani secum in pugnam ferebant, ab infidelibus capti, omnes fere Equites S. Ioannis et Templatii partim in praelio occiss, partim post illud capite truncati fuerunt: Frater vero Garnerius, postquam fortiter dimicasset, et diversis partibus corporis letaliter vulneratus fuisset; pernicitate sui equi evasit, et Ascalonem venit, ubi post decem dies exspiravit, XIV. lulii, cum duobus tantum mensibus et sex diebus magnus Magister fuisset.
10. Die X X. eiusdem mensis Iulii, anno MCLXXXVII. Equites, qui erant Ierosolymae, elegerunt fratrem Ermengardum Apsensem.
Source:
Avity, Pierre d’; Gottfried, Johann Ludwig: Archontologiae Cosmicae, Liber III: Origo Ordinum Militarium, tam Regularium, Dissertatio de Ordine Equitum Melitensum, p.33 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.
Blazon Quarterly: 1 and 4, gu a cross arg; 2 and 3, sa a cross ancré arg [R]
Quarterly: 1 and 4, gu a cross arg; 2 and 3, arg a tower az open and ajouré of the field [SPS]