Guillaume de Villaret (died 1305), a native of Languedoc-Roussillon

Languedoc-Roussillon

Languedoc-Roussillon is one of the 27 regions of France. It comprises five departments, and borders the other French regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Rhône-Alpes, Auvergne, Midi-Pyrénées on the one side, and Spain, Andorra and the Mediterranean sea on the other side.-Geography:The region is...

 was the 24th Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

s, a position he held from 1296 to his death. He was succeeded by his nephew, Foulques de Villaret

Foulques de Villaret

Foulques de Villaret , a native of Languedoc-Roussillon, France, was the 25th Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, succeeding his paternal uncle Guillaume de Villaret in 1305. His uncle had done much to foster his early career in the Order...

, whose career he had done much to advance.

Biography

Before his position as Master, he had been grand prior of Saint-Gilles

Saint-Gilles

Saint-Gilles is the name of several places, most of them named after Saint Giles.-Belgium:* Saint-Gilles is the French name for a municipality in the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region...

. He spent the first few years of his mastership in a reforming tour of the Order's priories (in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 proper, the Auvergne

Auvergne (province)

Auvergne was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne. It is now the geographical and cultural area that corresponds to the former province....

 and Provence

Provence

Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

).

De Villaret was successful in obtaining large additions of property and privileges from the Papacy and various European nobles. He also undertook a major reorganization of the Order, and promulgated a series of statutes between 1300 and 1304, the most significant of which was the definition of the powers and status of the admiral, a new great dignitary which had been created in 1299.

Combat in the Holy Land

In 1300, in response to the urgent remonstrances of the knights, he appeared in Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

. His Order participated in an ill-fated expedition with other Cypriots, meaning the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

, the Teutonic Knights

Teutonic Knights

The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...

, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem

Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....

, to launch coastal raids along the Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian, Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 and Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

n coasts in 1300. The Cypriots, under King Henry II

Henry II of Jerusalem

Henry II of Jerusalem and Henry II of Cyprus, born Henri de Lusignan was the last ruling and first titular King of Jerusalem and also ruled as King of Cyprus as Henry II...

, then sent a land-based source to the island of Arwad

Arwad

Arwad – formerly known as Arado , Arados , Arvad, Arpad, Arphad, and Antiochia in Pieria , also called Ruad Island – located in the Mediterranean Sea, is the only inhabited island in Syria. The town of Arwad takes up the entire island...

, in an attempt to retake the coastal city of Tortosa

Tortosa

-External links:* *** * * *...

. There had been some attempt to do this in concert with forces from the Mongol

Mongol Empire

The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...

 Ilkhanate

Ilkhanate

The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate , was a Mongol khanate established in Azerbaijan and Persia in the 13th century, considered a part of the Mongol Empire...

; however the promised Mongol troops did not arrive, the Cypriots eventually had to retreat from Ruad, and the island was re-taken by the Egyptian Mamluks a year later.

Legacy

De Villaret, and other Grand Masters of the Order, have been represented in series of postage stamps. As of late 2003 stamps were being issued in denominations of grani

Grani

In Norse mythology, Grani is a horse owned by the hero Sigurd. He is the horse that Sigurd receives through advice from an old man . Grani is a descendant of Odin's own steed, Sleipnir.-Attestations:...

, tari, and scudi

Italian scudo

The scudo was the name for a number of coins used in Italy until the 19th century. The name, like that of the French écu and the Spanish and Portuguese escudo, was derived from the Latin scutum . From the 16th century, the name was used in Italy for large silver coins...

.