Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (; ), also known as the Order of Saint John, Order of Hospitallers, Knights Hospitaller, Knights Hospitalier or Hospitallers, was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, on the island of Rhodes, in Malta and St Petersburg.
Sussex in the High Middle Ages
Sussex had strong links with the military orders of the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller. Founded in 1119, the Knights Templar established centres in Sussex including a local headquarters, or preceptory, at Shipley from around 1125, with other centres at Sompting from 1154 and at the port of Shoreham by 1170. The church at Shipley is the earliest surviving church of the Templars in England and dates from the 1130s. The Hospitallers established a centre at Poling and another at Shoreham in 1190. Various Sussex magnates went on crusade including Philip de Braose, lord of Bramber, went on crusade probably in 1128. William de Warenne III, lord of the rape of Lewes, made annual gifts from his estate at Lewes to the knights Templar and around 1146 went on crusade where he was killed in battle in 1148.