Otto of Grandson and the Holy Land, Cyprus and Armenia

Abstract

This article seeks to reassess Otto of Grandson’s crusading activities and his links with the Templars. Little is known about his participation in Prince Edward’s crusade in the early 1270s, but he went out to the East again in 1290, though not – as is frequently asserted – as the delegate of Edward I. He assisted in the defence of Acre before sailing to Cyprus. That he had a major role there in the election of James of Molay as Templar master is questionable. He also visited Armenia, but it is doubtful whether he went to Jerusalem during his stay in the East. His relations with the Templars after he had returned to the West also merit re-examination. He did not, as has sometimes been suggested, return to Armenia in the late 1290s, but he was on several occasions planning to return to the East in the early fourteenth century. On one occasion he set out, but was robbed in France. It was only in 1319, when he was over eighty, that he finally abandoned his intention of going again on crusade. He has sometimes been suggested as the author of the crusading treatises Via ad Terram Sanctam and Memoria Terre Sancte, but a close examination of the texts gives little support to this contention.