Foulques de Villaret ( Occitan: Folco del Vilaret, Catalan: Folc del Vilaret; died 1 September 1327), a native of Languedoc-Roussillon, France, was the 25th Grand Master of the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

, succeeding his paternal uncle

Guillaume de Villaret Guillaume de Villaret (c. 1235 – 1305), was the twenty-fourth Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, a position he held from 1296 until 1305, succeeding Odon de Pins. He was succeeded by his nephew, Foulques de Villaret, whose career he had ...

in 1305. His uncle had done much to foster his early career in the Order. He was appointed Admiral in 1299, and Grand Commander two years later. By 1303 he was Lieutenant of the Master, and so advanced to Master on his uncle's death. Under his leadership they launched a successful attempt at the conquest of Rhodes, in the years 1308 and 1309. Other islands were also taken, including

Kastellórizo Kastellorizo or Castellorizo (; el, Καστελλόριζο, Kastellórizo), officially Megisti ( ''Megísti''), is a Greek island and municipality of the Dodecanese in the Eastern Mediterranean.Bertarelli, 131 It lies roughly off the south co ...

and

Bodrum Bodrum () is a port city in Muğla Province, southwestern Turkey, at the entrance to the Gulf of Gökova. Its population was 35,795 at the 2012 census, with a total of 136,317 inhabitants residing within the district's borders. Known in ancient t ...

. The Hospitallers then moved their headquarters to Rhodes. However, despite the huge benefits to his Order from the suppression of the Knights Templar (the Templars' assets were assigned to the Hospitallers by the Pope in 1312), Villaret's campaigns of territorial expansion ran the Order heavily into debt, and these debts were not paid off until the mid-1330s. Villaret seems to have been a difficult and overbearing man, and eventually alienated his Order. Allegations were made of increasingly arrogant, even tyrannical, behaviour, although none of the allegations are specific, and one Italian account of the lives of the Grand Masters claimed that he was treated unjustly. In 1317, the Order attempted a coup against Villaret. A group of knights went to assassinate him at his residence at Rhodini, but his chamberlain aided his escape. He fled to the Hospitaller castle at

Lindos Lindos (; grc-gre, Λίνδος) is an archaeological site, a fishing village and a former municipality on the island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rhodes, of which it ...

, where he was besieged by his own Order. They had, in the meantime, elected Maurice de Pagnac as Grand Master in his place, and wrote to

Pope John XXII Pope John XXII ( la, Ioannes PP. XXII; 1244 – 4 December 1334), born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), was head of the Catholic Church from 7 August 1316 to his death in December 1334. He was the second and longest-reigning Avignon Pope, elected by ...

in July to justify their actions. The Pope summoned both Grand Masters to his court at

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label= Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the commune ha ...

to settle the dispute. Meanwhile, Brother Giraud de Pins administered the Order in the Pope's name. The Pope reappointed Villaret – but only so that he could tender his resignation formally. Brother

Hélion de Villeneuve Hélion de Villeneuve Hélion de Villeneuve (c. 1270 – 1346) was a French-born Grand Master of the Knights of St. John. He was the brother of Saint Roseline. He died on the island of Rhodes. The blazon of his coat-of-arms was ''Gules ...

was named as Master on 18 June 1319, the elderly Pagnac having died in the meantime. The Pope appointed Villaret as Prior of Capua for life on 29 June, but after more problems there, he was transferred to the Priory of Rome in 1325. That, too, seems to have been unsuccessful, and after April that year, he received only a pension. He returned to his homeland and lived as a mere Brother of the Order at his sister's home in Teyran, near

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people l ...

. He died on 1 September 1327 and was buried in the former Templar Church at Montpellier.

Sources

* Luttrell, Anthony. "Notes on Foulques de Villaret, Master of the Hospital 1305-1319" in ''The Hospitallers of Rhodes and the Mediterranean World'' (Aldershot 1992). {{DEFAULTSORT:Villaret, Foulques de 1327 deaths Knights Hospitaller Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller Year of birth unknown Rhodes under the Knights Hospitaller People of Frankish and Latin Greece 14th-century French people