Dieudonné de Gozon was the Grand Master of the

Knights of Rhodes The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

from 1346 to 1353. He was born to a noble family in

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. He carried the nickname ''Extinctor Draconis'', which means "The Dragon Slayer" in

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. In 1347 and 1348, Gozon led his order in a march to aid King Constantine V of Armenia, who was threatened by the army of the Sultan of

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The Dragon of Rhodes

A story tells of a dragon in the island of

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

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, hiding in the local swamp and killing the cattle of the local farmers. Despite the orders of the previous Grand Master not to disturb the beast, Gozon slew the dragon and hung the head on one of the seven gates of the medieval town of

. The head was on display until around 1837, when it was disposed of by workers responsible for repairing the castle. However, the Museum of the Order of St. John, in a 2015 article, states that there is no mention by any author of such a trophy on display before a 17th-century travelogue, which was written centuries after the head was supposedly hung on a gate at Rhodes. Historian Frederick William Hasluck suggests that Gozon's participation in a then-common Rogation festival, in which a facsimile of a dragon was "slain" to represent defeat of a symbolic "Spirit of Evil," may have evolved over time into a story where Gozon slew an actual, living dragon.Hasluck, Frederick W. "Dieudonné de Gozon and the Dragon of Rhodes." Annual of the British School at Athens 20 (1914), 70-79.

References

*Pavlidis, Vangelis. ''Rhodes, A Story 1306 - 1522.'' Rhodes: Kasseris Publications. *Hasluck, Frederick W. "Dieudonné de Gozon and the Dragon of Rhodes." Annual of the British School at Athens 20 (1914), 70-79. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dieudonne De Gozon De Gozon, Dieudonne De Gozon, Dieudonne 1353 deaths Rhodes under the Knights Hospitaller 14th-century French people