Gervaise was well received at Rome, and the Pope, after reading the
grand master's letter, and learning from him his reason for wishing
to leave the Order, without hesitation granted him absolution from his
vows. A few months later there was a grand wedding at the cathedral of
Genoa, the doge and all the nobles of the Republic being present.
Ralph Harcourt and nine other young knights had accompanied Gervaise
from Rhodes by the permission, and indeed at the suggestion, of the
grand master, who was anxious to show that Gervaise had his full
approval and countenance in leaving the Order. Caretto, who had been
appointed grand prior of Italy, had brought the knights from all the
commanderies in the northern republics to do honour to the occasion,
and the whole, in their rich armour and the mantles of the Order, made a
distinguishing feature in the scene.
The defeat of the Turks created such enthusiasm throughout Europe that
when the grand prior of England laid before the king letters he had
received from the grand master and Sir John Kendall, speaking in the
highest terms of the various great services Gervaise had rendered to the
Order, Edward granted his request that the act of attainder against Sir
Thomas Tresham and his descendants should be reversed and the estates
restored to Gervaise. The latter made, with his wife, occasional
journeys to England, staying a few months on his estates in Kent; and as
soon as his second son became old enough, he sent him to England to
be educated, and settled the estate upon him. He himself had but few
pleasant memories of England; he had spent indeed but a very short time
there before he entered the house of the Order in Clerkenwell, and that
time had been marked by constant anxiety, and concluded with the loss
of his father. The great estates that were now his in Italy demanded his
full attention, and, as one of the most powerful nobles of Genoa, he had
come to take a prominent part in the affairs of the Republic.
He was not called upon to fulfil his promise to aid in the defence of
Rhodes, for the death of Mahomet just at the time when he was preparing
a vast expedition against it, freed the Island for a long time from
fear of an invasion. From time to time they received visits from Ralph
Harcourt, who, after five years longer service at Rhodes, received a
commandery in England. He held it a few years only, and then returned to
the Island, where he obtained a high official appointment.
In 1489 Sir John Boswell became bailiff of the English langue, and Sir
Fabricius Caretto was in 1513 elected grand master of the Order, and
held the office eight years, dying in 1521.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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