There were many plans afloat at this time for the union of the two great military orders under one head; plans which, originating with Clement V., the successor of Boniface, may perhaps have been intended as a means of avoiding the more violent measures for the suppression of the Templars forced on him later by the French king. Molay was then grand master of the Templars, and William de Villaret of the Hospitallers: both were summoned to France, where the pontiff then resided, under pretext of conferring on the practicability of a new crusade; but Molay alone obeyed; Villaret excused his delay by alleging the urgent necessity which lay on him to provide for the settlement of his order. He had already fixed on the island of Rhodes as the place most adapted for his purpose: it was but a short distance from Palestine, provided with an excellent port, and capable of being strongly fortified; whilst the circumstances of its existing government seemed to justify the attempt at conquest. It was nominally subject to the Greeks; but in the decay of their empire the lords of Gualla had assumed the real sovereignty of the island; and, the better to protect their independence against the court of Constantinople, had introduced a population of Turks and Saracens, whose lawless piracies they connived at and encouraged. The ports of Rhodes offered a sure refuge for the vessels of the corsairs when pursued by the galleys of the Hospitallers, or of other Christian powers; and the island had come to have a bad reputation, as little else than a nest of robbers. Villaret, therefore, felt little doubt that his plan for erecting Rhodes into a sovereignty for his order would meet with no opposition from the European princes on the ground of justice: so, after reconnoitering the island, and coming to the conclusion that the enterprise was beyond his strength without the assistance of a larger force than he then possessed, he prepared to set out for Europe, both in obedience to the pontifical summons, and also for the purpose of collecting the requisite reinforcements. But he died before putting his proposed voyage into execution; and the Knights immediately elected in his room his brother Fulk de Villaret, as being fully possessed of his most secret designs, and the best capable of bringing them to a successful termination.