Who were Knights?
The people in the order consisted of three major classes:
Knights, servers of God and Chaplains.
The Grand master of the Order was elected for life. The knights had royal or noble descent and were rich and wealthy people of Europe. They served the order without any payments. When they died their goods and property passed became property of the Order. During the peace times, they could travel freely to their countries and take care of the land and property. But time of war, they returned the their castles as quickly as possible. The knights came from various countries and major provinces of France. The order of the Knights of John was not purely religious order and people did not follow strict orders of a monastic life. However, the rules of the order were strict and young knight were trained extensively.
The knights were divided into several groups due to the language they spoke. They were Knights from England, Italy, Germany and various districts of France. Since this was the time, France and Spain were divided into major principalities; Provence, Auvergne and Aragon were also major Langues at the Order.
