Nov. 11. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



379 



the city of Belbeis, and a right to collect annually 

 from the neighbouring country a hundred thou- 

 sand " Bisanzii." * The result of this Christian 

 expedition is well known. Belbeis, after being 

 captured and sacked, and its inhabitants, men, 

 women, and children, cruelly slain, was passed 

 over to D'Assalit, who within a year was driven 

 out, and on his return to Jerusalem deposed by 

 the Order for bringing it in debt to the amount of 

 100,000 pieces of gold.f His ill fortune pursued 

 him to his death. After remaining in Palestine 

 until 1183, without recovering his Influence or 

 dignity, he perished on September 19 of that year, 

 when crossing the Channel from Dieppe to Eng- 

 land.t 



Without entering more at length on the history 

 of that period, I shall now come to the object I 

 have In writing this note, by asking who were the 

 Turcopoliers thus recorded as having accompanied 

 D'Assalit in this expedition to Egypt ? Gregory 

 the monk terms them men of arms who were first 

 known in the service of the Greek emperors, and 

 employed as light infantry to protect their royal 

 persons and families from the insults and rapacity 

 of the Arabs and Saracens, Syrians, Turks, 

 Musselmen, and assassins, by whom they were 

 surrounded ; and adds that, as the Kings of Jeru- 

 salem and the masters of the Hospitallers were 

 similarly situated, the latter enrolled them under 

 their standards for a similar purpose. § Guibert 

 the abbot has recorded that they were men who 

 transported boats over the mountains, and bravely 

 fought In them when occasion required. Anna 

 Comnena terms the Turcopoliers light infantry, 

 who served as a body-guard to the reigning power 

 to protect merchants when travelling through the 

 country, or to act as a police for the defence of 

 cities and their inhabitants. 1| AVIUiara, Archbishop 

 of Tyre, a good authority, has stated that they 

 were light cavalry ; In which opinion he Is sus- 

 tained by Addison, In his History of the Templars, 

 who has written — 



" That the Turcopilar was the commander of a body of 

 light horse, composed of natives of Syria and Palestine, 

 the offspring frequently of Turkish mothers and Christian 

 fathers, brought up in the religion of Christ, and retained in 

 the pay of the Order." And adds " that they were liglitly 

 armed, clothed in the Asiatic style ; and being inured to 

 the climate, well acquainted with the country, and with 

 the Musselman mode of warfare, they were found ex- 

 tremely serviceable as light cavalry and skirmishers, and 

 consequently alwaj's attached to the war battalions." 



Castelli Inclines to the belief, that the Turco- 

 poles were light cavalry ; and to establish the high 

 character of the Turcopoller, refers to Roman 

 history. He remarks that Justius Lipsius was a 



Castelli's TurcopoUere, p. 7. 



Vertot and Addison. 



Boisgelin's History of the Order, p. xvi. 



Ex Histor, Belli Sacri. 



Gesta Dei per Francos, lib. iii. cap. 8. 



commander of light horse ; and Fablus Celerius, 

 while enjoying this rank, held a dignity which in 

 a military point of view was second only to that 

 of the king. 



Boisgelin*, who was a Maltese knight, without 

 going into the subject, simply remarks, or, in other 

 words, appears closely to have followed Padre 

 Paulif, in his Diplomatic Code, where he states — 



" That a Turcopolier was the concentual bailiff of the 

 venerable language of England, and took his title from 

 being the commander of the Turcopoles ; a sort of light 

 horse, mentioned in the history of the wars carried on by 

 the Christians in Palestine." 



In this opinion they are sustained by the MS. 

 records of the Order, wherein we find them fre- 

 quently recorded as light cavalry, and as having 

 been employed in the service of the Order almost 

 from Its first foundation. 



Raymond, Roger Ovvideno, Villardin, the 

 Count Pontiere, and Osman, have written that the 

 children of Turkish fathers and Christian mothers 

 were called Turcopoles ; and that they were an 

 Impious and Infamous race.J Du Cange makes 

 known In his Glossary, that Turcopolier comes 

 from TTouAos, which, in Greek, is a child ; and 

 TovpK6irov\a is therefore the child of a Turk : and 

 Nicephorus has given the same definition. The 

 learned Brucardo differs again, by saying that 

 Turcopolier means only *' Turcas pellere," or " ex- 

 pellere ; " and the Maltese historians, Abela and 

 Ciantar, looking only to the high dignity which 

 the Turcopolier held In the Order, have most 

 willingly come to the same conclusion. James 

 states, in his Military Dictionary, 



" That as pilier, in French, signifies a buttress, we may 

 not strain the interpretation when we say Tu7-co pilier, 

 a buttress against the Turks ; in which light the Order 

 of Malta was originally considered." 



My learned Maltese friend. Dr. Vella, who may 

 be considered a good authority in all doubtful mat- 

 ters relating to the history of the Hospitallers, has 

 suggested, that as the title of "Pilier" was given 

 to the head of each language In the convent, Tur- 

 copolier might express the chief of the mixed race 

 in Its service, to which we have already referred. 



In the face of so many conflicting statements 

 and contradictory authorities, It Is diflicult now to 

 decide who the Turcopoles really were, or what 

 their duties may have been when the Order of 

 St. John was first established. 



Spelmano has laboured to prove that the Tur- 

 copoliers were only Interpreters to the Order ; 

 and Paull has written, that they were natives of 

 Greece and Palestine, who, being unable to speak 

 any of the western languages, were of little or no 

 service until the Grand Master nominated one of 



♦ Boisgelin's Ancient and Modem Malta, vol. i. p. ix. 

 f Pauli's Diplomatic Code. 

 j Castelli's TurcopoUere, p. 10. 



