Knights Hospitaller in the 1320s on Rhodes

Timeline

1. 1320–1322Rhodes and the Bay of Episkopi · GreeceOrhan Bey, leader of the Menteşe beylik, led some 80 ships in an attempt to invade and settle Rhodes, leaving non-combatants on Tilos at Episkopi. Under Albert of Schwarzburg the Hospitallers mustered 4 great galleys and 20 smaller vessels, with support from 6 Genoese galleys stationed at Rhodes; after routing the Turkish fleet they killed or captured the Turks ashore at Episkopi. This battle secured the order's century-long rule of Rhodes.
2. 1321–1326Aegean Sea · AegeanIn the 1320s the order patrolled the Aegean from Rhodes, intercepting Aydın and Menteşe pirates and operating in coordination with Martino Zaccaria, lord of Chios. The order enforced the papal trade ban against the Mamluks, once impounding Genoese merchants who violated it, and later reached a compromise with Venice and Genoa over island ownership, returning islands such as Karpathos to Venice.
3. 1327–1330Rhodes · GreeceBy the late 1320s the order's strategy shifted from recovering the Holy Land to Aegean defense, with increased diplomatic contact with Pope John XXII, Venice, and Cyprus. Around 1330 the parties began planning a naval alliance against the Aydın beylik's pirate base at Smyrna, paving the way for the First Smyrniot Crusade of 1332-1334 and the Smyrniot Crusade of the 1340s.