finances of his priory in such hopeless confusion that the Grand-Master and council were compelled to supersede him, in 1329. The reckless manner in which he granted pensions and created other incumbrances would, had he not been suspended, have annihilated the property of the langue.
Leonard de Tybertis.—Originally prior of Venice. Being a man of much tact and skill in administration, he was selected to succeed Larcher, in order to unravel the tangled web which had become so complicated under his predecessor. In this task he succeeded admirably.
Robert Hales.—He was in the suite of the Grand-Master d’Heredia when he escorted Pope Gregory XI. from Avignon to Civita Vecchia in 1377. It was in his time that the priory at Clerkenwell was burnt by the mob led on by Wat Tyler. The prior’s residence at Highbury was also destroyed. Froissart records that “they went straight to the fayre hospytalle of the Rodes called saynt Johans and there they brent house hospytall mynster and all.” Such a strong animosity was felt by the people against the Order, that Jack Straw in his confession said, “specially would we have destroyed the knights of St. John.” Sir Robert Hales was beheaded by the mob on Tower-hill in company with Sudbury archbishop of Canterbury and other lords.
Robert Bootle.—At a grand wrestling match, held at Clerkenwell on St. Bartholomew’s day, 1456, at which this grand-prior was present with the Lord Mayor and sheriffs of London, a quarrel arose on a question of wrestling, in which a servant of the prior was concerned. Bootle being discontented with the decision of the Lord Mayor, fetched a party of bowmen from the priory, and a conflict ensued, the Mayor’s cap being shot through. Eventually a party of citizens rescued their chief, and bore him off in triumph.
William Knolls, grand-preceptor of Scotland. He was Lord Treasurer under king James IV., who raised him to the peerage under the title of Lord St. John, which dignity was held by the priors of Scotland until the Reformation. He was killed in the battle of Flodden Field on September 11, 1513.
John Langstrother was bailiff of Aquila in 1466. He had been the bearer of a letter from Grand-Master de Lastic to
