DJEM AND THE KNIGHTS OF RHODES.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Reading " The Last Crusade " in Mr. Asquith's Studies and Sketches, I find the following statement :—" The conqueror of Constantinople, Mahommed II., died in 1481, and war at once broke out between his two incapable sons, Bajazet and Djem. Djein took refuge with the Knights of Rhodes ; was bought from them, at the price of a Cardinal's hat, for the Grand Master, by Innocent VIII. (1484-1492) ; and was taken to Rome," &c.
Since reading that statement I have consulted two of the best authorities on the somewhat tragic existence of Djem, viz., Major-General Whitworth Porter, who devoted much of his life to the study of the HiStory of the Knights Hospitallers, and M. L. Thuasne, author of Vie et Aventures de Djem-Sultan (Paris, 1892), and I find no confirmation of the statement that Djem was bought at the price of a Cardinal's hat conferred on Pierre d'Aubusson, the Grand Master, whose magnificent defence of Rhodes in 1480 against the naval and military forces of Mahommed II. won for the Knights of Rhodes the title of " The Bulwark of Christendom."
Major-General Porter says specifically that the Cardinal's hat was conferred on Pierre d'Aubusson in 1485, three years before Djem was transferred to the custody of the Pope. It was primarily at his own request that Djem was moved from Rhodes to France, where he resided under the care of the Grand Prior of Auvergne. From France he was, with the consent of Charles VIII., moved to Rome.
M. L. Thuasne in his book, which, as the title indicates, is devoted specially to Djem, never even mentions the Cardinal's hat. M. Thuasne holds no brief for Pierre d'Aubusson, and had the conferment of the hat been capable of discreditable interpretation, I think that M. Thuasne would have said so.
The tale of the sacred relics which passed between the Porte and the Pope in connexion with Djem is a long and very remarkable one. The subsequent history of one at least of these relics is a singular romance.—I am, Sir, &c.,
A. C.. YATE (Lieut.-Col.).
The Athenaeum. Pall Mall. S.W. 1.
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