Jean de Villiers (Grand Master)
Jean de Villiers was the 22nd Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller from 1285 until 1293. He was present at the Siege of Acre in 1291, but escaped just before the city fell to the Mameluks.
Even before the loss of Acre and the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291, the Knights were confined to the County of Tripoli. In 1291 they sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus. However, entangled in Cypriot politics, Villaret formed a plan to acquire a new temporal domain, the island of Rhodes, then part of the Byzantine empire.
