The Knights Hospitaller, led by Grand Master Foulques de Villaret, landed on the island in summer 1306 and quickly conquered most of it except for the city of Rhodes, which remained in Byzantine hands.

These are chiefly concerned with the affairs of Cyprus and the troubled relationship between the Hospitallers and the Lusignan kings of the island, and are not very reliable as histories, containing much popular tradition and anecdotal or legendary information.

[7][8] Rhodes was an attractive target: a fertile island, it was strategically located off the southwestern coast of Asia Minor, astride the trade routes to either Constantinople or Alexandria and the Levant.

In the Dodecanese, Andronikos's Genoese admiral Andrea Moresco and his brother Lodovico had been assigned the islands of Kassos and Karpathos, and their relative Vignolo de' Vignoli claimed Kos and Leros and the district of Lardos on Rhodes by imperial grants.

[9] However, the power of these Byzantine clients in the islands was forcefully contested by the Republic of Venice and various families of its citizens, who had originally established themselves in the region under the authority of the now defunct Latin Empire of Constantinople.

[10] The repudiation of the Union of Lyons on the accession of Andronikos in 1282 had reopened the schism between the eastern and western churches and Byzantium was again regarded as a legitimate target for crusading and other military aggression in the name of Latin Christendom.

In the same year, the scholar Raymond Lull identified Rhodes as a suitable base for naval operations to prevent Christians from trading with the Muslims, and advocated its capture as part of plans for a new crusade in the East by Charles of Valois, the titular Latin Emperor.

The chronicles of Amadi and Bustron provide the most detailed account of subsequent events: a first assault on the city of Rhodes by land and sea failed, but on 20 September, the Hospitallers captured the (probably deserted) Feraklos Castle on the island's eastern coast.

In a letter of 30 April 1307, preserved in the royal archives of Aragon, some details are given: the Emperor sent eight galleys to aid the city, and the Hospitallers were forced to lift the siege after killing 80 Greeks and losing about a dozen of their own and about 40 horses.

The Knights promised to recognise the suzerainty of the emperor and send him 300 of their best warriors whenever he demanded, but Andronikos II rejected their proposal, and began preparing further reinforcements to Rhodes to repel any attempt to capture it.

Villaret's fleet reportedly numbered 26 galleys, including Genoese ships, carrying a force of 200–300 Knights and 3,000 foot soldiers, but the bad weather delayed their departure until spring.

The ship captain was captured by a Cypriot knight, Peter the Younger (Pierre le Jaune, Piero il Giovene), who brought him to Rhodes before the Grand Master.

[29][30] The grand preceptor Albert of Schwarzburg led the Hospitaller navy to victories against the Turks in 1318, and at the Battle of Chios in 1319, after which he recaptured the island of Leros, whose Greek populace had rebelled and restored Byzantine rule.