âš ï¸ SPOILER ALERT âš ï¸
Today we are going to be talking about the character development and plot of A Knight of the White Cross.
Gervaise’s father is Sir Tresham of the English Army. When Gervaise is nine years old, his father falls in battle. His mother, Dame Tresham, brings him to one of the “outposts” of the Order, and has him sent to the palace at Rhodes to become a Knight of the White Cross there. This is where the true beginning of the character development begins. Gervaise begins his training. He is shown to be a smart, quick-witted lad when he sails the galleys to raid pirate ships, and succeeds in gaining his secular knighthood by a cunning plan to deceive the pirates (secular knighthood is a promotion from the base knighthood any knight of the Order acquires upon joining). Gervaise is then shown to be smart so as to learn Turkish, the language of the enemy. None of the other knights of his age are willing to spend the nine months necessary to do this. Gervaise then stops a slave revolt, again proving his cunning. As a reward for this, he is given command of a ship manned by young knights, and sets out. After being captured during a battle with an enemy galley, Gervaise is a slave for several month before escaping, and returned with less than a mile between them and the Turks that arrived to lay siege to Rhodes. The focus is less on Gervaise when the attack on Rhodes begins. The story then winds down quickly after the conclusion of the siege, Gervaise leaving the Order of St. John to become a noble of Italy and marry.
Overall, Gervaise has quite the complex and (I believe) well rounded character development. He began the story as an inexperienced young child, and ended it as a competent young man. The plot of the book is also quite interesting, and I really enjoyed the story. I also enjoy books that take place in that time period a lot.