The Hospitallers relocated to Kingdom of Cyprus following the fall of Acre. Taking refuge in Limassol at the Castle of Kolossi, Jean de Villiers held a General Chapter of the Order on 6 October 1292. He wanted to put the Hospitallers in a position to reconquer the Holy Land. He prepared for the defense of Cyprus and the protection of Armenia, both of which were threatened by the Mamluks. Entangled in Cypriot politics, de Villaret formed a plan to acquire a new temporal domain, the island of Rhodes, then part of the Byzantine Empire.

After the loss of Acre, the balance of power in the Holy Land between Christians and Mamluks was clearly in favor of the latter, who continued to advance. However, the Christians could count on the Mongols of Persia led by Mahmud Ghazan Khan, whose expansionism pushed them to covet the Mamluk lands. His army took Aleppo, and was there joined by his vassal Hethum II of Armenia, whose forces included some Templars and Hospitallers, all of whom participated in the rest of the offensive. The Mongols and their allies defeated the Mamluks in the Third Battle of Homsin December 1299. The khan sent an ambassador to Nicosia to establish an alliance. Henry II of Cyprus, Hethum II and Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay decided to have him escorted to the pope to support the idea of an alliance, which became effective in 1300.

The king of Cyprus sent an army to Armenia accompanied by 300 knights of the two Orders led personally by the Grand Masters. They stormed the island of Ruad, near the Syrian coast, with the aim of turning it into a base for their future operations. They then took the port city of Tortosa, pillaged the region, captured many Muslims and sold them as slaves in Armenia while waiting for the arrival of the Mongols, but this only led to the Fall of Ruad, the last battle for the Holy Land.