Ninth Crusade

The Papal Knights is an order of knights under the direct command of the Pope. They consist of at least four factions, dressed in white hoods and robes and equiped with medieval melee weaponary such as halberds and spears. They gather under the command of Archbishop Enrico Maxwell in order to partake in the Ninth Crusade to purge England of Millennium's forces, however Maxwell instead decided to use the knights as an attempt to wipe out England entirely of its Prodestant population.

Weapons
Instead of their traditional set of weapons they wield extremely long barreled semi-auto rifles, most likely heavily modified barrett M82, that fires .50 BMG rounds with halberd heads on their ends as well as shields long enough to protect their entire body. Troops mounted on helicopters as gun crews were also equipped with Galil or HK 21 assault rifles M60 machine guns, and M134 miniguns. The knights appeared to be well-funded as well, being able to afford numerous helicopters land a few aeroplanes, like UH-1 Hueys, CH-47 Chinooks, Little Birds, and even AH-64 Apache gunships.

Plot
Enrico Maxwell was appointed as Archbishop and was given orders by the pope to command the 9th crusade to England to eliminate Millennium's forces. Equipped with anti-vampire weaponry, they eventually join Alucard and the Hellsing Organization in mobilizing England by hundreds of helicopters and gunships. Their mission was to aid Hellsing and Alucard in destroying Millennium; however, Maxwell, utterly drunk on power and fanaticism, turned on Hellsing and ordered the the Knights to attack and destroy everyone, soldiers and civilians alike, in an effort to kill all protestants in England and force a massive Catholic conversion. During their battle with Millennium however, they manage to cripple the Major's zeppelin severely with their gunships and inflict severe casualtes on the vampire army up to the point only 572 remained.

Despite being armed with weapons meant to be effective against unholy monsters as well as heavy gunship support, they were overrun and destroyed by Alucard's massive army of familiars. Thirty years into the future, their numbers still were low enough for them to seriously force them to wait for centuries before even considering the possibility of a Tenth Crusade.

Factions
There are at least four branches of the Papal Knights.


 * The Knights of the Sagely Brethren represent the Knight Order of the Sword of Courland. They consist of 340 members total, all of which attended the battle of London.
 * The Knights of the Order of Calatrava La Nueva consist of 118 members total. All of its members attended the battle of London.
 * The Knights of the Military Order of Santo Stefano di Toscana (St. Stephen of Tuscany) consist of 257 members. They all attended the battle of London.
 * The Knights of the Order of Malta consist of 2457 members. They all attended the battle of London.
 * The robes and hoods that these knights wear are reminiscent of the traditional Ku Klux Klan outfit, most notably because of the tapered, conical white hoods that obscure their identities; this was a feature that the KKK and other racist contemporaries have exploited to this day.
 * As a matter of fact, these robes are called capirotes, a traditional Catholic custom still in use, particularly in Spain.

Trivia

 * Each Head of an Order of the Papal Knights have their own unique masks, except the Malta head.
 * All of the Orders of the Papal Knights were more or less based upon real-life organizations, at least in name. For example, there really was an order of Saint Stephen, under command of Pope Pius IV.
 * Prior to Hellsing OVA VIII, 297 Papal Knights were killed leaving 2,875 of the original 3,172 alive.