Until 1099 AD, Jerusalem and much of the Christian Holy Land had been under the watchful eye
of their Muslim conquerors.
But, in the midst of the impassioned First Crusade, the Christians battled back and won
over a remarkable portion of their sacred lands from the Muslims, including Jerusalem
itself.
This region, known as Outremer, would require a massive effort by the European Christians
to secure their authority in the midst of the Muslim Middle East, especially once many
of the Crusaders had returned to their European homes.
In order to create a better system in their newly reconquered territories, the Europeans
divided the area into four Crusader States.
These plots were the County of Edessa, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch,
and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
In the latter resided a French Knight by the name of Hugues de Payens who had grown increasingly
unsatisfied with the number of Christian pilgrims who were being robbed or even murdered on
their journeys to the Holy Land.
Something, he was convinced, had to be done.
These innocent pilgrims must be protected at all costs.
Thus, in 1119, Hugues made a suggestion to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Warmund, and the
King of Jerusalem, Baldwin II - he should create a monastic order of knights to serve
as bodyguards for traveling Christian pilgrims.
Hugues would provide the manpower and organization, all he needed was the support of the most
powerful men in Jerusalem.
Understanding the need for such an order, Warmund and Baldwin agreed to Hugues's plan,
and thus, with only 9 men in total, the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of
Solomon, later known as the Knights Templar, was born…
The first base for the Templars was granted by King Baldwin in Jerusalem, and it sat within
the royal palace, on the Temple Mount either in or beside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
It’s believed that underneath this site were also the old ruins of the Temple of Solomon
- hence the order’s name.
It was the perfect place for symbolism, but it didn’t give the Templars much in the
way of defending pilgrims, because Jerusalem itself had already been safe enough.
Still, not much could be done at the start to expand as the Templars were funded solely
by donations, and as a new order, donations were lacking.
A French abbot known as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a nephew of Andre de Montbard, one of the
founding Knights, would play an important role in solving this issue, however, as he
quickly threw his own support behind the Templars and even authored a letter of sparkling applause
titled “In Praise of the New Knighthood”.
It was this persuasive approval that prompted an increasing number of people to begin directing
their charitable donations toward the Knights Templar.
Even Pope Innocent II in 1135 gave a notable donation to the Templars and the Catholic
church as a whole was developing an ever-positive view of the monastic military order.
By 1139, the Knights Templar would be arguably the most popular of the Christian defenders,
and Pope Innocent went so far as to grant the Templars special rights and regulations
with his papal bull Omne Datum Optimum.
The order would no longer owe taxes or tithes to the Church, they were exempt from local
laws answering only to the Pope himself, and could pass freely through national borders,
among other things.
The humble band of knights now had great responsibility and support - but it wouldn’t be fully honest
to describe the knights themselves as ‘humble’ from the start.
In fact, the first members of the order were far from poor or underprivileged.
They were all quite well off and of important or noble standing, which is probably why they
required all Templars to swear an oath of obedience, chastity, and poverty.
Many of the members who would later join would be of poor or middle-class backgrounds, but
those weren’t the only demographics.
Still, the oath of poverty was a crucial part of the Knights Templars’ rules and regulations.
It didn’t, however, limit the order from dealing with money in other forms.
It’s because of this that the Templars today are often, though maybe erroneously, referred
to as the world’s first international bankers.
Pilgrims traveling to and from the Holy Land often needed more than just military protection.
Many of them needed to transfer large monetary sums from their home countries to Jerusalem
or wherever it was they aimed to reach.
Thus, the Templars gave these Christian travelers a way to deposit their funds in the care of
the order, where in turn they would receive a form of receipt and could then show their
proof and withdraw their funds upon arrival at their ultimate destination.
By the order’s peak of power and influence, they would serve as bankers to clients as
important as the kings of Europe, and offered loans to just as significant faces.
Nevertheless, banking wasn’t their main purpose, of course.
The Templars were warriors, both serving as bodyguards for pilgrims and crucial members
of the Crusading forces in campaigns to come.
In order to do all of this, the Templars divided themselves into noncombatants and combatants.
The former was made up of financiers, baggage bearers, squires, and the like, whereas the
latter included the soldiers of all ranks.
The hierarchy of the order was topped by the Grand Master who oversaw the Commander of
the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Commander of the City of Jerusalem, the Commander of Tripoli
and Antioch, the Commander of Houses, and the Commander of Knights and the Knight Brothers.
Additionally were the noble knights, sergeants, and the chaplains.
Amongst these many men, the Templars also boasted a vast array of lands that they utilized
for revenue and to create strongholds to carry out their mission.
Even the entire island of Cyprus was at one point a possession of the order, and many
European leaders were known to grant the Templars new territories.
This further accelerated the building influence and power of the Templars, which would eventually
prove fatal for the order.
But, for the time being, the Templars continued to portray themselves with humility and an
air of selfless service.
Even the order’s way of dress was simple - a white surcoat with a simple red cross
worn by knights, and a brown tunic alternatively for the sergeants.
Nothing fancy or flashy, and yet remarkably memorable…
By now, the Knights Templar had grown wealthy, possibly immensely, although it’s often
posited now that the exact prosperity of the order was widely exaggerated by outsiders
and enemies.
These rumors weren’t the only issue for the Templars though.
The end of the Crusades saw the Christians indelibly lose Jerusalem to the Muslim Ayyubids,
causing the Templars to have to move their headquarters to Acre…and then they lost
Acre in 1291 to the Mamluks.
The Templars from that point based themselves in Cyprus, but they were now scarcely more
than a shadow of what they once were.
By the early 14th century, they had lost every last piece of the Holy Land they had once
held, and European support for the Templar’s entire existence was dwindling rapidly.
European leaders were further losing interest in backing the Templars, though possibly for
reasons unrelated to the order taking much of the blame for the failed Crusader efforts.
Some monarchs, including King Philip IV of France who is believed to have been either
indebted to the Templar or was denied a desired loan from the order.
This, in addition to their notable privileges being subordinate to only the Pope made the
King of France greatly uneasy and dissatisfied with the mere existence of the Knights Templar.
Outside of France at this same time was a building push for the handful of monastic
military orders across Europe, now being seen as mostly unnecessary, to be combined into
one.
In 1305, Pope Clement V even wrote a letter to the Grand Masters of both the Knights Templar
and their on/off rival, the Knights Hospitaller making such a suggestion.
Jacques de Molay nor Fulk de Villaret were in favor of the outlandish idea, and thus
declined.
But, Pope Clement wasn’t much of a pushover and requested the following year that the
men meet him with the purpose to consider the matter further.
The Pope was also hoping to discuss with de Molay of the Templars a matter of criminal
accusations being made against the order by a former member.
Clement nor de Molay found these accusations to be credible, but the imbittered Philip
over in France was willing to believe anything that could take the order down…
Continuing to pressure the Pope into disbanding the Knights Templar to yet no avail, King
Philip decided to take matters into his own hands.
On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of all Knights
Templars across France - including their Grand Master.
The monarch’s justification was that the Templars were being accused of acts of heresy
ranging from spitting on the Cross to downright denying Christ entirely.
Though very little evidence has been found to this day that could in any form back up
the charges brought against de Molay and his men, the King of France cared little, and
eventually, seeing that the order’s reputation had been permanently damaged, the Pope, too,
gave in to the scheme.
In 1312, Pope Clement V fully disbanded the Knights Templar.
By now, scores of the arrested Templars had been tortured into false confessions while
more were on the run or put in chains.
Despite retracting his confession, on March 18, 1314, Jacques de Molay was burned at the
stake…
What remained of the Templars' possessions were allegedly given over to the Knights Hospitaller,
although many believe that it was actually seized by the Kings of England and France
instead.
The King of Portugal, Denis I, refused to betray the once-respected order and thus allowed
his kingdom to serve as a lonely surviving stronghold for the Templars who’d escaped
prosecution.
It’s believed that these Templars then formed the successors of the original order, known
as the Order of Christ and the Supreme Order of Christ of the Holy See.
Today, the Roman Catholic Church states that the eradication of the Knights Templar was
unjustifiable and that the Pope had been more or less forced into his decisions on the matter
by King Philip.
While fans of the Templar may applaud this stance, words in the present will never be
able to undo actions of the past.
The Knights Templar are confined to the pages of history…