|
A Brief
History of the Knights Templar
 There
is a multitude of histories and stories available today about the
Knights Templar through various media, including books, web sites,
cinema, television, etc., but this article is designed to give the
reader a brief history of the Order from its inception in the early 12th
century to the disbandment of the Templars in 1307. What is presented
here is compiled from several sources, including The History of
the Knights Templar by Charles Addison whose
work was originally published in 1842, Nobly Born: An
Illustrated History of the Knights Templar,
by Stephen Dafoe, The Sword and The Grail, by
Andrew Sinclair, and The Knights Templar Chronology
by George Smart. Because the Knights Templar Order was formed during
the First Crusade, it is helpful to consider the major players as well
as the climate of the region at the time.
In
the spring of 1095, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus requested
military assistance from Pope Urban II’s Council of Piacenza to help
against attacks by the Seljuk Turks, and consequently, Europeans were
banned by Muslims from making pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Later that
year, Pope Urban II called for the first Crusade at the Council of
Clermont to take back the Holy Land, and stayed in France helping to
arrange for troops and supplies.
In
1096, Godfroi de Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, sold his castle and
estates and left France as commander of the First Crusade. Among those
who accompanied him was Hugues de Payens who was a co-founder of the
Knights Templar and subsequently became the Order’s first Grand
Master. Hugues de Payens was a knight from the Champagne region of
France, born September 29th, 1070. According to an article in Wikipedia, Hugo de Pedano, Montiniaci dominus is mentioned as a
witness to a donation by Count Hugues de Champagne in a record dated
to 1085-90, indicating that he was at least sixteen by that date and
was considered a legal adult, able to bear witness to legal documents.
His name appears on a number of other charters up to 1113 also
relating to Count Hugues de Champagne.
In
his work, Sinclair mentions that all nine of the future Templars
accompanied Bouillon on the First Crusade. After the Crusaders
captured Nicea and Edessa, they moved on and eventually captured
Jerusalem. By 1099, the Crusaders took Jerusalem, and Hugues de Payens
then returned to France and became a vassal for Hugues Count of
Champagne, one of the wealthiest lords in Europe. They later returned
to the Holy Land. The Crusaders took Acre in 1104, and Hugues de
Payens and the Count of Champagne made their first visit to the Temple
Mount in Jerusalem. In 1108 they both returned to France. There are
records of meetings among several related families while in France.
In the spring of 1112, Bernard de Fontaine left his
home with many of his relatives to join Abbot Etienne Harding at the
Cistercian monastery at Citeaux. Bernard would become an influential
spiritual leader of the Cistercians, and later one of the most widely
respected and influential men in the world. In 1115 Bernard founded a
Cistercian monastery southeast of Bar-sur-Aube, calling it Claire Vallée ,
which evolved into Clairvaux. In 1128, Bernard assisted at the Council
of Troyes at which he outlined the Rule of the Knights Templar.
Bernard, who was canonized in 1174, was the nephew of Andre de
Montbard, one of the original Templars.
About the year 1114, the nine original members of the soon-to-be
Templars left France for Jerusalem. According to Smart, there was a
letter written to Count Hugues de Champagne from Bishop Ivo de
Chartres in which he mentioned hearing the count had made a vow to
join the Soldiers of Christ, indicating that when the nine knights
left for Jerusalem, they were somewhat organised well before the
Templar historian Guillaume de Tyre’s date of 1118. According to
Smart, a chronicler of the Crusades, Michael
the Syrian, Patriarch of the Syriac Church at Antioch, attested that
Hugues de Payens was in Jerusalem for three years before founding the Templars. The Count of Champagne returned to France in 1115 to provide
land and funding for the new Cictercian Abbey at Clairvaux. Hugues de
Payens stayed behind in Jerusalem.
In
March 1117, Baudouin I, King of Jerusalem, negotiated a constitution
for the Knights Templar with Hugues de Payens
and Godfroi de St. Omer. Hugues and others returned again to France.
In 1118, Cistercian Abbot Prince Edouard of Serborga consecrated the
nine original Templars in the presence of Bernard of Clairvaux and
Count Hugues de Champagne. Soon after, the nine original members left
Europe for Jerusalem, arriving in 1119, and Hugues de Payens became
the first Grand Master of the Order. King Baudouin II gave the
Templars the al-Aqsa mosque and the adjacent area called Solomon’s
Stables on the Temple Mount for their headquarters. On Christmas Day,
1119, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Templars took their
monastic vows from Warmund of Picquigny, the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The next year in Jerusalem, Count Foulques V d’Anjou took an oath to
join the Templars, and the year after (1121), he returned to Europe
and granted the Templars a large endowment. By 1122, Pope Callistus II
officially recognised the Sacred and Military Order of the Holy
Sepulchre of Jerusalem – The Knights Templar.
The wife of Hugues Count of Champagne gave birth to a
son in 1123 which the count did not believe was his. Two years later,
he left his wife and son, and transferred his enormous assets (several
times more than those of the King of France), to his nephew Thibaud,
and travelled to Jerusalem to become a Templar. The count died in
1125. The Templar rolls expanded tremendously as did their various
enterprises. They had protection and special dispensation from the
pope and developed an elaborate banking system. And they also became
powerful ambassadors, developing access and influence equal to that of
the Pope. They eventually controlled more than 5,000 properties in
Scotland, Ireland, Britain, France, Spain, the German states, Hungary
and most countries on the Mediterranean. They financed 300 of the
Church’s building plans, including cathedrals and monasteries. Count
Thibaud de Champagne, the nephew of Hugues Count of Champagne, gave
the Templars property in France, and Hugues de Payens donated his own
properties to the Templars, his brother Edmund de Payens, inheriting
the remaining family wealth. Many royals and nobles supported the
Templars with gifts of land, supplies or financial assistance.
In April 1128, Hugues de Payens and Andre de Montbard
visited the court of King Henry I of England who gave the Templars
large gifts of property. Hugues set up a Templar preceptory at London.
They also met with Scotland’s King David I, and, according to Smart,
also set up a preceptory at Balantrodoch. The pair then travel to
Flanders, and by May 1129, Hugues de Payens returned to Jerusalem with
300 newly recruited Templars. As mentioned earlier, it was also in
1128 that Bernard of Clairvaux gave his praise for the Templars with
his De
Laude Novae Militiae – In Praise of the New Knighthood.
The following year, at the Council of Troyes, the Templars were
granted their Rule of Order. The Templars, who were given quarters at
the al Aqsa Mosque by King Baldwin, made the mosque their headquarters
from their inception until the loss of Jerusalem in 1187.
Location of some Knights Templar
Preceptories
View Templar Preceptories in a larger map
There were too many battles the Templars were involved in to list all
of them, but following is a very partial list. They fought along with
Crusaders throughout their tenure in the Holy Land, including the
Battle of Azaz in 1125; the Siege of Damascus (although a failure)
signaling the end of the Second Crusade in 1148; the Battle of Ascalon
in 1153; Saladin’s defeat at the Battle of Montgisard; Saladin’s men
defeated the Templars at the Springs of Cresson in 1187; and they were
also defeated at the Battle of Hattin in July the same year. After
nearly nine decades of Christian rule, Jerusalem surrendered to
Saladin in October 1187. In 1189, led by Guy de Lusignan, the siege of
Acre began and was eventually re-captured by Richard I and Philip of
France nearly two years later. The Crusaders won the Battle of Arsuf
in September 1191. Saladin died in 1193, and Richard I died in 1199.
In
1249, the Templars participated in the siege of Damietta which was
captured by Louis VII of France. Because of their accumulated wealth,
the Templars were able to provide part of the ransom of Louis IX who
was captured at the Battle of Mansurah in 1250. In 1291, Acre fell to
the Mamluks, and the Grand Master, William de Beaujeu, was killed in
the battle. He was succeeded by Theobald Gaudin who was the Grand
Master for only two years.
 In
1293, Jacques de Molay, who had joined the Templars in 1265, was
elected as Master of the
Order, and headed to Europe to secure more support for the Order. Pope
Boniface VIII was crowned in 1293, which ceremony de Molay attended.
Boniface was the last pope to support the Templars. In 1303, Philip IV
of France, in concert with Boniface’s enemies, had Boniface arrested.
Clement V then became the Pope in 1305. The following year, the
Templars helped Amaury, the brother of Henry II, in securing the
throne of Cyprus. That same year, 1306, Jacques de Molay and the
Hospitaller Master were summoned to France by Clement V under the
pretence of discussing prospects of a new Crusade and uniting the
Orders.
On October 13, 1307, Philip IV gave
the order for all Templars to be arrested. The following year Clement
suspended the trails of the Templars, but later agreed to resume them
under papal control, and the papal commission resumed its
investigations of the Templars in 1309.
Henry II’s brother was assassinated in 1310, and Henry
resumed the crown. He destroyed Templar property in retaliation for
their assisting his brother. In 1312, Clement dissolved the Order in
the papal bull Vox in excelso, and
transferred Templar property to the Hospitallers in the bull
Ad providam.
Although the Order had officially been disbanded, the death of Jacques
de Molay on March 18, 1314, the last Grand Master of the Knights
Templar, seemingly put a final stamp on its 200-year history.
t t t
Crusader
States
Below are the
Crusader States established during the First Crusade, as listed by
Stephen Defoe is his book,
Nobly Born: An
Illustrated History of the Knights Templar.
County of Edessa: Established in1098 by Baldwin [or Baudouin] of
Boulogne. Baldwin left the army before the Siege of Antioch. He had
himself adopted by Thoros of Edessa and after his assassination in
March 1098, Baldwin became the first Count of Edessa.
Principality of Antioch: Established by Bohemund of Taranto in 1098
after the city was captured in June. Bohemund refused to return the
city to Byzantine rule, preferring to keep it for himself.
Kingdom of Jerusalem: Established by Godfrey de Bouillon in July
of1099 after the Crusader conquest of the city. Godfrey’s reign lasted
one year and upon his death in 1100, Baldwin of Boulogne became ruler.
County of Tripoli: In 1102 Raymond of Toulouse began to capture
territory in what would become the County of Tripoli. The capital was
not captured until 1109, four years after Raymond’s death.
t t t
Grand Masters of the
Medieval
Knights Templar
| Hugues
de Payens |
1118-1136 |
|
Robert de Craon |
1136-1147 |
|
Everard des Barres |
1147-1149 |
|
Bernard de Tremelay |
1149-1153 |
|
André de Montbard |
1153-1156 |
|
Bertrand de Blanchefort |
1156-1169 |
|
Philippe de Milly |
1169-1171 |
|
Odo de St. Amand |
1171-1179 |
|
Arnold of Torroja |
1181-1184 |
|
Gerard de Ridefort |
1185-1189 |
|
Robert de Sablé |
1191-1193 |
|
Gilbert Horal |
1193-1200 |
|
Phillipe de Plessis |
1201-1208 |
|
Guillaume de Chartres |
1209-1218 |
|
Pedro de Montaingu |
1219-1232 |
|
Armand de Périgord |
1232-1244 |
|
Richard de Bures |
1244-1247 |
|
Guillaume de Sonnac |
1247-1250 |
|
Renaud de Vichiers |
1250-1256 |
|
Thomas Bérard |
1256-1273 |
|
Buillaume de Beaujeu |
1273-1291 |
|
Thibaud Gaudin |
1291-1292 |
|
Jacques de Molay |
1292-1314 |
t t t
|
