Written by: Lilly Cline

Alesha Packer

Comp II

10/11/2011

Word Count: 1754

Artwork created by Michael Whiteman-Jon

Used with permission

The Templar Knight Crusaders

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The Templar Knight Crusaders

These are the men of old that seem to demand access to the living realms of our

imagination. Why do historians sit at tables in heated debates to this day in wonderment of them?

This mysterious secret society lurks in our past waiting for us to unlock the enigmas that

surround them and discover their true purpose during the Crusades. They are the Templar

Knights.

The idea of the Templars came about because of the mass murder of three hundred

Christian pilgrims and the capture of sixty more on the Eve of Easter. The Knights Templar was

established in 1118 AD, (Olson 17) which at the time was coming to the close of the first

Crusade. The humble beginnings of the Templars had neither distinctive habit nor rule. It was

not until 1147 when Pope Honorius II gave the Templar Knights their white habit and affixed the

red cross, known as the Cross Patte which represents martyrdom, on them. It is little known that

there were two divisions of the Templars. The one division is as we commonly have known them

as the knights and then there were the simple monks that wore the brown habit that were not

knights. These knights were commissioned to follow the rules of an ordinary priest, praying

many times a day, but also to do battle on behalf of Pilgrims because during the time of the

Crusades venturing across Europe was exceedingly dangerous so by appointment, it was the

sworn duty of a Templar Knight to protect the pilgrim’s passage. Many historians only accept the

actual date of 1139 AD (Decoding the Past: The Templar Code), which is when Godfrey of

Saint-Omer declared the Knights Templar an official organization in the Omne Datum Optimum

(Olson 18).

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The founding fathers of the Knights Templar are recorded as being in a number of nine

men and they are, “the venerable Hugh de Payen, (a vassal of Hugh de Champagne) and Godfrey

de St. Omer. The other seven knights included Andre de Montbard (the uncle of Bernard of

Clairvaux), Payden de Montdidcier, Achambared de St. Amard, Geoffroi Bisol, and Godfroi de

Bouillon. Gondemere and Rosal also joined from the Cistercian Order of St. Bernard.”(Olson 17)

In 1125 Hugh returned to Jerusalem after he left his unfaithful wife and gave the country

to his nephew and at that time he took his vows as a Templar. Andre de Montbard was the uncle

of Bernard Clairvaux (their patron) which gave them the ties they needed to be successful and it

was he who went to Europe to persuade the Church to sanction them, at the time it was a large

controversy. Historians complain that they approached the Church with no real mission

statement in mind and some go so far as to claim the Templars had no real involvement in the

Crusades at all and were instead on a secret mission of their own means. When the Templar

Knights arrived in the Holy Land, “they presented themselves to the younger brother of Godfroi

de Bouillon (who had accepted the title King Baldwin II of Jerusalem), who provided the newly

founded Order with quarters connected with the Al-Aqsa Mosque (which was located on the site

of the famed stables of King Solomon’s Temple” (Secrets of the Knights Templar). This is a

main point of controversy, Godfroi de Bouillon (One of the original nine) were related to King

Baldwin II, the family would easily benefit from allowing this to happen and the Knights

Templars would not have been papal approved without this crucial step.

Soon after they left for Europe Hughes followed them to recruit Knights and raise funds

on their behalf. Knights were expected to already be trained warriors and be of a noble blood

line. The nine men who are the acclaimed fathers of the Templars were all related by blood or

marriage ties and were of noble birth to families in France (Secrets of the Knights Templar).

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For the crusaders, Muslims, and the Jews, Jerusalem, would be the site in 1099 A.D.

where the Holy wars began. The focus of almost all of the crusades was to seize and control the

Holy city. After a crusader took up the cross he swore to make the pilgrimage to the Holy

Sepulcher, the tomb in which Christ was laid and which He was raised. This was significant

because of the expense and difficulty of this journey, a crusader received a remission from sins

for his conquest.

The Crusades have a tendency to look like great armies organized and directed by the

church against the enemies of Christ; however, the Templar Knights were often much smaller in

number compared to their opposing military forces. The Templar armies were often spread at

great distances between each other across the desert. It was common practice for a few Templar

Knights to charge with fury in a suicidal attack with the intention of separating armies to the left

and right of them giving the opposing force disadvantage to the smaller Templar army that laid

in wait ready to attack as they passed through the channel made by the original charge (Secrets

of the Knights Templar).

The rise of Saladin created the need for the second crusade. Saladin being a devout

Muslim and fierce warrior had decided to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land. He had amassed

an army of several thousand. As he worked his way across the desert toward Jerusalem he laid

siege to Damascus. In the fight at Damascus he was defeated by a combined force of Templars

and the Ascalon army. With this defeat he was severely humiliated and vowed revenge. And just

three years after this defeat Saladin got his chance. He took the castle of Le Chastellet and during

this battle the Templars lost eighty knights and seven hundred fifty sergeants at this point he

dismantled the castle and moved on. With the death of the Syrian king Saladin assumed the

throne of Damascus thereby creating an even larger army. During this time the Templars were

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having an issue with disunity among the groups. As Saladin moved closer to Jerusalem the

Templar groups decided to protect their Orders property making it possible for Saladin’s armies

to pass by their castles unfettered. Saladin’s army was able to decimate the country side and

move on. With all the internal strife among the Christian groups in the area Saladin was able to

forge treaties with most of them so they would not come to aid of the Templars during battle. As

the Christian army and the Templars went to meet Saladin in the attack on Jerusalem, the

Christian army was destroyed. Thousands were killed and thousands of prisoners were taken.

There were about 200 Templar Knights that survived the battle but, contrary to the medieval

tradition of ransoming captives Saladin considered the Templars more of a threat to Islam and

had them beheaded. Saladin took Jerusalem after a twelve-day siege and after the next two years

of fighting he reclaimed the Holy land (Wasserman 80-89).

By the year 1300 the Templars had made their final attempt to take back the Holy land

without a clear purpose anymore they returned to their home-base in Cyprus. During their time

of the Crusades the Templars had amassed a great wealth in such that they had loaned money to

both the King of England and the King of France. Phillip IV (Phillip the Fair) of France had

decided repaying the loans was out of the question especially when he asked for more funds to

fight the English and the Templars refused him. So Phillip attempted to get the Pope to

excommunicate them but, instead the Pope excommunicated King Phillip. Phillip’s conspiracy

was then created. Phillip amassed a list of treason charges against the Pope and the Templars.

The Templars were rounded up and tortured for years until they confessed to heresy and devil-

worshipping among several others trumped up charges. Out of 138 Templars questioned all

confessed to one form of obscenity or another. During the trial there were no witnesses and no

physical evidence of wrong-doing. What Phillip had started with his trumped up charges and

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false court trials spread across Europe and England as other monarchs saw a way to get out of the

debt they owed the Templars and by doing this they were able to take the land, castles, and

wealth of the Templars in their regions. Although King Phillip of France started his heresy trials

against the Templars in order to gain their lands and wealth, which he thought should rightfully

pass to him, the Roman Catholic Church ordered all the Templars’ wealth granted to the

hospitallers thus allowing the original purpose of the wealth to be met (Wasserman 151-169).

It is clear that, “Some historians accuse the Crusaders for hindering the cultural and

social development of Europe by locking its people in a futile struggle for religious dominance

on another continent. Others point to the expansion of European consciousness after a period of

stagnation during the so-called Dark Ages as a beneficial side effect. Certainly, the after effects

have survived for a long time, and even today the battle for the Holy Land between rival faiths

continues” (Konstam 184).

In the aftermath, “the Vatican came to recognize the state of Israel and, though it

continues to argue that Jerusalem should be placed under international jurisdiction, it no longer

advocates the Christian reconquest of the Holy City that had been a prime objective for so many

popes over so many years” (Read 323).

It is well known that the Templars had amassed a large treasury and guarded priceless

treasure(s). The Templar Knights had secretly dug under the city of Jerusalem for nine years and

suddenly the digging stopped. It is under hot debate as to what was found because no one has

discovered their true secret or unearthed the true identities of the Templars that escaped their

demise in France. After all there were thousands of them scattered throughout the country. Could

it have been the shroud of Jesus, the head of John the Baptist, an idol of Satan, could have they

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found the secret of the Holy Grail and the Grail itself, or something else? Could it be that the

Templars of today are descendants of the Templars of old and they continue the legacy and

possibly continue to keep secret that which they found? It is dismaying to know that while some

secrets are uncovered most will remain a mystery.

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Works Cited

Decoding the Past: The Templar Code. Narr. Timothy Watson. Perf. Sean Martin, Alan

Butler, Marilyn Hopkins, Karen Ralls, Edward Herrman, Timothy Wallace-Murphy.

History Channel, 7, Nov. 2005. DVD.

Konstam, Angus, Historical Atlas of the Crusades. New York, Checkmark Books an Imprint of

Facts on File, INC., 2002. Print

Olson, Oddvar, ed. The Templar Papers. New Jersey, New Page Books a Division of The

Career Press, INC., 2006. Print.

Reed, Piers Paul. The Templars. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Da Capo Press. 1999. Print.

Secrets of the Knights Templar. Dir. David Bartlett. Ed. Simon Greenwood. Narr. Reg E. Cathey.

Perf. Dr. Gibson, Dr. Adrian Boaz, Sean Martin. National Geographic Channel, 2008.

DVD.

Wasserman, James, An Illustrated History of the Knights Templar, Vermont, Destiny Books,

2006. Print.

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