The Knights
Templar
The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Crusader Order
Malcolm Higgins
A
crimson cross emblazoned on a white background; a simple design, perhaps, but
behind it lies one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the
medieval world.
It’s
a saga that began in the city of Nablus, in the aftermath of the First Crusade.
That
same saga came to a sudden end in 1307, two centuries later. As the sun rose
over Paris on Friday the 13th of November, the doom of the Knights Templar was
sealed.
 |
| The last Grand Master of the Knights Templar insisted that he was innocent of all charges, even as he burned at the stake |
Almost two hundred
years before that fateful morning, however, no one could have imagined what was
to come.
Following a bloody
end to the First Crusade, the Holy Land was under Christian dominion.
As news spread to
Europe, a steady flow of pilgrims and travellers began to pour across the
Mediterranean to visit Jerusalem and the sacred sites.
However, the road
that ran inland from the coastal ports was plagued with bandits and raiders.
Pilgrims were being
butchered, sometimes in their hundreds, and the situation was only getting
worse.
 |
| The emblem of the Knights Templar |
It was at this
point that a French knight named Hugues de Payens proposed a solution.
Meeting with King
Baldwin II of Jerusalem at the Council of Nablus, he outlined his vision for a
new monastic order of fighting men, who could protect travellers on the road
through the Holy Land.
The presence of
such an order was greatly needed, and the King supported the idea.
The new order was
given a headquarters on the Temple Mount, within the royal palace itself.
From this location,
they derived their name – The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon.
 |
| The original seal of The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon |
Initially, the
group consisted of only nine knights, and without any real funds of their own,
they relied heavily on donations from the church and nobility.
Their emblem,
depicting two knights riding on a single horse, reinforced the image of an
impoverished band of brothers, fighting in the name of Christ.
Just as their name
soon morphed to become the simpler “Knights Templar,” so too did the order
itself develop and evolve.
With enthusiastic
backing from the Church, their ranks grew almost as quickly as their finances
improved, and they were soon one of the most favored charities in Christendom.
Being regularly
gifted with money and soldiers was a huge advantage, but the order also began
receiving the ownership of many businesses, giving them a more permanent source
of income.
In the years that
followed, their business ventures grew in size and prosperity, while their many
chapter houses formed the foundation of early European banking.
On top of the considerable wealth, the
support of the Church was especially useful in 1139, when the Pope actually
raised the knights above the law entirely.
Although they were still subordinate to
the Papacy, the Knights Templar could now move unhindered across borders, a law
unto themselves.
This, combined with
a network of business and banks, made them an incredibly influential political
power, quite aside from their military prowess.
Noblemen traveling
abroad or into battle would often temporarily hand their entire estate to the
Templar Order, and what was once an order defined by its poverty and humbleness
became, at its peak, a multinational business empire.
Of course, their
rise to power shocked and unsettled many of the longstanding nobility in
Europe.
Even as their
military power in the Middle East began to fade in the late 13th Century, their
influence in Europe only grew.
As many of the
royal families in Europe were now in debt to the Templar Order, their power was
truly unrivalled.
 |
| King Philip IV of France borrowed huge sums of money from the Knights Templar |
One monarch who had been loaned
particularly large sums of money by the Knights Templar was King Philip IV of
France.
Not only had his war with England forced
him into serious debt but his attempts to depose the previous Pope had
been thwarted by the very Order which had loaned him his money.
 |
| The French Monarch had nearly bankrupted his nation during the war with England |
The Knights Templar had humiliated him,
and even after that he still owed them huge sums.
In the end,
business enterprise and banking had transformed the order of impoverished
knights into an economic and military behemoth, and these same factors proved
to be their downfall.
They had made a
powerful enemy in their dealings with the King of France.
So it was that, at
dawn on Friday the 13th of November 1307, warrants of arrest were issued for
all principle members of the Knights Templar.
The key figures of
the order were in Paris to discuss the possibility of merging with another
Crusader faction – the Hospitallers – and it was the perfect time for Philip to
strike.
 |
| Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar |
The leader of the
Order at the time, Jacques de Molay, was among those taken into custody and,
along with his brethren, he was accused of multiple blasphemous and illegal
acts.
From devil worship
and spitting on a cross to denying Christ and killing young children, the
crimes with which the French King accused the Templar Order were
unsubstantiated and largely works of complete fabrication.
Philip had nothing
but lies to offer as evidence against the Knights.
Not that it
mattered, of course.
Many of the knights
were held in captivity for years, often in solitary confinement.
Under torture, most
of the Templars – including the Grand Master himself – admitted to the charges.
However, they did
so expecting that the Pope would eventually proclaim them innocent, and
exonerate the order.
Instead, they were
sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Upon hearing that
he would live out the rest of his days in a cell, the Grand Master recanted his
confession and insisted once more that he was innocent of all charges.
 |
| Jacques de Molay, burning at the stake |
That night, on the
18th of March 1314, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar burned at the
stake.
Once they had
proclaimed themselves The Poor Knights and numbered less than a dozen men.
At their peak, they
rose above the law and moved freely through Europe, a state within each state,
an empire without borders.
In their downfall,
the same economic might that propelled them to power led to their end.
In the history of
medieval Europe, there are few stories as intriguing and, ultimately, as tragic
as the rise and fall of the Knights Templar.
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