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Knights TemplarThe Knights Templar, was a medieval religious and military order officially named the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ. They were popularly known as the Knights of the Temple of Solomon, or Knights Templar, because their first quarters in Jerusalem adjoined a building known at the time as Solomon's Temple. This location is now adjacent to where the Dome of the Rock Mosque, on the Temple Mount, currently stands. The Templars called it Templum Domini. In 1104 Count Hugh of Champagne came to the Holy Land with agroup of knights. He was from Troyes on the upper reaches of the Seine river. Amoung his vassals was a knight called Hugh of Payns. Paynes, a few miles downstream from Troyes on the Seine, was probably Hugh's birth place, he was also related to the Count. In 1114, the childless King Baldwin I had been succeeded by his cousin, Baldwin of Le Bourg and the Patriarch Daimbert by Warmund of Picquigny. It was to them that Hugh and a knight called Godfrey of ST Omer proposed the incorporation of a community of knights that would follow the Rule of a religious order but devote themselves to the protection of pilgrims visiting Palestine. Hugh's proposal was approved by the King and the Patriacch and on Christmas Day 1119, Hugh of Payns and eight other knights, amoung them Godfrey of St Omer, Arcchambaud of Saint Aignan, Payen of Montdidier, Geoffrey Bissot and a knight called Rossal or possibly Roland took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience before the Patriarch in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They called themselves "The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ" and at first wore no distinctive habit but kept the clothes of their profession. To provide them with suffice income, the Patriarch and the King endowed them with a number of benefices. King Baldwin II also provided them somewhere to live finding room in the palace which he had made out of the al-Aqsa mosque on the southern edge of the Temple Mount ( the Temple of Solomon ). They soon became known as "the Knights of the Temple of Solomon" or simply "The Templars". The order was military in purpose from its inception, and differed the other two great 12th-century religious societies, the Knights of St John of Jerusalem and the Teutonic Knights, which began as charitable institutions. In 1127 Hugh of Payns was sent by King Baldwin II with William of Bures on a diplomatic mission to western Europe. Its was to persuade Fulk of Anjou to marry King Baldwin's daughter Melisende and become heir to the throne of Jerusalem and to raise forces for an intended attack on Damascus. Hugh had a third objective, to gain recruits and papal sanction for his order. Thee size of the order at this point is unknown but the fact that Hugh and knights from his order were chosen suggest that the Order had already achieve a high standing in Jerusalem. The Knights Templar obtained papal sanction for their order, and in 1129 at the ecclesiastical Council of Troyes they were given an austere rule closely patterned on that of the monastic order of Cistercians. They enjoyed the patronage of Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian order. In 1130 de Payens returned to Europe with 300 knights. The Knights numbers grew with members from Europe, especially France. Church leaders also favoured the Knights exempting their property from tax and ecclesiastical tithes that were rife at the time. The next Grand Master, Robert of Craon established a reputation as an outstanding administrator. He obtained additional and exceptional privileges from Pope Innocent II in a bull published in 1139, Omne datum optimum. The Papal bull was addressed to 'our dear son Robert' and ruled that the Templars should be exempt from all intermediary jurisdiction and should only be subject to the Pope. The Temple was entitled to receive tithes and taxes but did not need to pay them and were also entitled to booty taken from an enemy. Pope Innocent II had been assisted to the Papal throne by Bernard of Clairvaux whose influence was sufficient to bring Louis VI of France and Henry I of England to his side in a battle with a rival candidate Analetus II backed by the Norman King of Sicily. There was also strong support from the Papacy for any means of battling Islam in the Holy Land. Bulls reinforcing the privileges of the Templars where issued during subsequent pontificates of Celestine II and Eugenius III - Milites Templi in 1144 and Militia Dei in 1145. The Knights Templar were headed by a grand master, under
whom were three ranks: knights, chaplains, and sergeants. The knights
were the dominant members, and they alone were allowed to wear the
distinctive dress of the order, a white mantle with a large red Latin
cross on the back. The headquarters of the Knights Templar remained at
Jerusalem until the fall of the city to the Muslims in 1187; it was
later located successively at Antioch, Acre, Caesarea, and in Cyprus. In
1291 they were driven out of the Holy Land after the fall of Acre. Many Templars escaped persecution and fled to Portugal, England and Scotland. Some fought with the Scots against the English at Bannockburn in 1314. Links
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