The Elite

by Ranulph Fiennes

  The cream of Europe’s knights soon flocked to the order, wanting not only to help defend their religion, but also to be absolved of their sins. Many criminals offered their services too, as they hoped it would rehabilitate them in the eyes of their families and God. In some cases, rather than send condemned knights to jail, law courts in the west sent them to fight in defence of Jerusalem.

  Although the Templars were playing a crucial role in maintaining order in and around Jerusalem they were, however, initially poorly funded, with the knights having to wear donated clothes and even to share horses. However, in 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a papal bull that established the Templars as an independent and permanent order within the Catholic Church, who were answerable to no one but the Pope. This saw the Pope grant the Templars with special rights that certainly helped address their funding issues. These included being exempt from paying taxes, while all spoils of battle were to be theirs by right.

  With this new influx of cash, the Templars set up a prosperous network of Europe’s first banks, which allowed religious pilgrims to deposit assets in their home countries and withdraw funds in the Holy Land, so as to avoid the terrible consequence of being robbed of all they owned while travelling. As they began trading in the likes of wool, timber, olive oil and even slaves, many high-standing nobles also decided to leave their estates to the Templars on their deaths. In 1143, they inherited six castles from King Alfonso of Spain, as well as a tenth of royal revenues and a fifth of any lands conquered from the Muslims.

  All of this made the Templars fantastically wealthy, and consequently very powerful. William of Tyre wrote of the order, ‘They are said to have immense possessions both here and overseas, so that there is not a province in the Christian world which has not bestowed upon the aforesaid brothers a portion of its goods. It is said that their wealth is equal to the treasures of kings.’

  This sudden accumulation of wealth and power saw conspiracy theories flourish. Some believed that upon undertaking excavations under Temple Mount they uncovered a vast fortune, a great secret, or even a sacred holy relic, such as the Holy Grail, which they then used to blackmail the church into providing them with special rights. All of this is unfounded but has made for great stories for the likes of novelist Dan Brown. But what isn’t in doubt is that the Templars’ fantastic wealth saw them build a series of castles, while also exerting significant influence.

  While the Templars’ initial mission was to defend and attack, there was another Christian order from around this time that had a very different goal. In 1080, a group of Italian merchants had established an order at the Hospital of Saint John in Jerusalem as part of a widespread charitable movement to help pilgrims, as well as the ill and the poor. In time, the order would be known as the ‘Hospitallers’.

  In 1113, in recognition of all its good deeds, the organisation was officially designated as a religious order by Pope Paschal II. In the same year, its first master, the Blessed Gerard, was officially appointed and its members recognised as monks. However, from 1120 the order was reorganised and made more militaristic by the then master, Raymond du Puy. Combining tending to the sick with defending the Crusader kingdom, the Hospitallers became one of the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land.

  Despite being distinct orders, the Templars and the Hospitallers shared a number of beliefs and traditions. Both adopted a fraternal rule that emphasised the ideals of poverty, chastity and humility, but most important of all: obedience. Meals in both orders were to be eaten in complete silence, while ornate decor in clothing or battle raiment was forbidden. Any activity outside a martial or religious context was also seen as frivolous and inappropriate, thus chess, the raising of hounds, and hunting, were all frowned upon. Women were also said to be ‘perilous things’, who should be avoided at all costs.

  The knights in both orders also looked alike. With their hair kept closely shorn, they sported a full beard to demonstrate humility, along with a simple brown or white habit for personal dress. However, in battle, the Templars wore a white surcoat, emblazoned with a red cross, while the Hospitallers began with a black tunic but eventually adopted a scarlet supravest, with a white eight-armed cross to be worn over their armour.

  Personal property, beyond their necessary military equipment, was also severely frowned upon. Be it a small donation, or the pledge of an entire estate, a gift to a Templar or Hospitaller became a gift to the order; thus, while the brethren lived in relative austerity, the orders became increasingly wealthy.

  While the brethren might have worn shabby habits in cloister, they possessed the finest equipment and weapons of war available in their day. Trained and disciplined to a degree almost unknown since classical antiquity, the military orders soon became the fire brigades of the Christian states, thrown into the most difficult actions and almost invariably outnumbered. The hospital rule even forbade a knight to retreat unless the odds against him were more than three to one. A chronicler from the period also stated that with the Templars in pursuit of the enemy they did not ask, ‘How many are there?’ but simply, ‘Where are they?’

  With the Templars and Hospitallers established, a Second Crusade was called for in 1147, following the threat of Zengi, a Seljuk Turk. While it ultimately ended in failure, with the Christian forces failing to capture Damascus, the rise of Saladin soon brought a greater threat to the Christian world.

  Hailing from Tikrit, the same town that would in time spawn the Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein, Saladin was a fanatical Sunni Muslim who grew to become a trusted subordinate of the Syrian-northern Mesopotamian military leader, Nur al-Din. Participating in three campaigns into Egypt, which was governed by the Shiite Fatimid dynasty, Saladin became the last Fatimid vizier before changing the faith of the country from Shia to Sunni Islam in 1171. As you might imagine, this caused some consternation and led to him facing attacks from fellow Muslims, more on which later.

  Saladin soon brought Aleppo, Damascus, Mosul and other cities under his control, which became known as the Ayyubid dynasty. Upon conquering each land, he also incorporated their armed forces into his own. His forces were soon formidable, consisting of Kurds, Arabs, Turks, Armenians and Sudanese, and at its centre was a corps of professional cavalry, trained and equipped not only in horse archery but also for close combat. While Saladin would command them from horseback, he would always be surrounded by his elite guard of Turkish Mamluks (slave soldiers).

  Yet, to truly complete his empire, both religiously and politically, Saladin needed to capture Jerusalem. As such, with Saladin on the march, the Holy Wars reached boiling point on 4 July 1187.

  With Saladin laying siege to the town of Tiberias, the Christian forces, led by Guy of Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, abandoned their defensive positions in Galilee and marched across the barren hills, in the blazing sun. When Saladin learnt that the Christians were on the march, he sent a series of skirmishers to harass and weary the vanguard and the rearguard, while his main Ayyubid force marched to Hattin, a well-watered village, from where they blocked off all roads to Tiberias.

  After days of marching, and coming under attack from Muslim archers, the Christians were not only tired and thirsty but now they were trapped, with no access to water. On this waterless plain, the Christians had no choice but to spend the night stranded near the village of Meskenah, as the Muslims prepared for their final assault. Penning in the Christians, they spent all night singing, beating drums and chanting to strike terror into them. They also lit fires to make the Crusaders’ throats drier and their thirst more extreme. Saladin relished having his enemy just where he wanted them, knowing that not even the knights of the Templars or Hospitallers could escape.

  As the sun rose, Saladin blinded the Crusaders with the smoke from his fires, then ordered his archers to shower the enemy with arrows. With the Crusaders desperately trying to protect themselves, Saladin then unleashed his infantry to charge into them. His secretary, Imad ad-Din, has described the fearsome sight that now confronted the Cru
saders:

  A swelling ocean of whinnying chargers, swords and cuirasses, iron-tipped lances like stars, crescent swords, Yemenite blades, yellow banners, standards red as anemones and coats of mail glittering like pools, swords polished white as streams of water, feathered bows blue as birds, helmets gleaming over slim curvetting chargers.

  The Crusaders were soon in total disarray. While some formed battle lines, others tried to flee, desperate to find water. Most were quickly shot down or taken prisoner. Some of those who did stay to fight, such as Count Raymond, managed to get through the lines and escape to the water supply at Lake Tiberias. However, for most there was no respite. The battlefield was soon littered with ‘the limbs of the fallen, naked on the field, scattered in pieces, lacerated and disjointed, dismembered, eyes gouged out, stomachs disembowelled, bodies cut in half’.

  Out of the 600 Templar and Hospitaller knights who fought in the battle, over 500 were killed, with Saladin decapitating all those he took prisoner. Imad ad-Din wrote of this:

  Saladin ordered that they should be beheaded, choosing to have them dead rather than in prison. With him was a whole band of scholars and sufis and a certain number of devout men and ascetics, each begged to be allowed to kill one of them, and drew his sword and rolled back his sleeve. Saladin, his face joyful, was sitting on his dais, the unbelievers showed black despair.

  Guy of Lusignan, however, could count himself lucky. Due to his status as king, not only was he spared, but he was released by Saladin just a year later after he swore to leave Palestine and never take up arms against Saladin again. This was, of course, a promise that would not be kept.

  With the defeat at Hattin, and the annihilation of the most elite Christian units, Saladin swiftly took fifty-two Christian towns and fortifications, including Acre, Nablus, Jaffa, Toron, Sidon, Beirut and Ascalon. Jerusalem also fell on 2 October, with few forces left to defend it. The Muslims soon descended on Temple Mount, echoing cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’, with any sign of Templar markings destroyed and returned to their earlier Islamic character. Those Christians who could afford to pay a ransom were allowed to leave, while those who were too poor were instead sold into slavery.

  While news of the calamitous defeat at Hattin caused Pope Urban III to die of shock, the cry soon went up for a new crusade to the Holy Land. The elderly Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa responded immediately, setting out on 11 May 1189 with an army of 12,000–15,000 men, including 4,000 knights. However, while crossing the Saleph River on 10 June 1190, Frederick’s horse slipped, throwing him against the rocks and causing him to drown. After this, much of his army returned to Germany.

  Unsurprisingly, in 1189, King Guy resumed battle with Saladin upon his release. Along with his fierce rival, Conrad of Montferrat, he looked to retake the port town of Acre, which was one of Saladin’s main garrison nodes and arms depots. The force defending Acre was significant, consisting of several thousand troops. In contrast, Guy’s army was less than half its size. Despite numerous attempts to breach the walls, Saladin managed to hold the port, which eventually led to a fifteen-month double siege. With the Muslims in Acre entrapped, the Christians outside the walls were encircled by Saladin’s forces.

  Life both in the city and in the Christian camp quickly became intolerable. Food remained limited, while the water supply became contaminated with human and animal corpses, which led to the death of Guy’s wife, Queen Sibylla, as well as their two daughters. As epidemics spread through the camp, and prostitution became rife, it seemed the Siege of Acre, along with the Third Crusade, was doomed to failure unless something remarkable occurred. Thankfully for the Christians, help would soon be arriving.

  In 1189, Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, joined forces with Philip II of France and together they finally defeated King Henry II, Richard’s father, at Ballans. Just two days later, the king died, leaving Richard to succeed him. After Richard became king of England, he and Philip agreed to go on the Third Crusade, since each feared that during his absence the other might usurp his territories. However, there remained the issue of raising and funding an army.

  Richard tried to raise and equip a new army by any means possible, even declaring, ‘I would have sold London if I could find a buyer.’ As such, he spent most of his father’s treasury, raised taxes, and even agreed to free King William I of Scotland from his oath of subservience in exchange for 10,000 marks. To raise still more revenue, he sold the right to hold official positions, lands and other privileges to those interested in them. Those already appointed were forced to pay huge sums to retain their posts. However, in order to stand any chance of defeating Saladin, Richard knew he would require the services of Christianity’s most elite forces. By this stage, the Hospitallers were in the process of being rebuilt under Fra’ Garnier de Nablus and the Templars under Robert de Sable. While both orders had suffered significant losses at Hattin, they were eager to rejoin the battlefield and seek their revenge.

  Recruiting the orders into their ranks, King Richard and Philip II set out on the Third Crusade in the summer of 1190. Joining Richard’s side were more relatives of mine, Sir Ingelram Fiennes, Tougebrand Fiennes and John Fiennes. Sadly, all would be killed during the course of the crusade, with John’s family giving the land in England where they buried his heart to the citizens of London; a place now known as Finsbury Square.

  On 8 June 1191, Richard’s troops finally landed at Acre, a few weeks after King Philip, with both aiming to end the siege that had commenced in 1189.

  On the plague-infested battlefield, Richard, as always dressed in scarlet and brandishing his Excalibur sword and crossbow, led the cream of Europe’s Hospitaller and Templar knights into battle. Despite being of similar numbers, they were far too strong for Saladin’s ailing forces. After weeks of bombarding and assaulting the walls, Acre could hold out no longer, its inhabitants surrendering on 11 July. The two-year siege was finally at an end.

  While Saladin had lost Acre, as well as his navy, which was stationed in the harbour, it was the massacre of thousands of prisoners, as told by Baha ad-Din, that really upset him:

  The enemy then brought out the Muslim prisoners . . . about 3,000 bound in ropes. Then as one man they charged them and with stabbings and blows with the sword they slew them in cold blood.

  Having successfully broken the Siege of Acre, Crusader forces now looked to capture the port of Jaffa before turning inland to reclaim Jerusalem. By this stage, King Philip had returned home, although he had left most of his forces under the charge of King Richard, which sources estimate numbered between 20,000 and 30,000 men. With the shocking Crusader defeat at Hattin in mind, Richard took great care in planning the march to ensure that adequate supplies and water would be available to his men. To this end, the army kept to the coast, where the Crusader fleet could support its operations. In addition, the army only marched in the morning to avoid the midday heat. This was important, as the knights would have been covered head to toe in chain-mail armour, with conical helmets over their heads, making them unbearably hot in the sun.

  Departing Acre, Richard kept his forces in a tight formation, with his infantry on the landward side, protecting his heavy cavalry and baggage train. Responding to the Crusaders’ movements, Saladin began shadowing Richard’s forces in an attempt to stop them reaching Jaffa. As Crusader armies had proven notoriously undisciplined in the past, he began a series of harassing raids on Richard’s flanks, with the goal of breaking up their formation. This done, his cavalry could then sweep in for the kill.

  Rising on 7 September, the Crusaders needed to cover a little over 6 miles to reach Arsuf, just north of Jaffa. Aware of Saladin’s presence, Richard ordered his men to prepare for battle and resume their defensive marching formation. Moving out, the Templars were in the van, with additional knights in the centre and the Hospitallers bringing up the rear.

  King Richard’s companion on this expedition, Geoffrey de Vinisa
uf, has described what happened next:

  On all sides, far as the eye could reach, from the sea-shore to the mountains, nought was to be seen but a forest of spears, above which waved banners and standards innumerable. The wild Bedouins, the children of the desert, mounted on their fleet Arab mares, coursed with the rapidity of lightning over the vast plain, and darkened the air with clouds of missiles. Furious and unrelenting, of a horrible aspect, with skins blacker than soot, they strove by rapid movement and continuous assaults to penetrate the well-ordered array of the Christian warriors. They advanced to the attack with horrible screams and bellowings, which, with the deafening noise of the trumpets, horns, cymbals, and brazen kettle-drums, produced a clamour that resounded through the plain, and would have drowned even the thunder of heaven.

  Under strict orders to hold formation, and despite taking losses from these hit-and-run attacks, the Crusaders pressed on. Seeing that these initial efforts were not having the desired effect, Saladin sent his mounted Ayyubid troops dashing forward to attack the Hospitallers with javelins and arrows. Protected by spearmen, the Hospitaller crossbowmen returned fire and began exacting a steady toll on the enemy. This pattern held as the day progressed, with Richard resisting requests from his commanders to allow the knights to counterattack, preferring to allow Saladin’s men to tire before striking. Nevertheless, these requests continued, particularly from the Hospitallers who were taking the brunt of the attacks and were becoming increasingly concerned about the number of horses they were losing.

  As the lead elements of Richard’s army neared Arsuf, his Hospitaller rear of crossbow- and spearmen were fighting as they marched backward, desperately trying to keep the Muslims at bay. With his formation weakening, Garnier de Nablus again requested permission to lead his knights out, but once more he was denied by Richard. Assessing the situation, Garnier realised he could hold them no more. Ignoring Richard’s command, he charged forward with the Hospitallers, as well as additional mounted units, unaware that fortune was to be on their side. For, at that exact moment, just as the Hospitallers charged, Saladin’s cavalry had dismounted in order to better aim their arrows. Before they could react, Garnier’s men burst from the Crusader lines, overran their position, and began driving back the Ayyubid right.