In his mid thirties, after the death of his wife, Fulk went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he first encountered the Templars. He was very impressed with them.
Fulk, count of Anjou . . . became very anxious to seek reconciliation with God and procure his salvation. He devoted himself to penance for the crimes he had committed and . . . , he set out for Jerusalem, where he remained for some time, attached to the Knights of the Temple. When he returned home, with their consent, he voluntarily became their tributary, and paid out to them thirty livres a year in the money of Anjou. So by divine inspiration the noble lord provided an annual revenue for the admirable knights who devote their lives to the bodily and spiritual services of God, and rejecting all the things of this world, face martyrdom daily.3
Fulk was in his late thirties when the embassy came from Baldwin II asking him to leave his home and children for the crown of Jerusalem and the hand of its eighteen-year-old heiress.
It is not recorded how long it took Fulk to decide.
He left the county in the hands of his son, Geoffrey, a year younger than his new fiancée. Geoffrey’s wife, Matilda, was eight years older than her new husband and had already been an empress. The young count may have been envious of his father’s luck.
One of the men who brought the invitation to the count was Hugh de Payns, whom Fulk must have known well from his stay with the Templars in Jerusalem. Hugh was at the beginning of his tour of England, Flanders, and France in a search for support for the new order. The knowledge that the soon-to-be king of Jerusalem was already in favor of the Templars could only have encouraged Hugh.
Fulk confirmed his donation to the order before he went to Jerusalem to marry Melisande.4
Melisande was probably aware of who Fulk was, even though she had been about ten when he had lived in Jerusalem. Whatever her private feelings were, she seems not to have protested the match. William of Tyre writes, “Fulk was a redhead . . . faithful, gentle, and unlike most of that coloring, affable, kind and merciful.”5Perhaps kindness won out over looks. The two were married as soon as Fulk arrived. As a wedding present, Baldwin gave them the towns of Tyre and Acre. They repaid him by producing a son almost immediately.6
Fulk was apparently content to hold the title of count until the death of Baldwin on August 21, 1131. Three weeks later he and Melisande were crowned king and queen of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.7
One of the first tasks before Fulk was to deal with his sister-in-law Alice, who was determined to rule Antioch for her young daughter. One of her supporters was the count of Tripoli, Pons, who just happened to be married to Cecilia, Fulk’s half sister by his mother and King Philip of France. So his first battle was not fought against Saracens but family.8
Fulk won the battle and also managed to patch up a peace with the count and settle affairs in Antioch under a constable, although Alice was not a woman to stay down for long.
In 1133, Fulk heard that the Turks had invaded from Persia and were attacking Antioch. He was on his way to help them when he was met by Cecilia. She had come to beg him to come to the aid of her husband, who was being besieged in his castle of Montferrand by Zengi, the atabeg of Aleppo. Fulk apparently had no grudge against his sister for the attack two years before and detoured to help Pons. Now, William of Tyre says that Zengi learned that Fulk and his army were approaching and abandoned the siege.9However, Ibn al-Qalanisi reports that Zengi marched out to meet Fulk’s army and nearly beat them, but they retreated.10 At any rate, Pons and his men were rescued. The Templars are said to have been in the army at that time although they are not singled out for any important roles.
Fulk spent a lot of his time over the next year or so fending off attacks on the city of Antioch. His wife seemed to be keeping things running well enough in Jerusalem, but the nobles of Antioch really wanted their own ruler. The rightful heir, Constance, was still only nine years old, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
After many secret meetings between the king and the nobles, as well as the patriarch of Antioch, it was decided to send for Raymond, the brother of William, duke of Aquitaine. Raymond was about twenty and not yet attached. So a Hospitaller named Jeberrus was sent with letters asking Raymond how he felt about marrying a little girl and becoming lord of Antioch.11
Raymond thought it would be fine. According to law, the marriage couldn’t be consummated before Constance was twelve but he must have thought the title was worth the inconvenience. Just to be sure that Constance’s mother, Alice, didn’t find out about these plans, the patriarch apparently convinced her that Raymond was coming to marry her.12 You can imagine her feelings when Raymond arrived and was very hastily married to little Constance.
Fulk, however, was pleased to turn the military protection of Antioch over to someone else. He was learning that the politics of the Holy Land were not very different from those of Europe. He was also learning that the Moslem states were not alike, nor were they unified. In 1129, he was able to acquire the town of Banyas from the Assassins. They preferred paying tribute to the Franks to being at the mercy of Zengi.13 He also established a treaty with Damascus to fight off the same Zengi who had come from Mosul to rule Aleppo and was rapidly carving out territory for himself from both the lands of the Franks and those of sects of Islam that did not agree with his.14
Fulk spent most of his time as king in warfare of one kind or another, against Moslems, Greeks, and relatives. He certainly must have used the Templars to help him, but there is almost no mention of them in surviving records. We are not even sure how Hugh de Payns died, although we know that it was in May 1135 or 1136.
Hugh’s successor, Robert of Craon, had been a member of Fulk’s entourage in Anjou. He witnessed a charter of Fulk’s in 1127, in the Touraine,15 but he seems to have been one of those who stayed in Europe to help with the establishment of local commanderies, for he was in France in 1133, where he is listed as seneschal of the order.16He must have been in France when he was elected Grand Master, for he was still accepting donations there in 1136.17He was in the East by 1139. He was also at the council of war held near Acre in 1148, long after Fulk’s death.18
It may be that in the 1140s the number of Templars still wasn’t very great. Even though membership had grown considerably since the Council of Troyes there still weren’t enough men willing to become fighting monks. But it’s more likely that there once was more information on the Templars during Fulk’s reign that might have told us about the activities of the Templars. Time and war have destroyed many of the documents that the Templars in the Latin kingdoms undoubtedly preserved, as well as the royal records.
One indication that the Templars were earning respect in their chosen profession comes from an account of a siege in 1139. Robert, master of the Temple, fought under Bernard Vacher, one of the king’s knights. They were chasing some Turks who had attacked a village. Thinking they had the enemy on the run, the soldiers “wandered off in all directions, shamelessly hunting out spoils of war instead of pursuing the enemy.”19
The Turks took advantage of this and returned to the attack. Some of the knights hastily tried to organize a defense but the lines broke. The Christians were chased through rocky and harsh terrain outside of Hebron. Among the dead was “the most excellent man, a brother of the knights of the Temple, Odo of Montfaucon. His death brought tears and sorrow to all.”20
While this defeat doesn’t speak well for the crusaders, it is clear that the Templars were not in charge of the knights and they are not mentioned as being among those out looking for booty. The fact that Odo was considered an example of a brave and worthy knight is a sign that the Templars were becoming known.
So we can only assume that King Fulk trusted his former follower, Robert, as Grand Master of the Temple. He needed all the help he could get to maintain a semblance of order in his chaotic realm.
Fulk did not die in battle, as might have been expected. He was out riding with Melisande near Acre one fine autumn day when some
one spotted a rabbit running across the fields. In a spurt of boyish zeal, the king joined in the chase. His horse threw him and he was then hit in the head by the saddle. He lay in a coma for four days before dying.21
Fulk’s legacy to Jerusalem was a sound defense, supported by the Templars. He also left two children who would carry on his line and add to the incredibly complex web of family ties that caused conflicts even the Templars could not avoid.
1 Les Crandes Chroniques de France Vol.V, ed. Jules Viard (Paris, 1928) pp. 82-84.
2 Alfred Richard, Histoire des Comptes de Poitou t. IV 1086-1137 (Pau: Princi Negue, 2004) p. 163.
3 Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis Vol. VI, ed. and tr. Marjorie Chibnall (Oxford: Medieval Texts, Oxford University Press, 1978) Book XII 29 (pp. 308-311). “Fulco Andegavorun comes postquam pacem cum Regis Anglorum pepigit, . . . desalute sollicius Deo nichilominus reconciliari peroptauit. Scelrum ergo fecerat penitentiam agerestuduit, . . . Jerusalem perrexit, ibique militibus Templi associates aliquandiu permansit. Inde cum licencia eorum regressus trributarius illis ultro factus est. Sic venerandis militibus quorum vita corpore et mente Deo militat, et comtemptis omnibus mundanis sese martirio cotidie preparat, nobilis heros annum vectigal divino instinctu arogavit.”
4 Marquis d’Albon, Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre du Temple 1119?-1150 (Paris, 1913) pp. 5-6, no. 7.
5 William of Tyre, Chronique, ed. R. B. C. Huygens (Turnholt, 1986) CCCM LXIIIA Book 14, 1, p. 631. “Erat autem Fulco vir rufus . . . fidelis, mansuetus et contra leges illius coloris affabilis, benignus et misericors.”
6 The marriage was in 1129. Baldwin III was born in early 1130.
7 William of Tyre, p. 634.
8 Ibid., pp. 635-37.
9 Ibid., p. 638.
10 Ibn Al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades, tr. H. A. R. Gibb (London, 1932) p. 222.
11 William of Tyre, pp. 640-41.
12 Ibid., p. 641. Since Alice was still in her early twenties, this wasn’t that unlikely. But she wasn’t the heiress.
13 Please see chapter 20, The Assassins.
14 René Grousset, Histoire des Croisades et du Royaume Franc de Jérsualem Vol. II (Paris, 1935) pp. 21-22; Ibn al-Qalanisi, pp. 259-60.
15 Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood (Cambridge, 1994) p. 8.
16 Marquis d’Albon, Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre du Temple 1119?-1150 (Paris, 1913) p. 44, charter no. 61.
17 Richard, p. 163.
18 Barber, p. 35.
19 William of Tyre, p. 683, “sed ad diversa incaute nimis tendentes, fugientium spoils magis quam stragi hosium insistebant imprudenter.”
20 Ibid., “vir eximus, frater militia Templi Odo de Monte Falconis, omes morte sua merore et gemitu conficiens.”
21 William of Tyre, pp. 710-11.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Temple in Jerusalem
When the first crusaders conquered Jerusalem, they were eager to find and restore all the sites from the life of Jesus as well as places important in the Old Testament. The problem was, they weren’t sure where the places had been. By a process that was part tradition and part guesswork, they decided that the Dome of the Rock was the Holy Sepulcher or Temple of the Lord and the nearby mosque of al-Aqsa stood on the ruins of the Temple of Solomon, although it might have been Solomon’s palace. Something “Solomon” was close enough. In the thirteenth century, Jacques de Vitry guessed that it had been named the Temple of Solomon simply to distinguish it from the other building.1
King Baldwin I of Jerusalem was the first of the Latin kings to live in the mosque. He seems to have been a terrible tenant. The chronicler of the First Crusade, Fulcher of Chartres, was embarrassed by the neglect. “It is now a matter of serious regret that the fabric of the roof needs repairing, ever since it passed into the hands of King Baldwin and our people.”2 By 1119, when King Baldwin II invited the Templars to share the space, it was falling down and bits of the building had been used for other projects, like the rebuilding of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.3
The new rulers of Jerusalem were building everywhere. The canons
Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The gold dome at the rear is the Dome of the
Rock, and the smaller one against the wall in the front is the al-Aqsa
mosque, the site of the Templar headquarters. To the left is the space
where the stables would have been. (Albatross)
of the Holy Sepulcher built the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. Like many churches, both in the Holy Land and in the West, it was octagonal in imitation of the Dome of the Rock.4
The Templars started refurbishing their mosque as soon as they could afford to hire the workers and materials. They built a new cloister, a new church, and the buildings necessary for group living, such as storage sheds, granaries, and a bathhouse.5
They didn’t need to dig down to create the stables, though. That had been done during the Fatimid rule of Jerusalem. At least the Fatimids had cleared out the vaults of the ancient palace.6Whether the vaults had been built by Solomon or King Herod or someone else, they were ideal for the number of warhorses, packhorses, and camels that the Templars needed. In around 1170 Jewish pilgrim, Benjamin of Tudela, noted that three hundred knights lived in the Temple of Solomon. He also mentioned the stables, which he also thought were from the time of Solomon.7
Over the years the Templars were continually making repairs on the buildings. Nearby, they started building a new church. They also did work on the exterior walls of the Temple Mount and the Single Gate, leading to the stables, as well as the Hulda Gate, through which one could go into the underground rooms of the mosque.8
A thirteenth-century pilgrim described the Temple Mount: “On the right, as you came through the gates, was the Temple of Solomon, where the brothers of the Temple lived. Directly between the Precious Gates and the Golden Gates was the church of the Temple Domini. This was high up, above steep steps. Going up them, you came to another Pavement, . . . paved over its whole extent with marble and entirely surrounding the Temple church. The church was completely circular.”9
If the Templars spent time in digging down to what they thought would be the secret inner chambers of Solomon’s Temple as some people have suggested, they don’t appear to have left any evidence of it. If Solomon had left a treasure, the Fatimids would have found it during their excavations. In their first years in al-Aqsa mosque, the Templars probably had all they could do just to keep the place from falling down on their heads.
While many of the surviving Templar and Hospitaller churches in the West are round or octagonal, both military orders also constructed more traditional churches. The Templar castles at Tortosa and Chastel Blanc were rectangular, as were many in England and France.10
When Saladin conquered Jerusalem in 1187, one of the first things he did was to eradicate any trace of the Templars. This meant tearing down the church they had just finished building and clearing out the space around and within the al-Aqsa mosque so that it could be used again. “East of the qibla they had built a big house and another church. Saladin had the two structures removed and unveiled the bridal face of the mihrab. Then he had the wall in front of it taken down and the courtyards around it cleared so that the people coming in on Friday should have plenty of room.”11
I wonder if the people who think that the Templars found artifacts in Jerusalem have been confusing it with the building done at Chateau Pelerin (Athlit). When they were digging the foundations for the church there, they uncovered a number of Phoenician coins. The chronicler at the time was intrigued by these pieces of money with unknown markings on them.12 The chapel there was twelve-sided.13
The Knights of the Temple of Solomon only had the Temple for sixty-eight years. After the loss of Jerusalem, they moved their headquarters to Acre.
1 Jacques de Vitry, Histoire Orientale, tr. Marie-Genviève Grossel (Paris, 2005) p. 179.
2 Quoted in Adrian J. Boas, Jerusalem in the Time of the C
rusades: Society, Landscape and Art in the Holy City under Frankish Rule (London: Routledge, 2001) p. 79.
3 Ibid.
4 Denys Pringle, “Architecture in the Latin East, 1095-1300,” in The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, ed. Jonathan Riley-Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) p. 167.
5 Boas, p. 91.
6 Ibid., p. 93.
7 Benjamin of Tudela, in Travels in the Middle Ages: The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, tr. A. Asher (Malibu: Panglos Press, 1987) reprint of 1840 edition, p. 83.
8 Boas, p. 48.
9 Crusader Syria in the Thirteenth Century: The Rothelin Continuation of the History of William of Tyre with part of the Eracles or Acre Text, tr. Janet Shirley (Ashgate, Aldershot, 1999) p. 17.
10 Pringle, p. 169.
11 Ibn al-Athir, in Arab Historians of the Crusades, ed. and tr. Francesco Gabrielli (Dorset, 1969) p. 164.
12 Oliver of Paderborn, The Capture of Damietta, tr. John J. Gavigan (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1948) chapter 5, p. 18.
The Real History Behind the Templars Page 8