Secrets of the Knights Templar

by S. J. Hodge

  The Reconquista

  From early in the 1140s, through their massive increase in revenue, men and land, particularly across the Iberian Peninsula, the Templars were firmly established, with thousands of properties reaching through Europe and Outremer. As well as protecting pilgrims, they were trying to regain the entire Iberian Peninsula for Christianity. The Reconquista was a protracted period of fighting with the specific aim of recapturing land in the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim invaders of the region, known as the Moors, who had originally invaded and conquered lands there in the ninth century. Since then, the Moors had become established and spread. After the First Crusade, the Pope acknowledged that the fight against the Muslims in Andalusia was a legitimate crusade and he granted those who fought in the Reconquista the same redemptions as had been given to the First Crusaders. The Reconquista lasted many years, and by the mid-12th century the Templars became involved, by which time the strength and unity of the Moors was beginning to break down and, after their success in the First Crusade, the Christian fighters were feeling confident and aggressive. The Templars fought in a series of wars with their legendary determination, and by the mid-i3th century, most of Spain was back in Christian hands.

  Further fighting orders

  From small beginnings, the idea of warrior-monks protecting Christians became more valued and in demand, as the 12th century progressed. Gradually, more armed brotherhoods were formed with similar aims to the Knights Templar, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula where the fight between the Christians and the Moors was perpetual. So the first three of these new orders were Spanish: the Knights of Santiago, the Knights of Alcántara and the Knights of Calatrava. While the Knights of Calatrava were founded to protect pilgrims on their journeys to and from the shrine of Santiago de Compostela, the Knights of Santiago and the Knights of Alcántara were established specifically to fight the Moors. Like the Templars, they aligned themselves with established monastic orders. The Order of Santiago was founded in 1175 and followed the Rule of St Augustine. The Orders of Calatrava and Alcántara followed the stricter Rule of the Benedictines. The Order of Calatrava received papal approval in 1164, and the Order of Alcántara, which was confusingly also called the Knights of St Julian, was founded in 1166 although not sanctioned by Pope Alexander III until 1177. Later orders based on the same concept included the Order of Montesa, established in the Kingdom of Aragon in 1317, the Order of Christ, founded in Portugal in 1319, and the Teutonic Knights, founded at the end of the 12th century. The Teutonic Knights were officially called the Order of Brothers of the German House of St Mary in Jerusalem. Modelled on the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights were formed to establish hospitals and to aid German Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Initially Catholic, this small but effective order later became Protestant.

  Detail of an illustration from a 13th-century manuscript of a battle between Christians and Moors, during the Reconquista of Spain.

  King Alfonso’s will

  King Alfonso I (1073/4–1134), known as ‘the Battler’ or ‘the Warrior’, ruled Aragon and Navarre from 1104 for 30 years. As a second son he succeeded his brother and after marrying Urraca, Queen of Castile and León, he began using the title Emperor of Spain. Known for his prowess in battle, he set up his own military order at Monreal del Campo, which was not successful, and he spent most of his reign at war with the Moors in his own country. His marriage was dissolved in 1114 and he remained childless. In a move that he did not explain to anyone, in October 1131, three years before his death at the Siege of Bayonne, he wrote his will, leaving his kingdom divided equally to three religious orders: the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The Order of the Holy Sepulchre had been initiated directly after the First Crusade by Godfrey de Bouillon when he became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099. Like the Knights Hospitaller, it was not a military order until some years later.

  Therefore, after my death I leave as heir and successor to me the Sepulchre of the Lord which is in Jerusalem and those who observe and guard and serve God there, and to the Hospital of the poor which is of Jerusalem, and to the Temple of Solomon with the Knights who keep vigil there to defend the name of Christendom. To these three I concede my whole kingdom. Also the lordships which I have in the whole of the lands in my kingdom, both over clerics as well as over laity, bishops, abbots, canons, monks, magistrates, knights, burgesses, peasants and merchants, men and women, the small and the great, rich and poor, also Jews and Saracens, with such laws as my father and I have had hitherto and ought to have.

  ALFONSO I THE BATTLER, OCTOBER 1131

  However, when Alfonso died in 1134, his will was deliberately overlooked by his successors and none of the beneficiaries could enforce it. Ten years later, after prolonged negotiations, the new ruler of Aragon, Raymond Berenguer IV (c.1113–62) begrudgingly gave the Templars six castles, exemptions from certain taxes, a fifth of all the land captured from the Moors, a fifth of all they plundered during campaigns against the Moors, an income of 100 sous a year, a tenth of all royal revenues, and assistance in constructing the castles and fortresses they built as defence against the Moors. Until that point, the Templars had not been involved in the Reconquista and they remained reluctant to be involved in the struggle against the infidel on a second front, but this situation propelled them into it. From then on, they took a major role in the conflict. Disciplined, brave and united, they were an asset to the cause and Raymond was delighted. He continued to favour them and, in 1153, he gave them the castle of Miravet in Aragon, but his successors did not adhere to the agreement and demanded more assistance from the Templars. Annoyed at this treatment, the Templars reconsidered their position, and decided to focus once more on defending the Holy Land as their most important mission.

  Living in the Holy Land

  Life for Europeans dwelling in the Holy Land was very different from that in the West. Numerous Christians had remained there before the Muslims took it and even more remained after the First Crusade. The heat, the flies, the scarcity of water and reduced availability of food were challenging. Maintaining good hygiene was difficult and mortality rates were high, particularly among the vulnerable young and elderly. Church leaders frequently appealed for more Christians to emigrate there, but Eastern Orthodox Christians always outnumbered the Roman Catholics. Apart from that, Islamic culture had developed rapidly while European culture had slowed over the last few centuries, and it was apparent to many Europeans living in the East, how far certain Islamic dynasties had developed in art, architecture, science and medicine. While many Europeans had been exposed to aspects of Islamic culture for centuries through developments in the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily, it was not until others had settled in the Holy Land after the First Crusade that they began truly absorbing new ideas in these disciplines. By travelling abroad, ideas and learning were shared and discovered, heralding the development of the Renaissance in later years.

  Continuing conflicts

  While Hugh de Payns was Grand Master, the Emir of Aleppo and Mosul, Imad ed-Din Zengi (c.1085–1146), a Seljuk Turk, began making efforts to take Damascus by force, but was frequently countered by its governor Unur, who allied with the Franks against him. Even more than fighting the Christians, Zengi was intent on defeating the Shi’ites of Egypt and Damascus. In 1139, three years after the death of Hugh de Payns, Zengi successfully attacked and conquered the town of Baalbek in Lebanon. According to Ibn al-’Adim (1192–1262), a biographer and historian from Aleppo, Zengi did not keep his word to protect his captives there. Zengi ‘had sworn to the people of the citadel with strong oaths and on the Qur’an and divorcing (his wives). When they came down from the citadel he betrayed them, flayed its governor and hanged the rest.’

  In 1140, King Fulk organized an alliance between Jerusalem and Mu’in ad-Din Unur, the newly appointed ruler of Damascus. So when Zengi attacked Damascus, the united forces of King Fulk, Prince
Raymond of Antioch and Mu’in ad-Din Unur overpowered him. But in 1143, Fulk was killed in a hunting accident and his successor was his 13-year-old son. Raymond and Mu’in ad-Din Unur were no match for the determined Zengi and, in 1144, he attacked Edessa in Mesopotamia. By digging tunnels beneath the city after he had lured away its governor, he brought down its fortifications. His army massacred all the male citizens of Damascus and sold all the women into slavery. Within two years, however, when Zengi was in a drunken sleep, his own eunuch stabbed him to death. He was succeeded by his two sons, Saif ad-Din Ghazi and Nur ad-Din (1118–74), who divided their father’s kingdom between them. Nur ad-Din governed Aleppo, while Saif ad-Din Ghazi ruled Mosul. Particularly fanatical, Nur ad-Din employed Kurdish tribesmen and Mamluk slaves (who had a reputation for cruelty) to swell his army. Nur ad-Din was determined to eliminate the Christians in the Holy Land and to gain overall power there. With this ruthless determination, within weeks of his father’s death, Nur ad-Din seized several castles in the north of Syria and prevented Count Joscelin de Courtenay of Edessa from winning the city back.

  A map of the Iberian Peninsula in the 14th and 15th centuries.

  In order to strengthen the Muslim front against their common enemies from the West, like the Christians before him, Nur ad-Din sought to make alliances with his Shi’ite neighbours. In 1147, he signed a treaty with Mu’in ad-Din Unur and also married his daughter, to be sure that Unur did not side again with the Christians. Together, Mu’in ad-Din and Nur ad-Din besieged the cities of Bosra and Salkhad. Their alliance was not comfortable, however, as Mu’in ad-Din was never sure of Nur ad-Din’s motives and he was also concerned about offending his former Christian allies who had helped him to defend Damascus against Nur ad-Din’s father. Meanwhile, Nur ad-Din turned towards Antioch, seizing cities and towns along the way.

  The Second Crusade

  Furthest east of all the Crusader lands, and far from aid, Edessa had always been a Christian city, and the news of its loss and the massacre horrified Christians everywhere. King Louis VII of France immediately declared he would take the cross, and Pope Eugenius III issued a bull calling all Christians to march together to fight the infidel in another Crusade. King Louis VII was the first to sign up. A hot-tempered, volatile young man, his reign (1137–80) was dominated by feudal struggles (particularly with the House of Anjou), and saw the start of years of conflict between France and England. It also witnessed the beginnings of the building of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and the founding of the University in Paris. Meanwhile, Pope Eugenius hoped to be as appealing as Urban II had been in 1095, but he did not have the same personal magnetism. Originally one of Bernard of Clairvaux’s Cistercian monks, he began enthusiastically, travelling around France and calling all to arms, but when he realized he was not having the desired effect, he asked his more charismatic former Abbot, Bernard, to step in. This was the sort of issue that Bernard of Clairvaux thrived on. On Easter Day in 1146, King Louis, accompanied by his court and many ordinary people from miles around crowded into the church of Mary Magdalene at Vézelay in the Burgundy region of France, to listen to Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux. His charm and powers of persuasion were as strong as ever and, as with Pope Urban half a century before, almost everyone in the huge crowd listening vowed to join the next Crusade. Led by Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, even the women declared they would go on the Crusade as well.

  Taken from a history of France in illuminated manuscripts, the Grandes Chroniques de France, made between the 13th and 15th centuries, the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France is depicted on the left, and on the right their embarkation for the Second Crusade 1147–9.

  As preparations began, Bernard rushed to enlist Conrad III of Germany (1093–1152) to the cause. Yet, unlike Emperor Alexius in the First Crusade, Conrad had not asked for the West’s help and he was suspicious of the motives of his French neighbours. Although agreeing to join with his army, he was not enthusiastic. In a measure of their increased status, rather than calling the Templars to a meeting, King Louis and Pope Eugenius travelled to visit them to ask for their help in the cause. Nine years before, Louis had given the Templars a house in a swamp area north of Paris. By 1146, they had drained the swamp and many were living there while a programme of building was being carried out around them. In response to the request by the king and the Pope, Everard des Barres, the Master in Paris, assembled 150 of his finest knights and their sergeants. It was at that time that Eugenius gave the Order permission to wear the splayed red cross as a sign of ‘the red blood of the martyr’.

  Meanwhile, the German army led by Conrad had proceeded before the rest of the Crusaders and, in October 1147, they were on a direct route across Asia Minor, close to the border of Seljuk Turk territory. In spite of its vast size, when set upon by the more experienced Turks, the German army was heavily defeated. Those who survived, including Conrad himself, retreated to travel with the predominantly French Crusaders who were taking a safer coastal route. But on reaching Ephesus on the west coast of Asia Minor, Conrad was taken ill and returned to Constantinople with his remaining forces. The French, however, were experiencing their own difficulties. As they followed on after the huge German army, the townspeople and villagers they passed had grown weary of the demands of hungry marchers, and they retracted their generosity. This in turn angered the Crusaders, who plundered the land they travelled through. Everard des Barres stepped in to take control, artfully smoothing the explosive situation, and he put Templar knights at the front and rear of the marchers, to keep the disorderly army in some form of disciplined shape.

  But it was a motley crowd that marched on. The many women who had followed Queen Eleanor’s lead had also taken their maids and often their children and other servants, so numerous families, pedlars, pilgrims and other stragglers accompanied the soldiers. As the months passed, many of the marchers became ill and weak from weariness, the cold and lack of food. In January 1148, when they reached the Cadmus Mountains (today part of western Turkey), it was decided that the stronger members of the army would go on ahead. They would set up camp on the far side of the mountain, leaving the sick and tired to follow on more slowly. With the Seljuk Turks following closely on their heels, these slower marchers were in an extremely vulnerable situation. On the steep, rocky slopes of the mountain, they and their horses lost their footings as the Seljuks nimbly galloped past, firing arrows rapidly as they did so. When the Crusaders eventually all met up again, most of the slower group had been annihilated. Horrified and remorseful, King Louis asked Everard des Barres to take complete control of the army. He wasted no time in dividing the vast army into smaller units, placing a Templar in charge of each unit, and he made the members of these units swear to obey their Templar leaders without questioning. In this way, the Crusaders reached the city of Attalia (now Antalya) on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey in relative safety, where they waited for the Byzantine ships that they had been promised would take them to the Holy Land. But when the fleet arrived, it was far too small to take them all, so only Louis, Eleanor, their nobles and a small contingent of the army set sail, leaving the others to cross the hostile Seljuk lands on foot. The majority were either killed or died of exhaustion or hunger on the way.

  From The History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem by William of Tyre, c.1250, this illumination shows the entry of Louis VII into Constantinople with Emperor Conrad III during the Second Crusade, 1147–9.

  By the time Louis arrived at Antioch early in March 1148, he had run out of money. He abandoned his original plan of retaking Edessa and instead marched on to Jerusalem where he visited the holy shrines as a pilgrim rather than as a conquering soldier. He sent Everard des Barres to Acre to raise money from Templar resources there to pay for the cost of the journey so far, which resulted in him owing the Templars the equivalent of about half his annual income. The remaining Crusader army, which consisted of a number of French and German survivors (along with Conrad who had recovered and arrived by sea from Constant
inople), was not completely depleted, so between them they considered making an assault on Aleppo, but soon abandoned the idea in favour of attacking Damascus instead. It was an ambitious and ill-considered plan.

  In June 1148, a Council was called in Acre, attended by Louis of France, Conrad of Germany, the 17-year-old King of Jerusalem Baldwin III, Raymond of Antioch, Everard des Barres and a large number of Templars, Hospitallers and other knights from the area. Raymond of Antioch wanted to attack Aleppo and recapture Edessa, others wanted to attack Egypt, but that was not deemed possible as the city of Ascalon in between was still ruled by the powerful Fatimid dynasty. So the discussion focused on Damascus. Because it had been one of the Muslim powers that had allied with the Christians previously, the Crusaders perceived that it might be an easier target. An ancient and wealthy city, Damascus was famously conquered by Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE. It was in a particularly strategic position, north-east of Jerusalem, Nazareth and Acre, and south-west of Tripoli. After a long meeting, the Crusaders decided that Damascus would be their target. The following month, they marched to Damascus and, in preparation for a siege, set up camp in a location that was naturally supplied with fresh flowing water and orchards that gave shade and fruit. However, they had not noticed that the trees in the orchards also served as cover for the Damascene army, who repeatedly attacked them as they camped. Apart from that, however, the siege was beginning to move in their favour, but Louis and Conrad decided to relocate their troops on open ground. Their new camp lacked water and shade and was close to a section of the city walls that was of a greater height than in their former camp. Within a short time, these elements defeated them; the Crusaders were dying of thirst and exposure, and the walls were too high to surmount. Forced to retreat without a fight, the Crusaders’ efforts had been a total failure. Humiliatingly, the Crusaders had gained nothing and the Second Crusade was recognized by all as a fiasco. Six years later in 1154, Nur ad-Din took control of Damascus without a fight, strengthening the power of Muslims in Outremer once more.