Secrets of the Knights Templar

by S. J. Hodge

  The Battle of Montgisard, 25 November 1177, painted by Charles-Philippe, c.1842. This dramatic and dynamic work shows the blind king, Baldwin IV, being carried on a litter into battle. The Crusaders are vastly outnumbered, but show no fear as they approach the massive Muslim army.

  Saladin gains ground

  A year after the truce between Baldwin and Saladin, in 1181, Reynald de Châtillon attacked some rich Muslim caravans as they travelled to Mecca and Medina. Reynald had served in the Second Crusade and remained in the Holy Land after its defeat. He ruled as Prince of Antioch from 1153 to 1160 and through his second marriage became Lord of Oultrejourdain, an eastern extension of the Latin kingdom in the Holy Land. Saladin complained to Baldwin about Reynald’s attack and demanded recompense for his breaking of the treaty. Baldwin complained to Reynald about his behaviour, but Reynald refused to make amends. Early in 1182 before the truce was over, he launched a fleet of ships into the Red Sea where they raided Egyptian and Arabian ports, including Mecca and Medina. Saladin’s brother gathered a force and drove them back. In May 1182, at the end of the peace agreement, Saladin rode out with an army from Cairo ready to fight the Christians. Because of his leprosy, Baldwin was now almost blind and had to be carried into battle on a litter. Accompanied by Heraclius, the new Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the relic of the True Cross, the Christians fought as hard as the Muslims and the result of the battle was inconclusive, with both sides claiming victory. The following summer, Saladin captured Aleppo, gaining control of the whole of Syria, essentially enclosing the Latin kingdoms with powerful Muslim territories.

  With Outremer surrounded, Roger des Moulins, Heraclius and the new Templar Grand Master, Arnold of Torroja, travelled to Europe to muster support. In London, Heraclius consecrated the Templars’ new church. The Templars had recently benefited from a tragedy in England. In 1170, four of King Henry II’s knights had murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in his cathedral. Their punishment was that each knight was to serve 14 years with the Templars in the Holy Land, and King Henry, who had incited them to Becket’s murder, promised to provide the Templars with enough money to pay for 200 knights for a year. When Henry had died in 1172, he left 20,000 marks towards a crusade: 5,000 for the Templars; 5,000 for the Hospitallers; 5,000 to share between them and 5,000 for miscellaneous religious houses, lepers and hermits in Outremer. Apart from this, few others in Europe felt compelled to help the situation in the Holy Land at this time. The expense and failure of the Second Crusade was still fresh in everyone’s minds and the travellers could muster little else in the way of donations. When Arnold of Torroja died in Verona in 1184, a new Grand Master, Gerard de Ridefort, was elected in Jerusalem. By then, the brave young King Baldwin IV was close to death through his debilitating disease.

  A 12th-century illustration of a Templar knight galloping forward with a lance in battle. This is in the Templar Chapel in Cressac-Saint-Genis, France.

  Dissension in Jerusalem

  In March 1185, Baldwin IV died and was buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. His named successor, his eight-year-old nephew Baldwin V, also died the following year, leaving a power struggle for the throne of Jerusalem. Raymond III of Tripoli was the chosen regent until a suitable king could be found, but Sibylla, Baldwin IV’s sister, claimed the throne for herself and her husband, Guy de Lusignan. Backed by Reynald de Châtillon, Gerard de Ridefort and the Knights Templar, and Patriarch Heraclius, Sibylla and Guy were crowned in August 1186. The Knights Hospitaller and their leader Roger des Moulins, however, supported Raymond of Tripoli, who, angry to be robbed of his regency, had withdrawn to his northern territories. Raymond was also Prince of Galilee and Tiberias through his wife Eschiva. Distancing himself from the court of Jerusalem, he made an independent truce with Saladin and allowed a Muslim army to cross his territory, which aroused anxiety in Jerusalem that Raymond was about to ally himself with Saladin against them.

  Guy de Lusignan (c.1150–94) began as a knight and became king of the Crusader state of Jerusalem. He was also king of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194. His reign in Jerusalem culminated in the calamitous Battle of Hattin in July 1187, where he was captured by Saladin.

  Throughout the winter of 1185–6, Gerard de Ridefort implored King Guy to march on Raymond and take Tripoli, to force Raymond to reconsider his loyalties. However, after considering this, by the spring of 1186, Guy and Sibylla were keen to make peace with Raymond instead of attacking him, so Gerard of Ridefort, Roger des Moulins and a group of other carefully chosen men went to negotiate with Raymond. At the same time, by coincidence, Saladin’s son al-Afdal, took some of his men to Tripoli. Upon hearing that Muslims were gathering there, Gerard de Ridefort immediately summoned as many of his Templars as he could and Roger des Moulins did the same with the Hospitallers. On 1 May, an army made up of about 90 knights from the two orders, another 40 local knights, 300 foot soldiers and the 2 Grand Masters arrived at the Springs of Cresson, north of Nazareth. Below them, a huge army of Muslims had gathered. Greatly outnumbered, Roger des Moulins and the Templar marshal James de Mailly urged Gerard de Ridefort to retreat; but he refused, taunting James de Mailly for being a coward. In the ensuing battle, both James de Mailly and Roger des Moulins were killed alongside almost every Christian knight. Of those who had entered the field, only four Christians survived, one of whom was Gerard de Ridefort.

  The massacre at Cresson was a disaster undoubtedly brought on by Gerard’s arrogance and impetuosity. The one good thing that emerged from it was the unification of the Christian factions, as Raymond of Tripoli and Sibylla and Guy were reconciled. When Saladin learned that Raymond had made peace with King Guy, he amassed a huge force and attacked Raymond’s city of Tiberias. In response, Guy similarly summoned every Latin soldier in the Holy Land. King Henry II’s money was used to pay for weapons and mercenaries and, by the end of June 1187, the medium-sized Christian army was ready.

  The Battle of Hattin

  On 1 July, Saladin crossed the River Jordan near Lake Tiberias with 30,000 foot soldiers and 12,000 cavalry. He sent half his force up into the hills and took half to the shore of Lake Tiberias. While he was laying siege to Tiberias, the Christian army were settling into a good defensive position elsewhere. Their army included a large number of Templars and Hospitallers, Raymond of Tripoli, Reynald de Châtillon, many other nobles, and the Bishop of Acre who carried the True Cross. They all agreed to wait, believing that Saladin could not hold his huge army together in the hot and arid landscape and that it would soon break up without input from them. While they were waiting, on 2 July, a message arrived from Raymond’s wife Eschiva, explaining that she was holding out against Saladin’s army inside the mighty fortress of Tiberias, with a unit of loyal knights, but the situation was desperate. Frantic talks ensued in the Crusader encampment at the springs of Sepphoris, and many wanted to march to Tiberias immediately and attack the Muslim army, but despite knowing of the danger to his wife, Raymond advised the king not to. He said:

  None of you is so fiercely attached, save to Christianity, as I am to the city. None of you is so desirous, as I am to succour or aid Tiberias. We and the king, however, should not move away from water, food and other necessities to lead such a multitude of men to death from solitude, hunger, thirst and scorching heat … Stay therefore, at this midway point, close to food and water … Then … we and our horses will be fresh; we will be aided and protected by the Lord’s cross. Thus we will fight mightily against an unbelieving people who will be wearied by thirst and who will have no place to refresh themselves … the enemies of Christ … will be taken captive or else killed by sword, by lance or by thirst.

  That night, several men, including Gerard de Ridefort, went to King Guy complaining that Raymond was not to be trusted as he had already sided with Saladin, and that they should not abandon Tiberias. The following day, they left their sheltered camp at Sepphoris and marched across the barren hills in the searing heat to attack the Muslims at Tiberias and rescue Eschiva a
nd the knights with her. Tiberias was nine miles away and there was no reliable water source on the journey.

  Saladin’s vast army meanwhile had settled in Hattin, a well-watered village that descended towards Lake Tiberias. The entire surrounding area is called the Horns of Hattin for the two rocky peaks that rise over the brush-covered slopes behind Tiberias. By the evening of 3 July, the Christian army reached a plateau above Hattin. Exhausted, they stopped there and set up camp. The place had been known to have a spring, but that had dried up and the only stream was blocked. Beneath the Christian camp, Saladin’s army set fire to the brush on the hillside. Hot, thirsty and choking from smoke that came from the burning scrub, the Christian troops spent a difficult night. Many could not sleep for need of water and some were so desperate that they left their camp and went to the nearby stream to quench their thirsts, only to be captured and beheaded by Saladin’s men. By morning, Saladin’s army had completely enclosed the Crusaders’ camp. A chronicler of the event claimed, ‘not a cat could have slipped through the net’. Outnumbered by ten to one as dawn approached, the parched and weak Crusaders nevertheless charged into the battle, but they were defeated within six hours.

  In the 13th century, the Dominican friar, Vincent of Beauvais (c.1190–c.1264) wrote the Speculum Historiale, a history of the world. This is an illustration from it, showing the loss of the True Cross at the Battle of Hattin.

  The Crusader leaders who were still alive were rounded up and taken to Saladin’s camp. This included King Guy, Gerard de Ridefort and Reynald de Châtillon. The common soldiers were sold into slavery. Saladin demanded that all the Templars were executed without mercy except for their Grand Master, Gerard de Ridefort, who was to be spared. Individually the Templars and Hospitallers were forced to their knees while Muslim soldiers beheaded them. Chroniclers claim that every Templar met his death in silence and with humility. The True Cross, which was always carried by the Christians into battle, was either lost or taken by Saladin. In line with his reputation, Saladin treated King Guy mercifully, while he personally executed Reynald for his past offences. Gerard de Ridefort is believed to have traded his freedom for the Templar castle at Gaza. Once released, he joined Guy in an effort to regain the city of Acre, which had been taken by Saladin, but he was killed at the Siege of Acre in 1189. Following his victory at Hattin, Saladin had quickly captured Acre, Nablus, Jaffa, Toron, Sidon, Beirut and Ascalon. After a short siege, by October of 1187, even Jerusalem was surrendered to him.

  The news of the taking of Jerusalem spread alarm throughout western Christendom. Another Crusade was called for and on Pope Gregory VII’s request, once more, thousands vowed to take the cross. Even the three greatest rulers of Europe – King Philip Augustus of France, King Richard I of England and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa – vowed to travel to the Holy Land and re-establish Christian supremacy there. Taking charge of three large armies, the three powerful rulers set out in 1189, less than two years after the calamitous Battle of Hattin.

  Gerard de Ridefort

  Believed to be of Flemish descent, unlike previous and later Grand Masters, Gerard de Ridefort, who headed the Order from 1185 to 1189, did not speak Arabic, nor was he a negotiator or diplomat. It is not certain when he arrived in the Holy Land, but by the late 1170s he was recorded as being in the service of King Baldwin IV. By 1179, he held the rank of Marshal of the Kingdom. It seems that Raymond III of Tripoli had promised to give him the hand of an heiress, but instead, Raymond married the lady in question to Plivain, the nephew of a wealthy merchant from Pisa who paid him 10,000 bezants for her, which was the lady’s weight in gold. Furious, Ridefort’s consequent hatred of Raymond of Tripoli influenced nearly all his major decisions. Once he knew he could not marry the heiress, he took vows as a Templar. By June 1183, he held the rank of Seneschal, and on the death of Arnold of Torroja in Verona, he was elected Grand Master. Opposing Raymond’s claim to the throne of Jerusalem, Ridefort ended up putting the Templars in mortal danger. Arrogant, angry, impatient and impetuous, his grudge against Raymond of Tripoli had a disastrous impact on his decisions until, ultimately, the Templars suffered their most humiliating defeat at the Battle of Hattin.

  Richard the Lionheart

  Obscured by legend as much as Saladin, Richard Coeur de Lion, or Richard the Lionheart (1157–99), was described as being tall and good-looking, with red-gold hair. His mother, the notorious Eleanor of Aquitaine, had been Queen of France when first married to Louis VII, and became Queen of England on marrying Henry II. Through his father, the King of England, Richard was a descendant of William the Conqueror and his great-grandfather was Fulk d’Anjou, later King Fulk of Jerusalem. As the third son of Eleanor and Henry, Richard did not expect to become king and spent little time in England. He never learned to speak English, although he spoke, read and wrote in French and understood Latin. But, unexpectedly, both his elder brothers died, and in July 1189, he became King of England at the age of 32.

  The year before he ascended the throne, Richard had pledged to go on the Third Crusade. As soon as he was crowned, as King Richard I, he began raising money. He started by persecuting and robbing Jews, then he imposed a high tax on all his subjects, which became known as the ‘Saladin tithe’. Next, he sold practically everything he had, including earldoms, lordships, sheriffdoms, castles, royal land and even whole towns. When he was asked about some of his questionable money-raising methods, he declared that he ‘would sell the city of London if he could find a purchaser’. On his way to the eastern Mediterranean, Richard decided to form an alliance with Sancho VI, the King of Navarre, and became engaged to his daughter Berengaria. This instantly angered King Philip II of France, Richard’s stepbrother. Ever since they were children, Richard had been engaged to Philip’s half-sister Alys and in view of this, Alys had been brought up at the English court since her childhood, but Richard refused to marry her as he said she had been the mistress of his father, Henry II. In September 1190, Richard and Philip met in Sicily and after some tense and angry negotiations, they finally reached an agreement, which included the end of Richard’s betrothal to Alys. The following spring, Eleanor of Aquitaine brought Berengaria to Cyprus, where she and Richard were married. Although Richard had by then conquered Cyprus, he sold it to the Templars, who later sold it to Guy de Lusignan.

  The Third Crusade

  Under the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick, the German Crusaders had been the first to start off on their journey to the Holy Land. While the English and French armies travelled by sea, the German army was too large, so the entire force travelled overland. On reaching Asia Minor they were beaten back by marauding Turks as their predecessors had been on the Second Crusade. Emperor Frederick, known as Barbarossa or Kaiser Rotbart for his flame-red beard, was 67 years old and apparently still formidable, but on 10 June 1190, he drowned when crossing a swollen river. Chaos ensued and most of his demoralized army returned home. Only a small fraction of the original force, led by his son Frederick VI of Swabia, reached Acre.

  Richard and Philip arrived at Acre in 1191 and added their forces to the Christian armies already there, besieging the city that Saladin had taken four years previously. After months of combat, with Richard fighting even while seriously ill, the city finally fell to the Crusaders. Richard made some bad decisions at that time which damaged his chivalrous reputation and caused him problems later. As soon as Acre fell, the Crusaders raised their standards as was the tradition at the end of a battle. Leopold V of Austria, who had been fighting for longer than either Richard or Philip, raised his standards along with the other Crusaders, but Richard immediately had them torn down. He was concerned that Leopold would take some of the booty he had agreed to share equally with Philip. Furious, Leopold returned to Austria with his troops. Philip also left the Holy Land almost immediately. His health had suffered and he had fallen out with Richard once again, this time over land in Cyprus.

  From a woodcut by Gustave Doré in 1877, coloured at a later date, this shows
his dramatic vision of the 1191 Battle of Arsuf.

  After capturing Acre, Richard fought several further battles against Saladin over the next three years. The Templars’ new Grand Master, Robert de Sablé, was Richard’s good friend and their personalities complemented each other. Robert de Sablé was cautious and thoughtful, while Richard was intrepid and daring. In 1191, Richard and the Templars moved south, defeating Saladin’s forces at the Battle of Arsuf in early September. Yet, although they worked well together as a fighting force and Richard continued to display great courage, strength and gallantry, the Crusaders failed to reclaim Jerusalem.

  Encaustic tiles from 1250–60 in Chertsey Abbey, Surrey, England, showing, on the left, Richard the Lionheart (1157–99), king of England from 1189, and on the right, Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, (1137–93) known in the west as Saladin. The images imply that the two men met during the Third Crusade of 1191, but in fact they never met either on or off the battlefield.

  However, with Acre now in Christian hands, many Crusaders returned to Europe. It was not as holy as Jerusalem, but it was more important strategically and it became the political and economic centre of the Christian territory in the Holy Land. Many Christians believed that with this stronghold, they would soon win Jerusalem back. Richard remained in the Holy Land as the leader of the forces there and established his headquarters at Jaffa. As the winter of 1191 approached, active campaigning was abandoned and, instead, the Crusaders occupied and refortified Ascalon. By the spring of 1192, Richard began to receive worrying news about his brother John’s activities in England and the support he was receiving from Philip of France. It became evident that Richard would have to return to England soon. Realizing that he and the Crusaders could not conquer Jerusalem, he began to plan a retreat and, that summer, he travelled to the remaining Christian-ruled regions to discuss their options. Almost immediately, Saladin laid siege to Jaffa. The small force that had been left there fought desperately against the Muslim army, but it was huge and eventually stormed the walls of the garrison. Hearing the news, Richard hastily gathered a small army and hurried back south. Arriving by sea, he discovered that the city was almost lost, so he leapt into the water and waded ashore, leading his small force of 54 knights, a few hundred infantry and 2,000 crossbowmen. Stunned by the sudden onslaught, Saladin’s men panicked, believing them to be a just a small part of a much larger relief force, and they fled, leaving their prisoners to take up arms and chase them. As he always did, within three days, Saladin attacked again. He had reorganized his troops and mounted a fresh attack, but Richard and the Templars overpowered them. Muslim losses were even heavier than at the first encounter and, under Richard’s orders, all Muslim prisoners were executed. It was the last major engagement of the Third Crusade.