Secrets of the Knights Templar

by S. J. Hodge

  Saladin and Richard

  Legend has it that when Richard’s horse was felled beneath him during the Battle of Jaffa, Saladin saw him fighting on foot. Impressed by Richard’s courage, Saladin ordered two stallions from his own stables to be dispatched as a replacement for his enemy. Yet although Richard requested to meet Saladin on numerous occasions, Saladin always refused, declaring: ‘Kings meet together only after the conclusion of an accord, for it is unthinkable for them to wage war once they know one another and have broken bread together. In any event, I do not understand your language, and you are ignorant of mine, and we therefore need a translator in whom we both have confidence. Let this man, then, act as a messenger between us. When we arrive at an understanding, we will meet, and friendship will prevail between us.’

  An illustration from an illuminated manuscript created by the 15th-century calligrapher David Aubert, showing the defeat of Saladin and his troops by the Crusaders at the Siege of Acre.

  The truce

  Soon after the Battle of Jaffa, on 2 September 1192, Saladin and Richard negotiated a three-year truce. Richard left for England, but on his journey, he was shipwrecked and had to travel through Austria. Although he and his companions disguised themselves as pilgrims or, it is said by some, as Knights Templar, Richard was recognized and captured by Leopold’s men. He spent the next 18 months in custody, first with Leopold and then with the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI. Although the practice was forbidden among monarchs, Henry VI demanded a vast ransom for Richard. His brother John who was ruling England had no desire for Richard’s return, so despite being over 70 years old, his mother Eleanor raised the money and travelled to Germany with it to secure Richard’s release.

  The Third Crusade, which had lasted for three years from 1189 to 1192, became known as the Kings’ Crusade. Although successful in some ways, it did not achieve its ultimate goal – the reconquest of Jerusalem. The consequence of it all was that Richard agreed to demolish Ascalon and Saladin agreed to recognize Christian territories along the coast. Christians and Muslims were to be allowed to cross each other’s regions and Christian pilgrims were to be allowed to visit Jerusalem and other holy sites under Muslim rule freely and safely. Richard never returned to the Holy Land and Saladin died the following year, in March 1193.

  The seal of Richard I of England resembles the seal of the Knights Templar, as they were in close affinity, only the king’s seal shows him jousting while the Templars’ seal shows their poverty in the sharing of a horse.

  The Templar seal was an image of two knights on one horse to illustrate the monks’ personal poverty. The Greek and Latin characters, Sigillum Militum Xpisti, followed by a cross means ‘the Seal of the Soldiers of Christ’.

  The loss of Jerusalem

  The Battle of Hattin was a devastating setback for the Templars. The huge number of losses they had sustained had not only seriously impaired their organization, but it had been highly costly as well. They had lost many valuable men, as well as expensive equipment and armour. They fought in every battle against Saladin, and although he showed clemency to many of his captives, he inflicted terrible revenge on any Templars or Hospitallers he took. Arabic sources testify to the Templars’ outstanding technical skill, battle prowess and pride, as well as the fear they inspired in their opponents, and this infuriated Saladin. During every crusading expedition in the Holy Land, the Templars took the front or rear guard, they fought to the last in every battle and they covered all retreats. Years of training had made them the greatest force in the Holy Land, but with so many outstanding soldiers now killed, the entire organization was debilitated.

  The continued survival of the Templar Order depended on its honour. The greater the respect it commanded, the larger the donations it received. So after Hattin, when general confidence in the Templars’ invincibility was shaken, wealthy benefactors reconsidered where they would put their money and potential recruits thought hard about whether or not to join the Brotherhood. For approximately 70 years, the Templars’ purpose had been the defence of the Holy Land. With the fall of Jerusalem, they had failed in that essential aim – and they had lost their headquarters on Temple Mount. Gerard de Ridefort had been the first questionable Grand Master, elected more for his combative prowess than for his honesty and integrity. His occasional underhand tactics and frequent futile decisions had led many courageous Templars to their deaths. Although he was valiant and decisive, contrary to all previous Grand Masters with their transparent reputations, he was also arrogant and reckless – more like a secular knight than a religious one. Reynald de Châtillon was another character who had created extra problems with his vengeful pride that should have had no part in a Christian struggle. And conflicts between factions over who should rule Jerusalem had also contributed to the difficulties and disharmony that ultimately resulted in the Christian losses. But no one person was ultimately to blame. Circumstances, timing and personalities all played their part and the result was that less than a century after its conquest by the Christians, Jerusalem was back under Muslim rule. The relic of the True Cross, the most sacred Christian object that had been held aloft before every Crusader battle, was lost forever, and the Knights of the Temple of Solomon had to leave their headquarters on the most holy of sites, Temple Mount. They moved their headquarters to Acre, along with the seat of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

  However, all was not entirely lost. Richard the Lionheart’s courage and Saladin and Robert de Sablé’s wisdom and diplomacy had enabled the honour of the Templars to be rebuilt. Following Sablé’s prudence, for nearly 14 years after his death in 1193, the Templars avoided further conflict with the Muslims. Instead, trade began flourishing between the Christians and the Muslims and new recruits began enlisting to be Knights Templar once more. In the reduced Christian states of Outremer, the Templars and the Hospitallers began buying property cheaply that had been left by Europeans who, in the aftermath of the Third Crusade, had returned to the West. So by the turn of the 13th century, the two orders had become the major landowners in the Christian regions of Palestine. They were regaining money, land, recruits and respectability.

  The Hospitallers

  The Order of the Knights of Saint John the Hospitaller was founded as a charitable group to help sick pilgrims in the Holy Land. The military aspect of their organization only began later as an additional element in their service to Christianity, although they continued with their traditional objectives of hospitality, often stressing that this was their main duty. By the late 12th century, the Templars and the Hospitallers were frequently used together in battles and were sent on the same diplomatic missions. Ordinary people could not always tell the two orders apart, although in general the Templars were largely French and the Hospitallers Italian and Spanish – the Hospitallers had strong associations with merchants from Amalfi in Italy. Comprising of Benedictine monks and nuns who cared for female pilgrims, the Hospitallers’ habits were also different from the Templars, being black with white crosses.

  Along with infirmaries and hospices, the Hospitallers were also given castles and fortresses. In 1142, for instance, Raymond II of Tripoli gave them the Krak des Chevaliers in Syria which remained in their possession until it fell in 1271. While in their ownership, it was known as Crac de l’Ospital, and was not called the Krak des Chevaliers (Fortress of the Knights) until the 19th century, long after the knights had left. They began rebuilding the castle as soon as it was in their possession, completing it by 1170, after which an earthquake damaged it. They controlled several castles along the border of the County of Tripoli, but the Krak des Chevaliers was one of the most important as it functioned as a hospital, a centre of administration and a military base.

  Although there was sometimes tension between them, generally the Templars and the Hospitallers supported each other on and off the battlefield. Benefactors often shared their donations equally between them. The main disagreements that occurred between them were to do with who should inherit the crown of Jerusal
em, if there were various potential heirs. Both orders were subject to criticism from the outside world, the difference being that when things became uncomfortable, the Hospitallers would lie low in their hospices and infirmaries, while the Templars had to carry on in the outside world, visibly policing pilgrim routes and running their businesses. Although the Hospitallers, like the Templars, also built castles as well as several round churches in the image of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and they lent money, they never became as rich as the Templars and they did not attract such high-profile investors. In 1307, when King Philip IV of France began persecuting the Templars, he harassed the Hospitallers equally, but when they slipped out of his grasp he did not bother to pursue them further. When Jacques de Molay was originally summoned to meet with Pope Clement V and the King of France, the Hospitallers’ Grand Master, Fulk de Villaret, was summoned too, but he avoided the meeting. His excuse was that ‘he was stopped in his way at Rhodes by the Saracens’. Had King Philip determined to catch the Hospitallers, he would have done so, but they avoided vilification because the king did not covet what they had as much as he yearned for the Templars’ possessions. The Hospitallers therefore continued as an order for centuries after the demise of the Templars, even gaining most of the Templars’ property after their suppression.

  Built by Arabs in the first half of the 11th century, the Krak des Chevaliers (‘Fortress of the Knights’) fell into Crusader hands in 1099. It became the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller in 1144 and they expanded it into the largest Crusader fortress in the Holy Land. The castle remained in their hands until 1271. King Edward I of England based all his Welsh castles on its design.

  Meanwhile, in the Holy Land after the Third Crusade, the situation was volatile once more. Although Richard the Lionheart had defeated Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf in 1191 and the Battle of Jaffa in 1192 and so recovered most of the coast for the Latin kingdom, he had not recovered Jerusalem or any of the other inland territories. Some historians have suggested that this was a deliberate move by Richard as he recognized that Jerusalem was a strategic liability because it was isolated from the sea. The Third Crusade had ended peacefully, however, with the Treaty of Ramla negotiated in 1192. Saladin allowed pilgrimages to be made to Jerusalem, and once the Crusaders had prayed at the holy sites, most of them returned home. Those remaining in the Holy Land set about rebuilding their kingdom from Acre.

  The Fourth Crusade

  With pilgrims still being allowed to visit the Holy City and the Templars rebuilding, retraining and recovering their strength, another Crusade was not seen as a priority by Europeans. In 1198, Pope Innocent III appealed for a Fourth Crusade, but there was little enthusiasm for it. Then, at the end of November in 1199, a zealous preacher, Fulk of Neuilly, arrived at the Castle of Ecry-sur-Aisne, where Count Theobald III of Champagne was hosting a jousting tournament. Launching into an impassioned speech, Fulk inspired all present with dreams of reconquering Jerusalem for Christendom.

  Envoys were sent to Venice, Genoa and other city-states to discuss a contract for transport to Egypt and, in March 1201, negotiations were opened with Venice. The Venetians agreed to transport 33,500 Crusaders, but would require a year of shipbuilding and training of their sailors to man the ships. These activities would severely restrict the city’s usually brisk commercial activities, but a suitable payment was agreed so the Venetian shipbuilders began work. The Crusading army was expected to comprise 4,500 knights (with horses), 9,000 squires and 20,000 foot soldiers.

  As in previous Crusades, the bulk of those who pledged to take the cross originated from France. Some came from the Holy Roman Empire, and now many also came from Venice. The Crusade was to be ready to sail in the summer of 1202 for the Ayyubid capital of Cairo. Since Saladin’s death, his sons had quarrelled over his territorial legacy, so his empire had fallen apart, and rival factions ruled in Cairo and Damascus. As there was no cohesive agreement that all the Crusaders would sail from Venice, many chose to sail from other ports, such as Flanders, Marseilles and Genoa, so by 1201 when the troops assembled at Venice, there were far fewer than had been anticipated. The Venetians had prepared 50 war galleys and 450 other boats as agreed – enough for three times the assembled army. The Crusaders gathered there did not have the 85,000 silver marks that had been agreed between them, so the Venetians refused to let them sail. By pooling their resources, the Crusaders managed to amass 51,000 silver marks, but this left them penniless and the strain on the Venetian economy was enormous. Not only had they kept their side of the bargain, halting their own trading enterprise for many months, but they also had to send 30,000 men out of their population of approximately 80,000 to man the fleet, which stretched their resources even further.

  This richly illustrated manuscript from La Conquête de Constantinople by Geoffrey de Villehardouin, c.1330, shows Fulk of Neuilly preaching the Fourth Crusade to some seated men in the top ‘S’, while the lower border shows Crusaders arriving at Constantinople.

  The leader of Venice, the Doge, and his ministers considered what to do. The amount they had received from the Crusaders was not enough to cover their costs, but to prevent the Crusade going ahead would be counter-productive. Twenty years previously, in 1182, the Venetian merchant population had been expelled from Byzantium. So the Venetians proposed that the Crusaders could pay their debts by attacking the port of Zara on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. Zara was a Christian city, but it was also a naval and commercial rival to Venice and although most Christians including the Pope were against this, the Crusaders went ahead and besieged and captured the unsuspecting port of Zara. Next, the Venetians persuaded them to attack Constantinople. The possession of this great capital would greatly increase Venetian trade and influence, and many Crusaders saw it as an opportunity to gain wealth and power. So against all the Crusaders stood for, in 1204, they continued in their digression from the Holy Land and attacked Constantinople, a Christian city which for centuries had formed the chief defence between Europe and the Muslims.

  Contrary to all Church teachings, the Crusaders burned and slaughtered, destroying or pillaging precious artefacts, including monuments, statues, paintings and manuscripts. They divided the lands between themselves and the Venetians and they crowned Baldwin, the Count of Flanders, Emperor of the East. But it did not last. The Byzantine inhabitants who remained there would not acknowledge the invaders and the new empire only survived just over 50 years until 1261, when the Byzantines reconquered their own city. The consequence, however, was that Constantinople had lost its power. Two centuries later it fell to the Turks. The greed and lust for power of the Crusaders and the Venetians had given the Turks a path into Europe.

  A 14th-century Italian miniature showing Venetian shipbuilders building a ship. During the medieval period, Venice became wealthy through its control of trade between Europe and the Levant. From the start of the Crusades, Venice was involved, as Crusaders paid for Venetian ships to assist them. In 1123, they were granted virtual autonomy in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It is possible that Venetian shipbuilders helped the Templars build their fleet.

  The Fifth Crusade

  While many knights were conquering Constantinople, others were suppressing the Cathars in France. The Templars were not active in either of these ignominious battles, but in 1217, the Pope launched the Fifth Crusade and involved the Templars from the start. In Paris, the Templar treasurer was put in charge of donations for the cause, while various European leaders came forward to join, including King Andrew of Hungary, Leopold, Duke of Austria, and John of Brienne, the King of Jerusalem. Templars, Hospitallers and the new German order of Teutonic Knights also gathered but, with no main leader, a papal legate was put in charge: Cardinal Pelagius, a pious man with no military experience. Nevertheless, with their prowess and courage, the Templars played a significant role. In 1219, the Crusaders besieged the port of Damietta, which controlled the eastern mouth of the River Nile. The Egyptian sultan, Saladin’s nephew al-Kamil, was so distressed
by the idea of losing Damietta that he offered to trade it for Jerusalem, but Cardinal Pelagius insisted that Jerusalem could not be held now without Christian control of the surrounding lands, so the Crusaders rejected the offer and continued besieging Damietta. In 1221, before they had completely secured Damietta, Pelagius ordered them to march on to Egypt, but as they approached, al-Kamil’s forces opened the gates of the irrigation canals, causing the Nile to flood and trapping the Crusaders. Although the Templars valiantly covered the Crusaders’ retreat, Pelagius had no alternative but to give up Damietta after all, not in return for Jerusalem, but to save the Crusaders’ lives. The Fifth Crusade was abandoned and the military orders returned to Acre.