by Dan Jones
11. Richards, D.S. (ed.), The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil fi’l Ta’rikh I (Aldershot: 2006), 22.
12. According to Fulcher of Chartres. Peters, E. (ed.), The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials (Philadelphia: 1971) 77.
13. Letter of Godfrey of Bouillon and others to the pope, September 1099, reprinted in Peters (ed.), Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials 234; Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives; Jirkimish, the Seljuq lord of Mosul, quoted in Cobb, P. M., The Race For Paradise: An Islamic History of the Crusades (Oxford: 2014) 107.
14. Wilkinson et al, Jerusalem Pilgrimage 1099–1185 104.
15. Ibid. 105.
16. Ibid. 100. The traveller known as Daniel the Abbot agreed, calling the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem ‘hard and fearsome’. Ibid. 126.
17. Ibid. 100–1.
18. Ibid. 109.
19. Ibid. 110.
20. Ibid. 112.
21. Ibid. 110.
22. Ibid. 109.
23. Ibid. 112–13.
24. Ryan, F.R. (trans.) and Fink, H.S. (ed.), Fulcher of Chartres: A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem 1095–1127 (Knoxville: 1969) 149.
25. Wilkinson et al, Jerusalem Pilgrimage 1099–1185 126, 134, 156, 162–3.
26. Ibn al-Khayyat, Diwan, Mardam Bek, H. (Damascus: 1958), quoted in Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives 70–1.
27. Ali ibn Tahir Al-Sulami, Kitab al-Jihad, f. 189 b, translated into English by Christie, N., http://www.arts.cornell.edu/prh3/447/texts/Sulami.html.
28. Collins, B. (trans.) and Alta’I, M.H. (rev.), Al-Muqaddasi: The Best Divisions For the Knowledge of the Regions (Reading: 2001) 141.
2: ‘The Defence of Jerusalem’
1. This dating is proposed and discussed in Luttrel, A., ‘The Earliest Templars’ in Balard, M. (ed.), Autour de la première croisade (Paris: 1995) 195–6; see also Barber, M., The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (Cambridge: 1994) 8–9.
2. The four writers on whom we rely for anecdote and evidence of the Templars’ first roots are William of Tyre (who wrote in the early 1180s), Michael the Syrian (1190s), Walter Map (between 1181 and 1193) and an account contained in the history of Ernoul/Bernard the Treasurer (1232). Paradoxically, the latest of these accounts may in fact be the closest to events, drawing in the view of one scholar on a source dating from before 1129: see Luttrel, ‘The Earliest Templars’ 194. None, however, is contemporaneous with the founding of the order itself, and in the case of William of Tyre, the Templars’ humble origins may well have been exaggerated to emphasize their later acquisitiveness and wealth, of which William strongly disapproved.
3. Ryan and Fink, Fulcher of Chartres: A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem 1095–1127 208, 210, 218, 220–1.
4. Ibid. 150.
5. Edgington, S.B., Albert of Aachen, Historia Ierosolimitana: History of the Journey to Jerusalem (Oxford: 2007) 881. Albert of Aachen was not an eyewitness to events in the kingdom of Jerusalem, but rather compiled his long and very detailed account from oral testimony he collected from crusading veterans in Germany.
6. Edgington, S.B. and Asbridge, T.S. (ed. and trans.), Walter the Chancellor’s ‘The Antiochene Wars’: a translation and commentary (Aldershot: 2006) 88; Asbridge, T., The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land (London: 2010) 164–7.
7. Gabrieli, F. (ed.) and Costello, E.J. (trans.) Arab Historians of the Crusades (London: 1969) 37–8.
8. Edgington and Asbridge, Walter the Chancellor’s ‘The Antiochene Wars’ 132–5.
9. Ryan and Fink, Fulcher of Chartres: A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem 1095–1127 227.
10. For this and more on Bernard’s character and career, see Edgington and Asbridge, Walter the Chancellor’s ‘The Antiochene Wars’ 34–42.
11. Edgington and Asbridge, Walter the Chancellor’s ‘The Antiochene Wars’ 138.
12. Ibid. 139.
13. Ibid. 140.
14. The literature on Christian ideas of holy war is very voluminous – but considered concisely in Smith, K.A., War and the Making of Medieval Monastic Culture (Woodbridge: 2011) esp. 71–111.
15. Matthew 26:52.
16. Ephesians 6:14–17.
17. Sneddon, J., ‘Warrior Bishops in the Middle Ages’ Medieval Warfare 3 (2013) 7.
18. Dennis, G.T., ‘Defenders of the Christian People: Holy War in Byzantium’ in Laiou, A.E. (ed.), The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World (Washington, DC: 2001) 31–3. See for example Sewter, E.R.A. (trans.) and Frankopan, P. (rev.), Anna Komnene: The Alexiad (London: 2009) 39, 279.
19. Ivo, bishop of Chartres, described Hugh, count of Champagne thus in 1114. Migne, J.P. (ed.), Patrologia Latina: Patrologus Cursus Completus. Series Latina (Paris: 1844–64) CLXII, 251–3. See for context Nicholson, The Knights Templar 22.
20. For a contemporary description of Nablus (Nabalus), written by an Arab Muslim from Jerusalem, see Collins and Alta’I, Al-Muqaddasi: The Best Divisions For the Knowledge of the Regions (Reading: 2001) 146.
21. These are printed in Latin in Kedar, B.Z., ‘On the Origins of the Earliest Laws of Frankish Jerusalem: The Canons of the Council of Nablus, 1120’, Speculum, 74 (1999). On the political context of the council of Nablus see Mayer, H.E., ‘The Concordat of Nablus’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 33 (1982) 531–43.
22. The most convenient source in which to find the four main accounts of the Templars’ origins, including this extract from Michael the Syrian’s chronicle, is Barber, M. and Bate, K. (eds. and trans.), The Templars: Selected Sources (Manchester: 2002) 25–31.
23. According to Michael the Syrian. Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 27.
24. According to Ernoul/Bernard the Treasurer in 1232. Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 30.
25. Forey, A., ‘The Emergence of the Military Order in the Twelfth Century’ in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 36 (1985) 175–95.
26. Nine is the number given by William of Tyre, thirty by Michael the Syrian.
27. de Mas Latrie, L. (ed.), Chronique d’Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier (Paris: 1871) 7–9.
28. d’Albon, Marquis (ed.), Cartulaire général de l’Ordre du Temple, 1119?–1150. Recueil des chartes et des bulles relatives à l’Ordre du Temple (Paris: 1913) 99.
29. I Kings 6–8.
30. Collins and Alta’I, Al-Muqaddasi: The Best Divisions For the Knowledge of the Regions 143. The Dome of the Rock had been built by the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik, completed in AD 691. It covered the Foundation Stone, thought to be the site of the Holy of Holies in the First Temple.
31. Le Strange, G. (ed. and trans.), Diary of a Journey through Syria and Palestine. By Nâsir-i-husrau, in 1047 A.D. (London: 1888) I, 30.
32. Richards, D.G., Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir I, 21.
33. Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 31.
34. Ibid. 26.
35. Luttrel, ‘The Earliest Templars’ 198, 202.
36. James, M.R. (ed. and trans.), Brooke, C.N.L. and Mynors, R.A.B. (rev.), Walter Map: De Nugis Curialium, Courtier’s Trifles (Oxford: 1983) 54–5.
37. Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 26.
38. Ryan and Fink, Fulcher of Chartres: A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem 1095–1127 118.
39. The so-called ‘Work on Geography’, written between 1128 and 1137. Wilkinson et al, Jerusalem Pilgrimage 1099–1185 200.
3: ‘A New Knighthood’
1. For a clear summary of Bernard’s life see Evans, G.R., Bernard of Clairvaux (Oxford/New York: 2000) 5–21.
2. Matarasso, P., The Cistercian World: Monastic Writing of the Twelfth Century (London: 1993) 287–92.
3. Peter the Venerable, who wrote this, was a Benedictine abbot who, like Bernard of Clairvaux, counted kings and princes among his friends, and thought deeply about the changing nature of monasticism in the twelfth century. T
his translation from Constable, G., The Reformation of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge: 1996) 45.
4. Ibid. 47.
5. The letter is printed in d’Albon, Marquis, Cartulaire général de l’Ordre du Temple, 1119?–1150 1; I follow here the dating and attribution suggested in Barber, The New Knighthood 337 n29.
6. d’Albon, Marquis, Cartulaire général de l’Ordre du Temple, 1119?–1150 1.
7. Ibid. The two men Baldwin said he was sending were named as Andrew and Godemar.
8. James, B.S. (trans.), The Letters of St Bernard of Clairvaux (London: 1953) 357.
9. Ibid. 175–6.
10. For dating see Barber, The New Knighthood 12.
11. Chibnall, M., The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis VI (Oxford: 1978) 310–11.
12. Phillips, J., Defenders of the Holy Land: Relations between the Latin East and the West, 1119–1187 (Oxford: 1996) 26. The cathedral of St Julian is the burial place of Fulk’s famous son, Geoffrey Plantagenet.
13. Ibid. 23.
14. Babcock, E.A. and Krey, A.C., A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea: By William, archbishop of Tyre II (New York: 1943) 27.
15. Ibid. I 524.
16. These five men were named as Hugh’s companions at the Council of Troyes in 1129. See Phillips, Defenders of the Holy Land 36.
17. Garmonsway, G.N. (trans. and ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (London: new edn 1972) 259.
18. William of Tyre agreed: ‘led by [his] persuasive words, many companies of noblemen’ made the journey. Babcock and Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea II 40.
19. On this perspective see Phillips, J., ‘Hugh of Payns and the 1129 Damascus Crusade’ in Barber, M. (ed.), The Military Orders I: Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick (Aldershot: 1994) 141–17.
20. Gibb, H.A.R., The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades: Extracted and Translated from the Chronicle of Ibn Al-Qalanisi (1st edn London: 1932; repr. New York: 2000) 195.
21. Peixoto, M.J., ‘Templar Communities in Medieval Champagne: Local Perspectives on a Global Organization’ (PhD thesis, New York University: 2013) 137.
22. James, The Letters of St Bernard of Clairvaux 65.
23. The only clerics not connected directly with the region were the legate Matthew and the bishops of Beauvais, Orléans and Laon. Peixoto, ‘Templar Communities’ 140. Theobald of Blois, count of Champagne, was the aforementioned count Hugh’s nephew and successor.
24. Upton-Ward, J.M. (trans. and ed.), The Rule of The Templars: The French Text of the Rule of the Order of the Knights Templar (Woodbridge: 1992) 19.
25. Ibid. 19–38.
26. Ibid. 24; on previous dress see Babcock and Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea I 524–7.
27. Translated in Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 54–9.
28. Greenia, M.C. (trans.) and Barber, M. W. (intro.), Bernard of Clairvaux: In Praise of the New Knighthood (Cistercian Publications, Collegeville MN: 2000) 31.
29. Ibid. 33.
30. Ibid. 37–8, 46.
31. Ibid. 40.
32. Evans, Bernard of Clairvaux 30.
33. Greenia and Barber, Bernard of Clairvaux: In Praise of the New Knighthood 53.
34. Ibid. 55.
35. Ibid. 31.
4: ‘Every Good Gift’
1. The relics of Alfonso el Battalador are described in the Cronica Adefonsi, which can be found in English translation in Lipskey, G.E. (ed. and trans.), The Chronicle of Alfonso the Emperor: A Translation of the Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris, with Study and Notes (Evanston: 1972), also available online at http://libro.uca.edu/lipskey/chronicle.htm. Alfonso had stolen his fragment of the True Cross from the monastery of Saint Facundus and Saint Primitivus, near Sahagún.
2. See O’Banion, P.J., ‘What has Iberia to do with Jerusalem? Crusade and the Spanish Route to the Holy Land in the Twelfth Century’ in Journal of Medieval History 34 (2008) 383–4.
3. Ibid. 387.
4. Lipskey, The Chronicle of Alfonso the Emperor 81.
5. Richards, Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir, 323.
6. Chibnall, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis VI 411.
7. Lipskey, The Chronicle of Alfonso the Emperor 1, 81–2.
8. Richards, Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir I, 323.
9. Lipskey, The Chronicle of Alfonso the Emperor 82.
10. Richards, Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir I, 323.
11. Alfonso’s will is printed in d’Albon, Marquis, Cartulaire général de l’Ordre du Temple, 1119?–1150 30. It can be found in English translation in Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 161–3.
12. Babcock and Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea II, 40–1.
13. Garmonsway, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 259.
14. Babcock and Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea II, 103–5.
15. Ibid. 104.
16. See Burgtorf, J., The Central Convent of Hospitallers and Templars: History, Organization and Personnel (1099/1120–1310) (Leiden/Boston: 2008) 644–5.
17. An English translation of Omne Datum Optimum can be found in Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 59–64.
18. Elliott, J.K., The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation (Oxford: 1993) passim.
19. Milites Templi and Militia Dei are both translated into English in Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 64–6.
20. Gérard, P.G. and Magnou-Nortier, E. (eds.) ‘Le cartulaire des Templiers de Douzens’ in Collection des documents inédits sur l’histoire de France III (Paris, 1965), 50–1. Translation: Joserand, P., ‘The Templars in France: Between History, Heritage and Memory’ in Mirabilia: Electronic Journal of Antiquity and Middle Ages, 21 (2015), 452.
21. Printed and translated in Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 134–60.
22. Nicholson, H., The Knights Templar: A New History (Stroud: 2001) 132–4.
23. Barber, The New Knighthood 20.
24. Lees, B.A., Records of the Templars in England in the Twelfth Century: The Inquest of 1185 with Illustrative Charters and Documents (Oxford: 1935) xxxviii–xxxix.
25. Ibid. 1. Also see Brighton, S., In Search of the Knights Templar: A Guide to the Sites of Britain (London: 2006) 86–9.
26. See introduction to David, C.W. (trans.) and Phillips, J. (intro.) The Conquest of Lisbon: De Expugnatione Lyxbonensi (2nd edn, New York: 2001) xiv–xv.
27. Printed and translated in Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 132.
28. Lourie, E., ‘The Confraternity of Belchite, the Ribat, and the Temple’, Viator. Medieval and Renaissance Studies 13 (1982), 159–76.
29. Forey, A., The Military Orders: From the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Centuries (Basingstoke: 1992) 23–4; Forey A, The Templars in the Corona de Aragón (Oxford: 1973) 20–5.
30. Printed and translated in Barber and Bate, The Templars: Selected Sources 95–7.
PART II: Soldiers
5: ‘A Tournament between Heaven and Hell’
1. Gibb, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades 267.
2. Ibid. 266; Babcock and Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea II, 142.
3. Richards, Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir I, 382–3; Cobb, P.M. (trans.), Usama ibn Munqidh: The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades (London: 2008) 202–3.
4. Hillenbrand, C., ‘Abominable Acts: The Career of Zengi’ in Phillips, J. and Hoch, M. (eds.) The Second Crusade: Scope and Consequences (Manchester: 2001) 120–5.
5. Babcock and Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea II, 85, 407.
6. Ibid. 141. On Edessa’s varied Christian population, see Segal, J.B., Edessa: ‘The Blessed City’ (Oxford: 1970) 238–42.
7. Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives 531–532.
8. Segal, Edessa 243–4.
9. Babcock and Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea II, 143.
10. Gibb, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades 268.
12. Joserand, ‘The Templars in France’ 452.
13. d’Albon, Marquis, Cartulaire général de l’Ordre du Temple, 1119?–1150 280.
14. On this occasion see Phillips, J., The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom (New Haven/London: 2007) 122–3.
15. For an English translation of Quantum Praedecessores see Riley-Smith, L. and J.S.C., The Crusades: Idea and Reality 1095–1274 (London: 1981) 57–9.
16. Estimates by contemporaries varied from nearly 1 million men to a more believable total of 50,000, comprising both combatants and non-fighting pilgrims. The figures are discussed in Phillips, The Second Crusade 168–9.
17. Babcock and Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea II, 171.
18. Berry, V.G. (trans. and ed.), Odo of Deuil: De Profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem (New York: 1948) 58–9.
19. Ibid. 58–9; 87.
20. On this point, see France, J., ‘Logistics and the Second Crusade’ in Pryor, J.H. (ed.), Logistics of Warfare in the Age of the Crusades: Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney (Aldershot: 2006) 82.
21. Berry, Odo of Deuil 66–7.
22. The disaster at Mount Cadmus is described in terrible detail in Berry, Odo of Deuil 102–23; see also Phillips, The Second Crusade 199–201.
23. Babcock and Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea II, 177.
24. Gibb, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades 281.
25. Berry, Odo of Deuil 124–5.
26. Upton-Ward, The Rule of The Templars 29.
27. On Turkish tactics, see Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives 512–15. William of Tyre describes the same: Babcock and Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea II, 171.
28. For a summary of the mounted archer’s training, tack and horsemanship, see Hyland, A., The Medieval War Horse: From Byzantium to the Crusades (London: 1994) 118–19.
29. Berry, Odo of Deuil 124–5.
30. A point made by Berry, Odo of Deuil 124 n6: ‘The elementary nature of these commands makes the former disorder of the army very apparent.’
31. In French in Bédier, J. and Aubry, P., Les Chansons de croisade avec leurs mélodies (Paris: 1909) 8–11.