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The Knights Templar were the most famous of the military religious orders of the medieval Church. Founded in the wake of the First Crusade in the early twelfth century, the Templars grew from a small group of knights dedicated to the protection of pilgrims in the Holy Land to a major military and financial power with a presence in every kingdom of Christendom. The Templars played a major role in the defense of the Crusader States and in the development of early European banking, and their dramatic suppression by King Philip IV of France in the early fourteenth century has made them one of the most mysterious and controversial institutions of the medieval world.
This cluster explores the Knights Templar. The articles in the related long-tail pages provide deeper examinations of specific aspects of the topic.
Malcolm Barber, “The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple” (1994), is the standard English-language history. Jonathan Riley-Smith, “The Knights Hospitaller in the Levant” (2012), is the parallel reading for the Order of St John. The page below uses both, and the Rule of the Temple (the Latin Rule and the French and English translations are available in the critical edition of Upton-Ward) as primary material.
The Founding of the Order
The Knights Templar were founded around 1119 by a small group of knights led by Hugues de Payens (c. 1070–1136), a knight from the Champagne region of France. According to the medieval chroniclers, the knights had presented themselves to King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and offered to serve as a military force for the protection of pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. The king accepted their offer and housed them in a wing of the royal palace on Mount Moriah — the traditional site of the Temple of Solomon — and from this location the order derived its name.
The order was formally recognized at the Council of Troyes in 1129, which issued a rule for the new order and approved its mission. The rule combined the military duties of a knight with the religious vows of a monk, and it set the pattern for the military religious orders of the medieval world. The rule was based on the Cistercian rule of St. Benedict, modified to accommodate the military life, and it emphasized the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the importance of the communal life, and the centrality of the defense of the faith.
The order grew rapidly in the twelfth century. The Templars recruited knights from the aristocracy of Europe, and they received donations of land, money, and relics from the faithful. The Templars established a network of commanderies — local houses of the order — across Europe, and they developed a sophisticated administrative apparatus to manage their estates, their finances, and their military forces. The order developed a distinctive uniform — a white mantle with a red cross — and a code of conduct that emphasized discipline, courage, and brotherhood.
The Military Role of the Templars
The Templars played a major military role in the Crusader States. The Templars were the standing army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and they served as the vanguard of the Crusader armies in battle. The Templars garrisoned the great castles of the Crusader States — Krak des Chevaliers, Margat, Saphet, and Tortosa were among the most famous — and they patrolled the frontier regions of the kingdom, defending against Muslim raids and maintaining order in the countryside.
The Templars were renowned for their discipline and their courage in battle. The Templars fought in close formation, with their lances couched and their swords drawn, and they were often deployed in the forefront of the Crusader armies. The Templars suffered heavy losses in the major battles of the Crusades — the Battle of Hattin in 1187, the Battle of La Forbie in 1244, and the fall of Acre in 1291 — and the order gradually dwindled in the thirteenth century as recruitment declined and resources were diverted to the defense of the remaining Crusader strongholds.
The Templars were also renowned for their fortification skills. The Templar castles in the Levant were among the most sophisticated military structures of the medieval world, and they served as models for the castle builders of Europe. The Templars developed innovative techniques of fortification — the concentric plan, the defensive towers, the machicolations, the murder holes — and they employed skilled craftsmen and engineers to build and maintain their fortifications.
The Financial Role of the Templars
The Templars were not only a military order but also a major financial institution. The Templars developed an extensive network of commanderies across Europe and the Mediterranean, and they provided financial services to pilgrims, kings, and the Crusader States. The Templars accepted deposits, made loans, and transferred money across the Mediterranean, and they developed sophisticated techniques of accounting and credit that anticipated the modern banking system.
The Templars’ financial operations were based on their headquarters in Jerusalem and later in Acre. The Templars maintained depots of cash and precious metals in their commanderies across Europe, and they issued letters of credit that could be cashed in different places. The Templars charged interest on their loans — a practice that was technically prohibited by the Church but that was justified by the Templars as a service to the period. The Templars’ financial operations were a major source of revenue for the order, and they contributed to the growth of European banking and credit.
The Templars’ financial operations also made them vulnerable to political pressure. The Templars were involved in financial transactions with kings and princes across Europe, and they held significant debts from many rulers. The king of France Philip IV, in particular, was a major debtor of the Templars, and his financial difficulties were a major factor in his decision to suppress the order.
The Suppression of the Templars
The suppression of the Templars by King Philip IV of France in 1307–1312 was one of the most dramatic episodes of the medieval world. The suppression was motivated by a complex mixture of political, financial, and religious factors, and it was carried out with a brutal efficiency that shocked the medieval world.
The king of France Philip IV — known as Philip the Fair — was a powerful and ambitious ruler who sought to extend the authority of the French crown over the Church and the aristocracy. Philip was in financial difficulties, and he had accumulated significant debts to the Templars and to the Italian bankers of Florence and Lombardy. Philip was also in conflict with Pope Boniface VIII over the taxation of the clergy and the jurisdiction of the papal court in France, and he saw the suppression of the Templars as a way of weakening the papacy and strengthening the crown.
On Friday, October 13, 1307, Philip ordered the simultaneous arrest of all Templars in France, and the seizure of their property. The arrests were carried out with great secrecy and speed, and the Templars were taken completely by surprise. The arrested Templars were charged with a series of outrageous offenses — heresy, blasphemy, sodomy, and the worship of a demon called Baphomet — and they were subjected to brutal torture to extract confessions. Many of the Templars confessed under torture, and their confessions were used to justify the suppression of the order.
The pope Clement V, who was based at Avignon and was under pressure from Philip, initially resisted the suppression but eventually yielded. In 1312, at the Council of Vienne, Clement issued the bull Vox in Excelso, which formally suppressed the order and transferred its property to the Knights Hospitaller. The last Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake on March 18, 1314, on a small island in the Seine River in Paris. According to legend, de Molay summoned Philip and Clement to appear before the tribunal of God within the year. Clement died in April 1314, and Philip died in November 1314, a coincidence that contributed to the mythology of the Templars.
The Mythology of the Templars
The Templars have been the subject of extensive mythology in the centuries since their suppression. The mythology has included claims about hidden treasure, secret rituals, survival of the order in various forms, and connections to various mystical and esoteric traditions. Most of the claims have little historical basis, but they testify to the enduring fascination that the Templars continue to exercise on the modern imagination.
The most famous of the modern myths about the Templars is the claim that the Templars guarded the Holy Grail — the cup that Christ used at the Last Supper — and that they brought the Grail to Europe when the Crusader States fell. The claim has been the subject of numerous novels, films, and television series, but it has no historical basis. The Holy Grail is a medieval literary theme — developed in the romances of Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Robert de Boron — and it has no direct connection to the Templars.
Another modern myth is the claim that the Templars survived in secret after their suppression and that they continue to exist in various forms. The claim has been associated with various fraternal orders, masonic lodges, and esoteric societies, but it has no historical basis. The historical record is clear that the Templars were formally suppressed in 1312 and that their members were required to join the Knights Hospitaller or to enter monastic life. The property of the order was transferred to the Hospitallers, and the Templars disappeared as a distinct institution.
Sources
Principal sources used in this article:
- Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (Cambridge, 1994).
Further reading:
- Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Knights Hospitaller in the Levant (Palgrave, 2012).
For a recent single-volume synthesis with full scholarly apparatus, see the relevant chapter of Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 2014).