Everything French Travel Magazine November 2013 | Page 35

The Order of the Knight Templar
“A Templar Knight is truly
secure on every side, for
by the armour of faith,
protected by the armour
doubly armed, and need
nor men."

a fearless knight, and
his soul is protected
just as his body is
of steel. He is thus
fear neither demons

Bernard
de
Clairvaux,
c.
1135,
De Laude Novae Militae—In Praise of the New
Knighthood

After the First Crusade recaptured Jerusalem in
1099, many Christian pilgrims travelled to visit
what they referred to as the Holy Places.
However, though the city of Jerusalem was under
relatively secure control, the rest of Outremer
was not. Bandits abounded, and pilgrims were
routinely slaughtered, sometimes by the
hundreds, as they attempted to make the journey
from the coastline at Jaffa into the Holy Land.
The Knight Templars were formed In 1120, at the
request a French Knight to King of Jerusalem
who inturn created a monastic order for the
protection of the pilgrims. The king granted the
Templars a headquarters in a wing of the royal
palace on the Temple Mount in the captured
Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Temple Mount is above
what is believed to be the ruins of the Temple of
Solomon. The Crusaders therefore referred to
the Al Aqsa Mosque as Solomon's Temple, and it
was from this location that the new Order took
the name of Poor Knights of Christ and the
Temple of Solomon, or "Templar" knights. In the
beginning The Order, with about nine knights had
few financial resources and relied on donations to
survive. Their emblem was of two knights riding
on a single horse, emphasising the Order's
poverty.
The Templars' impoverished status did not last
long. They quickly gained powerful allies and in
1139, Pope Innocent II's declared exempted the
Order from obedience to local laws. This ruling
meant that the Templars could pass freely
through all borders, were not required to pay any
taxes, and were exempt from all authority except
that of the Pope. With this formal blessing, the
Templars became a favoured charity throughout
Christendom, receiving money, land, businesses,
and noble-born sons from families.

Templars were often the advance force in key
battles of the Crusades, as the heavily armoured
knights on their warhorses would set out to
charge at the enemy, in an attempt to break
opposition lines. One of their most famous
victories was in 1177 during the Battle of
Montgisard, where some 500 Templar knights
helped several thousand infantry to defeat
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