Templar History

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The Knights Templar — Faith, Pilgrimage and Service

The Knights Templar emerged in Jerusalem in the early twelfth century, traditionally dating their foundation to around 1119–1120. In the aftermath of the First Crusade, increasing numbers of Christian pilgrims travelled to Jerusalem and the other holy places associated with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Although Jerusalem itself was under Christian rule, journeys through the surrounding territories could still be difficult and dangerous.

It was in this world of faith and pilgrimage that a small brotherhood of knights led by Hugh de Payns dedicated themselves to the protection of Christian pilgrims. They became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, from which the familiar name Knights Templar derives.

A Religious Vocation

The medieval Templars were not simply soldiers bearing a Christian emblem. They belonged to a religious order and understood their calling in explicitly Christian terms.

Their distinctive vocation brought together two ideals that might otherwise appear difficult to reconcile: the disciplined life of the monk and the responsibilities of the medieval knight. Members of the Order lived under a religious rule, made vows including poverty, chastity and obedience, worshipped together and submitted themselves to ecclesiastical authority.

A decisive moment came at the Council of Troyes in 1129, when the Order received formal ecclesiastical recognition and a rule governing its religious life. The influential Cistercian abbot St Bernard of Clairvaux subsequently became an important supporter of the new Order and wrote in praise of its particular Christian vocation.

The Templar's famous white mantle bearing a red cross consequently represented far more than military identity. Their lives were intended to be lives of discipline, sacrifice and service to God.

Protecting the Pilgrim

Protection of pilgrims stood at the heart of the Templars' early purpose.

For the medieval Christian, pilgrimage was not tourism. To undertake the long journey to Jerusalem was an expression of devotion, penitence and prayer. Pilgrims might travel enormous distances, leaving behind their homes and families to worship at places central to the Christian faith.

Such travellers could be vulnerable to robbery, violence, illness and the many hazards of medieval travel.

The Templars therefore developed from a small fraternity into an organised religious and military institution capable of guarding routes, maintaining strongholds and helping defend the Christian territories through which pilgrims travelled.

Their responsibilities eventually extended well beyond escorting individual travellers. The Order participated in the defence of the Crusader states and became an important military institution in the Latin East.

Illustrative reconstruction for context only — not a precise historical map.

From Jerusalem Across Christendom

As support for the Templars increased, so did their responsibilities.

Kings, nobles and ordinary Christians made donations of land, money and property to support their work. Houses and estates belonging to the Order appeared throughout Europe, including in England, Scotland, France, Iberia, Italy and elsewhere.

These European properties helped sustain the Order's religious and military mission in the East. The Templars also developed sophisticated systems for administering estates, transporting resources and handling funds across great distances.

By the thirteenth century, the Knights Templar had become one of medieval Christendom's most recognisable religious orders.

Yet their wealth was principally institutional rather than personal. Individual brothers remained bound by their religious vows; the extensive lands and resources accumulated by the Order belonged to the community and supported its work.

The Loss of the Holy Land

The political and military circumstances of the Holy Land gradually changed.

Jerusalem was captured by Saladin in 1187, following the Battle of Hattin. Although Christian forces subsequently recovered some territory, Jerusalem was lost again in 1244 and would not return to Latin Christian control.

The decisive blow came in 1291, when Acre — the principal remaining stronghold of the Crusader states — fell to the Mamluks.

The Templars withdrew from the Holy Land, initially establishing themselves on Cyprus. The loss of the territories they had spent generations helping to defend inevitably raised questions about the future purpose of an international military religious order whose original mission had been so closely connected with Jerusalem and the protection of pilgrimage.

Persecution and Suppression

The beginning of the end came not on a battlefield but in France.

King Philip IV of France, whose monarchy faced serious financial pressures and who was deeply indebted to the Templars, ordered the mass arrest of Templars throughout his kingdom on Friday, 13 October 1307.

Extraordinary accusations were made against the Order, including heresy, idolatry and improper initiation practices. Many Templars were interrogated and tortured, and confessions obtained under coercion became central to the proceedings against them.

Modern historians treat many of these accusations with considerable scepticism, particularly because of the political circumstances surrounding the arrests and the methods by which evidence was obtained.

The affair eventually drew in Pope Clement V. After prolonged investigations and intense political pressure, Clement suppressed the Order at the Council of Vienne in 1312. Importantly, the Templars were suppressed by papal administrative action rather than definitively condemned as a heretical order.

Much of their property was subsequently intended to pass to another military religious order, the Knights Hospitaller.

The Templars in England

Events in England were markedly less violent than those in France.

Templars were arrested following papal instructions, and investigations were conducted into the Order, but the extreme persecution experienced by many French Templars was not reproduced on the same scale in England.

Following the suppression of the Order, surviving brothers had to leave their former Templar life. Many were absorbed into other religious communities or otherwise provided for within the Church.

Their great London establishment — remembered today in the name Temple and particularly in the historic Temple Church — remains one of the most visible reminders of the Order's presence in medieval England.

Faith at the Heart of the Templar Story

The dramatic destruction of the medieval Order has inspired centuries of legends, mysteries and speculation. These later traditions are fascinating, but they can sometimes obscure something more fundamental about the historical Knights Templar.

They were first and foremost members of a Christian religious order.

Their history cannot be separated from medieval Christianity: from pilgrimage to Jerusalem, prayer and religious vows; from service and sacrifice; and from their commitment to protecting pilgrims and defending Christian communities in the Holy Land.

Their medieval institution came to an end more than seven centuries ago. Its ideals, however — faith, courage, discipline, charity, fellowship and service to others — continue to resonate.

For Templar Knights Albion, it is these Christian principles, rather than romanticised claims of an unbroken institutional succession from the medieval Order, that provide the most meaningful connection with the Templar heritage.

We honour that heritage not merely by remembering the knights of the past, but by seeking to express in our own age the values that lay at the heart of their vocation:

Faith in Christ.
Service to others.
Protection of those in need.
Courage in adversity.
Brotherhood in fellowship.
And a life lived with honour and purpose.

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