The First Crusade (1096-1099), which ended with the victory of the Christian army, paradoxically worsened the position of Christian pilgrims who were making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Previously, by paying the required taxes and fees, they could hope for the protection of local rulers. But the new rulers of the Holy Land have actually lost control of the roads, which has now become extremely dangerous to travel without armed guards. There were few forces to establish elementary order in the conquered lands and every year it became less and less. Many of the crusaders believed that by capturing Jerusalem, they fulfilled their vow, and now joyfully returned to their homeland, leaving God the opportunity to take care of the fate of the "liberated" city. Those who remained were barely enough to hold on to power in strategically important cities and castles. In 1118, the French knight Hugo de Payen and 8 of his comrades offered privates, who did not have their own guards, pilgrims free services to escort their caravans from the Mediterranean coast to Jerusalem.
Hugo de payen
This was the beginning of a new knightly Order, to which King Baldwin II of Jerusalem presented the building of the former Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount - once the famous Temple of King Solomon was located here. And the Islamic tradition connects this place with the night travel of Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem (Isra) and the ascension of the prophet to Heaven (Miraj).
Modern Al Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem
Thus, the place is sacred, symbolic for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. Of course, such a prestigious location could not but be reflected in the name of the order - "The Secret Chivalry of Christ and the Temple of Solomon." But in Europe it was better known as the Order of the Knights of the Temple, while the knights themselves were called "Templars" (if in the Russian manner) or Templars. It seems that Payen himself had no idea what consequences his initiative would lead to.
Unselfish (at first) willingness, with a real risk to life, to protect strangers made a huge impression both in Palestine and in Europe. But the bulk of the pilgrims who needed the protection of the Templars were not rich, and for 10 years their gratitude was purely symbolic, almost "platonic". The gift of Fulk of Anjou, who donated 30,000 livres in 1124, could rather be seen as an exception to the rule. Only after de Payen's trip to Europe, undertaken with the aim of attracting new knights and collecting at least some funds, the situation began to change for the better. A huge role was played by the church council in the city of Troyes in January 1129, at which the status of the new Order was finally consolidated. Bernard of Clairvaux, abbot of the Cistercian monastery (later canonized), wrote a treatise as early as 1228 entitled Praise to the New Chivalry. Now he drew up a charter for the new Order, which was later called "Latin" (before that the Templars observed the charter of the Order of St. Augustine). This charter, in particular, stated:
"The soldiers of Christ are not in the least afraid of what they commit sin by killing their enemies, nor of the danger that threatens their own lives. After all, to kill someone for Christ's sake or wish to die for His sake is not only completely free from sin, but also very commendable and worthy."
"To kill the enemy in the name of Christ is to bring him back to Christ."
A very complacent-looking nun Bernard of Clairvaux, who wrote the charter of the Knights Templar and called for killing in the name of Christ
In theory, everything was fine and wonderful, but about the first French knights who went to help the Templars, the same Bernard wrote:
"Among them there are villains, atheists, perjurers, murderers, robbers, robbers, libertines, and I see a double benefit in this: thanks to the departure of these people, the country will be rid of them, while the East will rejoice at their arrival, expecting important services from them."
As the saying goes, "there is no waste - there are reserves." Of course, it was better for such seasoned criminals to absolve of all sins in advance and send them away from France - to kill the Saracens. It remains only to admire the strength of personality and organizational talent of Hugo de Payen, who even from such "material" was able to create a completely workable and very effective instrument.
Having achieved official recognition and support of the Church, the knights-templars increasingly began to receive donations from noble persons - first in cash, and then in the form of property. Already in 1129, the Order received the first land holdings in Europe - the initiative was taken by Queen Teresa of Portugal. In 1134, the king of Aragon, Alfonso I, followed her example, bequeathed to the Order a part of his possessions in northern Spain (he was not allowed to give the entire kingdom to the Templars, as the king wished). In 1137, the Templars received their first possessions in England from Queen Matilda. Conan, Duke of Brittany, gave the Templars an island off the coast of France. In 1170, the Order acquired lands in Germany, in 1204 in Greece, in 1230 in Bohemia. The Templars also had possessions in Flanders, Italy, Ireland, Austria, Hungary, Poland and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Very quickly, literally before the eyes of astonished contemporaries, the Order of the Poor Knights turned into a powerful military-political organization, its goals and objectives were expanded to geopolitical ones, and the Templars became a serious factor in international politics. And now interest in serving in its ranks began to be shown not only by adventurers, to get rid of whom they revered as happiness in any country in Europe, but also by the younger sons of "good" families. The prospect of eventually becoming, if not a marshal or seneschal, then a commander or commander for young, full of strength and ambitious aspirations of men, was a good alternative to a boring life in a monastery. The risk of staying too long in ordinary positions was small: on the one hand, the knights died in constant clashes with Muslims, on the other, the possessions of the Order grew with lands on which new priories were arranged - therefore, new vacancies were opened. According to the charter of 1128, the members of the Order consisted of knights and servant brothers. Later they were joined by the "brothers-monks". Knights wore white cloaks with eight-pointed crosses, pledged to keep a vow of chastity, poverty and obedience. In peacetime, they lived in the Order's hideouts. The Order became the heir to their property. Sometimes members of the families of the Knights Templar were nevertheless assigned support from the treasury of the Order - usually either the relatives of the knights of the highest degrees of initiation could rely on him, or the relatives of the ordinary knight who had significant merits left without any means of subsistence. The ban on relations with women sometimes pushed some "brothers" who showed excessive adherence to principles in this matter to homosexual contacts, which subsequently gave grounds to accuse them of sodomy. The secular members of the order included donats (people who provided various services to the Order) and oblats (persons, from childhood, intended to join the Order and brought up according to its rules). Serving brothers were divided into squires and artisans, they could marry, wore brown or black clothes. Please note: the squire in this case is not a boy from a noble family who is preparing to become a knight, but a servant, an inferior member of the Order who does not have a knighthood. The hierarchy of the Order consisted of 11 degrees, the youngest of which was the rank of squire, the eldest was the Grand Master. The standard bearer (9th place in the hierarchy) commanded the servants (squires). The sub-marshal was a warrior of an ordinary origin, was the head of sergeants and enjoyed some of the privileges of a knight, in the order hierarchy he stood at the 8th step. The highest (seventh) degree that a non-nobleman could claim in the Order was the title of brother-sergeant - he had the right to own a horse, he could take a servant on a campaign, but he was forbidden to have his own tent. Brother Knight is already a 6th degree title, which gives the right to have a squire, own three horses and a camping tent. It is curious that the rank of 5 (higher than that of a knight) degree was held by the brother-tailor, who was engaged in the equipment of all members of the Order. The commander (4th degree in the hierarchy) ruled over one of the order provinces, the commanders subordinate to him were the commandants of the castles (during the period of the greatest power of the Order, the number of commanders reached 5,000!). Marshal (3rd degree in the hierarchy) was involved in combat training and led the order troops in wartime. But the seneschal (2nd degree), who was the deputy of the Grand Master, was engaged in purely administrative work and financial issues, he had no direct relation to military affairs. Thus, the Templars were well aware of the thesis (later summarized by Napoleon) that "war is a simple matter, it only needs three things: money, money and more money." The power of the Grand Master was somewhat limited by the Chapter - the Council, in which the head of the Order acted as the first among equals and had only one vote. It is interesting that the commander of mercenary detachments (turkopolier) had only 10 degrees in the order hierarchy - only squires stood below him. Ordinary mercenaries, apparently, had no rights at all.
With heretics and infidels, the Templars were obliged to fight even if they outnumbered them three times. With fellow believers, they had the right to engage in battle only. after attacking himself three times. The Templar could leave the battlefield after seeing the order banner (Bossean) falling to the ground.
Bossian, the banner of the Knights Templar
The Order's privileges grew rapidly. Pope Innocent II in 1139 decreed that any Templar has the right to cross any borders without paying taxes and duties, and cannot obey anyone other than His Holiness the Pope himself. In 1162, Pope Alexander III, with a special bull, freed the Templars from the tutelage of the Jerusalem patriarch and allowed them to have their own clergy. As a result, the Templars built about 150 of their own churches and cathedrals in Europe. Not only was it forbidden to excommunicate the "brothers" of the Order, their priests were given the right to independently remove the interdict imposed by other hierarchs. Finally, the Templars were allowed to leave in their treasury the tithes collected for the needs of the Church. No other Order had such privileges and privileges from the Vatican - even the Order of the Hospitallers, founded 19 years earlier (in 1099). Therefore, it is quite logical that, in addition to a well-trained professional army, the Templars organized their own police and court.
At first, it was forbidden to accept knights excommunicated from the church into the Order, but then, on the contrary, it was considered expedient to recruit new members from them - "in order to help the salvation of their souls." As a result, in the world of medieval Europe, full of religious fanaticism, the possessions of the order became real islands of free thought and religious tolerance. After the Albigensian wars, many Cathar knights found salvation in the Knights Templar. It is with the penetration of the excommunicated knights into the order that some researchers associate the appearance in it in the 13th century of a certain heretical teaching: the Templars allegedly recognized the existence of not only a "higher" god, but also a "lower" god - the creator of matter and evil. He was called Baphomet - "baptism with wisdom" (gr.). However, some historians believe that the notorious Baphomet is in fact a distorted Muhammad. That is, some Templars secretly professed Islam. Other researchers believe that the Templars were supporters of the Ophite Gnostic sect, whose mysteries they became acquainted with in the East. Some scholars talk about the possible connection of the Templars with the powerful Islamic order of the Assassins and draw attention to the similar structures of these organizations. The connection, indeed, was, moreover, it was humiliating enough for the supposedly omnipotent assassins, who were forced to pay the Templars an annual tribute of 2,000 gold bezants. Gradually, the Templars accumulated enough strength in order not only to protect the pilgrims from bandit squads, but also to engage in battles with entire enemy armies. At the height of the Order's power, the total number of its members reached 20,000. However, not all of them were warriors. And the "real" soldiers, not "tournament" fighters and not warriors performing mainly protective or ceremonial-representative functions, were mainly those Templars that were in the Middle East. The way of life of the Templars of the Holy Land and Europe was very different. “Nowhere but Jerusalem do they live in poverty,” says one of the medieval manuscripts about the Templars. And, it must be assumed that the Templars of the Holy Land were not very fond of the "brothers" from the order residences of England or France. But, to the honor of the Grand Masters, it should be said that they did not hide in Europe, they always lived and served their Order in the Holy Land, and six of them died in battles with the Saracens.
The Templars attack a caravan of Muslims, a scene from the movie "Kingdom of Heaven"
At the same time, the Templars were recognized authorities in the field of diplomacy: it was they who, as a rule, acted as independent mediators in the dispute between the warring parties, including in negotiations between Catholic countries and Orthodox Byzantium and the countries of Islam. Syrian poet and diplomat Ibn Munkyz spoke of the Templars as friends, "although they were people of a different faith," while talking about other "Franks", he invariably emphasized their stupidity, savagery and barbarism, and in general, often could not do without curses against them. Also interesting are the epithets that the chroniclers of those years used in relation to the knights of different Orders: they usually call the Hospitallers "valiant", and the Templars - "wise".
Along with the Order of the Johannites, the Templars became the main fighting force of the crusaders in Palestine, and a constant force - in contrast to the armies of European monarchs that periodically appeared in the holy land. In 1138, a detachment of Templars and secular knights under the command of Robert de Craon (successor of Hugo de Paynes) defeated the Turks from Ascalon near the city of Tekoy, but, carried away by collecting war booty, was overturned during a counterattack and suffered heavy losses. During the II Crusade (extremely unsuccessful for Christians), the Templars managed to save the army of Louis VII trapped in the gorge from defeat (January 6, 1148). The first great military success came to the Order in 1151 - under the Grand Master Bernard de Tremel, who won a number of victories. Two years later, this master and 40 knights will die during the assault on Ascalon. Some ill-wishers then accused them of greed: supposedly, some of the Templars stopped in the break in the wall and turned their swords against other detachments - so as not to let them into the city and not share the booty. The residents of the city who came to their senses killed the Templars who were engaged in robbery and, having erected barricades, repulsed the assault. The city, in the end, was still captured by Christians. The battle of Hattin (1187) ended in disaster, on which the last Jerusalem king, Guy de Lusignan, decided on the advice of the Grand Master of the Templars Gerard de Ridfor. In this battle, all the Templars who took part in it died (or were executed in captivity), and Ridfor, being captured, dishonored his name by ordering the surrender of the Gaza fortress, which the Order had owned since 1150. Jerusalem remained defenseless - throughout the city it turned out at that time only two knights. But Baron Balian de Ibelin turned to Saladin with a request to let him into besieged Jerusalem in order to take his family, and received permission to spend one night there.
Orlando Bloom as Balian de Ibelin in Kingdom of Heaven
Yielding to the pleas of the patriarch and the townspeople, Ibelin broke his oath. He armed all men fit for military service, knighted 50 of the most eminent and noble townspeople, placing them at the head of the militia and entrusting the protection of various sections of the wall. Salah al-Din offered to surrender Jerusalem on very mild terms: 30,000 bezants compensation for the property left, Christians wishing to leave Palestine were promised to send them to Europe at the expense of the Sultan's treasury, those who remained were allowed to settle 5 miles from the city. The ultimatum was rejected, and Saladin's warriors vowed to tear down the walls of Jerusaim and destroy all Christians. However, later Saladin asked the mullahs to release them from this oath. He allowed the priests to stay at the shrines, the rest had to pay a ransom: 20 gold for a man, 10 for a woman and 5 for a child. For the poor, the ransom was cut in half. Saladin's brother asked the Sultan for a gift of 1,000 Christian poor and released them in the name of the merciful Allah. Patriarch Saladin gave 700 people, Balian de Ibelin - 500. The Templars paid the ransom for 7,000 poor people. After that, Saladin himself released all the old men and the remaining unredeemed soldiers. In addition, many left Jerusalem illegally - climbing over poorly guarded walls. Others came out through the gate wearing Muslim clothes they had bought. Some took refuge in Armenian and Greek families, which Saladin did not begin to expel from the city. Those wishing to leave for Europe were ordered to be taken out by the Genoese and Venetians, 40 ships of which were wintering in Egypt. The governor of Saladin sent water and bread to the ships, warning that he would confiscate the sails if the shipbuilders refused to take the people assigned to them on board. If the refugees were deceived, Genoa and Venice were threatened with a ban on trade in Egypt. In total, 18,000 people were ransomed, but from 11 to 16 thousand still fell into slavery.
Salah ad-Din
Since 1191, Accra became the new capital of the Crusaders. Despite the heavy losses suffered during the war with Salah ad-Din, the Templars were able to improve their affairs and recuperate when the troops of Richard the Lionheart arrived in Palestine. Taking the opportunity, the Templars then bought the island of Cyprus from the king-knight, who was always in need of money. And Richard's brother, John (Landless), later laid the Templars even a large seal of the Kingdom of England. In the 13th century, the Templars fought in the army of King Aragon in the Bolear Islands (campaign 1229-1230). In 1233 they took part in the assault on Valencia. They also took part in the Crusades of the French King Louis IX - in Egypt and Tunisia. This participation was forced, because Louis, later called a Saint, upset the delicate balance, breaking the contract with Muslim Damascus, which was concluded by the Templars. This unlucky king did not win Lavrov as a military leader, moreover, the consequences of his extremely unsuccessful campaigns turned out to be catastrophic for the Christians of Palestine. The Templars also had to pay a ransom for the captured Louis - 25,000 gold livres. The time of the crusaders in the Holy Land was steadily coming to an end. In 1289 the city of Tripoli was lost, in 1291 - Accra and the castle of Saint-Jean-d'Acr. The last fortresses of the Templars in the Holy Land - the Castle of the Pilgrims and Tortosa, were abandoned by them in August of the same year. The island of Ruad, which had no water sources, located two miles from Tortosa, the Templars held their own for another 12 years. After that, they finally left the Holy Land and moved to Cyprus, and this was the end of the Palestinian period in the history of the Knights Templar.
But, in addition to the military, the Knights Templar had a different story. The Templars were engaged in the transportation of pilgrims, and also acted as intermediaries in the ransom of prisoners, if necessary, providing a loan for these purposes. They did not hesitate to engage in agriculture, started farms, raised horses, raised cattle and sheep, had their own transport and merchant fleet, traded in grain and other products. In the XII-XIII centuries. The order minted its own coin, and the reference gold livre they made was kept in the Parisian Temple. In addition, the Templars provided services for the transportation of gold, silver, jewelry - including at the interstate level. Since the 13th century, the treasuries of the order were considered the most reliable in the world; many representatives of high society in Europe and even some kings kept their savings in them. At that time, pilgrims and crusaders left their money in the European vaults of the Templars in exchange for promissory notes with which they received cash in the Holy Land. At the same time, thanks to the Templars, the practice of non-cash lending spread to interstate payments. The high competence of the Templars in financial matters was also appreciated at the French Royal Court: in 1204, a member of the order of Aymar became the treasurer of Philip II Augustus, in 1263, the order brother of Amaury La Roche took the same position under Louis IX.
However, sometimes dark spots appeared on the business reputation of the Templars. So, the ugly story with the Bishop of Sidon, which happened in 1199, became known: the Templars then refused to return the funds they had taken for storage. The angry hierarch anathematized the entire Order - this did not help solve his problem. Another stain on the reputation of the order brothers was the betrayal of the Arab Sheikh Nasruddin, who asked them for asylum (and even agreed to be baptized), who was one of the contenders for the Cairo throne, whom they gave to the enemies for 60 thousand dinars.
So, already several decades after the founding of the Order, the Templars had branches in all countries of Western Europe, obeying only their grandmaster and the Pope. Representing a state in the state of possession of the Order, of course, irritated the monarchs of all countries. However, at first, the patronage of the Pope and the military-political situation in the world, and then - and the increased power of the Order, forced the kings to refrain from conflicts with the Templars. The English king Henry III had to retreat, who in 1252 tried to threaten the Order with the confiscation of land holdings:
"You, the Templars, enjoy great freedoms and privileges and possess such large possessions that your arrogance and pride cannot be restrained. What was once given to you so ill-considered may be wise and taken away. What was surrendered too quickly. can be brought back ".
The head of the English commandingdom boldly replied to Henry:
"It would be better if your lips did not utter such unfriendly and unwise words. As long as you do justice, you will rule. If you violate our rights, you are unlikely to remain king."
At the beginning of the XIII century, the Order was the richest organization in Europe, the power of which seemed to have no limit. If in the second half of the XII century the annual income of the order reached 54 million francs, then at the beginning of the XIII century it reached 112 million. Moreover, the main storehouse was the Parisian Temple. Therefore, the monarchs of many countries looked at the treasures of the Templars with envy and lust, and for the French king Philip IV (the Handsome), the temptation to patch holes in the state budget at the expense of the Temple's treasures was simply irresistible. And, unlike the English king Henry III, Philip already felt strong enough to try to destroy the powerful Order.
Juan de Flandes, Philip the Handsome, portrait (c. 1500, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)
The idea of appropriating someone else's property was not new to this king. In 1291 he ordered the arrest in France of all Italian merchants and bankers whose property had been confiscated. In 1306 he expelled the Jews from his kingdom, whose property also passed into his hands. Now Philip IV gazed greedily at the treasures of the Templars. The task was facilitated by the independent and proud behavior of his opponents. The English king Richard the Lionheart, who knew his military comrades-in-arms well, said before his death: "I leave my avarice to the Cistercian monks, my pride to the Templars, my luxury to the orders of mendicant monks." Throughout Europe, the saying "drinks like a Templar" was spread. But, unlike many earls and some kings, the Templars drank at their own expense, and it was very difficult to bring them to justice for this. The pretext for the reprisal was the testimony of two former Templars, expelled from the Order for the murder of their brother. By writing a denunciation, they hoped to avoid criminal prosecution by the secular authorities. However, the Order of the Knights Templar was the mainstay of the secular power of the Roman high priests, and while the enemy of Philip the Handsome Pope Boniface VIII was alive, the hands of the King of France were tied. Therefore, the French chevalier Guillaume Nogaret was sent to Italy. In agreement with the Pope's enemy, the Roman patrician Colonna, he captured Boniface. The viceroy of Saint Peter was starved to death, after which, through the efforts of Philip the Fair, Cardinal Bertrand de Gotte was elected new pope, who took the name of Clement V.
Meanwhile, the Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques Molay, did not leave the thought of the Palestine abandoned by Christians. There is evidence that at the beginning of the XIV century, the main goal of the Order was to end all wars in Europe and turn all efforts to wage war with the "infidels." It was under the pretext of negotiating a new Crusade that Pope Clement V summoned the grandmaster from Cyprus to Paris. The head of the Templars arrived in the Parisian Temple, accompanied by 60 knights, who brought 150 thousand gold florins and a huge amount of silver. On October 13, 1308, all the Templars of France were arrested (from this date, all the bad omens associated with Friday, the 13th, trace their origin). The Templar process lasted for several years. The first victims of this trial were 54 knights who were executed at the monastery of St. Anthony in 1310. Jacques Molay stubbornly denied his guilt and his torment continued for several more years. Finally, on May 2, 1312, the Pope openly sided with the secular authorities and, in a special bull, informed the whole world about the decision to liquidate the Templar Order and put him under a curse. The set of accusations was quite standard: non-recognition of Christ and the cross, worship of the devil, the image of which they smeared with fat on the fried babies born of the girls seduced by them (!), Sodomy and cohabitation with demons, etc. A century earlier, similar accusations were brought against the Cathars, a century later - a colleague of Joan of Arc, Marshal of France Gilles de Ré (Duke "Bluebeard"). To believe such nonsense, you need to be either a very gullible person, or the kings of France and England, who immediately and "legally" confiscated the property of the Templars. But in Germany, Spain and Cyprus the Order was justified, in Portugal the remnants of the Templars united in the Order of Christ, in Scotland - in the Order of Thorns.
On March 11, 1314, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques Molay, and the 80-year-old Prior of Normandy, Geoffroy de Charnay, were burned at the stake.
Execution of Jacques de Molay
Before that, Jacques Molay loudly renounced the testimony knocked out by torture and called Philip IV the Fair, Clement V and Guillaume Nogaret to the judgment of God. All of them died in the same year in terrible agony, which made a great impression on their contemporaries. Moreover, it was in the Temple that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette spent their last days before the execution …
In conclusion, it should be said that the defeat of the Knights Templar had very sad consequences for European trade and led to the disorganization of banking and postal communication between different countries.
