The Medieval Chronicle: September 2009

Once I realized my first medieval, Romance of the Rose (Harlequin ♦ 1993), was on the road to Jerusalem in the year 1244 the temptation of including the Knights Templar in the story was too strong to resist. After all, their power and prestige made them virtually unavoidable in the twelfth and thirteenth century; a fact hard to believe today since they have so effectively been wiped from the slate of history in the last six centuries.
            But I digress...
            The Military Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon, more commonly known as the Knights Templar, was established in Jerusalem in the wake of the First Crusade purportedly to assist travellers on the road between the port of Jaffa and Jerusalem itself. The King of Jerusalem (i.e. the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem established by the Europeans) granted them the use of the Temple of Solomon as a headquarters for their operations and from this structure, they drew their name.
            That's not very exciting as missions go, even if it was a particularly treacherous thirty mile stretch of road. And it doesn't seem to explain why the Templars amassed so much property and gold over the next half century that they were far and away one of the wealthiest organizations in medieval Europe. Richer than kings and answerable directly to the Pope alone, exempt from secular taxes and ecclesiastical tithes, the Templars did remarkably well for a monastic Order pledged to poverty, chastity and obedience.
            Young men looking for adventure could join the Templars for a year, two years, or for life and the Order permitted three horses of his own, three meals a day, at thrice a week as a minimum. (Many men undoubtedly lived better after taking their vow of poverty.) Tales of the Templars' exploits in Palestine were sung by the troubadours, they were heralded as the embodiment of the chivalric ideal, even given the task in the romances of the day of guarding the Holy Grail itself.

As some of the only permanent residents of the Holy Land, the Templars were relied upon by crusading kings for intelligence information and diplomatic relations. The Templars were the chosen envoys of kings even within Europe, their houses the only safe places to stay on the road. Pope and king alike slept well within Templar walls. Every pilgrim and crusader counted on their protection in the treacherous eastern kingdoms of Outremer (i.e. Palestine, literally 'over sea'). The Templars were entrusted with the task of paying Richard I Coeur de Lion's ransom and escorting him home.
With all this in mind, it seems quite extraordinary that Philip IV (the Fair) had the Templars arrested abruptly at dawn in 1307, seized their extensive property in France and burned the Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, along with two other leaders at the stake seven years later.

Seal of the Knights Templar

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