The Knights Templar - Crusades, Demise and Possible Survival

At the Battle of Montgisard in 1177. Baldwin IV led a small army that included only 375 knights, most of them Templars. Saladin commanded a force of 26,000 or more but they were spread out, looting and disorganized as Baldwin and Raynald of Chatillon approached. Raymond, recently released from prison, was a ferocity of his own, his meanness and strength were well known. Philip IV, still a teenager at 16 and now dying of leprosy was a young king of extraordinary character and strength, loved by his army and people. The Crusader army followed Saladin down the coast and when sighted caused panic amidst the Muslim troops who struggled to form battle lines. The Christian army grew silent, Baldwin IV prayed before a relic of the True Cross and then his army gave out a great shout. They then charged cross the sands, the ferocious Templars in the lead. Philip bandaged his hands and fought courageously. The victory was total and Muslim losses may have been 27,000, Baldwin's army had 1100 killed and 750 wounded. The legendary Saladin with his personal guard was surprised and almost captured by the Templars at Jerusalem, and he barely escaped on a racing camel. The Battle of Montigisard showed the Templars at their fighting best. Sadly in other situations, they were distracted by pillage or the victim of serious strategic mistakes and poor leadership amidst battle. Overwhelming enemy numbers often proved too much to fight and defeat in spite of their 'ferocious charge'.

The Knights Templar never recovered from the crusader defeat at Acre in 1291. The Mamluk Sultan Khalil regained control of Palestine for the Muslim world, extinguished the last crusader state in the Holy and Land and forced the Christian armies and Military Orders out of the region. During the Siege of Acre, the Templar Grand Master, Gerard de Ridefort, made several major strategic mistakes. The Templars regrouped on Cyprus and attempted to continue their military adventures. They now acquired fleets, attacked Egypt and Syria but failed to establish themselves on the Island of Ruad in the Tortosa which they held only briefly. Recruits were everywhere, and individual motivation remained religious salvation.

Struggling to create a unified French state, Philip IV plotted the downfall of the Knights Templar with a reluctant Pope. On October 13 (Friday) 1306, Philip IV rounded up every Templar he could find in France, only a few escaped. Tortured until they confessed to heresy, the French Templar leadership was later burnt at the stake. In 1314, Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars, died as he cursed the king and Pope. Within 7 months, Philip IV fell from a horse and died, the Pope himself lived only one months afterwards.

Heresy, worshiping an idol, eating ashes of the dead, and impregnating virgins were some of the charges brought against the Templars by the King of France and the Pope. More than 5,000 arrests were made in France. Their lands and accounts were seized, but many throughout Europe were skeptical, convinced there was only a mercenary motive for the persecution. After all, the French crown was in a financial crisis, owed money to the Templars and it was Philip's duty to purify the realm. Philip IV only informed the Pope very late in the plot, The Pope abolished the Order of the Knights Templar in 1312 and then ordered a general arrest throughout Europe to 'find the truth'. Beyond France, Templars were arrested in England, Sicily, and Cyprus after successful sieges in Aragon and Castille. 69 leaders of the Templars were burnt at the stake. Ordinary soldiers who confessed were given prison terms, then allowed to join other Orders but the Knights Templar as such had ceased to exist. Or did the surviving Templars go underground and live on ? Ironically, Philip IV had signed an alliance against the Pope with the Templars in 1303.

The Templars great wealth, failure to secure the Holy Land against repeated Muslim attacks - an unrealistic expectation given their small numbers - and a very complex, almost congenial relationship with Islam in spite of their battle ferocity, may have threatened the Pope. Some confessions were freely offered as a the first step in a long established procedure by which prestige prisoners were held for ransom, not trial and prison. The trial of the Templars took 5 years with protests occurring throughout Europe.

What became of the entire Order of Knights Templar remains a mystery. Their extensive account books were never found. Scattered across Europe were tens of thousands of Templars, most of whom were never arrested, and there were 20,000 'Temple Houses' across Europe. An entire fleet of Templar ships seems to have vanished, last seen the day before the arrests in France. "There is record of 18 Templar ships being in port at La Rochelle, France on October 12, 1307 (the day before Friday the 13th)." But the next day, the fleet had vanished." Ironically, Pope Clement V absolved the Order in 1308 by official decree. The various theories as to Templars who escaped, 'went underground' and survived throughout Europe we shall save for another day.