During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a highly disciplined order of warrior monks, known as the Knights Templar, defended the holiest sites in the Christian world. Unlike ordinary knights, the Templars gave up personal wealth and power, and lived by a strict code of work, training, prayer and battle. As they achieved outstanding victories alongside the crusader kings of Jerusalem, their fame grew, and Christians throughout Europe knew them as the army of God. Kings began to prize the Templars as councilors, and in every royal court in Europe Templars acted as diplomats and advisors. In Paris, especially, the Templars cooperated closely with the King of France. But at the close of the thirteenth century, the battle for the Holy Land grew more intense. A new power arose - the Mamluks. Led by the Sultan Baibars, who conquered the Muslim kingdoms across Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia. Baibars’ Mamluk Empire could field armies larger than any yet seen in the arena of the Crusades. In the face of impossible numbers, the Templars still held firm, and fought on. But at last the Mamluks overwhelmed the Templars, and in 1291, the Templars lost Acre, their last stronghold in the Holy Land. Yet their resolve was unbroken. In 1292, the Templars elected a new leader, Grand Master Jacques de Molay - a combat veteran of the fierce Mamluk wars. Jacques de Molay was determined to lead the Templars in regaining territory lost to the Mamluks. But amid this difficult period, a new threat emerged - the Templars former ally, the King of France himself, Philip IV. King Philip ruled at a time when France was at the peak of its power, and he was keen to eliminate any obstacles to the expansion of that power. Determined to destroy his old rival, the King of England, Philip IV wanted to consolidate his own wealth, and his own ability to wage war. It came as a shock to the Christian world when in 1307 King Philip suddenly ordered the mass arrest of the Templars in France, charging them with heresy. Why? Why did the French king suddenly target the men who had been his closest allies? Was there any validity to Philip’s charges, or was this just a power grab by a tyrant?
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Sources:
-Arab Historians of the Crusades, trans. Francesco Gabrieli, (Barnes and Noble Books, 1993)
-Barber, Malcolm - The New Knighthood, (Cambridge, 1994)
-Frale, Barbara - The Templars - The Secret History Revealed, (Arcade, 2009)
-Madden, Thomas - The New Concise History of the Crusades, (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006)
-Nicholson, Helen - The Knights Templar, (Sutton, 2001)
-Riley-Smith, Jonathan - The Crusades: A History, (Yale University Press, 2005)
-The Templar of Tyre: Part III of the Deeds of the Cypriots, trans. Paul F. Crawford, (Ashgate, 2017)
-Tyerman, Christopher - God’s War, (Harvard University Press, 2006)
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