The Knights Templar

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The story of the Knights Templar has been told many times. With exotic times and places with people of the highest ideals and bathed in mystery, a lot of the mystery of the Knights Templar comes from the lack of knowledge and writers playing around with the known facts. Templar history is really complex and not easily understood. There is mystery in how they formed, where they come from, their rise to power, why they fought in the crusade, what they did, their beliefs, how they fell from power, and where they went after their fall.
The Archbishop Guillaume de Tyre said the start of the Knights Templar in 1118. However, the Bishop of Chares had made reference to the knighthood of Christ in 1114, suggesting that the Knights Templar might have formed sooner than 1118. The Knights Templar formed in Jerusalem to protect the pilgrims visiting Palestine at the end of the First Crusade of 1096. The rules of their order, formally granted in 1128, were created by St. Bernard of Clairveaux and officially given to them at the Council of Troyes, France. The crusaders had grown to love the new land but they wanted and needed other westerners if they were to stay. They knew that they had to keep the roads safe for more to come. There was no one to protect travelling pilgrims, travelling to and from Jerusalem. There were a group of eight or nine knights that took on this duty as their own. The first of these men was Hugh De Payen. Then there was Geoffrey de St. Omer, Payen de Montdidier, Archambaud de St. Agnan, André de montbard, Geoffrey Bisol/ Bisot, then two men whose names only on record as Rossal/ Roland, and Gondemare. Records say there was a ninth man but there is no name given to this man in any records. These eight or nine men were t...

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...enth century the order had its own ships which gave them independence and enabled them to provide a steady stream of military traffic. In Toulon the order was granted the right to build houses where ever they wanted by the feudal lords. The order traded with the British Isles, Greenland, the North American mainland, and Mexico from La Rochelle.

Works Cited

Hopkins, Marilyn. The enigma of the Knights Templar: Their history and mystical connections. New York: Disinformation Co., 2007.

Howarth, Stephen. The Knights Templar. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1993.

"Knights Templar: Who Were the Knights Templar? Did Templars Hide the Holy Grail?" About.com Agnosticism / Atheism. 5 Dec. 2013 .

"Knights Templars." , Provence history, by Provence Beyond. 2 Dec. 2013 .

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