The Knights Templar, long infamous in legend as either occult sorcerers or fanatical holy warriors, were formed in Jerusalem in 1119 by a group of veterans of the First Crusade. These men wanted to police these roads and protect the pilgrims on behalf of the Church. In their chosen mission, they resembled modern groups like the RCMP, Texas Rangers or UN Peacekeepers.
After they caught the interest of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the greatest churchman of his age, they became the first military religious order (monks who fought as knights) in 1129. They were soon pulled into the ongoing defense of Christian Palestine from the Muslims, acquitting themselves well in the Second and Third Crusades and becoming trusted allies of such famous kings as Richard the Lionheart of England.
By the 13th century, they and their rival military order, the Hospitallers, controlled the defense of Christian Palestine. When the Christians lost their final foothold at Acre in 1291, the Templar Grand Master was killed in an attack on the city's fortress while Templar ship captains scrambled to evacuate the remaining civilians.
The Templars appeared in the West as early as the late 1120s and were especially popular in France and Spain. Templar farms provided both goods and manpower for the defense of the Holy Land. From their new beachhead in Cyprus, the Templars continued to plan a return to the Holy Land.
But the fall of the Holy Land and their great wealth made the Templars a tempting and easy target. The King of France, Philip the Fair, needed money. He planned and ordered the arrest of the Templars on trumped-up charges of sorcery and heresy on October 13, 1307 to get their money and property. The trial dragged on for years, but the Templars' lord, Pope Clement V, was not convinced of their guilt. Though afraid of Philip, Clement eventually ordered in 1312 that the Templars merely be disbanded, not condemned, transferring their property to the Hospitallers.
Furious, Philip ordered the Templars' Grand Master and Preceptor of Normandy burned at the stake in 1314 for daring to recant the confessions they made under torture and speak out against their imprisonment. But within a year, both Philip and the Pope were dead. Their mysterious deaths, plus the sordid charges made against the Templars, have sullied the Temple's reputation ever since.
