The Rise and Fall of the Mysterious Knights Templar

The Order of the Temple was a military order, founded in the early twelfth century, in the wake of the Catholic conquest of the Holy Land, to protect pilgrims traveling to the holy places against bandits. This role soon grew to protecting Christian territory in Spain as well as the Holy Land. Another group, the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem had been founded as a hospice for pilgrims in the eleventh century, but by the 1130s the Hospital was employing mercenaries to protect pilgrims from bandits, and was soon involved in the defense of the frontiers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem alongside the Order of the Temple. These brothers became known as the Hospitallers.

The Templars had from the beginning a defining military role. The order gained its name because the King of Jerusalem had given the brothers his palace in the al-Aqsa mosque, which the Christians called 'the Temple of Solomon', to be their headquarters. The founders, two French knights, Hugh of Payns (from Champagne) and Godfrey of Saint Omer (from Picardy) were lay associates of the Priory of the Holy Sepulchre, but who broke free from this dependence in 1119-20 when they formed a more active group, dedicated to the protection of pilgrims. They received the approval and material support of King Baldwin II and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Warmund of Picquigny, both of whom perceived their potential, for they could complement the Hospitallers, who were already offering pilgrims shelter and medical help on a substantial scale. At some time during the 1120s, the king moved his residence to the Tower of David on the western side of Jerusalem and the knights were able to take over the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple platform, thought to have been the residence of King Solomon, and formerly occupied by the king.