KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN ENGLAND.

With King Baldwin of Jerusalem near death, Heraclius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, was in London to ask Henry II to succeed Baldwin as the new King of Jerusalem. While in London he consecrated the new Temple Church.

Known originally as the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Soloman, they began their lives in London in 1128 with the visit to England of the Grand Master and founder of the order of the Knights Templar, Hughes de Payens, a French nobleman, who had come with the aim of raising funds and men for the Crusades.

Throughout Europe he had been meeting with tremendous success and England was no different. It was about this time, that he was given money and granted land on which to build the first Temple Round Church in London.

It is largely accepted, that the location was at the end of what is now Chancery Lane in High Holborn, consisting of a garden, orchards, cemetery and a surrounding ditch.

After the Council of Troyes in 1129, the Roman Catholic Church officially approved the Knights Templar, not least because of the patronage given by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the primary reformer of the Cistercian monastic order.

When just a young nobleman, Bernard, had joined the New Monastery in 1111 and due to, a combination of his strong will, his mysticism and his undoubted holiness, the Cistercians were to begin a great age of expansion.

St.Bernard of Clairvaux (as he would be known after his death) would become one of the most famous and admired people,both spiritual and temporal of his age.

It was at this Council, that the Order of the Knights Templar, was officially recognised by the Church and where Bernard, traced the outlines of the Rule of The Knights Templar, soon after which, they would become the first military order, the ideal of Christian nobility.

Seeing them as a unique combination of monk and knight, he was later to praise them in his "DE LAUDIBUS NOVAE MILITIAE", in which he defended the introduction of a religious military order by pointing out it was legitimate and even laudable, to take up the sword in defence of oneself, the innocent and the Church. He wrote:

"A Templar Knight is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armour of faith, just as his body is protected by the armour of steel. He is thus doubly armed, and need fear neither demons nor men".

With this new found acceptance, their subsequent rise and expansion was phenominal. Recruits were clamouring to join, due to both a genuine religious fervour, combined with a military passion,(a combinbation not known previously), to reclaim, the Holy Places, consolidate these gains and zealously guard them with their lives.

With this large influx of recruits, their present location in Holborn was just too small,resulting in another, larger parcel of land being granted to the Order.

This new site was not too far away to the south, situated between Fleet Street and the River Thames. The Round Church, which is the original nave section was the first part of the church to be constructed.

Based on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem it encorporated a round design, fifty five feet in diameter, and surrounded by free standing dark Purbeck Marble Columns. It is believed that the walls and the grotesque heads were originally painted.

With the death of King Baldwin of Jerusalem fast approaching, (he died in the spring of 1185) Heraclius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, together with the Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar, Roger de Moulins and Arnold of Torroja, travelled to Europe in 1184, seeking help to resolve the looming crisis the King's death would bring.

It was during this visit that Heraclius, Consecrated the newly constructed Temple Church, on February 10th 1185, in the presence of King Henry II.

In England, as with the rest of Europe, the Templar Knights were extremely powerful. The Temple served as a depository bank, for Nobles who had entrusted their wealth there.

King John held a meeting with his Barons at the Temple Church in 1215.

They were demanding that John was to uphold the rights enshrined in the Coronation Charter of his brother, King Richard.

A negotiator during the meeting was one William Marshall, a Templar Knight, who was known as the Flower of Chivalry (feted as being, one of the greatest Knights ever).

It was William, who swore on behalf of King John, that the grievances of the Barons would be addressed, which led to the signing of the Magna Carta in June 1215.

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