KNIGHTS TEMPLAR HISTORY :

THE BEGINNING OF THE ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

The Knights Templar History, began after the first Crusade captured Jerusalem in 1099. Their unprecedented rise and decline, was truly unique, something which had not seen before, nor has it been seen since.

They themselves have captured the imagination of countless people down through the centuries, as they rode fearlessly into battle, determined to die rather than be captured.

It was they who became a human battering ram, whereby they would charge into the enemies lines, wearing their red Knights Templar Cross and weilding their Knights Templar Sword, to punch a hole in the lines through which the other knights would pour. This was a tactic which proved successful whilst the Crusaders had the upper hand.

After the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, The Holy Places in the City itself were secure and under relatively safe control. Bethlehem, the place of Christ's birth, which is very close to Jerusalem, had also been taken by the Crusaders and was therefore itself relatively safe and secure.

However the rest of The Holy Land was not.The Holy Places which were not safe included the following:-

Sepporis, the town in which Christian tradition holds the parents of the Virgin Mary were native to and therefore it was believed that this was the place in which the Virgin had spent her childhood.

The Sea of Galilea, where much of Christ's Ministry took place.

Jericho. The road to Jericho being the location of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

The River Jordan, where Christ was baptised.

Mount Tabor, Where Christs Transfiguration took place.

As the news of the capture of Jerusalem spread throughout Christendom, it attracted pilgramages to the Holy Land on a huge scale.

However, due to the perilous nature of the journey after disembarkation at Jaffa, for perilous it certainly was, as the whole country was infested with bandits and hundreds of these pilgrims were being slaughtered on a regular basis.

A French knight, Hughes de Payens and eight other veterans of the first Crusade, including his cousin Godfrey de Saint-Omer, presented themselves to King Baldwin II of Jerusalem with the proposition of forming a Monastic Order with the sole purpose of protecting these pilgrims.

The King readily agreed and handed over to them, the captured Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount which was to become their headquarters.

The Templars were the first of what were to become known as the Military Orders. The other Orders actually modelled themselves on them.

Two of these other Military Orders were the Teutonic Knights and the Knights Hospitaller, but there were also several more Military Orders who modelled themselves on them.

For the next few years they were little heard of throughout Europe. Even so, it was soon after they had been accepted by King Baldwin of Jerusalem that Hughes de Payens visited England and was granted land in London, to found his new Order of Monastic Knights there.

They were indeed very poor, as each individual had to take a vow of poverty. Their emblem was of two knights riding on one horse,

which was intended to show the poverty of the new order and at the beginning,as they had no financial resources at all, they had to rely soley on alms and donations.

In addition to this, being only nine knights in number, all they had to offer was very limited assistance to the pilgrims.

All this was about to change. To Continue Knights Templar History

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TEMPLE CHURCH IN LONDON

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