History of our leader Sirknight

HISTORY OF THE TEMPLAR KNIGHT @SirKnight

The Order of the Poor Knights of Christ, better known as the Order of the Knights Templar, was one of the most famous military orders of a religious nature. The Order of the Temple was officially approved by the Roman Catholic Church in about 1129, and it became an order in favor of all Christendom, grew rapidly and acquired great power.

The members of this order, called Knights Templar, were active and fundamental participants in the struggle of the Crusades. Some of the members were not part of the fighting forces, so they dedicated themselves to work in the economic infrastructure, innovating financial techniques that were necessary for the construction of many fortifications in Europe and the Holy Land. The first motivation for which the Order of the Knights Templar was born was the series of attacks promoted by bandits against the pilgrims who undertook the trip to the Holy Land. Now, this idea was motivated by two veterans of the First Crusade, the French Hugues de Payens and Godofredo de Saint-Omer.

Around 1119, King Baldwin II of Jerusalem gave the few members of the nascent order a seat on the Temple Mount. They were only about nine gentlemen, had few financial resources and survived on donations. In the first months of the order they had as a symbol two knights mounted on a single horse, emphasizing the poverty of the Order. Later, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the main figures the Church and a nephew of André de Montbard. He intervened so that 1129 at the Council of Troyes, the Order was officially approved by the Church.

Ten years later with great popularity and admiration, Pope Innocent II decided that the Order be exempt from several local laws. For example, the Knights Templar could enjoy freedom to move through the territory, could pass freely across all borders, were not required to pay taxes, and were exempt from civil authority but not religious. With this they managed to gain important wealth, the Order grew rapidly. The Templars were required to support the advance in the key battles of the Crusades. For example, one of the most famous victories was in 1177 during the Battle of Montgisard, where some 500 Knights Templar helped in the downfall of Saladin's army.

The Templars established financial networks, acquired large tracts of land, both in Europe and the Middle East, therefore, built churches and castles, the latter were dedicated to the manufacture, import and export of their own fleet of ships. Scholars dare to claim that the Order of the Knights Templar were the first to create a multinational company in the world. Throughout its existence began to develop a rivalry with the Knights Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights, Christian military orders. This rivalry added to the internal disputes weakened the Christian positions, politically and militarily.

The end of the Order occurred when it was in the hands of the French noble the Grand Master, Fray Jacques de Molay. One of the reasons was the loss of Jerusalem in 1244. Jacques received a proposal from Pope Clement V, basically the idea was that the Order of the Templars will be integrated into the other military orders under a single king, despite the Pope's insistence Jacques rejected such proposal. On June 6, 1306 he was called to Poitiers to urge him to accept, a request that was denied. Finally, the fate of the Order ended.