The Knights Templar

In the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096 AD, 9 knights led by Hugues de Payens went to the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin II, proposing that they form a monastic order of knights, taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, in service of the Holy Land. They were granted part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was built on the site of the original Temple of Solomon. Once they established themselves there, they began secret excavations. Almost immediately they became an enormously rich and powerful organisation.

Heroic defenders of pilgrims to the Holy Land, they would patrol for days in heavy armour in the blistering heat of the Middle East, watching out for those who would prey on the defenceless, naïve visitors from Europe.

As the traffic in pilgrims grew, they grew in popularity and affluence, receiving gifts of lands and money from the wealthy feudal lords of Europe. They developed the first international banking network to protect the wealth of pilgrims going overseas to their destination, and grew ever richer.

A few short years after the final loss of the Holy Land, the King of France, Philip IV, turned his greedy eyes to the wealth of the Templars to fill the coffers he drained in his desire for ever-greater control over his subjects. He started rumours among the people of devil-worship and shameful practices by the Templars, and used these as an excuse to seize their property.

Orders were sent that on Friday 13th of October, 1307, the King's men were to carry out mass arrests of the Knights, and torture them to extract confessions. Before that fateful day, however, 24 Knights took 18 ships out of their Atlantic port, La Rochelle, and were never heard of again.

Although he succeeded in grabbing all their lands, not a penny of their fabulous wealth was found, and he did not live long to enjoy his spoils. As the last Grand Master of the Knights of the Temple, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake for retracting a confession tortured out of him, he cried out to God to bring the King and the Pope, who had sacrificed the Templars for political gain, to join him at God's table. Within a year both were dead.