by Dave Franklin

Created on: May 30, 2009

On a day in March in 1314, after seven years of questioning, imprisonment and brutal torture, two old men were dragged from their cells through the crowded streets of Paris and on an island in the Seine were tied to stakes over piles of hot coals and literally roasted to death. Brutal even by the excesses of the day, who were theses two men that they could warrant such treatment. Geoffrey de Charney and Jacques de Molay's death marked the end of a once revered organisation, at least in the eyes of conventional history books, they were, respectively, the Preceptor of Normandy and the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Templar. Their fall from grace had political motivations guised in accusations of Blasphemy, sodomy, devil worship and occultism. Rather than submit to these false accusations and spend the rest of their life in prison, as many of their colleagues had chosen to do, they decided that they would rather die with their honour intact and so chose an unimaginable route to martyrdom. With them, for all practical purposes, died the Order of Knights Templar which for 200 years had shaped the face of Western Europe.

The origins of the Templars is straightforward enough. They were initially a group of nine Frankish crusaders who had fought in the First Crusade, who had accompanied the victorious Western armies into Jerusalem. In 1118 under the leadership of Hugh de Payens and Geoffrey of St Omer they banded together an took an oath to protect the roads to the holy places and the travellers using them. They were devout Christians, committed to poverty, chastity and obedience. Right from the beginning they stood apart from other religious orders. Though monks they were military in their nature and unlike the finery of other warrior knights they chose the shabby robes over finery and humility over the usual haughty arrogance of their rivals.

They were first found accommodation in Jerusalem, on the Dome of The Rock. Their stables and quarters were found on the site of the biblical Templar of Solomon, and hence the reason for their name Knights Templar. With the capture of Jerusalem, most of the Crusading armies returned home. The Crusades were seen by many as a pilgrimage rather than a conquest and with the holy places back in Christian hands, their duty was done. With in this power vacuum, the Templars did well. They offered their services to the Christian settlements and set about raising money to build themselves into a legitimate military source.

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