when Richard of Cornwall arrived (11th October) he had to decide between the two rival orders and their opposing policies. After some hesitation he concluded a treaty with the sultan of Egypt, much to the annoyance of the Templars, who openly mocked his efforts. On his departure the three orders came to open discord: the Templars laid siege to the Hospitallers in Acre and drove out the Teutonic Knights “in contumeliam imperatoris.” They were successful on all sides. The negotiations with Damascus and Kerak were reopened, and in 1244 Hermann of Perigord wrote to the princes of Europe that after a “silence of fifty-six years the divine mysteries would once more be celebrated in the Holy City.”
It was in this moment of danger that the sultan of Babylon called in the barbarous Kharizmians, whom the Mongol invasions had driven from their native lands. These savages, entering from the Kharizmian invasion.north, flowed like a tide past the newly built and impregnable Templar fortress of Safed, swept down on Jerusalem, and annihilated the Christian army near Gaza on St Luke’s day (18th October) 1244. From this blow the Latin kingdom of the East never recovered; 600 knights took part in the battle; the whole force of the Templars, 300 in number, was present, but only 18 survived, and of 200 Hospitallers only 16. The masters of both orders were slain or taken prisoners. Despite the admirable valour of the Templars, their policy had proved the ruin of the land. Jerusalem was lost to Christendom for ever; and, though the Kharizmians melted away in the course of the next three years, they left the country so weak that all the acquisitions of Theobald and Richard fell an easy prey to the sultan of Babylon.
Recognizing the fact that the true way to Jerusalem lay through Egypt, Louis IX. led his host to the banks of the Nile, being accompanied by the Templars. Their master, William de Sonnac, attempted in vain Louis IX’s Crusadeto restrain the rash advance of the count of Artois at the battle of Mansura (8th February 1250), which only three Templars survived. St Louis, when captured a few weeks later, owed his speedy release to the generosity with which the order advanced his ransom-money. Shortly after his departure from Acre (April 1254) they consented to an eleven years’ truce with the sultans of Egypt and Damascus.
A new enemy was now threatening Mahommedan and Christian alike. For a time the Mongol advance may have been welcomed by the Christian cities, as one after another the Mahommedan principalities Successes of Bilbars. of the north fell before the new invaders. But this new danger stimulated the energies of Egypt, which under the Mameluke Bibars encroached year after year on the scanty remains of the Latin Kingdom. The great Frankish lords, fearing that all was lost, made haste to sell their lands to the Templars and Hospitallers before quitting Palestine for ever. In 1260 the former purchased Sidon and Beaufort; next year the Hospitallers purchased Arsuf. In 1267, by a skilful adaptation of the banners of both orders, Bibars nearly surprised Antioch. The Templar fortress of Safed surrendered with its garrison of 600 knights, all of whom preferred death to apostasy (June 1266). Beaufort fell in 1268, Antioch six weeks later; and, though the two orders still made occasional brilliant dashes from their Acre stronghold, such as that to Ascalon in 1264 and that with Prince Edward of England to destroy Ķāķūn in 1271, they became so enfeebled as to welcome the treaty which secured them the plain of Acre and a free road to Nazareth as the result of the English crusade of 1272.
But, though weak against external foes, the Templars were
strong enough for internal warfare. In 1277 they espoused
the quarrel of the bishop of Tripoli, formerly a member of the
order, against his nephew Bohemond, prince of Antioch and
Tripoli, and began a war which lasted three years. In 1276
their conduct drove Hugh III, king of Cyprus and Jerusalem,
from Acre to Tyre. In the ensuing year, when Mary of Antioch
had sold her claim to the crown to Charles of Anjou, they welcomed
this prince’s lieutenant to Acre and succeeded for the
moment in forcing the knights of that city to do homage to the
new king. Thirteen years later (26th April 1290) Tripoli fell,
and next year Acre, after a siege of six weeks, at the
Abandon-
ment of Palestine.
close of which (16th May) William de Beaujeu, the
grand master, was slain. The few surviving Templars
elected a new master, and, forcing their way to the
seashore, sailed for Cyprus, which now became the headquarters
of the order. A futile attempt against Alexandria in 1300 and an unsuccessful effort to form a new settlement at Tortosa about the same time (1300–2) are the closing acts of their long career in the western parts of Asia.
For more than a hundred years the Templars had been one of the wealthiest and most influential factors in European politics. If we confine our attention to the East, we realize but a smallPower and Influence of the order. part of their enormous power. Two Templars were appointed guardians of the disputed castles on the betrothal of Prince Henry of England and the French princess in 1161. Other Templars were almoners of Henry III of England and of Philip IV of France. One grand master was godfather to a daughter of Louis IX; another, despite the prohibition of the order, is said to have been godfather to a child of Philip IV. They were summoned to the great councils of the Church, such as the Lateran of 1215 and the Lyons council of 1274. Frederick II’s persecution of their order was one of the main causes of his excommunication in 1239; and his last will enjoined the restoration of their estates. Their property was scattered over every country of Christendom, from Denmark to Spain, from Ireland to Cyprus. Before the middle of the 13th century Matthew Paris reckons their manors at 9000, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines at 7050, whereas the rival order of St John had barely half the latter number. Some fifty years earlier their income from Armenia alone was 20,000 besants. Both in Paris and in London their houses were used as strongholds for the royal treasure. In the Temple in London Hubert de Burgh and the Poitevin favourites of Henry III. stored their wealth; and the same building was used as a bank into which the debtors of the foreign usurers paid their dues. From the English Templars Henry III borrowed the purchase money of Oleron in 1235; from the French Templars Philip IV exacted the dowry of his daughter Isabella on her marriage with Edward II. To Louis IX they lent a great part of his ransom, and to Edward I. of England no less than 25,000 livres Tournois, of which they remitted four-fifths. Jacques de Molay, the last grand master, came to France in 1306 with 150,000 gold florins and ten horse-loads of silver.[1] In the Spanish peninsula they occupied a peculiar position, and more than one king of Aragon is said to have been brought up under their discipline.[2]
- ↑ The wealth of the Templars was due not so much to their territorial possessions as to the fact that they were the great international financiers and bankers of the age. The Paris Temple was the centre of the world’s money market. In it popes and kings deposited their revenues, and these vast sums were not hoarded but issued as loans on adequate security. Above all, it was the Templars who made the exchange of money with the East possible. It is easy, indeed, to see how they were the ideal bankers of the age; their strongholds were scattered from Armenia to Ireland, their military power and strict discipline ensured the safe transmission of treasure, while their reputation as monks guaranteed their integrity. Thus they became the predecessors, and later the rivals, of the great Italian banking companies. See L. Delisle, “Memoire sur les operations financieres des Templiers” in Memoires de l’Institut national de France, t. xxxii. To take interest (usury) was of course unlawful. The method of circumventing this seems to have been that the mortgages paid to the mortgagors a nominal rent which was used towards the reduction of the debt. The difference between this and the real rent represented the interest. See Ancient Charters, Pt. i. (Pipe Roll Soc., London, 1888), edited by J. H. Round, p. 94 note. A document throwing a vivid light on the banking methods of the Templars and Hospitallers is a charter of Margaret, queen of the English, A.D. 1186, from the abbey of Fontevrault, printed in Calendar of Documents, France (London, 1899), vol. i., ed. J. H. Round, No. 1084. (W. A. P.)
- ↑ The Templars in Aragon and the other kingdoms of the Spanish peninsula were far more subordinate to the crown than elsewhere. None but natives were admitted to their ranks, and there were very few exchanges of knights with foreign commanderies. They were bound to respond to demands of the grand master for consignments of men and money, but their main duty was to assist the king in his wars against the Moors at home (ad Sarracenorum Yspanie ofensionem), a duty they fulfilled with conspicuous success and courage to the last. See Finke i. 3, Papsttum and Untergang des Templerordens (p. 27), “Die Sonderstellung der aragonesischen (und spanischen) Templer.” See also Prutz, Templerherrenorden, p. 61 seq. In Portugal the Templars were practically feudatories of the crown, the master taking an oath of fealty to the king and his heir (ib. p. 59). (W. A. P.)
