Chapter one. Birth of the Knights Templar

How does a legend usually start?

In the case of the Knights of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, the beginning of the legend is shrouded in darkness. No chronicler writes about them. We only know that by 1125 the templars already existed, since a letter dated this year and certified by the signature has been preserved. Hugh de Paynes, where the latter is called "Master of the Temple".

Subsequent generations will tell the story of the first Templars - each time a little differently:

“At the beginning of the reign of Baldwin II, a certain Frenchman came from Rome to Jerusalem to offer prayers. He vowed not to return to his homeland, but to help the king in the war for three years, after which he became a monk. He and thirty other knights who came with him decided to end their days in Jerusalem. When the king and his barons saw how successfully these knights were fighting ... they advised him to remain in military service with his thirty knights and protect the city from robbers, instead of becoming a monk in the hope of gaining the salvation of his own soul.

This is how Michael the Syrian, Patriarch of Antioch, speaks of the rise of the Knights Templar around 1190. Around the same time, the Englishman Walter Man gives a slightly different version:

“A knight named Payne, who hails from a locality of the same name in Burgundy, came to Jerusalem as a pilgrim. Hearing that Christians who water horses at a well not far from the gates of Jerusalem are often attacked by pagans hiding in ambush and that many of his fellow believers are dying, he was filled with pity and ... tried to protect them as best he could. He often rushed to their aid from skillfully chosen hiding place and killed many enemies.

Walter describes the founder of the order as a lone ranger who eventually rallied other like-minded knights around him. Such a version is quite suitable for a western scenario, but it is unlikely that such a warrior could live long enough to found a knightly order.

A later author, a monk from Corby named Bernard, told the story of the early Templars in a different way. His work was written in 1232, more than a hundred years after the emergence of the order, but Bernard relied on a now lost text by a certain Ernul, a man of noble birth, who lived in Jerusalem at about the same time as the previous authors. Here is what Bernard writes:

“When the Christians conquered Jerusalem, they camped at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and many others came to them from all over. And they obeyed the abbot of the temple. The good knights consulted among themselves and said: “We left our lands and our friends and came here in order to magnify and glorify the power of the Lord. If we stay here and eat and drink and spend our time in idleness, then we carry our swords to no avail. Meanwhile, this land needs our weapons… So let’s unite our forces and choose one of us as leader… to lead us into battle when that happens.”

Thus, Bernard believes that these warriors were at first pilgrims who camped at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and obeyed the clergyman, and they united in a combat detachment solely from idleness.

Finally, we have at our disposal a document expressing the point of view of Wilhelm, Archbishop of Tyre. He is quoted more often than others - this version is considered generally accepted. Since Wilhelm was born in Jerusalem and educated in Europe, he, on the one hand, had access to local written sources, and on the other hand, he had an exquisite style in order to tell his story properly.

“In the same (1119) year, several noble knights, loving the Lord with all their hearts, pious and God-fearing, gave themselves into the hands of the patriarch for the service of Jesus Christ, expressing a desire to live until the end of their days, observing chastity, showing humility and obedience and renouncing possession any property. The most distinguished of them were the venerable Hugh of Paine and Godefroy of Saint-Omer. Since they had neither a church nor a permanent home, the king gave them temporary shelter in his palace, which was located on the south side of the Temple of the Lord ... The service of these knights, imputed to them by the patriarch and other bishops for the remission of sins, consisted in the best protection of roads and the paths along which the pilgrims walked, from the attacks of robbers and robbers.

These versions have something in common. They all assume that Hugh de Payne was the first Templar and that the King of Jerusalem Baldwin II recognized the Templars either as knights who considered it their duty to protect pilgrims, or as a group of religious people who wished to use their military experience to protect Christian settlements. Versions unanimously assert that the templars first lived in the place where, according to the crusaders, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was located, that is, where Jesus Christ was buried. Only having united in an order, these people occupied part of the royal palace - where, as it was assumed, the Temple of Solomon was located. It is possible that at first they shared this room with hospitallers, whose order has existed in the Holy Land since 1070.

The chronicles do not give a clear idea who had the idea to create an order whose members were supposed to live like monks and fight like warriors. Warrior monks? It sounded absurd. Warriors had to shed blood, and bloodshed was a sin. The monks prayed for the salvation of the souls of the soldiers, lamenting their forced cruelty. Warriors were seen as a necessary evil that was allowed to protect society from those who violated the law. Some of them came to religion, abandoned their former violent life and became monks, but no one had heard of a monastic order whose purpose was to participate in battles.

This idea was born out of desperation. The successes of the first crusaders again made Jerusalem and biblical shrines accessible to Christian pilgrims. And crowds of people began to arrive there from all corners of the Christian world.

However, although cities such as Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch and Acre were captured by the crusaders, most of the roads connecting them remained in Muslim hands. It was not possible to capture and some small towns. Pilgrims became easy prey. On Passover 1119, about seven hundred pilgrims were attacked on their way from Jerusalem to the Jordan River. Three hundred people were killed, another sixty were captured and sold into slavery.

It is possible that the source of Walter Map's story about how Hugh de Paynes guarded the well alone was not the Templars, but a certain Russian named Daniel, the abbot of the monastery. Around 1107, he described a place between Jaffa and Jerusalem where pilgrims could take water. They spent the night there "in great fear" because nearby was the Muslim city of Ascalon, "from where the Saracens made their raids and killed the pilgrims."

However, despite the danger, the Christians remained adamant in their desire to make a trip to the Holy Land. After all, to make Jerusalem again accessible to pilgrims was precisely the original goal of the crusaders. Measures should have been taken to protect the people, but King Baldwin and other leaders of the crusading host had neither the people nor the means to guard all the roads to the biblical shrines. No matter who came up with the idea to create the Knights Templar, in any case, it was met with enthusiasm by the local nobility. In the end, it was decided that Hugh and his companions could best serve the Lord by ensuring the safety of His pilgrims.

Initially, the Templars were an isolated group, not connected in any way with the papacy. They received the blessing of Harmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and could well have been among the participants in the church council in Nablus on January 23, 1120.

The council was not convened to approve the creation of the Order of the Knights of the Temple, but to discuss the problems that had accumulated in the twenty years that had passed since the formation of the Latin kingdoms. Of greatest concern was the locust, which had destroyed the crops of the past four years. There was unanimous opinion that this misfortune was God's punishment for the decline of morals since the time that had passed since the conquest of Jerusalem. Therefore, most of the twenty-five declarations adopted by the Council dealt with the sins of the flesh.

It is curious to note that no less representatives of the secular nobility than church hierarchs took part in this - church - council. This circumstance indicates that concern about the current situation spread to the whole society and all those in power were called upon to solve the problems that arose.

The Nablus Cathedral aroused my interest because a number of scholars of the history of the templars consider it essential to the creation of this order. However, turning to the primary sources, I was convinced that the Templars were not mentioned at all in the documents of the cathedral. The canons adopted in Nablus basically express the point of view of churchmen and secular nobility on what sins should be considered the most serious. Seven canons forbid adultery, or bigamy, four concern sodomy. Five more canons refer to sexual and other relations between Christians and Saracens - contacts were allowed only after the baptism of the latter. It seems that the participants of the cathedral believed that if people stopped doing all these outrages, the next harvest would be richer.

We do not have official evidence whether the decisions of the council were carried out and whether it was possible to save the next year's harvest. But from various sources it becomes clear that the sins of the flesh were committed on the same scale.

The only canon that can be associated with the Templars, a commonality that has just emerged, was canon number twenty: "If a clergyman takes up arms for defense, then he does not commit a sin." The canon does not say anything about knights who have become military clerics.

Nevertheless, this mention also meant a significant departure from the generally accepted point of view. Despite some relaxation in the strictness of the rules for those who fight for the Lord, priests and monks have always been forbidden to participate in battles.

However, a year before the Council of Nablus, a battle took place near the walls of Antioch, in a place that is still known as the Bloody Field, in which Count Roger and most of his soldiers fell. In order to save the city, Patriarch Bernard ordered that weapons be distributed to all who are able to fight, including monks and priests. Fortunately, they did not have to fight, but the precedent was set.

Such was the atmosphere in which the Knights Templar was born.

One of the legends about the origin of the order, which was spread by the templars themselves, says that during the first nine years of the order's existence, there were only nine knights in it. For the first time this number is mentioned by William of Tyre, and then it was repeatedly repeated by later chroniclers.

Were there only nine? Unlikely. Although there was no noticeable growth of the order in the first years of its existence, it still could not have survived if there were so few members in its ranks. Perhaps the number nine was chosen by the creators of the legend because exactly nine years had passed from the moment the order appeared to Cathedral in Troyes where he received official recognition.

Some historians believe that the Templars were influenced by medieval number symbolism. Nine is a “circular number”: when multiplied by any number, it gives a result whose sum of the constituent digits is either equal to nine or divisible by nine, “and therefore it can be considered imperishable.” Many years after the founding of the order, Dante suggested that the number nine was chosen because "nine is the holy number of the angelic order, triple the holy number of the Trinity."

I do not think that the early Templars were educated enough to use such esoteric knowledge. However, William of Tire possessed such knowledge, and we first found this idea in his text. It is possible that the number nine is precisely the invention of Wilhelm, and then the Templars borrowed it, added it to their version of the legend, and over time it became indispensably associated with the order. One way or another, the number nine entered the symbolism of the Templars and is present on the ornaments in some of the chapels of the order.

We have very little information about the early years of the existence of the Knights of the Temple. Several letters have been preserved, written in Jerusalem and Antioch, on which there are signatures of the first Templars. However, they do not reflect any awards to members of the order - we simply have evidence that these people really existed and were in the Holy Land. There is also no information about donations to the order made before 1124.

Humans tend to fill in gaps, whether they are blank spots on a map or gaps that leave a story or legend incomplete. This is exactly what happened with the history of the emergence of the Order of the Knights of the Temple. Chroniclers did not consider this event worthy of mention, but after sixty-odd years, when the order already played a prominent role in society, people had a desire to know how it all began.

This is how legends were born and multiplied. And this process continues today.

The Order of the Templars has long been gone, but its secrets have not yet been solved. There may be a select few today who have access to the true history of the Order, but they continue to keep the secrets of the Templars.
What secrets does the Knights Templar keep?
The First Crusade was organized by Pope Urban, a power-hungry and cruel man, as an aid to the Byzantine Emperor Alexios, who asked him for military support, as he was very worried about the growing pressure from the Seljuk Turks. The call of the campaign was to protect the Holy Land and make it possible for religious pilgrims to visit it. But the real purpose of this campaign was to weaken the positions of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, with its center in Byzantium, which did not give the opportunity to expand the sphere of influence of the Roman Papacy in the eastern countries.
The army, which received the remission of past and future sins, consisted of all kinds of dubious personalities, and even of real thieves and bandits, and was driven solely by the thirst for profit in future possible robberies. In 1099, the campaign reached the city of Jerusalem, destroying more than one city in a bloody massacre along the way. History knows the unthinkable atrocities perpetrated by the defenders of the Holy Sepulcher from Europe in such cities as Lycia, Antioch, Marrat, whose population, by the way, was Christian!
Jerusalem at that time was a city of peaceful existence of three religions - Orthodox Christianity, Judaism and Islam, a prosperous, cultural, commercial city, without military protection. The population of the city for several weeks desperately resisted the bloodthirsty "liberators" storming it, but still they were forced to surrender. The fallen city was sacked and covered in blood, which was the end of the First Crusade. The so-called "knights" departed little by little to their homes, loaded with numerous trophies and telling fables about their exploits in the liberation of Jerusalem. And the defenseless religious pilgrims, who saw their duty to God in visiting the Holy Land, remained absolutely defenseless before the revenge of the Seljuk Turks for the desecrated and devastated lands. The busy roads of Asia Minor, along which streams of pilgrims flowed, became the scene of actions of armed small detachments. On some days, hundreds of pilgrims became victims of the Turks, they were captured for ransom, for sale as slaves in the eastern markets, and simply killed.
During this difficult period, the French nobleman Hugo de Payen and his nine comrades organized the military-religious Order of the Templars to protect the pilgrims from attacks. The full name of the order is “The Secret Knighthood of Christ and the Temple of Solomon”, but in Europe it was better known as the Order of the Knights of the Temple (Order of the Templars from the French tample - “temple”). This name was explained by the fact that his residence was in Jerusalem, on the site where the temple of King Solomon was once located. The knights themselves were called templars. The seal of the Templars depicted two knights riding one horse, which was supposed to speak of poverty and brotherhood. The symbol of the order was a white cloak with a red eight-pointed cross. In 1119, the Order offered its protective and sentry services to King Baldwin I of Jerusalem.

Symbol of the Order The personal courage and courage, the nobility of the first members of the order earned respect and recognition from the pilgrims, and the news of disinterested and fearless knights, ready to help a person in trouble, was spread to all corners of Europe. Soon the Order received the blessing of the Pope and began to flourish. Members of the order who took monastic vows of "purity", "poverty" and "obedience" were practically "saints" in the eyes of most people, and, to the best of their ability, citizens sought to help people who unselfishly and voluntarily took on a difficult burden. In addition to monetary donations, some rich people who did not have heirs left estates, castles, and estates to the Order. So, after his death, the Aragonese king Alfonso the First left to the Order part of his kingdom in northern Spain, and the Duke of Breton Conan left an entire island off the coast of France.
Subsequently, this turned out to be:
By the middle of the 22nd century, the Knights Templar owned vast land resources with estates and castles managed by people appointed by the Order.
The significance of the Order exceeded many states, and in 1139 Pope Innocent granted the Order independence, which freed each unit from subordination to the local sovereign and the laws of the country where this unit was located.
Instructions to the Order could only come from the Supreme Master or the Pope himself.
We also owe the Order of the Templars the creation of the first "banking" network. Pilgrims, heading to holy places, were forced to take bags of money with them on the road, which was extremely difficult and unsafe. The Order provided an opportunity, having handed over money in one place and received a receipt in return, to receive them in any city convenient for traveling, since the Order's representations were very numerous. The Templars also provided services for the transport of cash and jewelry, and not a single case is known when the convoy guarded by them would have been robbed. The created network also helped to quickly pay the ransom for the captives, because there was no need to transport ransom money, say, from Germany to Jerusalem, but it was enough to quickly transport only letters.
During its heyday, the Knights Templar found another and very powerful source of income, it was usury. Of course, the Templars did not lend to ordinary citizens, but the Order secretly, and always on good security, provided loan loans to the monarchic large families. This allowed the Order to have a powerful lever of influence on the rulers of many states, they were aware of almost all intimate and political secrets. Although the ideological - religious power over the states was still in the hands of the Pope, but the political and economic power was concentrated in the Supreme Master of the Order.
Analyzing the economic state of Western Europe in the XII-XIII centuries, one cannot fail to notice the widespread construction of numerous cathedrals, monasteries, abbeys and churches. Only large cathedrals and churches during this period were built about 180. The question arises, and what funds were used for this construction? In those days there was a huge shortage of money. There was very little gold in circulation, and silver, which was the main metal for minting money, was completely lacking. It is clear that the silver exported from the countries of the Middle East as mining could not significantly solve this problem. Precious metals were practically not mined in Europe, and deposits in Germany, the Czech Republic and Russia have not yet been discovered. And despite this, in France alone, in less than a hundred years, 80 huge cathedrals and 70 smaller temples were built. Although it is known that most French cities had very limited funds for development, and if the magistrates had any, they were first spent on strengthening the city walls.
The only one who could have the necessary money at that time was the Knights Templar. The Order minted its own silver coinage and during the period of the 12th-13th centuries such a number of cash silver coins were issued that they became a common means of payment, in particular for the grandiose building campaign we mentioned. But where did the raw material come from? It is known that the Templars took out about a ton of silver from Palestine, this is clearly not enough. The masters of the Order were silent about the origin of the main amount of metal.
I would like to note that the Order had a serious fleet and achieved a monopoly on flights in the Mediterranean, in fact controlling trade routes from Asia. But it is known that there were also ports and bases on the Atlantic coast, although the interests of the Order seemed to be concentrated in the Mediterranean.
It is known that the Order owned the notorious fortress of La Rochelle at the mouth of the Gironde River. Not so long ago, Jean de la Varande, a French historian, put forward a hypothesis about the possibility of the Templars mining the mentioned silver in Mexico. The assumption is quite probable, since the Order showed interest in various sciences and discoveries, studied the works of Arab scientists and Greek sages, and of course they could find out about the existence of lands across the ocean. The presence of their own fleet made it possible to carry out such a journey in reality. And the answer, whether there were Templars in Mexico, can be obtained by carefully examining the painting of the pediment of the temple of the Order in the city of Verelai, the construction of which dates back to the XII century. There, among the people surrounding Christ, a group of three figures is striking: a man, a woman and a child with disproportionately large auricles. The man's outfit of feathers is very reminiscent of the clothes of North American Indians, and the woman has bare breasts and is wearing a long skirt. It is unlikely that in those days they could simply invent such a thing.
There is another fact in favor of this hypothesis. In the National Archives of France, the seals of the Order, captured back in 1307 by the royal gendarmes, were relatively recently discovered. Among the papers from the office of the Grand Master is one on which is written "the secret of the temple" and in the center of it is a man in a loincloth and a feather headdress, such as that of the Indians of North America (or Mexico and Brazil), holding a bow in his right hand. So it is likely that the Templars visited the American continent long before Columbus (this theory is also confirmed by the Kensington Runestone) and the existence of the New World was one of the great mysteries of the Order, which only the highest hierarchs owned.
The collapse of the Knights Templar
The increased power of the Order did him a disservice. Rising above the world, he began to fall into the abyss. Initially proving themselves to be noble knights, the templars begin to act treacherously with people who trust them. So, having provided asylum to the influential Arab Sheikh Nasreddin, who wished to accept Christianity, a contender for the throne in Cairo, they, without hesitation, sell for 60 thousand dinars to his own enemies in their homeland, which led to the immediate execution of the unfortunate.
And in 1199 there was a huge scandal when the Templars refused to return the funds of the Bishop of Sidon, deposited by him, for which the latter, in a rage, anathematized the entire Order. The interests of the Templars often did not coincide with the interests of the crusading states or other orders, because of which they disrupted diplomatic agreements, fought in internecine wars, and even raised a sword against members of their sister Order of the Hospitallers.
Of great importance for the further fall of the Order was the failure in the defense of Jerusalem from the troops of Saladin. Master Gerard de Ridfort was an adviser to the last king of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, and convinced him not to avoid participating in the battle with the Muslims at Hattin, which became decisive and in which all the Templars who took part in it died. Those who did not die during the battle were executed. And Ridfor himself, having been captured by Saladin, ordered the fortress of Gaza to be handed over to the enemy. And when, after the fall of Jerusalem, Saladin offered to buy the lives of pilgrims and residents of the city from him, the incredibly rich Order, which was responsible for protecting these people, did not give a penny. About sixteen thousand Christians then became slaves.
The accusations against the Order were a growing snowball. And on Friday, October 13, 1307, by order of the strong, independent and powerful King of France, Philip IV (the Handsome), a simultaneous operation was carried out to capture all the representative offices and bases of the Knights Templar. Since these searches and arrests were illegal, due to the Order's legal disobedience to any rulers and laws, it took almost five years of torture and interrogation to compile the evidence base for the accusation against the Templar Order. So only in 1312, upon the provision of the collected materials, the Order was excommunicated, and the actions of King Philip were justified. It is also surprising that having at that time only a courier connection, the royal services managed not only to keep the preparation and time of the operation a secret, but also somehow coordinate their actions with England, Spain, Germany, Italy, since the blow was delivered simultaneously in these states too.
The Templars were judged by an ecclesiastical court - the Inquisition. They were accused of heresy and apostasy, as well as of idolatry. Under torture, most of the Templars confessed their guilt, including the Supreme Master Jacques de Mollet, but in 1314, when the verdict was read out in Notre Dame Cathedral with a huge crowd of people, he publicly stated that all confessions were torn out by torture, the accusations were lies, and The Order is innocent. Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake on an island in the middle of the Seine, and other unrepentant Templars were hanged on Mount Montfaucon.
The Last Grand Master Jacques de Mollet And now we come to the most important secret of the Knights Templar. After searching all the "offices" at the same time, NO treasures were found. No torture could untie the tongues of those arrested in recognition of where the riches are hidden. It is a well-known fact that the name of the Master of France, Gerard de Villiers, one of the most influential dignitaries of the Order, for unknown reasons does not appear in the materials of the process. There is an assumption that the Templars were nevertheless warned of the impending danger and had the opportunity through the dungeons of Paris (and a detailed map of the dungeons was found from them) to transport the most valuable and important treasures to the fortress of La Rochelle and then take them on naval ships to an unknown place.
In addition to gold and jewelry, it was assumed that the Order owned Christian relics taken from Jerusalem, among which was the notorious Grail. Biblical traditions say that the Grail is a kind of cup from which Jesus Christ and the apostles communed during the Last Supper, and after the crucifixion of Jesus on Golgotha, Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of Christ into this cup. It is believed that this fact gave the Holy Grail extraordinary opportunities, it became the key to understanding the world, and whoever drinks from it receives the forgiveness of sins, deliverance from illnesses and eternal life.
Among the possible options where the treasures of the Templars have gone are the following. The money was sent to England and they paid for the Hundred Years War between England and France. It is the support of the secretly preserved Order that some historians explain the military successes of weaker England in this confrontation. Perhaps wealth settled in Italy, and thanks to them, the Renaissance began in this country, an unprecedented flourishing of culture and all kinds of sciences and arts. There is no doubt that some part of the capital became the basis for the creation of banking houses, the descendants of some of them were able to survive to this day. There is an assumption that the treasury of the Order would most likely have been taken out to a place where the influence of the French king did not spread. Maybe it was Portugal or Spain. Later, it was the Portuguese Order of Christ that became the heir to the local branch of the Templars. And the white sails of the ships of Columbus, who set off to discover new lands, were decorated with Templar red crosses.
Tomar Castle, which was the headquarters of the Templars in Portugal, still amazes the imagination with its grandeur and size. And who knows, maybe some castle in the Pyrenees still keeps the treasures of the Knights Templar in the dungeons.


Or maybe the ships with treasures and archives went to the New World, and somewhere in Mexico or Brazil they were hidden in a secluded place, and later they were involved in the activities of the branches that survived from the defeat in countries where the hand of the king of France did not reach.
There is another interesting point. During the investigation of the Templars by Pope Clement V, several prisoners, the highest dignitaries of the Order, for some time were forced to stay in the castle of Chinon, near the city of Tours. During the days that the knights were in the castle, they managed to carve interesting drawings on its stone walls. These are symbolic images - flaming hearts, a cross, a triple fence, carbuncles, a field with squares. By themselves, these symbols did not represent a great secret, but the question was how to use them. There is no doubt that they were carved for a specific purpose - to convey a message to the initiates, to those who understand the sacred meaning of these symbols. Or maybe these were instructions where to look for treasures?

Temple Castle is the seat of the Order in Paris.
For several centuries, interest in the disappeared treasures has subsided. But in 1745, the focus was on a document published by the German archivist Shitman. It said that before his death, Jacques de Molay handed over to the young Count Guitar de Gode, the nephew of the previous Grand Master, a message stating that his uncle’s grave contained not the remains, but the secret archives of the Order and relics, including the crown of the Jerusalem kings , and four golden figures of the evangelists, who once adorned the Tomb of Christ and were saved by the templars from the Muslims. The rest of the treasures are stored in caches inside two columns, which are located opposite the entrance to the crypt. The document claimed that the allegedly young Comte de Gode obtained and hid all the valuables and the archive of a new cache. This message, which stirred up the whole of Europe, received indirect confirmation: one of the columns really turned out to be hollow.
Historians, who have been intensively studying the chronicles of the period of interest, have found confirmation that after the execution of Jacques de Molay, the young Count Guichard de God really received permission from King Philip the Handsome to take the ashes of his noble relative stored there from Temple Castle. And, just then, perhaps, the count extracted gold and other valuables from the columns.
The assumption that the treasures of the Templars could be stored in the de Bogey family vault led to the fact that after the French Revolution, treasure hunters went over the de Bogey family estate stone by stone, turning it into a well-plowed field. But it would be too easy a way, it is clear that there were no treasures in the crypt, or in the cellars, or in the ground ... Later it turned out that the de God family, in addition to the already surveyed estate, owned the medieval castle of Arginy with vaulted towers in the department of Rhone entrances and deep ditches. In 1307, he was outside the possessions of Philip IV and therefore did not suffer. This castle, despite its venerable age, was well preserved and was all dotted with signs of the Templars, allowing one to guess, but is this not the key to the treasure?
The main tower of the castle, the Tower of the Eight Beatitudes, was also dotted with strange signs. In the middle of the 20th century, the castle was owned by Jacques de Roseman, and he and his father were looking for the alleged cache of the Templars, but this time they could not find anything either. There is an interesting suggestion by historians Dane Erlig Haarling and Englishman Henry Lincoln that the treasures of the Templars should be sought on the small Baltic island of Bornholm. It is known that in 1162 the Danish archbishop Eskil visited the Grand Master of the Templars Bertrand de Blanchefort in order to attract the knights of Christ to the baptism of the Baltic peoples, then still pagans. Historians believe that during this meeting, it may also have been about moving the greatly enlarged treasures of the Order to a new safe place. They believe that the cathedrals built by the Templars on the island are in strict accordance with the geometry adopted by the templars, and it is in this geometry that one must look for the key to the location of the treasure. And in Latvia you can look for relics hidden by the Templars.
After the defeat of the Order, its remnants merged with the modest Livonian Order in those days. And, by a strange coincidence, the same period was marked by the extraordinary flourishing of the Order, which has been impoverished to this day. The richest castles, cathedrals, fortresses were built, the land holdings of the Livonians increased many times over. Maybe this heyday was helped by the exported treasures of the Order of the Templars. The patroness of both Orders is Mary Magdalene. But only in the Catholic cathedrals of Latvia she was depicted with a dagger, the handle of which was in the form of a Templar cross, in the cathedrals of other countries the image of the handle is different. So, the Order of the Templars could well have hidden their treasures, including the Holy Grail, on the territory of modern Latvia.
Many were blinded by the legendary brilliance of the Templar treasures. Among the seekers of this treasure were scientists and adventurers, politicians and many other people.

In one of the previous posts () I talked about the so-called. "Curse of Jacques de Molay", pronounced on March 18, 1314. Jacques de Molay was the last Grand Master of the Templars. And where did this mysterious order come from?

The first mention of the Templars belongs to the archbishop and historian William of Tire. William of Tire (1130-1186), was the archdeacon of the Metropolitan of Tyre, and tutor of Crown Prince Baldwin, then ambassador to Constantinople and Rome. He entered into an alliance in 1168 with Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. In 1174 William was appointed Archbishop of Tyre, and directed the politics of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was fluent in Latin, French, Greek, Arabic, Syriac and German. In general, even by today's standards, he was a very educated person. Not to mention medieval standards.

In his book Historia belli sacri a principibus christianis in Palaestina et in Oriente gesti, written between 1175 and 1185, William of Tyre recounted the history of the Frankish kingdom in Palestine from the very beginning. It is worth noting that by the time he began this extensive work, the Templar order had already existed for half a century and, therefore, he described many events from the words of other people, including from the words of the Templars themselves.

This is probably the first secret - and there will be many such secrets - in the history of the Order. It is surprising that for the first half century, the organization that so influenced the history of Europe, the first decades of its existence, seemed to be ignored by no one. Therefore, by the way, everything that we know explicitly about the history of the creation of the Knights Templar, we know exclusively from the book of William of Tire.

Founder and first Grand Master of the Order of Hugh de Payens. sculptural image

According to William of Tyre, the order of the "Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon" - that is how the Knights Templar was officially called - was founded in 1118. A certain knight Hugh de Payens, a vassal of the Count of Champagne, as well as eight of his comrades, decided to protect the pilgrims going to the Holy Land. The goal is no doubt noble, given all the dangers to which the pious travelers were exposed, but clearly not designed for the forces of nine people.

Be that as it may, the comrades appeared before the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin I (the brother of Gottfried of Bouillon, who took possession of the Holy City nineteen years before the events described). These nine people offered their services to protect the pilgrims, to supervise the roads leading to the holy places, as well as the general protection of the Holy Sepulcher. Considering that the Kingdom of Jerusalem occupied approximately the territory occupied by the modern state of Israel, i.e. with an area of ​​more than 20,000 sq. km, one can imagine how much work nine fearless knights were going to shoulder on their mighty shoulders. Baldwin I can hardly be called a very exemplary Christian (for example, for selfish purposes, he remarried a rich bride without divorcing his wife), but he sanctioned the charitable activities of the new brethren.

Logically, such a field of activity - the protection of pilgrims and all the roads of the kingdom, suggested the need to maximize the number of the order. However, for the first nine years of the order's existence, not a single new member was admitted to it. That is, strictly speaking, nine people supposedly oversaw all the roads of the kingdom, and even guarded the pilgrims. Even if they scattered one by one in nine different directions, they would hardly pull such a job. But even this they could not do, because, according to William of Tire, they were so poor that they had one horse for two. Even the official seal of the order depicts two riders sitting on one horse. True, since there were nine of them, and nine is not completely divisible by two, then apparently either one of them (possibly Hugh de Payen) had a whole horse at his disposal, or some horse was forced to carry three knights at once . Poor animal! In any case, it was not the most numerous cavalry.

Templar seal.

True - and this, apparently, explains a lot - the seal itself dates back to the next century and, most likely, the first Templars were not so constrained in their means as not to be able to acquire nine horses. Rather, two knights on one horse - this is a poetic image that emphasizes both the motto of the Templars - "Poverty and mercy", and, perhaps, unusually close friendly ties between members of the order - they say, too friendly, which they will be charged with in 1307.

No matter how many horses the first members of the order had, these animals stood in truly royal stables. In 1118, Baldwin I died, and the new king, Baldwin II, allocated to the brethren a whole wing of his palace, located on the foundation of the ancient Temple of Solomon, just in the place of his stables (in the southeast wing), in which, as they say, could fit up to two thousand horses. Actually, it is to this circumstance that the Order owes its name, which went down in history - the Order of the Temple. Temple in French - temple, hence the Templars. Everything is very simple. However, the Order itself was far from being so simple.

Although there were only nine of them, if we continue to believe William of Tire, in nine years the Templars covered themselves with such fame that it reached continental Europe and Bernard of Clairvaux himself (lived in the 12th century, French medieval theologian, mystic, public figure, Cistercian monk , abbot of the Clairvaux monastery; was an active propagandist of the reorientation of the vector of the crusades to the East, to the lands of the Slavs) drew attention to the rising luminary of the knightly sky. Bernard even wrote an entire treatise in which he passionately extolled the virtues of the new chivalry and declared the Templars to be the personification of Christian values. And it was, let me remind you, about the organization of only nine people.

Fragment of the layout of the Jerusalem Temple of Herod the Great (Temple of Solomon). Reconstruction.

In 1127, Hugh de Payen and some of his comrades went to Europe, where a triumphant reception awaited them (the roads of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, therefore, were left without cover for this period). The following year, the Pope held a council in Troyes under the spiritual leadership of Bernard of Clairvaux. That was the second important point in the history of the Order. At this council, the Templars were officially recognized as members of a simultaneous military and religious association. Hugo Painesky received the title of "Grand Master" of the community of monk soldiers, mystical warriors who formed the "army of Christ." It is worth noting, by the way, that this term - "the army of Christ" - applied only to the Templars, and not at all to all the crusaders, as they began to mean much later.

Finally, Bernard of Clairvaux approved the charter and rules of the new order, with his authority strengthening the already, apparently, not by the day, but by the hour, the strengthening positions of the templars. According to the rules, the Templars had to live in poverty, chastity and obedience; they should cut their hair, but not shave their beards. All the "knights of Christ" had to wear uniform clothes - a white cassock or cape, which eventually turned into the famous white cloak of the Templars, symbolizing the purity of the thoughts of the members of the Order.

The charter described a strict administrative hierarchy, as well as many other details - from the behavior of knights on the battlefield to the use of valuables placed at the disposal of the Templars.

In 1139, Pope Innocent II, by his bull, granted the Templars significant privileges: from that moment on, the order was under the exclusive care of his Holiness and could only be dissolved by the Pope. Thus, the Knights Templar was removed from the jurisdiction of any secular authority of the monarchs of Europe and the Holy Land, turning into a personal order of the papacy, becoming the first, so to speak, international organization in Europe, if you like - a prototype of a united Europe. This is a very important moment, which largely influenced the tragic ending of the order.

Knights literally poured into the order from all over Europe. Wealth also increased - the charter required that a knight applying for membership give everything he owned to the order. And since the main wealth of the knights of that time was not at all chests full of gold, but lands, the Knights Templar very quickly and very naturally became the owner of impressive territories in France, England, Flanders, Spain, Italy, Germany, Hungary and, of course, in the Holy Land . At the same time, none of the knights was personally rich, since he fulfilled the vow of poverty, but the order as a whole became one of the richest organizations in Christendom. There was no longer any talk of riding on dusty roads together on one horse. In 1130, Hugh de Payens returned to Palestine, accompanied by three hundred new brothers, while some of the newly converted Templars remained in Europe to guard the lands of the Order scattered everywhere.

In 1146, during the reign of Pope Eugene III, the famous red cross with characteristic "pawed" ends appeared on the white cloak of the Templars. With the new cross, the Templars took part in the Second Crusade. The second crusade took place in 1147-1149. It was started in response to the capture of Edessa in 1144 by Muslim troops. Contrary to expectations, the results of the campaign for the crusaders were insignificant. The Muslims not only were not defeated, but won a number of victories. The second crusade was led by the French king Louis VII. After this campaign, the cross made of scarlet matter, located at each Templar above the heart, was approved by the Pope as a coat of arms.

Battle of Ashkelon (1153). In this battle, forty Templars, led by their master Bernard de Tremblay, broke into the city, destroying many Saracens, but in the end they themselves died and were hanged by Muslims on the walls of the city. (Engraving by Gustave Doré).

During the campaign, the Templars showed themselves to be recklessly brave warriors who never back down and at the same time are surprisingly disciplined. In the rather careless armies of the crusaders there were no knights equal to the Templars in morale and fighting qualities. The French king even privately admitted that if such a poorly organized campaign did not turn into a complete collapse, it was only thanks to the Templars. In the same way, they showed themselves in all the other crusades to Palestine, which each time became more and more inglorious for European chivalry.

A century after its founding, the Order of the Temple has grown into a powerful organization on an international scale. The templars were the mainspring of a huge number of diplomatic actions, they were in contact with all the monarchs of Europe, while not forgetting about the Holy Land. As an example of the power of the Order, it can be mentioned that, for example, in England, the Grand Master was regularly elected to Parliament (of course, we are talking about Parliament in the rudimentary form in which it existed at that time). In London, the order had a large residence, which was regularly visited by English kings, and even, as they say, the Grand Master stood next to John Landless when he signed the Magna Carta (Magna Carta, I remind you - this is a political and legal document drawn up in June 1215 on based on the requirements of the English nobility to King John the Landless (1167-1216) and defending a number of legal rights and privileges of the free population of medieval England).

However, the matter was not limited to Europe. The Templars maintained relations with the Saracen leaders, and it was even said that they had relations with the Ismaili order, known in fiction under the name of the Assassins.

Great power gives rise to competitors and enemies. In 1252, Henry III of England (1207-1272) challenged the Templars by threatening to confiscate their property: "You Templars have so many freedoms and charters that your limitless possibilities fill you with pride and insolence." The Grand Master reacted with lightning speed: “What are you talking about, you, O king!... If you violate justice, you will cease to be a king!” This, of course, was too much - even the Pope did not have the power to depose kings. But the English king, as they say, "swallowed resentment."

However, while the Templars became more and more powerful in Europe, clouds began to gather at the epicenter of their appearance - in the Holy Land. In 1250, the Mamluks seized power in Egypt - a military caste that consisted mainly of Turks - former slave soldiers. The Mamluks immediately began to expand and by 1291 only one fortress of Acre remained from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but it eventually fell. In defending her, the Templars showed great heroism, continuing to hold back the attacks of the Mamluks in order to enable women and children to escape.

Having lost their base in the Holy Land, the Templars found a new headquarters on the island of Cyprus. At the same time, of course, their commanderies continued to be scattered throughout Europe, being especially densely located in France. The last Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, undertook a voyage through the countries of Europe in order to find support in organizing a new crusade to liberate the Holy Land. But in Europe the situation was somewhat different. Europe no longer wanted to waste energy on desert Palestine, focusing on internal affairs. The ambitious and ambitious French king, Philip IV the Handsome, hatched plans for what his distant descendant Louis XIV completed under the name of "absolutism". The ambitions of the king reached the point that he decided to "pocket" the popes, moving them from Rome, closer to him - to Avignon. Putting his Pope - Clement V, he carried out this venture. True, before that, he performed another, much more dangerous event.

Such a king as Philip IV could not put up with the fact that in his kingdom there was a large, powerful, rich, and most importantly, an organization completely beyond his control. Many of those who write about the sad end of the Templars put forward mercenary considerations as the main motive of Philip IV, saying that the king coveted the wealth of the Templars. Of course, the wealth of the Templars was a very significant point. However, at a time when any war ended with the robbery of the vanquished, there was nothing particularly remarkable about this. The bourgeois era, which in everything and always sees only economic interests, naturally saw in the intentions of Philip IV an exclusively greedy calculation. However, it seems that political considerations were more weighty. The fact is that the Templars threatened the power of the king himself. Almost from the very beginning, the Templars considered themselves the personal order of the Pope and Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master, was very unpleasant to see how the French king treats Clement V. Moreover, Jacques de Molay demanded that Clement V organize a public investigation of those insinuations that the agents of Philip the Handsome began to disband against the Templars.

Be that as it may, and no matter what real reasons pushed the French king to this step, but early in the morning on Friday, October 13, 1307, arrests of the Templars began throughout France. Almost all of the knights, including Grand Master Jacques de Molay, were arrested. The order was dissolved and banned. No unprecedented wealth was found in the Parisian residence of the Templars. Which once again shows that it was not the treasury of the Templars that was the main concern of the king - after all, having organized such a thorough operation to arrest the Templars throughout the country in one day, he probably could have secured himself in terms of the treasury, not allowing it to be taken out of Paris. And the treasury of the Templars left Paris (if it was in it at all) and, as it is believed, was taken out in galleys in an unknown direction. After that, her traces are lost and speculation begins, which gave rise to one of the most mysterious legends - the legend of the treasures of the Templars.

Gisors Castle in Normandy; here, from March 1310 to March 1314, Jacques de Molay and a number of other high-ranking Templars were imprisoned. Modern photo.

The trial of Jacques de Molay and other top leaders of the Order lasted intermittently for seven years. Only in 1314, Jacques de Molay was sentenced to death by burning. It was burned on March 18, 1314. It is believed that before his death, Jacques de Molay cursed the French King Philip IV the Handsome and Pope Clement V. Like it or not, both survived the Grand Master by only a few months and died under suspicious circumstances. This gave rise to a second legend - the legend of the curse of Jacques de Molay, which he allegedly addressed to the entire French Carolingian dynasty.

Of course, not all the Templars died even in France. Many escaped with ostentatious renunciations. And those who did not want to renounce and had the opportunity to flee - some disappeared in Scotland, some in Germany and Italy. In Germany, the Templars even threatened to take up arms if they were not found not guilty and were immediately forgiven. Some of the Templars moved to the Order of the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Order (which had previously been created largely thanks to the Order of the Temple). In Spain and Portugal, the Templars changed their name and became known as the Knights of Christ, and until the 16th century, under this name, they participated in sea expeditions. Recall, by the way, that the caravels of Christopher Columbus went to look for a way to India, and on their white sails a huge red "pawed" cross of the Templars was painted.

Columbus ships. Modern drawing.

In 1522, the Prussian descendants of the Templars, the Teutonic Knights, who by this time were already more of a secular organization, supported the initiator of the Reformation, Martin Luther, who showed Germany his revolutionary translation of the Bible. In 1525, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order converted to Protestantism, resigned and announced the secularization of the Prussian lands - the territory that belonged to the Teutonic Order, thereby finally breaking all ties with Rome, which had once betrayed the Templars.

In the 18th century, many secret brotherhoods, to one degree or another, honored the memory of the Templars, as their predecessors. For example, a number of Masonic rites are believed to have come from the Order of Christ. And the very image of the Templars and their last Grand Master was drowned in an abundance of various novels and fantasies. In our time, the game of Templars has acquired even comedic forms. Perhaps, looking at the fat-bellied rich old re-enactors, wrapped up in raincoats with a red cross in some VIP villa on the weekend after big deals, Jacques de Molay would have been surprised at the bizarre twists of history. The Templars originated as an order of poor fearless ascetic warriors, and today rich pampered bored old men amuse themselves under this name.

Modern "Templars".

And the question involuntarily comes to mind: was Jacques de Molay really avenged on January 21, 1793, as the stranger announced to the whole square, dipping his hands in the blood of the just executed French king? And will there still be those who want to avenge his death?

How to know. However, one thing is clear - the Order of the "Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon" was called to life by the era of the Crusades. His main goal and the whole meaning of existence was the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bfighting the infidels for the Holy Sepulcher. But along with the end of the era of the crusades, the Templars themselves came to naught. And although they gave rise to many related movements, Europe did not see the Templars themselves from the second half of the 14th century.

The Templars - members of the Order of the "Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon" - originally nine poor knights who chose to protect pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. The name "Templars" itself comes from the French word for "temple" ("Temple"), also known as the Knights Templar.

Birth and Rise of the Knights Templar

The founding date of the order is considered to be 1119, when a French nobleman named Hugues de Paynes and eight of his relatives decided to establish their Order. The nobles chose as their goal the protection of pilgrims, who, after the end of the First Crusade and the capture of Jerusalem, poured into the Holy Land.

In those days, a huge number of people wandered the land of Palestine in search of Christian shrines. The places through which the pilgrims passed were teeming with various dashing people: from gangs of robbers to revenge-seeking Muslims.

Needless to say, the path was not safe. The number of pilgrims was increasing, but the number of knights, capable of restoring at least some order in the troubled lands of Palestine, gradually decreased. No promises of rewards and land allotments could keep the knights tired of the campaign in a foreign land. The knights rushed home: to their families and family castles. Pilgrims, who were already subjected to robberies and murders every day, were left completely without protection.

The first nine members of the Knights Templar were so poor that for two knights they had only one horse. Subsequently, in memory of this, the Order made a seal, which depicted two riders on one horse.

For ten years the Order eked out a miserable and obscure existence. Until King Baldwin II of Jerusalem decided that the time had come for the Second Crusade, attributing it to the audacity of the Muslims, who increased the attacks on the kingdom.

Together with his associates, de Payne traveled almost all of Europe, urging the kings to join the Campaign. And he succeeded so much in this that, at the personal request of the Pope, together with his Knights Templar, he attended the Great Church Council in the city of Troyes in France. The result of his fiery speech was the full support of the Order by the Church and the writing of the Charter. Also, the Church Fathers ordered the Knights of the Order to wear white and black clothes with a red cross. This image became the first prototype of the battle banner of the Knights Templar.

Gradually, the number of knights of the Order increased due to the admission of new supporters. Thanks to their glory as warriors of Christ and defenders of the weak, the Templars received many donations. not only from the feudal lords and European kings, but also from the common people.

With all the growing wealth, influence and military power, the Order continued to follow its original mission. The Knights Templars built and maintained special fortifications along the entire route of the pilgrims. The competent location of the fortifications helped to protect vast territories with relatively small forces.

Enormous sums were required to maintain troops and castles in the Holy Land. And even donations from European monarchs were still not enough. In an effort to increase the flow of money, the Order began to provide pilgrims and merchants with financial services, as well as services for the storage of property. Over time, this led to the formation of a semblance of a modern banking system, which the King of France did not disdain to use. For twenty-five years, the treasurers of the Order were in the position of Minister of Finance, which is in fact tantamount to governing the country.

So, nine poor knights turned into the most influential and richest order of chivalry in Europe.

Fall of the Order

After the fall of the Holy Kingdom, the position of the Order was shaken. Despite the fact that the knights had all the same power and means, the purpose they served disappeared. Many accused members of the Order of apostasy and blamed the fall of Jerusalem. Although it was thanks to the knights-templars that the Kingdom of Jerusalem was able to hold out for so long, surrounded by enemies on all sides.

The increased influence of the Templars and the French King Philip, who saw the Order as a threat to his crown, did not suit him. Using the testimony of the exiled member of the Order about crimes against the Faith as a pretext, Philip launched an investigation against the Knights Templar.

On October 13, 1307, almost all members of the Order were captured and arrested. All property was confiscated in favor of the treasury and the Church.

Here are some of the accusations made by the Holy Inquisition:

• worship of idols;
• members of the Order worshiped a cat that came to meetings;
• distortion of the mass formula;
• all the riches of the Order come from the worship of idols;
• veneration of idols as God and Savior.

In 1310, after trials that swept across Europe, 54 Knights Templar were burned at the stake, who, even under torture, did not admit the charges. In 1312, the Order of the Temple was abolished by papal decree.

So the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon ended its history, leaving behind legends of honor, glory, wealth and betrayal.

They founded states and dictated their will to European monarchs. The history of knightly orders began in the Middle Ages and has not been completed to this day.

Order of the Knights Templar

Date of founding of the Order: 1119 year.
Interesting Facts: The Templars, the Templars - the most famous knightly order, the history and mysteries of which are devoted to many books and films. The topic of the “curse of Jacques de Molay” is still actively discussed by fans of conspiracy theories.

After the expulsion from Palestine, the Templars switched to financial activities and became the richest order in history. They invented checks, ran a lucrative usury business, and were Europe's top lenders and economists.

On Friday, October 13, 1307, by order of the King of France, Philip IV the Handsome, all the French Templars were arrested. The order was officially banned.
The Templars were accused of heresy - of renouncing Jesus Christ, that they spit on the crucifix, kissed each other in an obscene manner and practiced sodomy. In the "proof" of the last point, it is still customary to mention one of the emblems of the templars - two poor knights sit on the same horse, which served as a symbol of the non-covetousness of the knights of the order.

Warband

Order foundation date: 1190 year.
Interesting Facts: The motto of the Teutons is "Help-Protect-Heal". Initially, the order was engaged in this - helping the sick and protecting the German knights, however, at the beginning of the 13th century, the military history of the order began, it was associated with an attempt to expand the Baltic states and Russian lands. These attempts ended, as we know, unsuccessfully. The "black day" of the Teutons was the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, in which the combined forces of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania inflicted a crushing defeat on the Order.
Deprived of its former military ambitions, the Teutonic Order was restored in 1809. Today he is engaged in charity and treatment of the sick. The headquarters of the modern Teutons is located in Vienna.

Order of the Dragon

Order foundation date: 1408.
Interesting Facts: Officially, the Order of the Dragon was founded by King Sigismund I of Luxembourg of Hungary, but in the Serbian folklore tradition, the legendary hero Milos Obilic is considered its founder.
The knights of the order wore medallions and pendants with images of a golden dragon with a scarlet cross curled into a ring. In the family coats of arms of the nobles who were members of the order, the image of a dragon usually framed the coat of arms.
The Order of the Dragon included the father of the legendary Vlad Tepes, Vlad II Dracul, who got his nickname just because of his membership in the order - dracul in Romanian means "dragon".

Order of Calatrava

Order foundation date: 1158 year.
Interesting Facts: The first Catholic order founded in Spain was created to defend the fortress of Calatrava. In the 13th century it became the most powerful military force in Spain, capable of fielding between 1,200 and 2,000 knights. In its heyday, under Chiron and his son, the order controlled 56 commanderies and 16 priories. Up to 200,000 peasants worked for the order, its net annual income was estimated at 50,000 ducats. However, the order did not have complete independence. The title of grandmaster, since the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, has always been worn by the Spanish kings.

Hospitallers

Order foundation date: around 1099.
Interesting Facts: The hospitable order, the Hospitallers, the Knights of Malta, or the Johnites, is the oldest spiritual order of chivalry, which received its unofficial name in honor of the hospital and the church of St. John the Baptist. Unlike other orders, the Hospitallers accepted female novices into their ranks, and all men who joined the order were required to have a title of nobility.

The order was international, and its members, according to the linguistic principle, were divided into seven langs in the Middle Ages. Interestingly, the Slavic languages ​​belonged to the Germanic lang. The 72nd Grand Master of the Order was the Russian Emperor Pavel the First.

Despite the vow of non-possession, the Hospitallers were one of the richest knightly orders. The French army during the capture of Malta by Napoleon caused damage to the order of almost three tens of millions of lire.

Order of the Holy Sepulcher

Order foundation date: 1099 year.
Interesting Facts: This powerful order was created during the First Crusade and the emergence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Its king stood at the head of the order. The mission of the order was to protect the Holy Sepulcher and other holy places in Palestine.

For a long time, the Grand Masters of the Order were Popes. It was not until 1949 that the title was transferred to members of the Curia of the Vatican.
The order still exists today. Its members around the world are representatives of royal families, influential businessmen, political and scientific elite. According to a 2010 report, the number of the order exceeded 28,000 members. Its headquarters is in Rome. More than $50 million was spent on the order's charitable projects between 2000 and 2007.

Order of Alcantara

Order foundation date: 1156.
Interesting Facts: The order was originally created as a partnership to protect the frontier fortress of San Julian de Peral in Spain against the Moors. In 1177 the partnership was elevated to a knightly order; he undertook to wage eternal war with the Moors and defend the Christian faith.
King Alfonso IX in 1218 gave the order the city of Alcantara, where he settled under the new name. Prior to the occupation of Spain by the French in 1808, the order held 37 counties with 53 towns and villages. The history of the order was full of twists and turns. He grew rich and poor, he was abolished several times and restored again.

Order of Christ

Order foundation date: 1318 year.
Interesting Facts: The Order of Christ was the successor of the Knights Templar in Portugal. The order is also called Tomar - after the name of the Tomar castle, which became the residence of the Master. The most famous Tomarian was Vasco da Gama. On the sails of his ships is a red cross, which was the emblem of the Order of Christ.
Tomarians were one of the main pillars of royal power in Portugal, and the order was secularized, which, of course, did not suit the Vatican, which began to present its own Supreme Order of Christ. In 1789, the order was finally secularized. In 1834, the nationalization of his property took place.

Order of the Sword

Order foundation date: 1202.
Interesting Facts: The official name of the order is the Brotherhood of the Warriors of Christ. The knights of the order received the nickname "sword-bearers" because of the swords depicted on their cloaks under the pawed Templar cross. Their main goal was to capture the Eastern Baltic. By agreement in 1207, 2/3 of the occupied lands went into the ownership of the order.
The Russian princes prevented the plans for the eastern expansion of the sword-bearers. In 1234, in the battle on Omovzha, the knights suffered a crushing defeat from the Novgorod prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, after which Lithuania, together with the Russian princes, began campaigns on the lands of the order. In 1237, after the unsuccessful Crusade against Lithuania, the swordsmen joined the Teutonic Order and became the Livonian Order. It was defeated by Russian troops in the Livonian War in 1561.

Order of Saint Lazarus

Date of founding of the order: 1098
Interesting Facts: The Order of Saint Lazarus is notable for the fact that initially all of its members, including the Grand Master, were lepers. The order got its name from the place of foundation - from the name of the hospitals of St. Lazarus, located not far from the walls of Jerusalem.
It is from the name of this order that the name "infirmary" comes from. The knights of the order were also called "lazarites". Their symbol was a green cross on a black cassock or cloak.
At first, the order was not military and was engaged exclusively in charitable activities, helping lepers, but from October 1187, the lazarites began to participate in hostilities. They went into battle without helmets, their faces, disfigured by leprosy, terrified enemies. Leprosy in those years was considered incurable and lazarites were called "living dead".
In the battle of Forbia on October 17, 1244, the order lost almost all of its personnel, and after the expulsion of the crusaders from Palestine, it settled in France, where it is still engaged in charity work.