The Knights Templars

by C. G. Addison

The treaty entered into between king Louis and the infidels having been violated by the murder of the sick at Damietta, and by the detention, in a state of slavery, of many knights and soldiers, as well as of a large body of christian children, the Templars recommenced hostilities, and marched with Joinville and the French knights against the strong castle of Panias, and after an obstinate resistance, carried the place sword in hand. The sultan of Damascus immediately took the field; he stormed the Temple fort Dok, slaughtered the garrison, and razed the fortifications to the ground; the castle of Ricordane shared the same fate, and the city of Sidon was taken by assault, (A. D. 1254,) whilst the workmen and artificers were diligently employed in rebuilding the walls; eight hundred men were put to the sword, and four hundred masons and artificers were taken prisoners and carried off to Damascus. After residing nearly two years at Acre, and spending vast sums of money upon the defences of the maritime towns of Palestine, king Louis returned to France. He set sail from Acre on the 24th of April, with a fleet of fourteen sail, his ship being steered by Brother Rèmond, the pilot of the Grand Master of the Temple, who was charged to conduct the king across the wide waters in safety to his own dominions. On his arrival in France, Louis manifested his esteem for the Templars by granting them the château and lordship of Bazèes, near Bauvez, in Aquitaine. The deed of gift is expressed to be made in consideration of the charitable works which the king had seen performed amongst the Templars, and in acknowledgment of the services they had rendered to him, and to the intent that he might be made a participator in the good works done by the fraternity, and be remembered in the prayers of the brethren. This deed was delivered on the day of Pentecost to Brother Hugh, Grand Preceptor of Aquitaine, in the cathedral church of Angouleme, in the presence of numerous archbishops, bishops, counts, and barons.[130]

At the period of the return of the king of France to Europe, Henry the Third, king of England, was in Gascony with Brother Robert de Sanford, Master of the Temple at London, who had been previously sent by the English monarch into that province to appease the troubles which had there broken out. King Henry proceeded to the French capital, and was magnificently entertained by the Knights Templars at the Temple in Paris, which Matthew Paris tells us was of such immense extent that it could contain within its precincts a numerous army. The day after his arrival, king Henry ordered an innumerable quantity of poor people to be regaled at the Temple with meat, fish, bread, and wine; and at a later hour the king of France and all his nobles came to dine with the English monarch. “Never,” says Matthew Paris, “was there at any period in bygone times so noble and so celebrated an entertainment. They feasted in the great hall of the Temple, where hang the shields on every side, as many as they can place along the four walls, according to the custom of the order beyond sea....” The Knights Templars in this country likewise exercised a magnificent hospitality, and constantly entertained kings, princes, nobles, prelates, and foreign ambassadors at the Temple. Immediately after the return of king Henry to England, some illustrious ambassadors from Castile came on a visit to the Temple at London; and as the king “greatly delighted to honour them,” he commanded three pipes of wine to be placed in the cellars of the Temple for their use, and ten fat bucks to be brought them at the same place from the royal forest in Essex. He, moreover, commanded the mayor and sheriffs of London, and the commonalty of the same city, to take with them a respectable assemblage of the citizens, and to go forth and meet the said ambassadors without the city, and courteously receive them, and honour them, and conduct them to the Temple.[131]

During the first and second years of the pontificate of pope Alexander IV. ten bulls were published in favour of the Templars, addressed to the bishops of the church universal, commanding them to respect and maintain the privileges conceded to them by the holy see; to judge and punish all persons who should dare to exact tythe from the fraternity; to institute to the ecclesiastical benefices of the order, all clerks presented to them by the preceptors, without previously requiring them to make a fixed maintenance for such clerks, and severely to punish, all who appropriated to their own use the alms gifts and eleemosynary donations made to the brotherhood. By these bulls the Templars are declared to be exempt from the duty of contributing to the travelling expenses of all nuncios and legates of the holy see, under the dignity of a cardinal, when passing through their territories, unless express orders to the contrary are given by apostolic letters, and all the bishops are required earnestly and vigorously to protect and defend the right of sanctuary accorded the houses of the Temple.[132]

In the year 1257, Brother Reginald de Vichier, the Grand Master of the Temple, fell sick and died, at an advanced age. He was succeeded by the English Knight Templar Brother Thomas Berard. Shortly after his election the terrible Moguls and Tartars, those fierce vagrant tribes of shepherds and hunters, whose victorious arms had spread terror and desolation over the greater part of Europe and Asia, invaded Palestine, under the command of the famous Holagou, and spread themselves like a cloud of devouring locusts over the whole country. The Templars, under the command of Brother Etienne de Sisi, Grand Preceptor of Apulia, hastened to meet them, and were cut to pieces in a sanguinary fight. The Tartars besieged and took the rich and populous cities of Aleppo, Hamah, Hems, Damascus, Tiberias, and Naplous, and at last entered in triumph the holy city of Jerusalem.[133] The Grand Master Brother Thomas Berard wrote a melancholy letter to king Henry the Third for succour. “With continual letters and many prayers,” says he, “has our poor Christianity on this side the sea besought the assistance of the kings and princes of this world, and above all, the aid and succour of your majesty, imploring your royal compassion with sighs and tears, and a loud sounding voice, and crying out with a bitter cry in the hope that it would penetrate the royal ear, and reach the ends of the earth, and arouse the faithful from their slumbers, and draw them to the protection of the Holy Land.”[134] The king of England, however, was in pecuniary embarrassments, and unable to afford the necessary succour. He was reduced, indeed, to the cruel necessity of borrowing money in France upon the security of his regalia and crown jewels, which were deposited in the Temple at Paris, as appears from the letter of the queen of France “to her very dear brother Henry, the illustrious king of England,” giving a long list of golden wands, golden combs, diamond buckles, chaplets, and circlets, golden crowns, imperial beavers, rich girdles, golden peacocks, and rings innumerable, adorned with sapphires, rubies, emeralds, topazes, and carbuncles, which she says she had inspected in the presence of the treasurer of the Temple at Paris, and that the same were safely deposited in the coffers of the Templars.[135]

In the mean time the Mamlooks, “who had breathed in their infancy the keenness of a Scythian air,” advanced from the banks of the Nile to contend with the Tartars for the dominion of Palestine. Under the command of Bendocdar, the Mamlook general, they gained a complete victory over them in the neighbourhood of Tiberias, and drove back the stream of hostility to the eastward of the Euphrates. Bendocdar returned to Egypt the idol of his soldiers, and clothed with a popularity which rendered him too powerful for a subject. He aspired to the possession of the throne which he had so successfully defended, and slew with his own hand his sovereign and master Kothuz, the third Mamlook sultan of Egypt. The Mamlooks hailed him with acclamations as their sovereign, and on the 24th day of October, A. D. 1260, he was solemnly proclaimed sultan of Egypt, in the town of Salahieh in the Delta. Bendocdar was one of the greatest men of the age, and soon proved the most formidable enemy that the Templars had encountered in the field since the days of Saladin. The first two years of his accession to power were employed in the extension and consolidation of his sway over the adjoining Mussulman countries. The holy cities of Mecca and Medina acknowledged him for their sovereign, as did Damascus, Aleppo, Hems, and Jerusalem. His sway extended over Egypt, Nubia, Arabia, and Syria; and his throne was defended by twenty-five thousand Mamlook cavalry. His power was further strengthened by an army of one hundred and seven thousand foot, and by the occasional aid of sixty-six thousand Arabians.

After receiving the homage and submission of the rulers and people of Aleppo, Bendocdar made a hostile demonstration against the vast and wealthy city of Antioch; but finding the place well defended, he retired with his army, by way of Hems, Damascus, and Tiberias, to Egypt. The next year (A. D. 1264) he crossed the desert at the head of thirty thousand cavalry, and overran all Palestine up to the very gates of Acre. He burned the great churches of Nazareth and Mount Tabor; and sought to awaken the zeal and enthusiasm of his soldiers in behalf of Islam by performing the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and visiting with great devotion the Mosque of Omar. He then retired to Cairo with his troops, and the Templars and Hospitallers became the assailants. They surprised and stormed the castle of Lilion, razed the walls and fortifications to the ground, and brought off three hundred prisoners of both sexes, together with a rich prize of sheep and oxen. On the 15th of June, they marched as far as Ascalon, surprised and slew two Mamlook emirs, and put twenty-eight of their followers to the sword. They then turned their footsteps towards the Jordan, and on the 5th of November, they destroyed Bisan or Scythopolis, and laid waste with fire and sword all the valley of the Jordan, as far as the lake of Tiberias.

In the depth of winter, (A. D. 1265,) Bendocdar collected his forces together, and advanced, by rapid marches, from Egypt. He concealed his real intentions, made a long march during the night, and at morning’s dawn presented himself before the city of Cæsarea. His troops descended into the ditch by means of ropes and ladders, and climbed the walls with the aid of iron hooks and spikes; they burst open the gates, massacred the sentinels, and planted the standard of the prophet on the ramparts, ere the inhabitants had time to rouse themselves from their morning slumbers. The citadel, however, still remained to be taken, and the garrison being forewarned, made an obstinate defence. The Arabian writers tell us, that the citadel was a strong and handsome fortification, erected by king Louis, and adorned with pillars and columns. It stood on a small neck of land which jutted out into the sea, and the ditches around the fortress were filled with the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Bendocdar planted huge catapults and cross-bows upon the tower of the cathedral, and shot arrows, darts, and stones, from them upon the battlements of the citadel. He encouraged the exertions of his soldiers by promises of reward, and gave robes of honour to his principal emirs. Weapons of war were distributed in the most lavish manner, every captain of a hundred horse receiving for the use of himself and his men four thousand arrows!

During a dark winter’s night the garrison succeeded in making their escape, and the next morning the Moslems poured into the citadel by thousands, and abandoned themselves to pillage. The fortifications were levelled with the dust, and Bendocdar assisted with his own hands in the work of demolition. He then detached some Mamlook emirs with a body of cavalry against Caiphas, and proceeded himself to watch the movements of the Templars, and examine into the defences of the Pilgrim’s Castle. Finding the place almost impregnable, and defended by a numerous garrison, he suddenly retraced his steps to the south, and stormed, after a brave and obstinate defence, the strongly fortified city of Arsoof, which belonged to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. The greater part of the garrison was massacred, but one thousand captives were reserved to grace the triumph of the conqueror. They were compelled to march at the head of his triumphal procession, with their banners reversed, and with their crosses, broken into pieces, hung round their necks. Bendocdar had already despatched his bravest Mamlook generals, at the head of a considerable body of forces, to blockade Beaufort and Saphet, two strong fortresses of the order of the Temple, and he now advanced at the head of a vast army to conduct the siege of the latter place in person. On 21 Ramadan, the separate timbers of his military machines arrived from Damascus at Jacob’s bridge on the Jordan; the sultan sent down his emirs and part of his army, with hundreds of oxen, to drag them up the mountains to Saphet, and went with his principal officers to assist in the transport of them. “I worked by the sultan’s side, and aided him with all my might,” says the cadi Mohieddin; “being fatigued, I sat down. I began again, and was once more tired, and compelled to take rest, but the sultan continued to work without intermission, aiding in the transport of beams, bolts, and huge frames of timber.” The Grand Master of the Temple ordered out twelve hundred cavalry from Acre to create a diversion in favour of the besieged; but a treacherous spy conveyed intelligence to Bendocdar, which enabled him to surprise and massacre the whole force, and return to Saphet with their heads stuck on the lances of his soldiers. At last, after an obstinate defence, during which many Moslems, say the Arabian writers, obtained the crown of martyrdom, the huge walls were thrown down, and a breach was presented to the infidels; but that breach was so stoutly guarded that none could be found to mount to the assault. Bendocdar offered a reward of three hundred pieces of gold to the first man who entered the city; he distributed robes of honour and riches to all who were foremost in the fight, and the outer inclosure, or first line of the fortifications was, at last, taken.

The Templars retired into the citadel, but their efforts at defence were embarrassed by the presence of a crowd of two thousand fugitives, who had fled to Saphet for shelter, and they agreed to capitulate on condition that the lives and liberties of the Christians should be respected, and that they should be transported in safety to Acre. Bendocdar acceded to these terms, and solemnly promised to fulfil them; but as soon as he had got the citadel into his power, he offered to all the Templars the severe alternative of the Koran or death, and gave them until the following morning to make their election. The preceptor of Saphet, a holy monk and veteran warrior, assisted by two Franciscan friars, passed the night in pious exhortations to his brethren, conjuring them to prefer the crown of martyrdom to a few short years of miserable existence in this sinful world, and not to disgrace themselves and their order by a shameful apostasy. At sunrise, on the following morning, the Templars were led on to the brow of the hill, in front of the castle of Saphet, and when the first rays of the rising sun gilded the wooded summits of Mount Hermon, and the voice of the muezzin was heard calling the faithful to morning prayer, they were required to join in the Moslem chaunt, La-i-la i-la Allah, Mahommed re sul Allah, “There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his apostle;” the executioners drew near with their naked scimitars, but not a man of the noble company of knightly warriors, say the Christian writers, would renounce his faith, and one thousand five hundred heads speedily rolled at the feet of Bendocdar. “The blood,” says Sanutus, “flowed down the declivities like a rivulet of water.” The preceptor of Saphet, the priests of the order, and brother Jeremiah, were beaten with clubs, flayed alive, and then beheaded! The Arabian writers state that the lives of two of the garrison were spared, one being an Hospitaller whom the besieged had sent to Bendocdar to negotiate the treaty of surrender, and the other a Templar, named Effreez Lyoub, who embraced the Mahomedan faith, and was circumcised and entered into the service of the sultan.[136] Immediately after the fall of Saphet, the infidels stormed the castles of Hounin and Tebnin, and took possession of the city of Ramleh.

The Grand Master of the Hospital now sued for peace, and entered into a separate treaty with the infidels. He agreed to renounce the ancient tribute of one hundred pieces of gold paid to the order by the district of Bouktyr; also the annual tribute of four thousand pieces of gold paid to them by the sultans of Hems and Hamah; a tribute of twelve hundred pieces of gold, fifty thousand bushels of wheat, and fifty thousand bushels of barley annually rendered to them by the Assassins or Ismaelians of the mountains of Tripoli: and the several tributes paid by the cities or districts of Schayzar, Apamea, and Aintab, which consisted of five hundred crowns of Tyrian silver, two measures of wheat, and two pieces of silver for every two head of oxen pastured in the district. These terms being arranged, the emir Fakir-eddin, and the cadi Schams-eddin were sent to receive the oath of the Grand Master of the Hospital to fulfil them, and a truce was then accorded him for ten years, ten days, and ten months.