THE TEMPLAR KNIGHTS

[Jill Elvgren]

Gilbert Horal

Gilbert Horal (d. December 1200) was the 12th Grand Master of the Knights Templar.

He was born an Aragonaise (from Aragon in Spain), and entered the Templars at a young age. He stayed in the provinces of Provence and Aragon, where he took part in the battles of Reconquista, and became Grand Master of the province until 1190. In 1193, after the death of Robert de Sablé, he became Grand Master of the Order, and in 1194, Pope Céléstin III gave the Templars more privileges.

Horal was known for wanting peace between the Christians and the Moslems, though some disagreed and thought that this showed treason and collusion with the enemy.

During his leadership the quarrel between the Templars and Hospitaliers increased. The arbitration of Pope Innocent III was in favour of the Hospitaliers because the Pope could not forgive the Templars for making the agreements that they had with Malek-Adel, brother of Saladin.

Another of Gilbert Horal's accomplishments was that he took the time to organize and consolidate the possessions of the Templars in France and Apulia.

In Spain, the Templars took an active part in the Reconquista, and were given the fortress of Alhambra by Alfonso II of Aragon as a reward for their efforts in the battle.
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[Jill Elvgren]

Phillipe de Plessis

Phillipe de Plessis (1165-1209) was Grand Master of the Knights Templar.

He was born in the fortress of Plessis-Macé. In 1189 he joined the Third Crusade as a simple knight, and discovered the Order of the Temple in Palestine. After the death of Gilbert Horal he became Grand Master. He helped uphold the treaty between Saladin and Richard I. In the renewal of this treaty in 1208 he suggested that the Teutonic Order and Hospitallers should make a new peace treaty offer with Malek-Adel. The accord was criticised by Pope Innocent III.

There were few military actions during his rule; the Fourth Crusade never arrived in the Holy Land. The German King was in opposition to the Knights regarding the Gastein stronghold. The Templars were initially expelled from Germany, but the pope intervened in the dispute.

Relations with the Hospitaliers were tense. During his rule the Order of the Temple reached its greatest height in Europe.

His name is last documented in 1209. The Obituary of Reims gives the date of his death as November 12, 1209.

[Jill Elvgren]

Guillaume de Chartres

Guillaume de Chartres (Guillielmus de Carnoto, Willemus de Carnoto), Prince of the Cistercian Principality of Seborga, was a grand master of the Knights Templar 1210 – 26 August 1218.

In 1210, he assisted at the coronation of Jean de Brienne as King of Jerusalem. In 1211, he arbitrated between Leo II of Armenia and the Templars, regarding the castle of Bagras. During his rule, the order flourished in Spain, achieving important victories against the Moors.

Guillaume died of pestilence, (possibly endemic typhus), secondary to being wounded during the siege of Damietta, in Seborga in the Holy Land.

[Jill Elvgren]

Pedro de Montaigu

Pedro de Montaigu was Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1218 to 1232. He took part in the Fifth Crusade and was against the Sultan of Egypt's conditions for raising the siege of Damietta. He was Master of the French Aragon province from 1211, until his death.

A close friend of Guillaume de Chartres, it was most likely the trust the previous Grand Master had in him which meant he himself was elected so quickly in 1218. At the same time, the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller was Guerin de Montaigu, who is likely to have been Pedro's brother. The close relationship between the two military orders during this period was probably a result of this.

His actions against the Muslim forces working for the liberation of Jerusalem were so effective, that they were forced to propose a surrender. In return for the Templars calling off their siege at Damietta, the Islamic forces would return many Frankish soldiers, halt attacks on Jerusalem and most importantly, return the part of the True Cross, captured from the Europeans at the Battle of Hattin. Catholic pressure meant the Muslim terms were refused and the carnage continued. His military victories, aided by the Hospitaller knights, made him a renowned warrior.

[Jill Elvgren]

Armand de Périgord

Armand de Périgord (or Hermann de Pierre-Grosse) (1178–1247?) was a descendant of the Counts of Périgord and Grand Master of the Knights Templar.

He was master of the Province of Apulia and Sicily 1205–1232. In 1232 he was elected Grand Master of the Templars. He organized attacks on Cana, Safita, and Sephoria, and against the Muslim positions around the Sea of Galilee. All of these expeditions were failures and diminished the Templars' effectiveness.

In 1236 on the border between Syria and Cilicia, 120 knights, along with some archers and Turcopoles, were ambushed near the town of Darbsâk (Terbezek). In the first phase of the battle the Templars reached the town but they met fierce resistance. When reinforcements from Aleppo arrived, the Templars were massacred. Fewer than 20 of them returned to their castle in Bagras, 15 km from the battle.

In September 1239 Armand arrived at Acre. He made a treaty with Sultan of Damascus, in parallel with the Hospitaller treaty with the Sultan of Egypt. In 1244 the Sultan of Damascus demanded that the Templars help repel the Khwarezmians from Asia Minor. In October 1244 the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights, together with the Sultan of Damas, confronted with Sultan of Egypt and his Khwarezmian allies at the Battle of La Forbie. The Christian-Muslim coalition was defeated, with more then 30 000 deaths. Some Templars and Hospitallers reached Ascalon, still in Christian hands. Armand de Périgord may have been killed during the battle, but may have been captured and survived until 1247.

[Jill Elvgren]

Richard de Bures

Richard de Bures was the seventeenth Grand Master of the Knights Templar, from 1245 to 1247.

[Jill Elvgren]

Guillaume de Sonnac

Guillaume de Sonnac was Grand Master of the Knights Templar Temple from 1247 to 1250. He distinguished himself at the siege of Damietta, and commanded the vanguard of the Christian army together with the Count of Artois. He lost an eye during the fighting.

Sonnac was born to a noble family in the French region of Rouergue. No date of birth survives for the Grand Master, however, the Obituary at Riems records his death in combat as 11th April 1250. Sonnac was a skilled diplomat, like Grand Master Blanchefort before him.

Military Record

De Sonnac's tenure was a particularly violent one. He accompanied Louis IX of France on the 7th Crusade and fought the Muslims at the Siege of Damietta. At this long running siege, his leadership of the Templars and Frankish ranks broke the deadlock and captured the city.

On 8th February 1250, he commanded the Christian rearguard with the Count of Artois, at the battle of La Mansourah. The Count's recklessness caused huge losses and of 285 Templar knights at that position, 280 were killed. De Sonnac's escape made him famous as a warrior, when many had thought him more suited to politics and administration. With heavy wounds, 4 remaining knights and after losing an eye, he battled through the Muslim ranks, clearing a path to the main Frankish army, where he received treatment. The Count, Louis IX's brother was killed. De Sonnac continued fighting after medical attention.

His passion for leading on the front line had its obvious dangers. On 11th April 1250, now fighting with an eye-patch, he was killed in battle at Bahr al-Saghir, along a river by the recently captured Damiette.

Chronicler

De Sonnac was the first Grand Master to formerly record the intricacies of the Templar hierarchy. He added this to existing archives, codified them and stored them in a safe place so that the order would have accurate records in future years. It is certainly ironic that, for a man responsible for creating the order's most in-depth records, there is no indication of when he was born.

[Jill Elvgren]

Renaud de Vichiers

Renaud de Vichiers was the 19th Grand Master of the Knights Templar, from 1250 to 1256.

He was a supporter and comrade-in-arms of Louis IX of France, who helped him be elected Master. He shortly quarrelled with Louis, though, over a diplomatic mission of Hugues de Jouy, the Templar Marshal, to Damascus. In 1252 Hugues was banished from the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

[Jill Elvgren]

Thomas Bérard

Thomas Bérard (also Béraud or Bérault) was the 20th Grand Master of the Knights Templar, from 1256 to 1273. He wrote several letters to the King Henry III of England describing miserable situation in the Holy Land. He initiated cooperation with other two military orders since there had been much rivalry among them before. This was agreed upon by their Grand Masters: Hugo de Revel of Hospitaliers and Anno von Sangershausen of Teutonic Knights. In 1266 the large templar fortress Safed was besieged by egyptian Mamlooks (or Mameluks) after failed attempt to conquer Pilgrim's Castle. It appears that the garrison were betrayed by a hired syrian soldier. All templars (hospitallers as well) were beheaded after they refused to convert to Islam. Other fortresses fell next, among them Beaufort, only recently acquired by the templars. Also the city of Antioch was wiped out and never again reinhabited. Fall of Antioch left templar fortresses in Amman's mountains easily accessible to attackers. Gaston, immensly strong fortification on the road to Syria was defended only by a small templar garrison. Nevertheless they decided to hold the fortress. They were betrayed by one of the brothers. Meanwhile the Grand Master Thomas Bérard sent a messenger carrying an order to retreat to La Roche Guillaume. In February 1271 Chastel Blanc surrendered on orders of the Grand Master Thomas Bérard with permission to retreat to Tortosa. In June, however, Montfort the last inland fortification of Christians in Holy Land was yielded.

[Jill Elvgren]

Guillaume de Beaujeu

Guillaume de Beaujeu, also known as William of Beaujeu was the 21st Grand Master of the Knights Templar, from 1273 until his death during the siege of Acre in 1291.

At one point during the siege, he dropped his sword and walked away from the walls. His knights remonstrated. Beaujeu replied: "Je ne m'enfuis pas; je suis mort. Voici le coup." ("I'm not running away; I am dead. Here is the blow.") He raised his arm to show the mortal wound he had received.

[Jill Elvgren]

Thibaud Gaudin

Thibaud Gaudin (1229? – April 16, 1292) was the Grand Master of the Knights Templar from August 1291 until his death in April 1292.

The history of Thibaud Gaudin within the Order is rather mysterious. Born to a noble family in the area of Chartres or Blois, France, he entered the Knights Templars well before 1260, because on that date he was taken prisoner during an attack on Tiberias. His great piety was deemed worthy of the nickname of "Gaudin Monk".

In 1279, Sir Thibaud fulfills the function of "Commander of the Land of Jerusalem", the fourth most important function in the Templar hierarchy. In 1291, he rides at the side of Guillaume de Beaujeu to defend the town of Acre, besieged by the formidable army of Mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Khalil. On 18 May, upon the death of Guillaume de Beaujeu, Gaudin remains in the city of Acre in garrison with some 500. Thibaud Gaudin and Pierre de Sevry, Marshal of the Order, are the last two knights of the Temple who continue to defend Acre. Al-Ashraf Khalil sends messengers to the defenders of the castle of the Temple in order to negotiate an honorable outcome. Thibaud Gaudin and Pierre de Sevry agree to yield to the conditions dictated by the sultan and let a detachment of Moslem riders into their enclosure. As soon as the soldiers entered, they caught some French women. Thinking that to be a treasonous act, Thibaud Gaudin and Pierre de Sevry ordered the Moslems be thrown of the walls. The two dignitaries decide that Thibaud Gaudin will leave the city by sea, carrying the treasures of the Temple, while Pierre de Sevry will continue the combat. Acre falls the following day.

Thibaud Gaudin arrives at Sidon with some knights where he is elected Master and decides to defend the city as long as possible. Just before the arrival of emir Al-Shujâ' I, the inhabitants evacuate the city and take refuge behind the walls of the Templar castle. With the assistance of Cypriots, the majority of the inhabitants and garrison evacuate the fortress to take refuge in Cyprus. Arriving at Cyprus, Thibaud Gaudin tries to gather reinforcements but they never reach the Holy Land. Sidon falls to the Moslems on July 14, 1291. The last French strongholds in the Kingdom of Jerusalem fall one by one. Beirut is taken on July 21, the area of Kaifa is invaded and the monasteries of Carmel destroyed on July 30. In early August, the Franks hold nothing more than two fortified towns, both occupied by Templars. Tortose is evacuated on August 3 and Castle-Pélerin on August 14. By then, all Templars are located in Cyprus in Ruad in the south of Tortose, which will remain in their hands until 1303.

In October 1291, a general chapter of the Order meets in Cyprus. This meeting confirms the election of Thibaud Gaudin as Grand Master and names new dignitaries in the important positions within the hierarchy of the Order.On that occasion, Jacques de Molay was named Marshal, to succeed Pierre de Sevry, who died at Acre. Thibaud Gaudin tried to reorganize all the Templars after the devastations of the recent battles. Moreover, it was necessary for him to defend of the Kingdom of Armenia from the encircled Turkish Seldjoukides and the island of Cyprus, occupied by a multitude of refugees. Apparently the task proved daunting for Thibaud Gaudin; he died of exhaustion at the beginning of the year 1292, leaving an enormous rebuilding task for his successor.

[Jill Elvgren]

Jacques de Molay

Jacques de Molay (est. 1244-5/1249-50 - 18 March 1314[1]), a minor Frankish noble, served as the 23rd and officially last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. He is probably the best known Templar besides the order's founder and first grand master, Hugues de Payns. Upon his election before 20 April 1292, he promised to reform the order and adjust it to the present situation in the Middle East. With no crusader states left to protect together with other problems surfacing, the order's right to exist was put into question. Jacques de Molay failed to successfully lead the Templars through the inquisitions made against them and was burnt at the stake on an island in the river Seine in Paris, Ile de la Cité, on 18 March 1314. The execution was ordered by Philippe le Bel (Philip the Fair) after Jacques retracted all of his previous confessions, which outraged the French king. Nothing is known of about two thirds of his life.

Youth

Jacques de Molay's exact date of birth is in some doubt, but when interrogated by the judges in Paris 24 October 1307, he told he entered the order forty-two years earlier, that would mean in 1265. The common imperial age for joining an order was minimum 20 years of age, and thus he most likely would have been born in 1244 or 1245. However, there exists several documents proving that men younger than 20-21 years were accepted into the order, hence the birth year confusion. An interesting fact involves that when questioned about the same thing in August the following year by the Pope's envoys at Chinon, he again told he was received into the order forty-two years earlier, i.e. 1266. Jacques de Molay was born into, most likely, a family of minor nobility, as most of the Templars were, at Molay (Haute-Saône) in the county of Burgundy, a Holy Roman Empire territory.

He was received into the order at Beaune by Humbert de Pairaud, the Visitor of France and England in 1265. Independently of Guillaume de Beaujeu, who was elected grand master in 1273, Jacques de Molay went to the East (Outremer) around 1270. He spent all his career as a Templar in the East, although he is mentioned to be in France in 1285. It is not known if he held any offices in either the West or the East, or if he was present when Acre, the last crusader city and capital of the Latin kingdom fell in May 1291 to the Mamluks.

Grand Master

After the fall of Acre, the Franks who were able retreated to Cyprus, this including Jacques de Molay and Thibaud Gaudin, the 22nd Grand Master of the Temple. During a meeting assembled on the island in the autumn of 1291, J. de Molay spoke and pointed to himself as an alternative and reformer of the order. Before 16 April 1292 Gaudin died, leaving the mastership open for Jacques de Molay, as there were no other serious contenders for the role at the time. The election took place before 20 April, as a document in the archives of the Crown of Aragon attests and recognizes Jacques de Molay as the Knights Templar's new grand master by then.

Once elected, the rapid establishment of the command of the order was meant to deal with the most serious matters first. These were the subjects of Cyprus and Armenia of Cilicia, which both were under the threat of an attack from the Mamluks. In spring 1293 he began a tour to the West which brought him to Provence, Catalonia, Italy, England and France. There he settled several local and internal problems, but mainly the goal was to ask for help from the western rulers and the Church in the reconquest of the Holy Land, strengthening the defence of Cyprus and the rebuilding of Templar forces. Talk of a crusade was even at hand, but a more troubling issue was brought upon de Molay, the merging of the orders of the Temple and the Hospital, an idea he was negative to and would continue to be. He held two general meetings of his order at Montpellier in 1293 and at Arles in 1296, where he tried to make reforms. During his journey, Jacques de Molay made a close relationship with Pope Boniface VIII and relationships of trust with Edward I of England, James I of Aragon and Charles II of Naples. Nothing is known of his relationship with Philip IV of France.

In the autumn of 1296 Molay was back in Cyprus to defend his order against the interests of Henry II of Cyprus, which conflict had its roots back in the days of Guillaume de Beaujeu. From 1299 to 1303 de Molay was pressing forward an alliance with the Mongols against the Mamluks. The plan was to coordinate actions between the Christian military orders, the King of Cyprus, the aristocracy of Cyprus and Little Armenia and the Mongols of the khanate of Ilkhan (Persia). In 1298 or 1299, Jacques de Molay halted a further Mamluk invasion with military force in Armenia possibly because of the loss of Roche-Guillaume, the last Templar stronghold in Cilicia to the Mamluks. However, when the Mongol khan of Persia Ghâzân defeated the Mamluks in the Second battle of Homs in December 1299, the Christian forces were not ready to take an advantage of the situation. In 1300, Jacques de Molay made his order commit raids along the Egyptian and Syrian coasts to weaken the enemy's supply lines as well as to harass them, and in November that year he joined the occupation of the tiny fortress island of Ruad (today called Arwad) which faced the Syrian town of Tortosa. The intent was to establish a bridgehead in accordance with the Mongol alliance, but the Mongols failed to appear in 1300, the same happened in 1301 and 1302. In September 1302 the Templars were driven out of Ruad by the attacking Mamluk forces from Egypt, and many were massacred when trapped on the island. The island of Ruad was lost and when Ghâzân died in 1304, Jacques de Molay's dream of a rapid reconquest of the Holy Land was destroyed.
The incident on Ruad was wrongly interpreted by contemporaries as a bizarre attempt to permanently stay close to the Holy Land by Jacques de Molay, but it was merely a key in the strategy involving the Mongols in the recapture of the Holy Land. Still, criticism was starting to grow back in Europe about the order's reason of being.

Mongol diplomacy

From 1299 to 1303 de Molay promoted cooperation with the Mongols against the Mamluks. The plan was to coordinate actions between the Christian military orders, the King of Cyprus, the aristocracy of Cyprus and Little Armenia and the Mongols of the khanate of Ilkhan (Persia).

In 1298 or 1299, Jacques de Molay halted a further Mamluk invasion with military force in Armenia possibly because of the loss of Roche-Guillaume, the last Templar stronghold in Cilicia, to the Mamluks. However, when the Mongol khan of Persia, Ghâzân, defeated the Mamluks in the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar in December 1299, the Christian forces were not ready to take an advantage of the situation.

In 1300, Jacques de Molay and other forces from Cyprus put together a fleet of 16 ships which committed raids along the Egyptian and Syrian coasts. The force was commanded by King Henry II of Jerusalem, the king of Cyprus, accompanied by his brother, Amalric, Lord of Tyre the heads of the military orders, and the ambassador of the Mongol leader Ghazan. The ships left Famagusta on July 20, 1300, to raid the coasts of Egypt and Syria: Rosette,[3] Alexandria, Acre, Tortosa, and Maraclea, before returning to Cyprus.[4] The raids along the way were directed by Admiral Baudoin de Picquigny, and when the raids took place at Alexandria, they were able to free Christian prisoners who had been captive since the Fall of Acre in 1291.[5]

The ships then returned to Cyprus, and prepared for an attack on Tortosa in late 1300. The Cypriots sent a joint force to a staging area on the island of Ruad, from which raids were launched on Tortosa, while awaiting the arrival of the Mongols. However, Ghazan's forces were delayed, and the Crusader forces ended up returning to Cyprus, leaving a garrison on Ruad. When Ghazan did arrive in February 1301, he was only able to engage in some minor raids before having to withdraw.

Plans for combined operations were again made for the following winter offensive. A letter has been kept from Jacques de Molay to Edward I, and dated April 8, 1301, informing him of the troubles encountered by Ghazan, but announcing that Ghazan was supposed to come in Autumn:

"And our convent, with all our galleys and 'tarides' [light galleys][lacuna] has been transported to the isle of Tortosa to await Ghazan's army and his Tartars."

—Jacques de Molay, letter to Edward I, April 8, 1301[6]
And in a letter to the king of Aragon a few months later:

"The king of Armenia had sent his messengers to the king of Cyprus to tell him . . . that Ghazan was now on the point of coming to the sultan's lands with a multitude of Tartars. Knowing this, we now intend to go to the isle of Tortosa, where our convent has remained all this year with horses and arms, causing much damage to the casaux along the coast and capturing many Saracens. We intend to go there and settle in to await the Tartars."

—Jacques de Molay, letter to the king of Aragon, 1301[7]
In November that year, De Molay joined the occupation of the tiny fortress island of Ruad (today called Arwad) which faced the Syrian town of Tortosa. The intent was to establish a bridgehead to await assistance from the Mongols, but the Mongols failed to appear in 1300. The same happened in 1301 and 1302. In September 1302 the Templars were driven out of Ruad by the attacking Mamluk forces from Egypt, and many were massacred when trapped on the island. The island of Ruad was lost in the Siege of Ruad on September 26, 1302, and when Ghâzân died in 1304 Jacques de Molay's dream of a rapid reconquest of the Holy Land was destroyed.

[Jill Elvgren]

Combined offensives in 1300-1301.

Travel to France

In 1305, the newly elected pope Clement V asked the leaders of the military orders of their opinions on a new crusade and the merging of the orders. Jacques de Molay was asked by the pope to write two memoranda, one on each of the issues, which he did during the summer of 1306. On 6 June, the leaders were officially asked to come to Poitiers, where the pope had his seat, to discuss these matters. The meeting at Poitiers was delayed due to the pope's illness, unbeknowst to de Molay who had already left Cyprus around 15 October. Arriving in France in late November or early December, nothing is known of Jacques de Molay's activities during the first five months of 1307. In the second half of May he was in Poitiers attending the meeting with the pope. The grand master came in conflict with Philippe IV when he still was rejecting the idea of merging the orders with the French King as leader (with the French King as Rex Bellator, War King) and thus making it more difficult for the pope in his problem with the king about condemning the memory of Boniface VIII, which Philippe would achieve at all costs. This furthermore thwarted the attempts to get a new crusade on its way. These conflicts were weakening the Templar Order along with something that would turn out to be far more serious, something Jacques de Molay had discovered during his journey through France; scandalous and perverse rumours and whispers about the order had begun to surface. The king and his councillors, among them Guillaume de Nogaret, knew to exploit this weakness.

Downfall

Jacques de Molay spoke with the king in Paris on 24 June 1307 about the accusations against his order and was partially reassured. Returning to Poitiers, he asked the pope to set up an inquiry to quickly clear the order of the rumours and accusations surrounding it. When the pope announced that an inquiry would be convened 24 August, the king acted decisively. On 14 September, in the deepest secrecy, he sent out his orders throughout all of France which resulted in the mass arrests of Templars and confiscation of their possessions in the whole country on Friday, 13 October 1307. Jacques de Molay was arrested in Paris, where he intended to be present at the funeral of Catherine of Valois.
During an interrogation by royal agents on October 24, Jacques confessed only to "denying Christ and trampling on the Cross" as a part of the initiation ritual.  Jacques de Molay's possible intention was that this couldn't possibly be very harmful to the order, but when he was forced to repeat this statement in the public the next day, the damage was devastating for the Templars. Making things even worse, he was made to write a letter where he expressed that every Templar should admit to these acts. Philippe IV was now in full command of the situation, and in order to regain his authority, Pope Clement V ordered the arrest of all the Templars throughout Christendom.

The Pope still wanted to hear Jacques de Molay and dispatched two cardinals to Paris in December 1307. In front of them, Jacques retracted his confessions made to the agents of Philippe IV. By then, the affair had resulted in a power struggle between the King and the Pope which was finally settled in August 1308. The King and the Pope agreed to split the convictions. Through the Bull Fasciens misericordiam the procedure to prosecute the Templars was set out on a duality where the first commission would judge individuals of the order and the second commission would judge the order as an entity. In practice this meant that a council seated at Vienne was to decide the future of the Temple, while the Temple dignitaries, among them Jacques de Molay, were to be judged by the Pope. In the royal palace at Chinon, Jacques de Molay was again questioned by the cardinals, but this time with royal agents present. He returned to his admissions made on 24 October 1307, after which there was silence for a year. Slowly the commissions and inquisitions were put in place, and finally, in November 1309, the Papal Commission for the Kingdom of France began its hearings. On two instances, on 26 and 28 November, Jacques explicitly stated that he did not acknowledge the accusations brought against his order. By so doing, he thus turned to a strategy of silence before the Commission, counting on the power of the Church to prevail over the will of the King

By remaining silent, Jaques de Molay deprived the Templars of leadership; thereafter, the order was able to offer little resistance to the threat it faced. Any further opposition was effectively broken when the archbishop of Sens, Philippe de Marigny, sentenced 54 Templars to be burnt at the stake on 10-12 May 1310. At the Council of Vienne on 22 March 1312, the order was abolished by papal decree. Almost two years later, on March 18, 1314, three cardinals sent by the pope sentenced the Temple dignitaries Jacques de Molay, Hugues de Pairaud, Geoffroy de Charnay and Geoffroy de Gonneville to life imprisonment. Realizing that all was lost, Jacques de Molay rose up and recanted. Along with Geoffroy de Charnay, he proclaimed his order's innocence, before challenging the king and pope before God. Furious, Philippe IV ordered them both burned at the stake. On the even of 18 March 1314, Jacques de Molay and Geoffroy de Charnay were taken to Ile de la Cite where they were executed.

In 2002, Dr. Barbara Frale found a copy of the Chinon Parchment in the Vatican Secret Archives, a document which may indicate that Pope Clement V secretly absolved Jacques de Molay and other leaders of the Order in 1308. She published her findings in the Journal of Medieval History in 2004. [2].

Myths

Curse

It is said that Jacques de Molay cursed Philippe le Bel and his descent from his execution pyre. And, indeed, the rapid succession of the last direct Capetian kings of France between 1314 and 1328, the three sons of Philippe IV, led many to believe that the dynasty had been cursed – thus the name of "Cursed Kings" (Rois Maudits). Also, de Molay apparently challenged the King and the Pope to meet him before the judgment of God before the year was over. Philip and Clement V in fact both died in 1314. Interestingly, the 300 year old Capetian dynasty collapsed during the next 14 years.

Presence in England

Some Internet sources claim that Jacques de Molay was a commander in England and spent much time there. According to the most expansive biography of Jacques released yet, Alain Demurger's The Last Templar, there is no evidence of such. Although Jacques visited England in 1293, there is not likely that he assumed the post of commander while himself being the grand master.

Legacy

There is a masonic youth group named the Order of DeMolay. While they use Jacques as an example of loyalty and fidelity, they claim no direct connection with him nor with the Knights Templar.

Quotes

"Quar nous navons volu ne volons le Temple mettre en aucune servitute se non tant come il hy affiert." ("For we did not and do not wish the Temple to be placed in any servitude except that which is fitting.") - Jacques de Molay in one of his memoranda to Pope Clement V from the summer of 1306.

Notes

^ A. Demurger, The Last Templar - The Tragedy of Jacques de Molay, Last Grand Master of the Temple, Profile Books LTD, London 2004: 1-4.
^ Frale, Barbara (2004). "The Chinon chart - Papal absolution to the last Templar, Master Jacques de Molay". Journal of Medieval History 30 (2): 109–134

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_de_Molay

[Jill Elvgren]

Jacques de Molay sentenced to the stake in 1314, from the Chronicle of France or of St Denis (fourteenth century)

Presence in England

Some Internet sources claim that Jacques de Molay was a commander in England and spent much time there. According to the most expansive biography of Jacques released yet, Alain Demurger's The Last Templar, there is no evidence of such. Although Jacques visited England in 1293, it is not likely that he assumed the post of commander while himself being the grand master.

[Jill Elvgren]

"The capture of Jerusalem by Jacques de Molay in 1299", by Claude Jacquand, Versailles, Musée National Chateau et Trianons. This depiction was commissioned in the 1800s, but is about an event in 1299 that did not actually occur. There was no battle, and De Molay was nowhere near Jerusalem at the time (Demurger, Last Templar) In reality, after the Christians lost control of Jerusalem in 1244, it was not under Christian control again until 1917, when the British took it from the Ottomans.

In France in the 19th century, false stories circulated that De Molay had captured Jerusalem in 1300, and a painting was even commissioned for the Versailles, entitled "Jacques de Molay Takes Jerusalem, 1299." The exact origin of these rumors is not certain, although they may be related to the fact that a medieval historian, the Templar of Tyre, wrote about a Mongol general named "Mulay" who occupied Syria and Palestine for a few months in early 1300.

There are numerous ancient records of Mongol raids and occupations of Jerusalem (from either Western, Armenian or Arab sources), and the Mongols did achieve a victory in Syria which caused a Muslim retreat, and allowed the Mongols to launch raids into the Levant as far as Gaza for a period of a few months in early 1300. During this time, rumors flew through Europe that the Mongols had recaptured Jerusalem and were going to return the city to the Europeans. However, this may only be an urban legend, as the only activities that the Mongols had even engaged in were some minor raids through Palestine, which may or may not have even passed through Jerusalem, a city which at the time was considered a minor location of no strategic importance, as it was still in ruins from earlier battles.