Much has been written on the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ, Knights of the Temple of Salomon, usually known as Order of Temple since on March 22, 1312, the Pope Clemente V signed the Papal Bull Vox in Excelso that dissolved it, almost two centuries after its foundation in 1119 by nine French knights in Jerusalem and which first Master was Hughes Payns.
Portrait of Hughes de Payns
However and putting aside all the hypothesis of commercial reasons, what History can tell us is a trace of around two centuries of service of the Templars to the Cross, in such important events as the 2nd and 3rd Crusades until the fall of Saint Jean d’ Acre in 1291 or the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula thanks to the Christian kingdoms, interrupted by the French King Phillip IV the Fair who, due to the debts caused by the wars against England and Aragon, payed attention to the Order of Temple and its big assets in French land.
The pressure on the French Pope Clemente V, to disrepute and even slander the Templar Knigths with allegations of sacrilege, heresy, homosexuality or usury meant the definitive dissolution of the Order in 1312 under the charge of indignity and bad habits, not heresy thanks to the Pope´s exculpation that couldn´t help the last four Masters of the Order who, headed by Jacques de Molay, were burnt alive on an isle of the Seine river on March 18, 1314.
Jacques de Molay at the stake
The Templars arrived in the Iberian peninsula -mainly controlled for centuries by the muslim Almohads- in 1130, eleven years after its constitution in Holly Land. The Master Hughes dePains, before leaving back for the East, gave the government of the Order at Languedoc, the Provence and the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula to the knight Hughes de Rigaud, an essential person to make the reconquer of the Iberian peninsula , event that the Pope Pascual II in his Bull valorated as important as the second Crusade in Palestine.
The first examples of the great work done in the Iberian peninsula by the Templars are found in the Crown of Aragon and the Catalonian counties. So then, Ramon Berenguer III would donate to the Temple the castle of Grañena, his horse and armor on July 8, 1131. One year later, the count Armengol IV of Urgel would donate the castle of Barberá to the cause of the red cross pattée.
Also in 1131, the King of Aragon, Alfonso I el Batallador (it could be translated as the battler or the warrior), makes out a will conceding a third part of his domains to the Order of the Temple. The other two parts were given to other military orders, the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and Hospitalarian Knights.
Portrait of Alphonse I «the Battler»
In Castille, the king Alfonso VII donates to the Templars the village of Villaseca in 1146 and some time later the castle of Calatrava, on the path connecting Toledo and Córdoba, where the Order of Calatrava would be born, but it is the historical battle against the muslims at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 the most important event developed by the Templars during the reconquer of the Iberian peninsula. That triple alliance of Alfonso VIII of Castille, Pedro II of Aragon and Sancho VII of Navarra against the Almohads, was properly reinforced by French Templar knights who served as elite troops of the Christians.
Castle of Calatrava
THE TEMPLAR SWORD
According to the postulates of the Retrais –rule- of the Order, we may approximately describe the original Templar sword. The 18th article of the Retrais states the compromise of every knight to carry the same equipment and stuff, obviously including kind of sword. Meanwhile, the article 66 speaks about the need to acquire horse and arms on a honest way.
Customizable Templar sword, handcrafted by the Master Swordsmith Antonio Arellano in Toledo
The Templar sword was a perfect arm for battles on horse or walking, it had a bigger size and weigh than the hand sword (the Templar sword was normally held at the horse tack) and its balance was at a higher point to put more strength at the end, providing to the knight additional safety in an eventual horse fight.
The sword blade, according the the British specialist Ewart Oakeshott, was double-edged and with much groove, always respecting the simplicity not to go against the Retrais. The knob of the sword would be always austere and without superfluous ornaments, according the the Order´s requirements.
