The Knights Templars

Large towers were erected upon floating rafts to protect their operations, but they were constantly destroyed by the terrible Greek fire, which was blown out of long copper tubes, and could be extinguished with nothing but vinegar and sand. At last a number of flat-bottomed boats were lashed together, and a tower, higher than the castle of the enemy, was erected upon them. It was ninety feet in height, thirteen cubits in length, and was divided into platforms or stages, filled with archers; numerous loop-holes were pierced in the walls, and the ponderous structure was thickly covered in every part with raw hides, to preserve it from the liquid fire of the enemy. Upon the top of the tower was a drawbridge, which could be raised and lowered with chains, and on each platform were grappling irons, to be made fast to the battlements and parapets of the castle. On the 24th of August, the vast floating tower was towed to the point of attack, and the left bank of the Nile was covered with a long procession of priests and monks, who traversed the winding shore, with naked feet and uplifted hands, praying to the God of battles for victory. Whilst the infidels were hurrying to the summit of the castle of Taphnis, to direct the Greek fire upon the wooden tower, and to pour boiling oil and red-hot sand upon the heads of the assailants, some Templars, who were stationed in the lowest platform of the structure near the water, threw out their grapling-irons, and made a lodgment upon the causeway in front of the castle. Without a moment’s delay, they handed out a battering-ram, and with one blow knocked in the door of the fortress. Combustibles were immediately thrown into the interior of the building, the place was enveloped in smoke and flames, and the garrison surrendered at discretion. The vast chain between the castle and the river was then rent asunder, and the large ships of the crusaders ascended the Nile, and took up a position in front of the town.

Toward the close of autumn, when the inundation of the Nile was at its height, a strong north wind arose, and impeded the descent of the waters to the Mediterranean. The christian camp was overflowed, the Templars lost all their provisions, arms, and baggage; and when the waters receded, several large fish were found in their tents. This catastrophe was followed by an epidemic fever, which carried off the Grand Master, William de Chartres, and many of the brethren. The Grand Master was succeeded (A. D. 1218) by the veteran warrior, Brother Peter de Montaigu, Grand Preceptor of Spain. At this period the renowned Saif-ed-din, “sword of the faith,” the brother and successor of Saladin, died, having appointed his fifteen sons to separate and independent commands in his vast dominions. After his decease they quarrelled with one another for the supremacy, and the Templars crossed the Nile to take advantage of the dispute. The infidels fiercely opposed their landing, and one of the Temple vessels being boarded by an overpowering force, the military friars cut a hole in the bottom of it with their hatchets, and all on board met with a watery grave in the deep bosom of the Nile. When the landing was effected, the Templars were the first to charge the enemy; the Moslems fled and abandoned their tents, provisions, and arms, and their camp was given up to plunder. A trench was then drawn around the city of Damietta, and the army took up a position which enabled them to deprive the town of all succour. Two bridges of boats were thrown across the Nile to communicate between the new camp of the crusaders and the one they had just quitted; and one of these bridges was placed under the protection of the Templars. After many brilliant exploits and sanguinary encounters, Damietta was reduced to great straits; terms of surrender were offered and refused; and on the 5th of November a wooden bridge was thrown over the ditch; scaling ladders were reared against the battlements, and the town was taken by assault. When the Templars entered the place, they found the plague in every house, and the streets strewed with the dead.

Immediately after the capture of Damietta, the Grand Master of the Temple returned with the king of Jerusalem to Palestine, to oppose a fresh army of Moslems who, under the command of Coradin, a famous chieftain, had invaded the country, blockaded the city of Acre, and laid siege to the Pilgrim’s Castle. In their intrenched camp at this castle, the Templars mustered a force of upwards of four thousand men, who valiantly and successfully defended the important position against the obstinate and persevering attacks of the infidels. During the different assaults upon the place, Coradin lost six emirs, two hundred Mamlooks, and a number of archers; and on one day alone he had a hundred and twenty valuable horses slain, one of which cost fourteen thousand marks.104 The Templars sent urgent letters to the pope for succour. They exhorted his holiness to compel the emperor Frederick to perform his vow, and no longer to permit the crusaders to compound with money for the non-fulfilment of their engagements, declaring that such compositions had been most injurious to the cause of the cross. The Grand Master also wrote to the pope, complaining to his holiness of the misapplication by the clergy of the money collected from their flocks, towards the expenses of the holy war, declaring that not a twentieth part of it ever reached the empty treasury of the Latin kingdom. The holy pontiff, in his reply, protests that he has not himself fingered a farthing of the money. “If you have not received it,” says he, “it is not our fault, it is because we have not been obeyed.”

In a mournful letter to the bishop of Ely, the Grand Master gives the following gloomy picture of the state of affairs. “Brother Peter de Montaigu, Master of the Knights of the Temple, to the reverend brother in Christ, N, by the grace of God, bishop of Ely, salvation. We proceed by these our letters to inform your paternity how we have managed the affairs of our Lord Jesus Christ since the capture of Damietta and the castle of Taphnis. Be it known to you, that during the spring passage to Europe, immediately subsequent to the capture of Damietta, so many of the pilgrims returned home, that the residue of them scarce sufficed to garrison the town, and the two intrenched camps. Our lord the legate, and the clergy, earnestly desiring the advancement of the army of Jesus Christ, constantly and diligently exhorted our people forthwith to take the field against the infidels; but the chieftains from these parts, and from beyond the sea, perceiving that the army was totally insufficient in point of numbers to guard the city and the camps, and undertake further offensive operations for the advancement of the faith of Jesus Christ, would on no account give their consent. The sultan of Egypt, at the head of a vast number of the perfidious infidels, lies encamped a short distance from Damietta, and he has recently constructed bridges across both branches of the Nile, to impede the further progress of our christian soldiers. He there remains, quietly awaiting their approach; and the forces under his command are so numerous, that the faithful cannot quit their intrenchments around Damietta, without incurring imminent risk. In the mean time, we have surrounded the town, and the two camps, with deep trenches, and have strongly fortified both banks of the river as far as the sea-coast, expecting that the Lord will console and comfort us with speedy succour. But the Saracens, perceiving our weakness, have already armed numerous galleys, and have inflicted vast injury upon us by intercepting all the succours from Europe; and such has been our extreme want of money, that we have been unable for a considerable period to man and equip our galleys and send them to sea for our protection. Finding, however, that the losses go on increasing to the great detriment of the cause of the cross, we have now managed to arm some galleys, galliots, and other craft, to oppose the ships of the infidels.

“Also be it known to you that Coradin, sultan of Damascus, having collected together a vast army of Saracens, hath attacked the cities of Tyre and Acre; and as the garrisons of these places have been weakened to strengthen our forces in Egypt, they can with difficulty sustain themselves against his attacks. Coradin hath also pitched his tents before our fortress, called the Pilgrim’s Castle, and hath put us to immense expense in the defence of the place. He hath also besieged and subjugated the castle of Cæsarea of Palestine. We have now for a long time been expecting the arrival of the emperor, and the other noble personages who have assumed the cross, by whose aid we hope to be relieved from our dangers and difficulties, and to bring all our exertions to a happy issue. But if we are disappointed of the succour we expect in the ensuing summer (which God forbid) all our newly-acquired conquests, as well as the places that we have held for ages past, will be left in a very doubtful condition. We ourselves, and others in these parts, are so impoverished by the heavy expenses we have incurred in prosecuting the affairs of Jesus Christ, that we shall be unable to contribute the necessary funds, unless we speedily receive succour and subsidies from the faithful. Given at Acre, xii. kal. Octob., A. D. 1220.”105

The urgent solicitations of the Templars for money created loud murmurs in England, and excited the wrath of the great historian, Matthew Paris, the monk of St. Albans, who hated the order on account of its vast privileges, and the sums it constantly drew away from the hands of other religious bodies. The clergy, who had probably misapplied the money collected by them for the relief of the Holy Land, joined eagerly in an outcry against the Templars, accusing them of squandering their funds upon magnificent churches and expensive buildings in Europe, or of spending them at home in luxurious ease at their different preceptories, instead of faithfully employing them in the prosecution of the holy war. The pope instituted an inquiry into the truth of the charges, and wrote to his legate at Damietta, to the patriarch of Jerusalem, and the principal chieftains of the army of the crusaders, for information. In their reply, the legate and the patriarch state that the charges were untrue, and that the Templars had expended their money in the prosecution of the siege of Damietta, and had impoverished themselves by their heavy expenses in Egypt. During the summer of the year 1221, considerable succours arrived in Palestine and Egypt from Europe; the troops of the sultan of Damascus were repulsed and driven beyond the frontier of the Latin kingdom, and the Grand Master of the Temple returned to Damietta to superintend the military operations in Egypt. Cardinal Pelagius, the papal legate, though altogether ignorant of the art of war, had unfortunately assumed the inconsistent character of commander-in-chief of the army of the cross. Contrary to the advice of the Templars, he urged the crusaders, during the autumnal season, when the waters of the Nile were rising, to march out of Damietta to undertake an expedition against Grand Cairo. The disastrous results of that memorable campaign are narrated in the following letter from Peter de Montaigu to the Master of the English province of the order.

“Brother Peter de Montaigu, humble Master of the soldiers of Christ, to our vicegerent and beloved brother in Christ, Alan Marcell, Preceptor of England. Hitherto we have had favourable information to communicate unto you touching our exertions in the cause of Christ; now, alas! such have been the reverses and disasters which our sins have brought upon us in the land of Egypt, that we have nothing but ill news to announce. After the capture of Damietta, our army remained for some time in a state of inaction, which brought upon us frequent complaints and reproaches from the eastern and the western Christians. At length, after the feast of the holy apostles, the legate of the holy pontiff, and all our soldiers of the cross, put themselves in march by land and by the Nile, and arrived in good order at the spot where the sultan was encamped, at the head of an immense number of the enemies of the cross. The river Taphneos, an arm of the great Nile, flowed between the camp of the sultan and our forces, and being unable to ford this river, we pitched our tents on its banks, and prepared bridges to enable us to force the passage. In the mean time, the annual inundation rapidly increased, and the sultan, passing his galleys and armed boats through an ancient canal, floated them into the Nile below our positions, and intercepted our communications with Damietta.”… “Nothing now was to be done but to retrace our steps. The sultans of Aleppo, Damascus, Hems, and Coilanbar, the two brothers of the sultan, and many chieftains and kings of the pagans, with an immense multitude of infidels who had come to their assistance, attempted to cut off our retreat. At night we commenced our march, but the infidels cut through the embankments of the Nile, the water rushed along several unknown passages and ancient canals, and encompassed us on all sides. We lost all our provisions, many of our men were swept into the stream, and the further progress of our christian warriors was forthwith arrested. The waters continued to increase upon us, and in this terrible inundation we lost all our horses and saddles, our carriages, baggage, furniture, and moveables, and everything that we had. We ourselves could neither advance nor retreat, and knew not whither to turn. We could not attack the Egyptians on account of the great lake which extended itself between them and us; we were without food, and being caught and pent up like fish in a net, there was nothing left for us but to treat with the sultan.

“We agreed to surrender Damietta, with all the prisoners which we had in Tyre and at Acre, on condition that the sultan restored to us the wood of the true cross and the prisoners that he detained at Cairo and Damascus. We, with some others, were deputed by the whole army to announce to the people of Damietta the terms that had been imposed upon us. These were very displeasing to the bishop of Acre, (James de Vitry, the historian,) to the chancellor, and some others, who wished to defend the town, a measure which we should indeed have greatly approved of, had there been any reasonable chance of success; for we would rather have been thrust into perpetual imprisonment than have surrendered, to the shame of Christendom, this conquest to the infidels. But after having made a strict investigation into the means of defence, and finding neither men nor money wherewith to protect the place, we were obliged to submit to the conditions of the sultan, who, after having extracted from us an oath and hostages, accorded to us a truce of eight years. During the negotiations the sultan faithfully kept his word, and for the space of fifteen days furnished our soldiers with the bread and corn necessary for their subsistence. Do you, therefore, pitying our misfortunes, hasten to relieve them to the utmost of your ability. Farewell.”106

Shortly after the disasters in Egypt, and the conclusion of the eight years’ truce with the infidels, John de Brienne, the titular king of Jerusalem, prepared to bid adieu for ever to Palestine. Since the death of the young queen, his wife, he had regarded his kingdom as a place of exile, and was anxious to escape from the toil and turmoil and incessant warfare in which his feeble dominions were continually involved. His daughter Violante, the young queen of Jerusalem, had just attained her thirteenth year, and the king was anxious to seek a suitable husband for her from among the European princes. Accompanied by the fair Violante, he landed in Italy, and attended a council of the clergy and the laity assembled at Ferentino, in the Campagna di Roma, in the summer of the year 1223. Pope Honorius the Third, the emperor Frederick, the patriarch of the Holy City, the bishop of Bethlehem, the Grand Master of the Hospital, and one of the Grand Preceptors of the Temple, were present at this council, and the pope urged the emperor to fulfil the vow which he had made eight years before to lead an army to the succour of the Holy Land; offering him the hand of the lovely Violante, and with her the crown of the Latin kingdom. This offer was accepted, the nuptials were shortly afterwards celebrated, and the emperor solemnly took his oath upon the Holy Gospel to lead in person a great expedition for the recovery of Jerusalem.

Violante had been accompanied from Palestine by a female cousin, possessed of powerful charms and many graceful accomplishments. The emperor became captivated with her beauty, he dishonoured her, and treated his young wife, who was a mere child in years, with coldness and neglect. He then, in the middle of August, A. D. 1227, set sail for Acre with a powerful army, and was at sea three days, when he became sea-sick, and returned to land on a plea of ill health. He was consequently publicly excommunicated by the pope in the great church of Anagni. Without troubling himself to obtain a reconciliation with the holy see, he again embarked with his forces, and arrived in the port of St. Jean d’Acre on the 8th of September, A. D. 1228. The pope then sent letters to Palestine denouncing him as publicly excommunicated, and commanded the Templars not to join his standard. They accordingly refused to take the field, and as the forces under the command of the emperor did not amount to ten thousand men, he was obliged to remain inactive during the winter. He, however, carried on friendly negotiations with the infidels, and a treaty was entered into whereby Jerusalem was nominally surrendered to him. It was stipulated that the Christian and Mussulman religion should meet with equal toleration in the Holy City; that the followers of Mahomet should possess the Mosque of Omar, and the Christians the great church of the Resurrection; that the Moslems should be governed by their own laws, and that the court of judicature in the forum of Al Rostak should be under the direction of a Moslem governor.107

Immediately after the conclusion of this curious treaty, the emperor made a peaceful march to the Holy City with a few attendants, and performed the solemn farce of crowning himself in the church of the Resurrection. After a stay of a few days in Jerusalem, he hurried back to Acre to prepare for his departure for Europe. No christian garrison was established in the city, nor did the Templars and Hospitallers venture to return to their ancient abodes. His conduct, immediately preceding his departure, is thus described in a letter from the patriarch of Jerusalem to the pope. “The emperor placed archers at the gates of the city of Acre, to prevent the Templars from entering into or proceeding out of the town. He moreover placed soldiers in all the streets leading to our quarter and the Temple, keeping us in a state of siege; and it is evident that he has never treated the Saracens half so badly as he has treated the Christians. For a long time he refused to permit any provisions to be brought to us, and instructed his soldiers to insult the priests and the Templars whenever they met them. He moreover got possession of the magazines, and removed all the military machines and arms, preserved for the defence of the city, with a view of rendering good service to his kind friend the sultan of Egypt; and afterwards, without saying adieu to anybody, he embarked secretly on the 1st of May, (A. D. 1229,) leaving us worse off than he found us.”108

The Grand Master of the Temple, Peter de Montaigu, died at Acre at an advanced age, and was succeeded (A. D. 1233) by Brother Hermann de Perigord, Grand Preceptor of Calabria and Sicily.109 Shortly after his accession to power, the truce with the sultan of Aleppo expired, and Brother William de Montferrat, Preceptor of Antioch, having besieged a fortress of the infidels, refused to retreat before a superior force, and was surrounded and overwhelmed; a hundred knights of the Temple, and three hundred cross-bowmen were slain, together with many secular warriors, and a large number of foot soldiers. The Balcanifer, or standard-bearer, on this occasion, was an English Knight Templar, named Reginald d’Argenton, who performed prodigies of valour. He was disabled and covered with wounds, yet he unflinchingly bore the Beauseant aloft with his bleeding arms into the thickest of the fight, until he at last fell dead upon a heap of his slaughtered comrades. The Preceptor of Antioch, before he was slain, “sent sixteen infidels to hell.” As soon as the Templars in England heard of this disaster, they sent, (A. D. 1236,) in conjunction with the Hospitallers, instant succour to their brethren. “Having made their arrangements,” says Matthew Paris, “they started from the house of the Hospitallers at Clerkenwell in London, and passed through the city with spears held aloft, shields displayed, and banners advanced. They marched in splendid pomp to the bridge, and sought a blessing from all who crowded to see them pass. The brothers indeed, uncovered, bowed their heads from side to side, and recommended themselves to the prayers of all.”

A new crusade had already been preached in Europe by Pope Gregory IX., and the Templars, expecting the arrival of speedy succour, and being desirous of taking advantage of the dissensions that had arisen amongst the Saracens, had recommenced hostilities with the sultans of Egypt and Damascus. Thibaut I., king of Navarre, and count of Champagne, the duke of Burgundy, and the counts of Brittany and Bar, who had arrived in Palestine with several other nobles and knights, and a considerable force of armed pilgrims, marched with a party of Templars to attack the sultan of Egypt, whilst the Grand Master prepared to invade the territory of the sultan of Damascus. In a bloody battle fought with the Mamlooks, near Gaza, the count de Bar and many knights and persons of quality, and all the foot soldiers, were slain; the count de Montfort was taken prisoner, and all the equipage and baggage of the army was lost. The king of Navarre and the survivors then retreated to Jaffa, and set sail from that port for St. Jean d’Acre. On their arrival at this place, they joined the Grand Master of the Temple, who was encamped at the palm-grove of Caiphas. Thence they marched towards Tiberias, and on their arrival at Sepphoris, they met some messengers who were proceeding from Saleh Ismael, the sultan of Damascus, to the Grand Master of the Temple, with overtures of peace, and offers to surrender Jerusalem upon the following terms: – The Moslem and christian prisoners of war were immediately to be set at liberty; all Palestine, between the sea-coast and the Jordan, excepting the cities of St. Abraham, Naplous, and Bisan, was to be surrendered to the Christians; the Christians were to assist the sultan of Damascus in a war which had broken out between him and Nojmoddin Ayoub sultan of Egypt; they were to march with all their forces to the south to occupy Jaffa and Ascalon, and prevent the latter potentate from marching through Palestine to attack the sultan of Damascus; and lastly, no truce was to be entered into with the sultan of Egypt by the Christians, unless the sultan of Damascus was included therein. The Grand Master of the Temple acceded to these terms, and induced the chiefs of the crusaders to assent to the compact; but the Grand Master of the Hospital refused to be a party to it. It is said that he entered into a separate and independent treaty with Nojmoddin Ayoub, who had just mounted the throne of Egypt, so that one of the great military orders remained at war with the sultan of Damascus, and the other with the sultan of Egypt. Immediately after the conclusion of this treaty, the Templars assembled all their disposable forces and proceeded to Jaffa with the count de Nevers, and a body of newly arrived crusaders, and co-operated with an army which the sultan of Damascus had sent into that neighbourhood to act against the Egyptians. In the mean time, Richard, earl of Cornwall, the brother of Henry III., king of England, having assumed the cross, arrived in Palestine, and proceeded with a small force of English pilgrims, knights, and foot soldiers, to the camp of the Templars at Jaffa. With this welcome reinforcement the Grand Master of the Temple marched at once upon Ascalon, re-constructed the castle and restored the fortifications to the state in which they were left by Richard Cœur de Lion. The Templars then endeavoured to obtain possession of their ancient fortress of Gaza, (ante, p. 49,) a place of very great importance. An invading army from the south could approach Jerusalem only by way of Gaza, or by taking a long and tedious route through the desert of Arabia Petræa, to Karac, and from thence to Hebron, by the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. The want of water and forage presented an insuperable obstacle to the march of a large body of forces in any other direction. Towards the close of autumn, the Templars marched against Gaza in conjunction with Saleh Ismael, sultan of Damascus; they drove out the Egyptians, and obtained possession of the dismantled fortifications. Large sums of money were expended in the re-construction of the walls of the castle, a strong garrison was established in the important post, and the Templars then marched upon Jerusalem.