There were three main orders raised in Jerusalem: The Knights Templar, The Knights Hospitallers and the Knights of St. Lazarus. All started as forces of protection, but changed over their history in varied and unexpected ways. A fourth order rose to power in the same period and survived all the way into the twentieth century: the Teutonic Knights of Germany. Who were these knights of God? THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR The Knights Templar started out as a group of Crusader knights that were willing to escort pilgrims from Europe to the Holy Land. When they were formed in 1115 by two knights, Hugue de Pavens and Godfrey de Saint Adhemar. They, along with the seven other knights they recruited, operated out of Jerusalem, taking pilgrims to Jerico and then on to Christ's baptismal site in the Jordan river. They were known as the Poor Knights of Christ, as they had sworn a vow of poverty, obedience and chastity. The knights impressed the King of Jerusalem, and were given quarters in a wing of the Royal Palace. The wing was built on the site of the Temple of Solomon, and the knights became known as the Knights Templar henceforth. In 1124, Hugue de Payens went to France to find religious thinkers who would aid him in establishing monastic rules for the knights. He found Bernard, the abbot of the Cisercian monastery of Clairvaux, and worked out the statutes. This is the first set of monastic statutes for "military monks" in history. Such things as impudent words, senseless occupations, immoderate laughter, whispering or even suppressed giggling are strictly forbidden. The knights were to never play chess or dice, and must wear their hair short, as having long hair was known to be vain! They were to despise mimes, jugglers, story-tellers, dirty songs and the performances of buffoons! Through military successes in the Holy Land, great influence was created in the royal courts of Europe. Most of the castles, land and wealth of the order came from donations from kings and dukes who were inspired and awed by the holy knights. The whole military force of the Knights Templar never grew above 2,000 knights and an accompanying number of Sergeants (armored mounted warriors who were not knights) and squires, some 8,000 in all. After the fall of Jerusalem to the Moslems in 1243, the knights fell in numbers and reputation. Eventually, in 1307, the Pope agreed to an inquiry into allegations of blasphemy, idolatry and sodomy! The King of France, King Philip, had all of the Templars in France arrested, including all of the senior hierarchy, and had them tortured until confession. Many died, and those that later retracted their confessions were burned at the stake. Today, the most notable sign of the Knights Templars is the existence of international banking. When pilgrims would set out from Europe, they would deposit sums with the Templars in their home country or country of embarkation, and receive a promissory note. They could retrieve their money in the Holy Land when they arrived, making travel much safer. That money empire survives today as the banks of Geneva are direct descendants of the institutions put in place by the Templars. THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS In 1070, a group of merchants in Jerusalem, after the Crusaders had taken the city, set up a hospital for the dying and wounded within the city. The merchants were originally from the city of Amalfi in Italy, and they founded the Hospice of St. John the Almoner. The place was run by Benedictine monks and nuns. By 1113, the Hospice had broken away from Benedictine rule, and the Hospitallers were created as an independent religious order by Papal bull. The Order's statutes allowed the monks to take up arms in the defense of the hospitals (now several, scattered across the Middle East and into Europe.) By 1126, the Knights of St. John were organized, but were more commonly called the Knights Hospitallers. The knights fell under the same rules as the Knights Templar, and fulfilled a similar function. In the Holy Land, their armored heavy cavalry were the best troops in the entire region, and could dominate any fighting, far in excess of what their small numbers would normally merit. By 1210, the military wing of the Hospitallers rivaled the Knights Templar in military power. After the fall of Jerusalem, the power of the Knights Hospitallers fell off to such an extent that the finest castle in all of Christendom, the Krak des Chevaliers, was forced to surrender without much of a fight due to the fact that there weren't enough defenders. In 1256, the Hospitallers and the Templars took opposite sides in a desperate struggle in the city of Acre, where Genoese and Venetians were fighting for control. Knights killed knights. In 1258, a treaty between the two orders of knights was drawn up, but by that time, the damage had been done, and the growing strength of the Moslem Turks overtook the lands and castles of both orders of knights. After the fall of Jerusalem, the knights moved their headquarters first to Cyprus, then to the small island of Rhodes, and finally to the island of Malta. The order existed all the way to the Napoleonic Era. The island of Malta was surrendered to Napoleon's forces in 1798, effectively ending the Knights Hospitallers. THE KNIGHTS OF ST. LAZARUS Little is known about the Knights of St. Lazarus. It is not known when it was formed, but it was in existence by 1142, and had the alternate name of "The Leper Brothers of Jerusalem." All of the knights and their brother Sergeants and Squires were victims of leprosy. It was a rule that a Knight Templar or a Knight Hospitaller who contracted leprosy was to immediately join the Knights of St. Lazarus and wear a habit of all black, with no badges adorning it. The Knights of St. Lazarus did little in the sweeping military engagements in the Middle East, as their numbers were so small, and their forces all the victims of a terrible disease already. They did work to protect their leprosy hospitals, and fought in many of the same battles as the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller. They were disbanded around 1790, with all of their lands and holdings falling to the French Revolutionary Government.  THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS At the siege of Acre, in 1190, both the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller (with, perhaps, the Knights of St. Lazarus, although we do not know for sure) a group of German merchants set up a hospital for the sick and wounded from the fighting. The hospital, and the hospitallers who guarded it, were eventually recognized by the Holy Roman Church and established as an order, although an exceedingly small one. The hospital, and over time, all of the hospitals that were set up under the Teutonic Order, were to aid German speaking sick and wounded. Frederick of Schwaben and his brother financed the organization of the order and of its defense force, the Teutonic Knights, based on the Knights Hospitallers. The other orders of knights had already formed and taken over the prime castles and holdings in the Holy Land, and the Teutonic Knights remained somewhat smaller and poorer than their knight cousins. Because of this inability to expand in the Holy Land, and because of its origins, the Teutonic Knights maintained a distinctly German flavor. King Andrew of Hungary offered a portion of his territory to the knights if they would put down a revolt there. This they did, but in seeing how efficient the knights were, Andrew became afraid of the knights, and evicted them. Without enough support, the knights withdrew. The knights found a new home in Germany proper when in 1226, Emperor Frederick II made the leader of the knights and his successors Princes of the Empire and could wear the imperial eagle of the Holy Roman Empire on their livery. Wars were fought over the next several centuries with the Teutonic Knights operating mostly in eastern Europe. One of their most famous defeats occurred when the knights attacked a force of eastern Russians. The Russians defeated the knights when the ice of the frozen lake on which the battle was fought collapsed, killing all of the knights present, but the lighter armored Russian cavalry escaped. The incident was made famous by the classic film Alexander Nevsky. By the fifteenth century, the Order became its most powerful by concentrating on eastern Europe against the Lithuanians. They did not suffer anywhere near as badly for the loss of the Holy Land as did the other Orders of knights. During this period, it was fashionable for a European noble to be trained by the Teutonic Knights and to return to military prowess. The King of Hungary, King John of Bohemia and King Henry IV of England all once rode with the Teutonic Knights. The Order remained in existence well into the twentieth century, but as a whole did not fight any major wars. In both World Wars, the German Army boasted the HochundDeutschmcister Regiment, all members of the Order. The Second World War saw the true spirit of the knights rise up when several of the Order aided in the assassination attempt against Hitler in his bunker in 1944. All were executed. Many other orders of knights from different European countries existed during the medieval period. All showed that the practice of arms and the practice of service to God could be one in the same. None were as renowned as the four orders described here, but all had similar tenets of service and devotion. Back to MWAN # 133 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2005 by Legio X This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com