The Knights Templar

The Knights Templar (also known as the Order of Solomon’s Temple, and the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon), were a Catholic military order, founded in 1119 which existed for nearly two centuries in the Middle Ages. They were created as a monastic religious order, charged with protecting pilgrims to the Holy Land after the First Crusade.

Due to this, they became a favoured charity throughout the Christian countries, and rapidly grew in power, membership and riches. Along with protecting pilgrims, they got involved in Finance, Land, and managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom.

Eventually, they gained too much power, which, along with the rumours of a secret initiation ceremony, created distrust, allowing King Philip IV of France to remove them, so he didn’t have to pay back his debts to the order. In 1307, he persuaded the Pope to have many of the order’s members arrested, tortured and burned at the stake, before the order was disbanded in 1312.

Due to the, fairly abrupt, disbandment, many myths and legends about the order have appeared over the centuries.