The Society
of
Knights Templar Descendants

• Historically, the Society has relied upon the list of Knights Templar published on Wikipedia. To ensure that you view only the most up-to-date information, please consult the list directly. 

• 1249 - St. Louis' Egyptian crusade, the last large-scale offensive of its type

• 1291 - Acre falls a the last bastion on the Crusader state in Palestine

• 1307 - Philip the Fair arrests Templars on October 13th

• 1310 - 54 Templars burned at the stake to harass remaining Templars into confession

• 1314 - Jacques de Molay and Geoffroi de Charnay burned at the stake; death of Philip the Fair; and death of Clement V

1. To protect travellers & Keepers of the Faith

2. To bury the dead

3. To offer shelter from the Sun and offer water to the thirsty

4. To protect the possessions of travellers

5. To protect the faith 'miles christi' (Knight of Christ)

6. To embrace a higher calling

7. To meditate everyday at set times

8. To provide food & clothing for members

9. To give yourself to the service of God

10. To be recognised as an Order

11. To live without money

12. To govern oneself

13. Knights are to wear white mantles, Sergeants and Squires to wear black or brown mantles

14. Recruit members to fight for King and faith

15. Supporters of the faith are Champagne, Anjou, Normandy, England and Scotland

16. Right to own land and take donations to the Order

17. To provide means to fight for the faith

18. Protection of the land of Jerusalem

19. Freedom from local ecclesiastical authorities

20. Titled members to be given the best robes and to wear leather gloves

21. Masons are the only other people permitted to wear gloves to protect their hands

22. Titled members are permitted to sit next to a Master at meal times

23. To be served first and given the best food

24. If a titled member sinned he would not have to work as penance, just say a prayer for forgiveness

25. Titled members can hear confessions and give absolution

26. Five faults that a titled member could not give absolution for: 

1. Killing a Christian man or women
2. Violently attacking another member
3. Attacking a member of another Order or priest
4. Renouncing the faith
5. Entering the Order through fraud

27. To act independently of ecclesiastical and secular rulers

28. The Grand Master and members are given sole responsibility for the actions and conduct of the Order

29. Ten Good Knights are appointed to defend the City of Jerusalem

30. A member is not allowed to charge without permission except to rescue another Christian in distress (he will lose his habit if he did so)

31. If the Christians were defeated in battle a member of the Order was not allowed to return to the garrison while there was still a Christian banner raised aloft, to do so is to be expelled

32. Ten Knights are to guard the Order´s banner

33. A member will be expelled if whilst carrying the banner he charges without permission or if he lowers the banner

34. Members are not allowed to lodge with other Orders accept with the Knights Hospitallers

35. Members are not allowed to eat or drink wine outside of their house, except with the Hospitallers

36. In battle a member who can not rally round the Order´s banner for any reason must go to a Hospitaller´s banner.

37. Retreat is only possible with the Hospitallers

38. Money will only be given to a member for him to purchase a particular item or perform a specific task for the Order, any sum remaining had to be returned immediately

39. A member found to have money on him when he died is not to be buried in consecrated ground, or other members to pray for his soul, his body is to be thrown to the dogs

40. The Master is not allowed to give away land without the permission of the members

41. Disobeying rules of the Order will lead to expulsion

Over 680 rules made up the Knights Templar rules.

Last Rule: "Now we have told you the things which you should do and what you should guard against, and those which lead to expulsion from the house, and the other punishments; we have not told you everything we should tell you, but you will ask." May God let you say and do well. All Templars live by one code of Life: "Do the Right Thing."

CHRONOLOGY OF THE KINGS OF JERUSALEM

The following is a list of the Kings of Jerusalem during the Templar era (1118 – 1314). It is important to note that, although Godfroi de Boullion is listed here, he did not accept the title of King; rather, he took the title of Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. 

• 1099 – 1100 Godfroi de Boullion

• 1100 – 1113 Baldwin I

• 1113 – 1131 Baldwin II

• 1131 – 1143 Fulk V

• 1143 – 1162 Baldwin III

• 1162 – 1174 Amalric I

• 1174 – 1185 Baldwin IV

• 1185 – 1186 Baldwin V

• 1186 – 1190 Guy

• 1192 – 1197 Henry

• 2298 – 1205 Amalric II

• 1210 – 1225 John of Brienne

• 1225 – 1228 Frederick II

• 1228 – 1254 Conrad

• 1254 – 1268 Couradin

• 1268 – 1284 Hugh III

• 1284 – 1285 John I

• 1285 – 1291 Henry II

CHRONOLOGY OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND

The following is a list of the Kings of England during the Templar era (1118 – 1314).

• 1087 – 1100 William II

• 1100 – 1135 Henry I

• 1135 – 1154 Stephen

• 1154 – 1189 Henry II

• 1189 – 1199 Richard I, a noted companion of the Templars

• 1199 – 1216 John

• 1216 – 1272 Henry III

• 1272 – 1307 Edward I

• 1307 – 1327 Edward II

CHRONOLOGY OF THE KINGS OF FRANCE

The following is a list of the Kings of France during the Templar era (1118 – 1314). Of special note is Philip IV, who is infamous in the annals of Templar history.

• 1060 – 1108 Philip I

• 1108 – 1137 Louis VI

• 1137 – 1180 Louis VII

• 1180 – 1223 Philip II

• 1223 – 1226 Louis VIII

• 1226 – 1270 Louis IX

• 1270 – 1285 Philip III

• 1285 – 1314 Philip IV

THE LAST CRUSADE OF THE TEMPLARS

Ruth Gledhill
The Times
Monday, November 29, 2004

The knights want a Papal apology nearly 700 years after they were disbanded and hounded into exile

The Vatican is giving “serious consideration” to apologising for the persecution that led to the suppression of the Knights Templar.

The suppression, which began on Friday , October 13, 1307, gave Friday the Thirteenth its superstitious legacy.

A Templar Order in Britain that claims to be descended from the original Knights Templar has asked that the Pope should make the apology.

The Templars, based in Hertford, are hoping for an apology by 2007, the 700th anniversary of the start of the persecution, which culminated with the torture and burning at the stake of the Grand Master Jacques de Molay for heresy and the dissolution of the Order by apostolic decree in 1312.

The letter, signed by the Secretary of the Council of Chaplains on behalf of the Grand Master of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the Temple of Solomon Grand Preceptory, with a PO box address in Hertford, formally requests an apology “for the torture and murder of our leadership”, instigated by Pope Clement V.

“We shall witness the 700th anniversary of the persecution of our order on 13th October 2007,” the letter says. “It would be just and fitting for the Vatican to acknowledge our grievance in advance of this day of mourning.”

Apologies have already been made by the Roman Catholic Church for the persecution of Galileo and for the Crusades. The Templars hope that these precedents will make their suit more likely to succeed.

Hertford Templar Tim Acheson, who is descended from the Scottish Acheson family that has established Templar links and whose family lived until recently in Bailey Hall, Hertford, said: “This letter is a serious attempt by a Templar group which traces its roots back to the medieval Order to solicit an apology from the Papacy.”

He added: “The Papacy and the Kingdom of France conspired to destroy the Order for reasons which modern historians judge to be primarily political. Their methods and motives are now universally regarded as brutal, unfair and unjustified.

“The Knights Templar officially ceased to exist in the early 1300s, but the order continued underground. It was a huge organisation and the vast majority of Templars survived the persecution, including most of their leaders, along with much of their treasure and, most importantly, their original values and traditions.”

The Hertford Mercury newspaper has reported newly discovered Templar links with Hertford, including a warren of tunnels beneath the town. At the heart of the maze of tunnels is Hertford Castle, where in 1309 four Templars from Temple Dinsley near Hitchin were imprisoned after their arrest by Edward II, who believed that they were holding a lost treasure. The treasure was never found.

When Subterranea Britannica, a group of amateur archaeologists, expressed an interest in investigating Hertford’s tunnels last month, they received anonymous threats telling them not to.

The Templars captured Jerusalem during the Crusades and were known as “keepers of the Holy Grail”, said to be the cup used at the Last Supper or as the receptacle used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch Christ’s blood as he bled on the Cross, or both.

Interest in the Templars and the Holy Grail is at an unprecedented high after the success of books such as The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, and the earlier Holy Blood Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, which claimed that Jesus survived the crucifixion and settled in France.

The Knights Templar were founded by Hugh de Payens, a French knight from the Champagne area of Burgundy, and eight companions in 1118 during the reign of Baldwin II of Jerusalem, when they took a perpetual vow to defend the Christian kingdom. They were assigned quarters next to the Temple. In 1128, they took up the white habit of the Cistercians, adding a red cross. The order knights, sergeants, farmers and chaplains amassed enormous wealth.

In Rome, a Vatican spokesman said that the demand for an apology would be given “serious consideration”. However, Vatican insiders said that the Pope, 84, was under pressure from conservative cardinals to “stop saying sorry” for the errors of the past, after a series of papal apologies for the Crusades, the Inquisition, Christian anti-Semitism and the persecution of scientists and “heretics” such as Galileo.

The Jerusalem Cross, also known as the Crusaders’ Cross, was the emblem of the Templar Crusaders and is believed to have been the personal arms of Godfrey de Bouillon, one of the leaders of the First Crusade. This distinctive heraldic symbol consists of a large central Greek cross surrounded by four smaller Greek crosses, one in each quadrant.

Over the centuries, the Jerusalem Cross has inspired a variety of interpretations. One of the most common is that the five crosses represent the five wounds of Christ. Others see the central cross as a symbol of Christ and the four smaller crosses as representing the spread of the Gospel to the four corners of the earth. Some traditions associate the smaller crosses with four of the principal nations involved in the Crusades—England, France, Spain, and Germany—while the central cross stands for Italy and the Pope, in recognition of the papal call to arms that launched the First Crusade. Another interpretation links the central cross to the crucified Christ, and the smaller crosses to the four Evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Today, the Jerusalem Cross remains a powerful Christian symbol. It is widely seen throughout the Holy Land and is often used to mark sacred sites, particularly those under the guardianship of Christian custodians. In the United States, it serves as the official cross of the Washington National Cathedral, symbolizing both spiritual heritage and global mission.

• Knights Templar in England