If you read medieval history, you will encounter the Templars, one of the Catholic Church’s orders of military monks. Any good history of the Crusades will include information and stories about them. Many good standalone histories of the Templars also await the eyes of interested readers.

John J. Robinson’s Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades is the most useful and interesting one that I’ve found so far. But Dan Jones’s The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors is good, too.

The military order was a variant of a monastic community. All members swore to abide by the Primitive Rule, which required poverty, chastity, and obedience.

But since the Templar’s order was a combat-oriented brotherhood, the Rule also provided the Templar knight with the following: “three horses, clothing, a white robe, chain mail, a helment, equipment for his horses, with the requisite sword, shield, lance, knife, battle-ax and mace, not to mention a list of personal gear, such as bedding and eating utensils” (39). Sergeants or mounted men-at-arms received two horses (47).

A Templar, in other words, was poor in personal property but equipped quite well compared to other knights, especially the ones lacking a landholding. Joining the order apparently was a popular choice among poor knights.

The Templars organized themselves in a clear hierarchy:

Grand Master

Seneschal

Treasurer

Marshal [the field commander]

Draper

Turcopoler [the commander of the light cavalry]

Templars [three classes: knights, sergeants or mounted men-at-arms, and priests]

Turcopoles [light, lay cavalry]

The order maintained Temple houses and granges throughout the European countries, and they provided a lot of the fighting men and castles in the Crusader States and the Iberian Peninsula. They also became moneylenders to kings, a practice that arguably led directly to their downfall.

The eventual end of the Templar Order was gruesome, but I’ll stop the post here for now.

Another Book of Note John Carr, The Knights Hospitaller: A Military History of the Knights of St. John [The Templars’ main rival order outlived it by centuries and has its own fascinating tale. You have not truly seen a castle until you’ve seen even a photo of Crac des Chevaliers.]