The Knights Templars

“In the name of God, the most MERCIFUL and COMPASSIONATE. To all devout Believers in the one only God, and his prophet Mahomet, our Master. The armies of the infidels, numerous as the stars of heaven, have come forth from the remote countries situate beyond Constantinople, to wrest from us those conquests which have gladdened the hearts of all who put their trust in the Koran, and to dispute with us the possession of that holy territory whereon the Caliph Omar, in bygone days, planted the sacred standard of the Prophet. O men, prepare ye to sacrifice your lives and fortunes in defence of Islam. Your marches against the infidels, the dangers you encounter, the wounds you receive, and every minute action, down to the fording of a river, are they not written in the book of God? Thirst, hunger, fatigue, and death, will they not obtain for you the everlasting treasures of heaven, and open to your gaze the delicious groves and gardens of Paradise? In whatsoever place ye remain, O men, death hath dominion over you, and neither your houses, your lands, your wives, your children, nor the strongest towers, can defend you from his darts. Some of you, doubtless, have said one to another, Let us not go up to fight during the heat of summer; and others have exclaimed, Let us remain at home until the snow hath melted away from the mountain tops; but is not the fire of hell more terrible than the heats of summer, and are not its torments more insupportable than the winter’s cold? Fear God, and not the infidels; hearken to the voice of your chief, for it is Saladin himself who calls you to rally around the standard of Islam. If you obey not, your families will be driven out of Syria, and God will put in their places a people better than you. Jerusalem, the holy, the sister of Medina and Mecca, will again fall into the power of the idolaters, who assign to God a son, and raise up an equal to the Most High. Arm yourselves then, with the buckler and the lance, scatter these children of fire, the wicked sons of hell, whom the sea hath vomited forth upon our shores, repeating to yourselves these words of the Koran, ‘He who abandoneth his home and family to defend our holy religion, shall be rewarded with happiness, and with many friends.’”89

The siege of Acre was now pressed with great vigour; the combined fleets of France and England completely deprived the city of all supplies by sea, and the garrison was reduced to great straits. The sultan despaired of being able to save the city, and was sick, Bohadin tells us, both in mind and body. He could neither eat nor drink. At night he would lie down upon the side of the hill Aladajia, and indulge in some broken slumbers, but at morning’s dawn he was on horseback, ordering his brazen drum to be sounded, and collecting his army together in battle array. At last letters were received, by means of pigeons, announcing that the garrison could hold out no longer. “Saladin gazed,” says Bohadin, “long and earnestly at the city, his eyes were suffused with tears, and he sorrowfully exclaimed, ‘Alas for Islam!’” On the morning of the 12th of July, (A. D. 1191,) the kings of France and England, the christian chieftains, and the Turkish emirs with their green banners, assembled in the tent of the Grand Master of the Temple, to treat for the surrender of Acre; and on the following day the gates were thrown open to the exulting warriors of the cross. The Templars took possession of their ancient quarters by the side of the sea, and mounted a large red-cross banner upon the tower of the Temple. They possessed themselves of three extensive localities along the sea-shore, and the Temple at Acre from thenceforth became the chief house of the order. Richard Cœur de Lion took up his abode with the Templars whilst Philip Augustus resided in the citadel.

By the terms of the surrender of Acre, the inhabitants were to pay a ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold for their lives and liberties; two thousand noble and five hundred inferior christian captives were to be set at liberty, and the true cross, which had been taken at the battle of Tiberias, was to be restored to the Latin clergy. Two months were accorded for the performance of these conditions. I’Bn Alatsyr, who was then in Saladin’s camp, tells us that Saladin had collected together 100,000 pieces of gold, that he was ready to deliver up the two thousand five hundred christian captives, and restore the true cross, but his Mamlook emirs advised him not to trust implicitly to the good faith of the christian adventurers of Europe for the performance of their part of the treaty, but to obtain from the Templars, of whose regard for their word, and reverence for the sanctity of an oath, the Moslems had, he tells us, a high opinion, a solemn undertaking for the performance, by the Christians, of the stipulations they had entered into. Saladin accordingly sent to the Grand Master of the Temple, to know if the Templars would guarantee the surrender to him of all the Moslem prisoners, if the money, the christian captives, and the true cross, were sent to them; but the Grand Master declined giving any guarantee of the kind. The doubts about the agreement, and the delay in the execution of it, kindled the fierce indignation of the English monarch, and Richard Cœur de Lion led out all his prisoners, 2,000 in number, into the plain of Acre, and caused them all to be beheaded in sight of the sultan’s camp!90 During his voyage from Messina to Acre, king Richard had revenged himself on Isaac Comnenus, the ruler of the island of Cyprus, for an insult offered to the beautiful Berengaria, princess of Navarre, his betrothed bride. He had disembarked his troops, stormed the town of Limisso, and conquered the whole island; and shortly after his arrival at Acre he sold it to the Templars for 300,000 livres d’or.91

On the 21st of August, (A. D. 1191,) the Templars joined the standard of king Richard, and left Acre for the purpose of marching upon Jerusalem, by way of the sea-coast. They crossed the river Belus, and pitched their tents on its banks, where they remained for three days, to collect all the troops together. The most copious and authentic account of their famous march by the side of the king of England, through the hostile territories of the infidels, is contained in the history of king Richard’s campaign, by Geoffrey de Vinisauf, who accompanied the crusaders on their expedition, and was an actor in the stirring events he describes.92 On Sunday, the 25th of August, the Templars, under the conduct of their Grand Master, and the crusaders, under the command of king Richard, commenced their march towards Cæsarea. The army was separated into three divisions, the first of which was led by the Templars, and the last by the Hospitallers. The baggage moved on the right of the army, between the line of march and the sea, and the fleet, loaded with provisions, kept pace with the movements of the forces, and furnished them daily with the necessary supplies. Saladin, at the head of an immense force, exerted all his energies to oppose their progress, and the march to Jaffa formed one perpetual battle. Vast masses of cavalry hovered upon their flanks, cut off all stragglers, and put every prisoner that they took to death. The first night after leaving the Belus, the Templars and the crusaders encamped along the banks of the brook Kishon, around some wells in the plain between Acre and Caiphas. The next day they forded the brook, fought their way to Caiphas, and there halted for one day, in order that the reluctant crusaders, who were lingering behind at Acre, might come on and join them. On Wednesday, September 28, at dawn of day, they prepared to force the passes and defiles of Mount Carmel. All the heights were covered with dense masses of Mussulmen, who disputed the ground inch by inch. The Templars placed themselves in the van of the christian army, and headed the leading column, whilst the cavalry of the Hospitallers protected the rear. They ascended the heights through a dense vegetation of dry thistles, wild vines, and prickly shrubs, drove the infidels before them, crossed the summit of Mount Carmel, and descending into the opposite plain, encamped for the night at the pass by the sea-shore, called “the narrow way,” about eight miles from Caiphas. Here they recovered possession of a solitary tower, perched upon a rock overhanging the pass, which had been formerly built by the Templars, but had for some time past been in the hands of the Saracens. After lingering at this place an entire day, waiting the arrival of the fleet and the barges, laden with provisions, they recommenced their march (Friday, the 13th of August) to Tortura, the ancient Dora, about seven miles distant. The Grand Master of the Temple, and his valiant knights, were, as usual, in the van, forcing a passage through the dense masses of the Moslems. The country in every direction around their line of march, was laid waste, and every day the attacks became more daring. The military friars had hitherto borne the brunt of the affray, but on the march to Tortura, they suffered such heavy loss, that king Richard determined the next day to take the command of the van in person, and he directed them to bring up the rear.

On the fifth day from their leaving the river Belus, the Templars and the crusaders approached the far-famed Cæsarea, where St. Paul so long resided, and where he uttered his eloquent oration before king Agrippa and Felix. But the town was no longer visible; the walls, the towers, the houses, and all the public buildings, had been destroyed by command of Saladin, and the place was left deserted and desolate. The Templars pitched their tents on the banks of the Crocodile river, the flumen crocodilon of Pliny, having been five days in performing the journey from the river Belus, a distance of only thirty-six miles. The army halted at Cæsarea during the whole of Sunday, the 1st of September, and high mass was celebrated by the clergy with great pomp and solemnity, amid the ruins of the city. On Monday, the 2nd of September, the tents of the Templars were struck at morning’s dawn, and they commenced their march, with the leading division of the army, for the city of Jaffa, which is about thirty miles distant from Cæsarea. They forded the Crocodile river, and proceeded on their journey through a long and narrow valley, torn by torrents, and filled with vast masses of rock, which had been washed down from the heights by the winter rains. They had the sea on their right, and on their left, a chain of craggy eminences. Every advantage was taken by the enemy of the irregularity of the ground; the Mussulman archers lined the heights, and vast masses of cavalry were brought into action, wherever the nature of the country admitted of their employment. The christian warriors were encumbered with their heavy armour and military accoutrements, which were totally unfit for the burning climate, yet they enthusiastically toiled on, perseveringly overcoming all obstacles.

Bohadin speaks with admiration of the valiant and martial bearing of the warriors of the cross, and of their fortitude and patient endurance during the long and trying march from Acre to Jaffa. “On the sixth day,” says he, “the sultan rose at dawn as usual, and heard from his brother that the enemy were in motion. They had slept that night in suitable places about Cæsarea, and were now dressing and taking their food. A second messenger announced that they had begun their march; our brazen drum was sounded, all were alert, the sultan came out, and I accompanied him: he surrounded them with chosen troops, and gave the signal for attack. The archers were drawn out, and a heavy shower of arrows descended, still the enemy advanced… Their foot soldiers were covered with thick-strung pieces of cloth, fastened together with rings, so as to resemble coats of mail. I saw with my own eyes several who had not one or two, but ten darts sticking in their backs! and yet marched on with a calm and cheerful step, without any trepidation. They had a division of infantry in reserve, to protect those who were weary, and look after the baggage. When any portion of their men became exhausted and gave way through fatigue or wounds, this division advanced and supported them. Their cavalry in the mean time kept together in close column, and never moved away from the infantry, except when they rushed to the charge. In vain did our troops attempt to lure them away from the foot soldiers; they kept steadily together in close order, protecting one another and slowly forcing their way with wonderful perseverance.”

After a short march of only eight miles from Cæsarea, the Templars pitched their tents on the banks of the Nahr al Kasab, a small river, called by Geoffrey de Vinisauf “the dead river.” Here they remained two nights, waiting for the fleet. On the 4th of September they resumed their march through a desert country which had been laid waste in every direction by command of Saladin. Finding their progress along the shore impeded by the tangled thickets, they quitted the plain and traversed the hills which run parallel with the sea. Their march was harassed by incessant charges of cavalry. The Templars brought up the rear of the army, and lost so many horses during the day, that they were almost driven to despair. At nightfall they descended to the beach, and encamped on the banks of a salt creek, close by the village of Om Khaled, near the ruins of the ancient Apollonias, having performed a march of five miles. The next morning, being Thursday, the 5th of September, the Templars set out at sunrise from the salt creek in battle array, having received intelligence that Saladin had prepared an ambuscade in the neighbouring forest of Arsoof, and intended to hazard a general engagement. Scouts were sent on into the forest, who reported that the road was clear; and the whole army, ascending a slight rising ground, penetrated through the wood, and descended into the plain of Arsur or Arsoof. Through the midst of this plain rolls a mountain torrent, which takes its rise in the mountains of Ephraim, and on the opposite side of the stream Saladin had drawn up his army in battle array. The Templars encamped for the night on the right bank of the stream, having during the day marched nine miles.

On Saturday, the 7th of November, king Richard, having completed all his arrangements for a general engagement, drew up his army at dawn. The Templars again formed the first division, and were the first to cross the mountain torrent, and drive in Saladin’s advanced guard. They were followed by Guy, king of Jerusalem, who was at the head of the division of Poitou, and then by the main body of the army under the personal conduct of king Richard. Geoffrey de Vinisauf tells us, that on all sides, far as the eye could reach, from the sea-shore to the mountains, nought was to be seen but a forest of spears, above which waved banners and standards innumerable. The wild Bedouins, the children of the desert, with skins blacker than soot, mounted on their fleet Arab mares, coursed with the rapidity of lightning over the vast plain, and darkened the air with clouds of missiles. They advanced to the attack with horrible screams and bellowings, which, with the deafening noise of the trumpets, horns, cymbals, and brazen kettle-drums, produced a clamour that resounded through the plain, and would have drowned even the thunder of heaven. King Richard received the attack in close and compact array, strict orders having previously been given that all the soldiers should remain on the defensive until two trumpets had been sounded in the front, two in the centre, and two in the rear of the army, when they were in their turn to become the assailants. The ferocious Turks, the wild Bedouins, and the swarthy Æthiopians, gathered around the advanced guard of the Templars, and kept up a distant and harassing warfare with their bows and arrows, whilst the swift cavalry of the Arabs dashed down upon the foot soldiers as if about to overwhelm them, then suddenly checking their horses, they wheeled off to the side, raising clouds of smothering, suffocating dust, which oppressed and choked the toiling warriors. The baggage moved on between the army and the sea, and the Christians thus continued slowly to advance under the scorching rays of an autumnal sun. “They moved,” says Vinisauf, “inch by inch; it could not be called walking, for they were pushing and hacking their way through an overpowering crowd of resisting foes.” Emboldened by their passive endurance, the Moslems approached nearer, and began to ply their darts and lances. The Marshall of the Hospital then charged at the head of his knights, without waiting for the signal, and in an instant the action became general. The clash of swords, the ringing of armour, and the clattering of iron clubs and flails, as they descended upon the helmets and bucklers of the European warriors, became mingled with the groans of the dying, and with the fierce cries of the wild Bedouins. Clouds of dust were driven up into the skies, and the plain became covered with banners, lances, and all kinds of arms, and with emblems of every colour and device, torn and broken, and soiled with blood and dust. Cœur de Lion was to be seen everywhere in the thickest of the fight, and after a long and obstinate engagement the infidels were defeated; but amid the disorder of his troops Saladin remained on the plain without lowering his standard or suspending the sound of his brazen kettle-drums; he rallied his forces, retired upon Ramleh, and prepared to defend the mountain passes leading to Jerusalem. The Templars pushed on to Arsoof, and pitched their tents before the gates of the town.

On Monday, September 9th, the christian forces moved on in battle array to Jaffa, the ancient Joppa, about eight miles from Arsoof. The Templars brought up the rear of the army; and after marching about five miles, they reached the banks of the Nahr el Arsoof, or river of Arsoof, which empties itself into the sea, about three miles from Jaffa, and pitched their tents in a beautiful olive grove on the sea-shore. Saladin laid waste all the country around them, drove away the inhabitants, and carried off all the cattle, corn, and provisions. The towns of Cæsarea, Ramleh, Jaffa, Ascalon, and all the villages, had been set on fire and burnt to ashes, and all the castles and fortresses within reach of the crusading army were dismantled and destroyed. Among these last were the castles of St. George, Galatia, Blancheward, Beaumont, Belvoir, Toron, Arnald, Mirabel, the castle of the plain, and many others. Every place, indeed, of strength or refuge was utterly destroyed by command of the inexorable Saladin. Bohadin tells us that the sultan mourned grievously over the destruction of the fair and beautiful city of Ascalon, saying to those around him, “By God, I would sooner lose my sons than touch a stone of this goodly city, but what God wills, and the good of Islam requires, must be done.” The walls and fortifications of Ascalon were of great extent and stupendous strength, and an army of thirty thousand men was employed for fourteen days in the work of demolition. “The weeping families were removed from their houses, amid the most heart-rending confusion and misery,” says Bohadin, “that I ever witnessed.” Thousands of men were employed in dashing down the towers and the walls, and throwing the stones into the ditches and into the adjoining sea, and thousands were occupied in carrying away property and the contents of the public granaries and magazines. But ere half the effects had been removed, the impatient sultan ordered the town to be set on fire, “and soon,” says Bohadin, “the raging flames were to be seen, tearing through the roofs, and curling around the minarets of the mosques.” The great tower of the Hospitallers was the only edifice that resisted the flames and the exertions of the destroyers. It stood frowning in gloomy and solitary magnificence over the wide extended scene of ruin. “We must not depart,” said Saladin, “until yon lofty tower has been brought low,” and he ordered it to be filled with combustibles and set on fire. “It stood,” says Bohadin, “by the sea-side, and was of amazing size and strength. I went into it, and examined it. The walls and the foundations were so solid, and of such immense width, that no battering machines could have produced the slightest effect upon them.” Every heart was filled with sorrow and mourning at the sight of the scorched and blackened ruins of the once fair and beautiful Ascalon. “The city,” says Bohadin, “was very elegant, and, in truth, exquisitely beautiful; its stupendous fortifications and lofty edifices possessed a majesty and grandeur which inspired one with awe.”93

Ascalon, once the proudest of the five satrapies of the lords of the Philistines, is now uninhabited. The walls still lie scattered in huge fragments along the sea-shore, mixed with columns and broken pillars, which are wedged in among them, and amid the confused heaps of ruin which mark the site of the ancient city, not a single dwelling is now visible. “The king shall perish from Gaza,” saith the prophet, “and Ascalon shall not be inhabited.”

On the 16th of October Cœur de Lion wrote a letter to Saladin, exhorting him to put an end to the holy war; but he demanded, as the price of peace, the restitution of Jerusalem, of Palestine, and the true cross. “Jerusalem,” says the king, “we consider to be the seat of our religion, and every one of us will perish rather than abandon it. Do you restore to us the country on this side Jordan, together with the holy cross, which is of no value to you, being in your eyes a mere piece of wood, but which we Christians prize greatly; we will then make peace, and repose from our incessant toils.” “When the sultan,” says Bohadin, who was himself a participator in the negotiation, “had read this letter, he took counsel with his emirs, and sent a reply to the following effect: – ‘The Holy City is held in as great reverence and estimation by the Moslems, as it is by you, ay, and in much greater reverence. From thence did our prophet Mahomet undertake his nocturnal journey to heaven, and upon that holy spot have the angels and the prophets at different periods been gathered together. Think not that we will ever surrender it. Never would we be so unmindful of our duty, and of that which it behoves us to do, as good Mussulmen. As to the country you speak of, it hath belonged to us of old, and if you took it from the Moslems when they were weak, they have taken it from you now that they are strong, as they have a right to do. You may continue the war, but God will not give you a stone of the land as a possession, for he hath given the country to the Moslems, to be by them plentifully and bountifully enjoyed. As to the cross, the reverence you pay to that bit of wood is a scandalous idolatry, disrespectful to the Most High, and hateful in the sight of God. We will, therefore, not give it to you, unless by so doing we can secure some great and manifest advantage for Islam.’”

On the 15th of November, the Templars marched out of Jaffa with king Richard and his army, and proceeded through the plain towards Jerusalem. As they advanced, Saladin slowly retired before them, laying waste the surrounding country, destroying all the towns and villages, and removing the inhabitants. Between noon and evening prayers, the sultan rode over to the city of Lidda, where St. Peter cured Æneas of the palsy, and employed his army, and a number of christian slaves, in the destruction of the noble cathedral church erected by Justinian, and in the demolition of the town. He then fell back with his army to Beitnubah, a small village seated upon an eminence at the extremity of the plain of Ramleh, at the commencement of the hill country of Judea, and there encamped. “On Friday morning, at an early hour,” says Bohadin, “the sultan mounted on horseback, and ordered me to accompany him. The rain fell in torrents. We marched towards Jerusalem. We dismounted at the monastery near the church of the Resurrection, and Saladin remained there to pass the night.” The next morning at dawn the sultan again mounted on horseback, and rode round the walls of the Holy City. The whole population, together with two thousand christian captives, had for weeks past been diligently employed in the reparation and reconstruction of the fortifications. Forty expert masons had arrived from Mossul, together with engineers and artificers from all the Mussulman countries of Asia. Two enormous towers were constructed, new walls were built, ditches were hollowed out of the rocks, and countless sums, says Bohadin, were spent upon the undertaking. Saladin’s sons, his emirs, and his brother Adel, were charged with the inspection of the works; and the sultan himself was on horseback every morning from sunrise to sunset, stimulating the exertions of the workmen.