It’s not certain when Odo joined the Templars. It had to have been after Almaric’s wedding. I wonder if he was chosen to be Grand Master by the king before he had even become a Templar. If so, like Henry II’s nomination of Thomas Becket as archbishop of Canterbury at about the same time, it turned out badly.
For whatever reason, Odo of St. Amand became Grand Master on the retirement of Philip of Nablus. Odo’s first challenge came from a “renegade Templar,” a man named Malih, who was brother of the king of Cilician Armenia. Malih had apparently converted from the Eastern to the Western Christian beliefs and joined the Templars. This is the only mention I know of a native Christian becoming a Templar. At any rate, he didn’t stay one for long. When his brother the king died, Malih went to Nur ad-Din for help. With the men he was given, Malih took the throne of Armenia from his nephew and threw the Templars out of the kingdom.51
It wasn’t an auspicious beginning for Odo. Things got worse.
Some time later an envoy came to Jerusalem from the sect of the Assassins. He told King Almaric that the Assassins were tired of paying tribute to the Templars and Hospitallers. Instead, they would like to become Christian. William of Tyre says, “The king greeted the legates with a glad heart and granted the request, like the intelligent man he was.”52 I reserve judgment on that, but, again according to William of Tyre, the envoy was on his way back to Assassin territory when he was attacked and killed by a group of Templars.53
Upon learning that the Templars had ruined his treaty, King Almaric was furious. He went to his old friend Odo of St. Amand and demanded that the men in question be turned over to his justice.
Odo refused, saying that Templars could only be judged by the master and the pope. He sent word to Almaric that he had given the leader of the murderers, Walter of Mesnil, a penance and would send him to the pope for sentencing. This did not sit well with Almaric, who took a force to Sidon, where Walter was being held. He had the man dragged out, put in chains, and sent to Tyre. Presumably he died there.54
The friendship between Odo and King Almaric was at an end.
This story has often been repeated but it seems very strange to me. Some people say that it must, at least in part, be true because Walter Map wrote the same story at about the same time in England. However, in 1179, only two or three years after this was supposed to have happened, there was a council in Rome. Two of the delegates were William of Tyre and Walter Map.55 Now Walter didn’t say in his account, “I got this story over lunch with William.” But it’s just possible that William vented his annoyance about Odo’s actions in this willing ear.
Odo might have been in a lot more trouble over this episode but Almaric died soon after this, leaving his son, Baldwin IV, a sick boy of thirteen, to handle the problem.
Since William, archbishop of Tyre, wrote almost the only chronicle of this time, we are often stuck with his prejudices. William was not a fan of Odo’s. He thought the Templar master arrogant and didn’t attempt to show him in a good light. However, I don’t think he would make up all of the stories about Odo. I’m just not sure which parts are true.
In 1179 in an encounter with Saladin, Odo “led a charge of knights that by its sheer force so divided the Christian ranks that the battle was lost.”56William certainly blamed him. “Among those of our men captured here was Odo of St. Amand, the Master of the Knights of the Temple. He was a bad man, proud and arrogant, having the spirit of fury in his nostrils. He neither feared God nor respected men.”57
William adds with relish that Odo died in captivity in Egypt a year later.
It’s not good to make an enemy of a man with a pen.
ARNOLD OF TORROJA, 1181-1184
Arnold was an experienced Templar who had been master of “Provence and parts of Spain” since 1167.58He came from Catalonia and may have entered the order there but all information on him comes from his years in Provence.
Even before he joined the Templars, Arnold gave the order vineyards and other property from his family estates near Lerida. His brother, Raymond, was also a patron of the Templars although he did not become one.59Arnold was a Templar by 1173, when he was present to receive a donation from Pons of Molièes of two serfs, part of the rent of a villa, and some forestland. Arnold is listed first in the charter, but still as a “knight of the Temple” not an official of the order.60By 1179, he is definitely the master of the Knights of the Temple in Provence and parts of Spain, according to a bull from Pope Alexander III confirming all the property of the Templars in Provence and Spain.61
The date of this confirmation is March 1179, which makes me wonder if Arnold was a Templar representative to the Third Lateran Council, taking place that month. Odo of St. Amand was busy fighting Saladin. Perhaps no one else could be spared from the East. As I mentioned above, William of Tyre was there, along with the bishops of Bethlehem and Caesarea.62 One of the laws decided at this council concerned the complaints of the bishops about how the Templars, Hospitallers, and other exempt orders were abusing the privileges the popes had given them.63 What better time for Arnold to make sure that the rights of Templars in Spain were all spelled out?
And, when the Templars may have been looking for a Grand Master who hadn’t been attached to the court of Jerusalem, Arnold would have been a good choice. He was someone who had done well in another area in which fighting was going on and he knew how to deal with the authorities.
Whatever the thinking, Arnold was elected.
One of his first and more unpleasant duties was to be part of a group that included the master of the Hospitallers, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and various nobles that went to Antioch in about 1181 to convince the prince of the city, Bohemond, to give up the mistress he had moved in with and return to his wife. Bohemond promised to do everything the committee asked, but as soon as they were gone, went home to his mistress and threw the noblemen out of town instead. He was excommunicated and Antioch put under interdict but the prince was not daunted.64 So much for the fear of hell.
Whatever the Templars were expecting when they elected Arnold, there isn’t much mention of what he did as Grand Master. In the three years Arnold served, Saladin made further inroads into the Latin kingdoms and poor Baldwin IV became more and more debilitated as his leprosy progressed. As things got worse, Arnold, along with Heraclius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and Roger des Moulins, master of the Hospitallers, went on a tour of Italy, France, and England in an attempt to get more support for the East.65
Arnold never returned to Jerusalem. He died in Verona in 1184, just before the storm broke.66
GERARD OF RIDEFORT, 1185-1191
After the professional competence of Arnold of Torroja, the Templars went back to someone with more personality than sense (in my opinion). Gerard of Ridefort was either Flemish or Anglo-Norman. He came to Jerusalem to seek his fortune and by 1179 was marshall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
According to one story Gerard had first served Count Raymond of Tripoli. As a reward, he expected to be given an heiress in marriage. However, Raymond decided to have the woman Gerard had selected marry a Pisan merchant instead, possibly one he owed money to. Gerard was understandably piqued, especially because a Pisan merchant didn’t have the social status of a landless knight. It was a dreadful insult. Sometime later, rather than try for another heiress, Gerard joined the Templars.67 This story may not be true, but Gerard did have a deep dislike for Raymond of Tripoli.
The new Templar immediately got involved in local politics. It happened that Raymond of Tripoli had been declared guardian for the child king Baldwin V, successor to the leper Baldwin IV. Little Baldwin died before he turned six. His mother, Sybilla, the daughter of King Almaric, was considered by many to be the heir to the throne. Others, including Raymond of Tripoli, thought that he could do a better job. Guess which one Gerard supported?
Along with the patriarch of Jerusalem, Gerard saw to it that Sybilla was crowned ruler along with her husband, Guy of Lusignan. But the Latin kingdoms were now divided
and Saladin, whose power was growing, would make the most of this.68
The first sign of the rift was when Gerard encouraged King Guy to take an army up to Tripoli and make Raymond obey him. Wiser heads prevailed but Raymond had already made a treaty with Saladin in anticipation of an invasion by Guy.
By the spring of 1186, Guy and Sybilla were willing to make peace with Raymond. Gerard, Roger, the Hospitaller master, along with several others were sent to see if Raymond would make peace. At the same time, Saladin’s eldest son, al-Afdal, took advantage of the truce with Raymond to bring some men into Tripoli. There are various explanations for this, depending on which side is telling the story. In the end, Gerard learned about the Moslem incursion and went to the nearest Templar house, where he gathered up some eighty knights, along with ten Hospitallers and forty men from the royal garrison.69 According to the chroniclers, both the Hospitaller master and the marshal of the Temple tried to stop Gerard from attacking. He overruled them.
It was called the Battle of Cresson Springs. Roger des Moulins, master of the Hospital, was killed, as were all the royal soldiers and most of the Templars.70
Gerard of Ridefort survived.
The next day a few men, including Gerard and the archbishop of Tyre, went to see about burying the bodies. Halfway there, Gerard turned back, “so painful and grievous were his wounds from the day before.”71 Count Raymond had to come out to help with the cleanup, “very sorrowful and greatly angered at the events of the day before, and all because of the pride of the master of the Templars.”72
The one good thing that came out of this was that King Guy and Count Raymond were reconciled. Gerard doesn’t seem to have had any sort of reprimand from either of them.
The main source for this event is an unknown chronicler who clearly favored Raymond. Perhaps Gerard didn’t always advise unprepared attacks. It was his surviving them that made him look bad.
When Saladin learned that Count Raymond had made peace with the king, he attacked the count’s main city of Tiberias while Raymond was away. Raymond’s wife, Eschiva, sent word to him that she was holding out in the citadel of the city but that things were desperate.
Reading the Moslem and Christian accounts of what happened next, I am struck by the similarity of the reasons for battle, at least according to the authors of that time. King Guy is advised to “go and chase Saladin out of the kingdom at the first opportunity; [because] he was in the early days of his kingship and, if he let himself appear a fool in the eyes of the Saracens, Saladin would take advantage of him.”73 Saladin’s advisers told him “to pillage the Frankish territories and to give battle to any Frankish army that might appear in their path, ‘Because in the East people are cursing us, saying that we no longer fight the infidels but have begun to fight Moslems instead. So we must do something to justify ourselves and silence our critics.’”74
The Battle of Hattin and the loss of the True Cross. (The British Library)
So, being men, they took their armies and rode out to save face.
What became known as the Battle of Hattin took place on July 4, 1187. The crusaders were defeated in the space of six hours. King Guy, Gerard of Ridefort, and many others were captured. The True Cross, which was always carried into battle, was either lost or taken by Saladin.75
All the Templars taken at Hattin were beheaded—except Gerard of Ridefort.
The Grand Master was held captive for about a year, during which time Saladin’s armies rolled over the country, taking Jerusalem and many of the coastal cities. It was said that Gerard traded his freedom for the Templar fort at Gaza. It surrendered at his order.76
Once released, Gerard joined King Guy in the attempt to regain the city of Acre. This time he did not survive. He died in battle in October 1191.
Were his rash acts and bad advice responsible for many of the decisions that led to the fall of Jerusalem? It’s hard to say. The anonymous chronicler seems to blame him. But if so, then why did the king keep taking him back? Why did the other Templars still obey him? Maybe he was slandered. Or maybe he was such a vibrant and charismatic person that he could get away with a lot.
Now the spotlight moves from the master of the Temple to the two men who still define crusading in the minds of most people, Saladin and Richard the Lionheart. But first we need to set the stage.
1Marquis d’Albon, Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre du Temple 1119?-1150 (Paris, 1913) p. 44, charter no. 61.
2Alfred Richard, Histoire des Comtes de Poitou t. IV 1086-1137 (Pau: Princi Negue, 2004) p. 163.
3Albon, p. 87, charter no. 125.
4Rudolf Heistand, Papsturkunden für Templaer und Johanniter (Göttingen, 1972) pp. 205-10.
5T. S. R. Boase, Kingdoms and Strongholds of the Crusaders (London: Thames and Hudson, 1971) p. 86.
6Albon, no. 145, p. 102; no. 72, p. 55; no. 324, pp. 204-5. Also see chapter 24, Templars and Money, and chapter 8, Go Forth and Multiply.
7Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood (Cambridge University Press, 1994) p. 70.
8Suzanne Duparc-Quioc, Le Cycle de la Croisade (Paris, 1955) p. 203.
9Barber, p. 74.
10Please see chapter 16, Between the Second and Third Crusades (1150-1191).
11William of Tyre, 17, 27, pp. 797-99.
12Ibn al-Qalanisi, The Chronicles of Damascus ed. and tr. H. A. R. Gibb (London: Dover, 2002; reprint of 1935 ed.) p. 316.
13Barber, p. 71.
14See below for Bernard’s letters to and about Andrew. It’s too bad that we don’t have Andrew’s to him.
15Albon, Cartulaire Général de l’Ordre du Temple 1119?-1150 (Paris, 1913) p. 1.
16“Fragment d’un Cartulaire de l’Ordre de Saint Lazare, en Terre-Sainte,” Archives de l’Orient Latin Tome II (Paris, 1884) p. 126, charter VI.
17Bernard of Clairvaux, Opera Omnia Vol. 1 (Paris, 1889) col. 435, letter CCVI, “et si verum est testimonium quod de vobis perhibit charissimus aunclus meus Andreas, cum multum credimus, et hic, et in eaterum Deo miserante regnabatis.”
18Ibid., cols. 374-375, letter CCLXXXIX. “Sane intervenit Andreas charissimus avunculus meus, cui in nulo decredere possimus, scripto suo nobis significans meliora; quod scilicet pascifice et mansuete te habeas; fraters de Templo dilegas et familiars habeas.”
19Ibid., cols. 572-574, letter CCLXXXVIII.
20“Fragment d’un Cartulaire,” 129-130, charters VIII and X.
21Barber, p. 70.
22Chartes de Terre Sainte Provenant de L’Abbaye de N.-D. de Josaphat, ed. H-François Delaborde (Paris, 1880) p. 70.
23Quoted in Barber, Knighthood, p. 70.
24Ibid.
25William of Tyre.
26Cartulaire des Templiers de Douzens, ed. Pierre Gard and Elisabeth Magnou (Paris, 1965) charter 200, pp. 172-73.
27Douzens charters, A 38, 185, 200, 207; C 4, 5, 6; see also chapter 41, The Cathars.
28Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (Random House, 1982) p. 514, note 12.
29Wiliam of Tyre, book 18, 14, p. 831. Also in al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicles of the Crusades, ed. and tr. H. A. R. Gibb (Dover, 2002; reprint of 1932 ed.) pp. 366-67.
30Recueil des historiens des Gaule et de la France Vol. XVI, ed. Bouquet, et al. (Paris, 1878), letters 123, 125, 144, 145.
31For more on this, please see chapter 16, Between the Second and Third Crusades (1150-1191).
32Malcolm Barber, “The career of Philip of Nablus in the kingdom of Jerusalem,” The Experience of Crusading, Vol. 2, Defining the Crusader Kingdom (Cambridge Universtiy Press, 2003) pp. 62-63.
33I have no idea why he was called that and would give a great deal to find out.
34William of Tyre, Chronicon, Vol. II, ed. R. B. C. Huygens (Turnholt, 1986), book 17, 21, p. 790.
35Barber, “Philip of Nablus,” p. 63. Stephanie had the misfortune to lose three husbands, the last being the Raynald de Chatillon who was personally beheaded by Saladin.
36H.-François Delaborde, ed., Cha
rtes de Terre Sainte provenant de l’Abbaye de N.-D. de Josaphat (Paris, 1880) p. 84, charter no. 36.
37“Fragment d’un Cartulaire,” 126-27. One of the witnesses was Andrew of Montbard, future Grand Master.
38Ibid., p. 129.
39Ibid., p. 134.
40Barber, “Philip of Nablus,” p. 68.
41Ibid., p. 69.
42Ibid., p. 71. No, I don’t know what happened to Henry the Buffalo.
43Barber, Knighthood, p. 106.
44William of Tyre, p. 1146, “dominus Arabie Secunde, que est Petracensi . . . et Syrie Sobal qui locus hodie Montis Regalis . . . utque trans Jordanum.”
45Ibid., 19, 22, p. 893.
46Ibid., 20, 22, p. 942, “Philippum Neapolitatum, qui iam militia Templi deposuerit magistrum.”
47“Fragment,” pp. 146-47, charter no. 29.
48Wiliam of Tyre, book 18, 14, p. 831. Also in al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicles of the Crusades, ed. and tr. H. A. R. Gibb (Dover, 2002; reprint of 1932 ed.) pp. 366-67.
49“Fragment,” p. 140, charter no. 22.
50William of Tyre, p. 913, book 20, 1.
51Ibid., p. 949, book 20, 26.
The Real History Behind the Templars Page 12
