The Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar

Hanson, Juliana

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The Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar

Hanson, Juliana

Abstract

The Knights Templar, a religious military order with the goal to protect the Christians of the Latin East from those they defined as infidels, quickly gained power and notoriety since their founding in 1118. With the rise of their prominence came the reactions—both positive and negative—of Christians and Muslims in the West and East. Thanks to the Templar’s relationship to the Catholic Church and the various Kingdoms of Eastern and Western Christendom, the Templar’s were able to continue growing in power and wealth, until their arrest on 13 October 1307 by King Philip IV of France. This Thesis aims to make sense of the many relationships the Templars had throughout their years of operation and how those relationships contributed to their success and their eventual demise by analyzing primary documents related to their rise and fall. By taking into account the works of modern historians along with the works of historians at the time, this Thesis will attempt to fill in the gaps made by many missing or destroyed Templar documents.