Map of Jerusalem (detail), ca. 1200
The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, MS KB 76 F 5, f.1r
This image: https://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f5%3A001r_onder
The armies of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem in the summer of 1099, along with a string of cities stretching from Syria to the borders of Egypt.
A few small, precarious states emerged in the aftermath of the invasion, of which the largest was the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. For all the Hosannas sung back in Europe, the reality on the ground was stark. Medieval knights needed land – fertile land (and lots of it) to maintain themselves. That simply didn’t exist in the new territories.
Christian pilgrims were ready to flock to this new version of the Holy Land. But who would protect them? There were never enough knights to go round. More importantly, who would protect the Holy Sepulchre itself and all the other sacred places, from Bethlehem to the Sea of Galilee? The answer came through the creation of the Military Orders. These gave birth to a new kind of knight: one who was fully trained and equipped to fight, but who, unlike his contemporaries in medieval Europe, required neither land nor a richly-dowried bride in order to maintain his position.
They were the knights of the military orders: the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Teutonic Knights. Vast lands and donations back in Europe were their fiefdom. Dedicated to chastity, poverty, and obedience, their sole aim was to protect the Holy Land and the Christians who visited it.
They thrived throughout the twelfth century, the heyday of the Latin kingdom, building and garrisoning vast castles. But the tide turned. In 1188 Saladin retook Jerusalem and over the following century the knights began steadily to relocate westwards.
But that was not the end of their story. We will see how the Hospitallers ended up on Malta, the Teutonic Knights in the Baltic, and the Templars slaughtered by the King of France on charges of heresy.
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