Also known as:Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. They were very famous Knights of the Western Christian Orders.They were around for about two hundred years in the Middle Ages.

History

The Rise

After the Crusaders invaded Jerusalem in 1099, most Christians fleed to what was called the Holy Places.But even though the city of Jerusalem was under control, the rest of the crusaders lands wern't.Christians were killed in large numbers.So they started to all flee to the Holy Land.

Around 1117-20,the French knight Hugues de Payens and his relative Godfrey de Saint-Omer, two survivers of the Crusaders,decided to create a monastic group for the saftey of the Christians.Baldwin II,Ruler of Jeruselm at the time,gave them the Al Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount. The Temple Mount had a curious vibe,since it was above what most thought was the ruins of the Temple of Solomon.They called themselves the Knights Templar: Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon.

The concept that,for at least the first nine years of the Group, the Knights Templars consisted of only nine members. The reason is not many people liked the lifestyles of the Knights.So,the Templars had a really hard time making their order larger. About the year of 1127 the Cistercian abbot and and fellow knight,Bernard of Clairvaux,wrote a letter of order for the Knights that was a lot like his own Cistercian Order's rules.And Bernard helped alot to promote the Knights Templar.