History UsefulNotes / TheKnightsTemplar

* The History Channel show ''Knightfall'' features the final days of the Knight's Templar in Paris, after an ActionPrologue set during the Siege of Acre. It makes a few dramatic changes to the tale, most notably that what spurred Phillip IV's enmity with the Knights Templar was a Templar fathering a bastard with his queen.

* ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'' contains an example of the HollywoodHistory--the Malta-based order was UsefulNotes/TheKnightsHospitallers (a.k.a. the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Knights of Malta]]), and the [[ArtisticLicenseHistory Knights Templar were disbanded in 1312]]. [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon The original book]] got it right, on the other hand. Introductory text appearing after the film's opening credits reads:

* The History Channel show ''Knightfall'' features the final days of the Knight's Templar in Paris, after an ActionPrologue set during the Siege of Acre.

!!Tropes associated with the Templars:

* TheAlliance: Frequently, with various nations in Europe, but defied when it came to uniting with the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights. They scrupulously refused the idea, possibly because they would have to operate under the control of the King of France.
* AncientConspiracy: Any ConspiracyKitchenSink worth its salt will involve the Templars one way or another.
** This is either because or in spite of the fact that the vast majority of their assets outside of France (and a significant chunk within them) were granted to the Hospitallers, and up to 25% were suspected to have been slipped into other Military Orders or secular administrative positions by monarchs not overly inclined to do the bidding of Philip IV.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The Grandmaster was at the top of the Templar hierarchy. It was definitely more than just an administrative desk job, considering several of them died in combat.
* BadassBeard: Such a huge number of their Grandmasters sported these that one has to wonder if it was a tradition. Their rules did forbid them to shave, wash and change their underwear, amongst other things.
* BadassBookworm: Warfare is Our Business. And vice versa. These guys invented dual accounting, letters of credit, holding companies, corporations, insurance, and travel agencies. And they're responsible for modern banking. And of course, befitting any medieval religious order, every Templar could read and write in Latin.
* {{Baphomet}}: King Phillip's accusations primarily revolved around worship of Baphomet and performing sinister rituals to him. This was ''very'' successful -- their memory was forever tainted by the association.
* CelibateHero: The knights took a vow of chastity, meaning the good ones would have been this.
* ChurchMilitant: And one of the most iconic representatives of this trope.
* DyingCurse: A very popular apocryphal story of Jacques de Molay, the last Grandmaster of the Templars. While being burnt on the stake, Jacques de Molay cursed the King and Pope Clement V that they would be dead within a year. And moreover, [[UsefulNotes/LEtatCestMoi the French Royal Family]] would be cursed to [[SinsOfOurFathers the 13th generation of their blood]]. This story is apocryphal needless to say and it only came out after Pope Clement V and Philip le Bel died a year later.[[note]]Recent research in the Vatican archives states that Pope Clement V was quite reluctant to kill Jacques and even wrote a pardon for him, the implication being that the execution was a very late minute decision and perhaps forced by the King.[[/note]]
** During UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, royalists (who were essentially the inventors of UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories) made claims that the Revolution was orchestrated by TheIlluminati and the Freemasons (some of whom did consider Molay as a martyr of injustice) to enact the curse of Molay. Problems with this theory is that Louis XVI was the 15th generation of Philip's blood. There were also tall claims that during the execution, someone jumped on the scaffold and cried out, "Jacques de Molay, tu es vengé!" which any serious investigation of the Trial and Execution would regard as supremely unlikely. They also claim that the Jacobin Club was a hommage to Molay rather than [[LineOfSightName the convent name]] which became its nickname.
* GondorCallsForAid: Averted in one notable instance in 1300. After being forced out of the Holy Land the Templars reached out to the Mongols to arrange an alliance against the Mamluks. Setting sail from Cyprus, they began by raiding the Egyptian and Syrian coast until they arrived at the arranged meeting spot... but the Mongols didn't show, due to poor coordination. They tried again several times, all with the same result, until they finally ran out of possible meeting places.
* HidingBehindReligion: Historically, the main accusation against the Templars was that they had at some point stopped being pious and used the Templar cross as a front for all kinds of forbidden private lives. They were accused of being sodomites, homosexuals, crypto-Muslims, atheists and neo-pagans. Of course all of this was made up during the trial, the confessions extracted through torture, and can't really be taken seriously but it did a great deal to add to the Conspiracy legend.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: [[HeroWithBadPublicity They really weren't as bad as their typical portrayals in popular culture suggest]]. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar_and_popular_culture The Other Wiki]] has some more information, but their bad reputation stems from two places; First, the abrupt disappearance of such an important political and military order in Europe led to endless conspiracy theories. Second, they invented trade based not on barter but credit, and thereby birthed the Byzantine labyrinth of UsefulNotes/{{Economics}}. So ''everyone'' who ever lost their shirt thanks to a MorallyBankruptBanker had a good reason to visualize a Maltese cross on said banker's lapel.
* KillTheCreditor: King Philip le Bel had initiated a campaign for financial reform during his reign. But like many medieval Kings, he was perenially strapped for cash. He was also deeply indebted to the Knights Templar and the Knights Templars were a prominent banking institution. As a result, there are no more Knights Templars.
* KnightInShiningArmor or TinTyrant: Sometimes both in the same work.
* KnightTemplar: Despite being the TropeNamer, they mostly avert this trope, and they suffer massively from HistoricalVillainUpgrade. Although most Templars were probably ruthless and fanatical, so was nearly everybody else during [[MedievalMorons the Middle Ages]] ([[ValuesDissonance by our standards]]), and as the order grew wealthier, they became less and less involved with fighting. So why are the Templars singled out? Blame it on the [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade conspiracy theories]]!
* {{Leitmotif}}: The Templars were fond of a chant (that predates them by five centuries, but they popularized it) called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0d4qM7gCH8 Da Pacem Domine]], which was often used as a theme song of sorts for them.
* LoopholeAbuse: So how does a medieval monastic order, forbidden by a Vow of Poverty from acquiring worldly wealth, end up becoming the richest single organization in Medieval Europe, ''and'' creating the modern concepts of banking and credit? Because technically none of the wealth the Templars had in their possession was their own; their patrons just gave it to them for safekeeping, and they could technically take it back any time they wanted. But until that time, they might as well use that money toward improving their organization (if that reminds you of how much of modern banking works, that's not a coincidence). In any case while the order as a whole was very wealthy, each individual knight was never allowed to own more than what the order provided them with, and adding anything else to it was harshly punished.
* MissionCreep: They faced its downfall because of its inability to resolve this issue:
** Their original mission was to protect Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades after the First Crusade]], and its initiates were the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ, {{Warrior Monk}}s dedicated to the vow of poverty they took. But in the course of time, the Templars' facilities became respected stopping points where travelers could store their cash and reclaim it at another branch, and they slowly became bankers. They received exemptions from paying taxes from the Church, owned land in various European nations and gradually expanded their operations from their original mission as time passed and their duties became complex.
** By the 1290s things came to a head because The Crusades kept failing to attract royal patronage and favor, other church organizations wanted access to the Templar infrastructure and the Templars were considering forming an independent kingdom. Before they could act on it however, [[UsefulNotes/LEtatCestMoi the French King Philip IV]] brutally purged them so as to better access their treasury and goods.
* MotiveDecay: A rare positive example. They started off as the TropeNamer of the KnightTemplar but eventually evolved beyond that into a kind of large scale and tolerant corporation. This was also the reason why they ended up being purged. King Philip IV was able to invent a host of false accusations that raised doubts about the Order's purpose as a Christian organization now that the Crusades were over. Historians stated that if the Order had disbanded and made themselves into a banking collective, they might have escaped being purged.
* MysteryCult: The accusations against the Templars during ThePurge, as per TheMole [[UnreliableNarrator Esquieu de Floyrac]] was that the Templars started worshipping a deity called "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet Baphomet]]", a red-skinned hermaophrodite with a Goat's Head and the initiation rites involved spitting on Christ and homosexual orgies. When the Occult developed in Europe in the 19th and 20th Century, Baphomet found new life, especially in the rites of Creator/AleisterCrowley.
** Historians have speculated whether there was any basis in reality concerning "Baphomet". One theory argues that it was a misinterpretation of Templar trials to preserve faith in "Heathen" lands, a simulation of real-and-imagined apostasy and how to fake it. Another theory suggests that as a result of trade and contact with the Arab world, some parts of the Templars began exchanging ideas with Islamic scholars [[note]]Some suggest that Baphomet is either a corruption of "Mahomet", the French Romanisation of the name of the Prophet, or alternatively a derivation of "Abu fihamat" which means "Father of Understanding"[[/note]] and became syncretized. Which naturally was blown out of proportion during ThePurge.
* TheOrder: One of the {{Trope Codifier}}s.
* {{Pirate}}: After losing their foothold in the Holy Land and taking up residence in Cyprus they turned to raiding the coast of Mamluk territory for awhile, so, like their brother order the Hospitallers, they were for a time [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot ''Pirate'' Warrior Monks]].
* ThePurge: Victims of a famous real-life, the raid on the Temple Fortress led to mass arrests, tortures, executions by burning on the stake and seizures of property and incomes.
* SupervillainLair: Well how much they can be considered villains is up in the air, but the Templars had several Fortresses across France, England and Scotland. The Temple was the name of the Fortress in Paris, and their final home before ThePurge. During UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, The Temple was the Prison for the French Royal Family and after the execution of the King UsefulNotes/LouisXVI, it became a shrine for royalists and UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte (who only allowed shrines to himself) ordered its destruction in 1808.
* WarriorMonk: As noted, they were founded with the function of protecting pilgrims and as in other orders new members took monastic vows.
* WorthyOpponent: According to reports by Western chroniclers, anyway, they were seen as this by UsefulNotes/TheHashshashin cult, aka the ''original'' "Assassins", and vice versa - yes, [[Franchise/AssassinsCreed Templars versus Assassins]]. The stated reason for this was actually quite pragmatic: the Assassins devoted a lot of time and training into sending out a single agent, whose task was to kill the enemy army's leader, even at the cost of his own life. This worked because most medieval militaries were [[KeystoneArmy Keystone Armies]], and killing their commander made the entire force unravel. In contrast, the Templars were much better organized and regimented, close to the fashion of a modern military - according to the reports, the Assassins hated fighting the Templars because if they killed one Templar commander, he would simply be replaced by the next highest ranking officer, and the Templar force would maintain unit cohesion instead of just collapsing. So the Assassins ended up wasting a lot of agents and resources for limited results.

----

* In the episode "Seven Poor Knights from Acre" of ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'' a band of Templars pursue Robin and the outlaws in the mistaken belief that they have stolen the Templars' gold emblem. They are treated as TheDreaded by every one of the regular characters, both good and bad. When Friar Tuck refers to them as "Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon" Will Scarlet replies, "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint Poor? I'd hate to see the good ones!]]". However, [[spoiler:they are eventually killed when they treacherously attack the outlaws despite having had the emblem recovered for them]].

* The Danish children's TV series ''Tempelriddernes Skat'' sets a group of children hunting for the Templar's treassure, starting in the round churches of Borhnholm, which some conspiracy theorists claim were built by Templars.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: [[HeroWithBadPublicity They really weren't as bad as their typical portrayals in popular culture suggest]]. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar_and_popular_culture The Other Wiki]] has some more information, but their bad reputation stems from two places; First, the abrupt disappearance of such an important political and military order in Europe led to endless conspiracy theories. Second, they invented trade based not on barter but credit, and thereby birthed the Byzantine labyrinth of [[UsefulNotes/{{Economics}} economics]]. So ''everyone'' who ever lost their shirt thanks to a crooked banker had a good reason to visualize a Maltese cross on said banker's lapel.

The [[OverlyLongName Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon]] a.k.a. The Order of the Temple a.k.a. The Knights Templar were a Christian [[TheOrder religious order]] founded during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades. Despite [[NonIndicativeName the title of]] ''poor'' fellow soldiers, the Order eventually became renowned for being the wealthiest ChurchMilitant, especially renowned for its banking prowess. However, they were never quite as rich as they were believed to be.

The Order began in the wake of the First Crusade. The Outremer (Across-the-Sea) conquests led to Crusader Kingdoms in Jerusalem and Acre, and the order was founded by its first Grand Master, Hugues de Payens in 1119. It's original membership included 9, Hugues himself and 8 of his fellow noble relations. Their stated aim was to protect pilgrims travelling from Europe to the Holy Land and back. This service in the course of centuries extended to hospitality and banking, as pilgrims could store their wealth with the Templars and withdrawn from coffers at a later date. From its very beginning, the Order was controversial. The notion of Christians carrying swords to defend pilgrims for holy purpose raised more than a few eyebrows. It took Bernard de Clairvaux, one of the greatest orators of the age - and later the driving force behind the Second Crusade - who was believed to be the nephew of one of the original 9, to come to their defence. In his pamphlet, ''In Defense of the New Knighthood'', he argued that Templars could serve the Church ''and'' carry swords under the prerogative of Saint Augustine's just-war. Clairvaux noted that, a Templar Knight, ''is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armour of faith, just as his body is protected by the armour of steel. He is thus doubly-armed, and need fear neither demons nor men.'' With this legitimacy, the Templars were able to claim donations from several noblemen and neighbouring Kings across Europe. Templars were required to take a vow of chastity, a vow of poverty, forsake other titles and devote themselves to the Holy Life and become WarriorMonk. The Order itself was granted several tracts of land across England, France (the true heart of Templardom), Spain, Portugal, modern day Croatia and Poland, among other places. In exchange Pope Innocent II, on the advice of [[TheManBehindTheMan Bernard]], exempted them from taxes and conferred full independence from any authority except that of the Pope.

The Templars in Jerusalem claimed the Al Aqsa mosque as their base of operations, believing that the lost Temple of Solomon was buried beneath it. This association with Solomon and their occupation of religious buildings during the Crusades formed the seed of their later legend, as well as provide the Temple of their title. But for the most part, the Templars served as a military order of exceptional versatility. Templars had proper ranks between Knights, Chaplains and Sergeants. The Knights were the elite fighting force, while the Sergeants, also known as brothers were the poorer recruits. Only Knights, recruited from the noble aristocracy (though in the early days, noble ancestry wasn't necessarily required), [[IconicOutfit wore the iconic Templar regalia of White Surcoat over Chain Mail]] emblazoned with a Red Cross on its chest. The sergeants, drawn from the lower classes and so the majority, wore black habits and served as infantrymen or servants. Chaplains wore green and were responsible for religious services.

They were famous during the Crusades for their discipline, their refusal to retreat from battle and their religious devotion. The Templars played a key role in the Third Crusade, thwarting a few victories by Saladin and fighting alongside King Richard I and King Louis VII, but were also considered to be the SpannerInTheWorks on later crusades, especially the Sixth Crusade, because they argued against grand reconquests in the Middle East because they couldn't be held in the long term. They also served with the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs during the Reconquista, though in Iberia, the various monarchs made it very clear who was in charge and preferred to use homegrown Orders such as the Orders of Santiago and Caltrava. The Templars gradually constituted a sort of Kingdom unto itself. They built castles, fortresses, as well as garrisoned towns, they had a proper organization with a Grand Master, elected for life and based in Jerusalem. Templar territories in various regions were organized into provinces with commanders and preceptors manning these posts, most of whom were appointed by vote. The Templars by the mid-1200s, possessed property across Western Europe, the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. For a time, the Templars "owned" the island of UsefulNotes/{{Cyprus}}, having bought it off Richard the Lionheart after he captured it, but sold it back to him when they realised that it was too much for them. Their military strength and noble vows and renunciation of titles, gave them credibility to collect, store and transport bullion and other valuables across a wide region. Storehouses holding reserve currency and their general bureaucratic efficiency, command of land and sea trade routes made them attractive to bankers and kings, in addition to pilgrims. From this skill with banking and finance, the association of Templars and treasure entered the conspiracy legend.

However, it should also be noted that they were never quite as rich or as powerful as was generally assumed. They frequently occupied key positions in royal courts, effectively running the French treasury (which was part of the cause of their fall), but were at the mercy of Kings as Philip IV proved during the Trial of the Templars, and as the Kings of England proved when they frequently used the Templars as a piggy-bank and, in the case of Edward I 'the Hammer of the Scots', as part of his armies during his campaigns in Scotland, forcing the Masters of both the English and Scottish Temples to swear fealty to him. They also had the disadvantage of, unlike their colleagues the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights, not having a defined base to call their own, like the Teutons in Prussia and the Hospitallers in Rhodes.

The Rise and Fall of the Templars, seen in retrospect, is a case of classic MissionCreep. The Order's original purpose was to protect pilgrims but it gradually expanded to serving as a voluntary Crusader army and peacekeeping force. From there it expanded into infrastructure and finance. This expansion was inversely proportional to the gradual waning of the Crusader mentality in the 1200s, at which point the presence of an organization subsidized by the nobility and the Church, free of any regulation from secular authority, and possessing considerable prestige, raised the eyebrow of both royal Kings and their fellow Christian orders. In the wake of the Fourth Crusade, where the Crusaders sacked the Byzantine Empire instead of the Outremer, and the fall of Acre in 1291, many argued that the Templars no longer had any purpose. Their rival Church organization, the Hospitallers, wanted to merge with the Templars and access their infrastructure. By the dawn of the 1300s, the Templars were without a clear purpose and their failure to attract royal and church aid for another Crusade signalled that the Order was now nothing more than a financial institute. The Templars did appear to entertain hopes of starting an actual Kingdom in Languedoc, in imitation of the Teutonic Knights (who set up shop in Prussia) and the Hospitallers (who'd nicked Rhodes), but this in turn merely aroused the further suspicion of [[UsefulNotes/LEtatCestMoi King Philip IV of France]].

King Philip "le Bel"[[note]]The Handsome - [[BeautyIsBad He was said to be exceptionally goodlooking]][[/note]] was a monarch who was interested in reforming finances and centralizing his kingdom under one rule. Like most medieval monarchs, his kingdom teetered on bankruptcy and he was perennially strapped for cash. Initially Philip IV was friendly with the Templars, having taken hospitality at the Temple Fortress fleeing a riot in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}. Gradually, the Templars considerable presence as a "state within a state", papal authority to travel across all borders without any dues or regulation to secular authority, in addition to their considerable stores of wealth caught his attention. In addition, Philip IV had claims on Templar territory in Champagne, France and was troubled with their petition to form a Kingdom in Languedoc and later in Cyprus. On top of this, Philip IV was conducting his own campaign to expand royal authority and limit Papal Authority, succeeding in deposing Pope Boniface VIII and installing a Frencman as Pope Clement V and moving the papacy to Avignon from Rome. This coincided with the King's persecution of the Templars, their mass arrests on October 1307, Friday, the 13th. The Templars were arrested, accused of blasphemy (worship of crypto-Musim and neo-pagan MysteryCult of {{Baphomet}}) and sodomy, tortured into confessions and burned at the stake. Overnight, the nearly 200 year old organization ceased to function, with Templar initiates, lapsing from the Order, joining rival orders and generally heading for the hills. These arrests ended the role of Church military orders in finance, and strengthened royal authority who once again became the centers of economy. It also became an endpoint for UsefulNotes/TheCrusades whose enthusiasm had already ebbed, with the Templars serving as TheRemnant. The dramatic fall from grace, from Poor Brothers venerated for their devotion to Christ to blasphemers and neo-pagans associated with usury, cemented the rise of the Templar legend.

The Knights Templar were skilled, pious, and occasionally highly-educated elite fighters, cavalry, and bankers. The order was, all-in-all, a fairly normal (if vastly successful until its demise) religious warrior class born from the upper crust of medieval society. Ironically enough, they only embodied the KnightTemplar trope in their early days; within a few decades after their beginnings they had transformed, in the eyes of their more zealous contemporaries, into a notoriously ''tolerant'' organization that cultivated diplomatic contacts with the Muslim world; worked with Arab architects (which influenced the Gothic architecture seen everywhere in Europe), merchants, and even theologians; and disapproved of slaughtering enemies if they agreed to surrender. All of these points were used against them during the trials against them staged by Philip IV. The persistence of rumours that the Templars were somehow corrupt despite most evidence to the contrary means the Order is, to this day, an example of [[HeroWithBadPublicity heroes with really bad publicity]]. The fact that the order ceased to exist effectively overnight, and that they're associated with a huge treasure trove, has since given rise to countless AncientConspiracy theories (such as the fact that many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake on Friday 13th (October 13, 1307, to be precise), is often erroneously cited as the origin of the belief that ThirteenIsUnlucky. Pope Clement V only officially disbanded the Order in 1312. The last Grandmaster, Jacques de Molay, was burnt on the stake in the year 1314, seven years after his arrest.

King Philip "le Bel"[[note]]The Handsome - [[BeautyIsBad He was said to be exceptionally goodlooking]][[/note]] was a monarch who was interested in reforming finances and centralizing his kingdom under one rule. Like most medieval monarchs, his kingdom teetered on bankruptcy and he was perennially strapped for cash. Initially Philip IV was friendly with the Templars, having taken hospitality at the Temple Fortress fleeing a riot in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}. Gradually, the Templars considerable presence as a "state within a state", papal authority to travel across all borders without any dues or regulation to secular authority, in addition to their considerable stores of wealth caught his attention. In addition, Philip IV had claims on Templar territory in Champagne, France and was troubled with their petition to form a Kingdom in Languedoc and later in Cyprus. On top of this, Philip IV was conducting his own campaign to expand royal authority and limit Papal Authority, succeeding in deposing Pope Boniface VIII and installing a Frencman as Pope Clement V and moving the papacy to Avignon from Rome. This coincided with the King's persecution of the Templars, their mass arrests on October 1307, Friday, the 13th. The Templars were arrested, accused of blasphemy (worship of crypto-Musim and neo-pagan MysteryCult) and sodomy, tortured into confessions and burned at the stake. Overnight, the nearly 200 year old organization ceased to function, with Templar initiates, lapsing from the Order, joining rival orders and generally heading for the hills. These arrests ended the role of Church military orders in finance, and strengthened royal authority who once again became the centers of economy. It also became an endpoint for UsefulNotes/TheCrusades whose enthusiasm had already ebbed, with the Templars serving as TheRemnant. The dramatic fall from grace, from Poor Brothers venerated for their devotion to Christ to blasphemers and neo-pagans associated with usury, cemented the rise of the Templar legend.

* IvanhoeTheKingsKnight features the order twice. The second time they have been renamed "The Brotherhood of the Cross of Ashes" or some such thing.

* ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'' contains an example of the HollywoodHistory--the Malta-based order was TheKnightsHospitallers (a.k.a. the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Knights of Malta]]), and the [[ArtisticLicenseHistory Knights Templar were disbanded in 1312]]. [[Literature/TheMalteseFalcon The original book]] got it right, on the other hand. Introductory text appearing after the film's opening credits reads:

* In ''TheKingkillerChronicle'' by Patrick Rothfuss, the Amyr seem clearly set up as a fantasy counterpart to the Knights Templar, complete with conspiracy theories surrounding their dissolution.

** During UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, royalists (who were essentially the inventors of ConspiracyTheory) made claims that the Revolution was orchestrated by TheIlluminati and the Freemasons (some of whom did consider Molay as a martyr of injustice) to enact the curse of Molay. Problems with this theory is that Louis XVI was the 15th generation of Philip's blood. There were also tall claims that during the execution, someone jumped on the scaffold and cried out, "Jacques de Molay, tu es vengé!" which any serious investigation of the Trial and Execution would regard as supremely unlikely. They also claim that the Jacobin Club was a hommage to Molay rather than [[LineOfSightName the convent name]] which became its nickname.

* In the ConspiracyTheory invented by the main characters of ''Literature/FoucaultsPendulum'', Templars have discovered [[spoiler:a way to harvest the tremendous energies of the telluric currents]] but were destroyed before they could actually use their discovery. The rest of the conspiracy theory is their convoluted plan to reform and TakeOverTheWorld six centuries later.

* ''BrokenSword: The Shadow of the Templars''.

* In The39Clues, the Knight Templar was a part of the Thomas branch.

* The WorldWarII AdventurerArchaeologist, warrior (he was too independent in his style to be called a "soldier"), spy, nobleman, and general badass László Ede Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós apparently was involved in an arcane cult that claimed descent from The Knights Templar. He worked for the Hungarians, which qualifies him as a WorthyOpponent of the Allies.
* Also in 2008, it was founded, in Brazil, a church named "[[http://www.waltersandro.com.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=11 Igreja Templária]]" (Templary Church), claiming to be knights.

* The Black Templars chapter of [[SpaceMarine Space Marines]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' borrow a lot of their imagery and general theme from the Knights Templar.

* BadassBookworm: Warfare is Our Business. And vice versa. These guys invented dual accounting, credit cards, holding companies, corporations, insurance, and travel agencies. And they're responsible for modern banking. And of course, befitting any medieval religious order, every Templar could read and write in Latin.

* Along with the Hospitallers, The Knights Templar are one of the knightly orders battling the demonic minions of The Unholy on the living planet of '''Wormwood''' in ''{{Rifts}}''.

The [[OverlyLongName Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon]] a.k.a. The Order of the Temple a.k.a. The Knights Templar were a Christian [[TheOrder religious order]] founded during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades. Despite [[NonIndicativeName the title of]] ''poor'' fellow soldiers, the Order eventually became renowned for being the wealthiest ChurchMilitant, especially renowned for its banking prowess.

The Order began in the wake of the First Crusade. The Outremer (Across-the-Sea) conquests led to Crusader Kingdoms in Jerusalem and Acre, and the order was founded by its first Grand Master, Hugues de Payens in 1119. It's original membership included 9, Hugues himself and 8 of his fellow noble relations. Their stated aim was to protect pilgrims travelling from Europe to the Holy Land and back. This service in the course of centuries extended to hospitality and banking, as pilgrims could store their wealth with the Templars and withdrawn from coffers at a later date. From its very beginning, the Order was controversial. The notion of Christians carrying swords to defend pilgrims for holy purpose raised more than a few eyebrows. It took Bernard de Clairvaux, a nephew of one of the original 9, to come to their defense. In his pamphlet, ''In Defense of the New Knighthood'', he argued that Templars could serve the Church ''and'' carry swords under the prerogative of Saint Augustine's just-war. Clairvaux noted that, a Templar Knight, ''is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armor of faith, just as his body is protected by the armor of steel. He is thus doubly-armed, and need fear neither demons nor men.'' With this legitimacy, the Templars were able to claim donations from several noblemen and neighbouring Kings across Europe. Templars were required to take a vow of chastity, a vow of poverty, forsake other titles and devote themselves to the Holy Life and become WarriorMonk. The Order itself was granted several tracts of land across England, France (the true heart of Templardom), Spain and Portugal, and in exchange Pope Innocent II, on the advice of [[TheManBehindTheMan Clairvaux]] exempted them from taxes and conferred full independence from any authority except that of the Pope.

The Templars in Jerusalem claimed the Al Aqsa mosque as their base of operations, believing that the lost Temple of Solomon was buried beneath it. This association with Solomon and their occupation of religious buildings during the Crusades formed the seed of their later legend, as well as provide the Temple of their title. But for the most part, the Templars served as a military order of exceptional versatility. Templars had proper ranks between Knights, Chaplains and Sergeants. The Knights were the elite fighting force, while the Sergeants, also known as brothers were the poorer recruits. Only Knights, recruited from the noble aristocracy, [[IconicOutfit wore the iconic Templar regalia of White Surcoat over Chain Mail]] emblazoned with a Red Cross on its chest. The sergeants, drawn from the lower classes and so the majority, wore black habits and served as infantrymen or servants. Chaplains wore green and were responsible for religious services. They were famous during the Crusades for their discipline, their refusal to retreat from battle and their religious devotion. The Templars played a key role in the Third Crusade, thwarting a few victories for Saladin and fighting alongside King Richard I and King Louis VII. They also served with the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs during the Reconquista. The Templars gradually constituted a sort of Kingdom unto itself. They built castles, fortresses, as well as garrisoned towns, they had a proper organization with a Grand Master, elected for life and based in Jerusalem. Templar territories in various regions were organized into provinces with commanders and preceptors manning these posts, most of whom were appointed by vote. The Templars by the mid-1200s, possessed property across Western Europe, the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. For a time, the Templars "owned" the island of UsefulNotes/{{Cyprus}}. Their military strength and noble vows and renunciation of titles, gave them credibility to collect, store and transport bullion and other valuables across a wide region. Storehouses holding reserve currency and their general bureaucratic efficiency, command of land and sea trade routes made them attractive to bankers and kings, in addition to pilgrims. From this skill with banking and finance, the association of Templars and treasure entered the conspiracy legend.

The Rise and Fall of the Templars, seen in retrospect, is a case of classic MissionCreep. The Order's original purpose was to protect pilgrims but it gradually expanded to serving as a voluntary Crusader army and peacekeeping force. From there it expanded into infrastructure and finance. This expansion was inversely proportional to the gradual waning of the Crusader mentality in the 1200s, at which point the presence of an organization subsidized by the nobility and the Church, free of any regulation from secular authority, and possessing considerable prestige, raised the eyebrow of both royal Kings and their fellow Christian orders. In the wake of the Fourth Crusade, where the Crusaders sacked the Byzantine Empire instead of the Outremer, and the fall of Acre in 1291, many argued that the Templars no longer had any purpose. Their rival Church organization, the Hospitallers, wanted to merge with the Templars and access their infrastructure. By the dawn of the 1300s, the Templars were without a clear purpose and their failure to attract royal and church aid for another Crusade signaled that the Order was now nothing more than a financial institute. The Templars did appear to entertain hopes of starting an actual Kingdom in Languedoc, in imitation of the The Teutonic Knights (who set up shop in Prussia), but this in turn merely aroused the further suspicion of [[UsefulNotes/LEtatCestMoi King Philip IV of France]].

The Knights Templar were skilled, pious, and occasionally highly-educated elite fighters, cavalry, and bankers. The order was, all-in-all, a fairly normal (if vastly successful until its demise) religious warrior class born from the upper crust of medieval society. Ironically enough, they only embodied the KnightTemplar trope in their early days; within a few decades after their beginnings they had transformed, in the eyes of their more zealous contemporaries, into a notoriously ''tolerant'' organization that cultivated diplomatic contacts with the Muslim world; worked with Arab architects (which influenced the Gothic architecture seen everywhere in Europe), merchants, and even theologians; and disapproved of slaughtering enemies if they agreed to surrender. All of these points were used against them during the trials against them staged by Philip IV. The persistence of rumors that the Templars were somehow corrupt despite most evidence to the contrary means the Order is, to this day, an example of [[HeroWithBadPublicity heroes with really bad publicity]]. The fact that the order ceased to exist effectively overnight, and that they're associated with a huge treasure trove, has since given rise to countless AncientConspiracy theories (such as the fact that many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake on Friday 13th (October 13, 1307, to be precise), is often erroneously cited as the origin of the belief that ThirteenIsUnlucky. Pope Clement V only officially disbanded the Order in 1312. The last Grandmaster, Jacques de Molay, was burnt on the stake in the year 1314, seven years after his arrest.

* GondorCallsForAid: Averted in one notable instance in 1300. After being forced out of the Holy Land the Templars reached out to the Mongols to arrange an alliance against the Mamluks. Setting sail from Cyprus, they began by raiding the Egyptian and Syrian coast until they arrived at the arranged meeting spot... but the Mongols didn't show. They tried again several times, all with the same result, until they finally ran out of possible meeting places.
* HidingBehindReligion: Historically, the main accusation against the Templars was that they had at some point stopped being pious and used the Templar cross as a front for all kinds of forbidden private lives. They were accused of being sodomites, homosexuals, crypto-Muslims, atheists and neo-pagans. Of course all of this was made up during the trial and can't really be taken seriously but it did a great deal to add to the Conspiracy legend.

* In ''Literature/TheDaVinciCode'', after Jerusalem was conquered, the Templars discovered documents proving that [[spoiler:not only has {{Jesus}} really existed, but also married Mary Magdalene and had a child with her. After the crucifixion, Mary fled with their child to France, starting the Merovingian royal line (a.k.a. the HolyGrail), which exists to this day despite Vatican's efforts]]. Using this knowledge, the Templars have pressured [[ChristianityIsCatholic the Church]] into giving them unprecedented power, which backfired on them, eventually, but the survivors reformed as "the Priory of Sion".

The [[OverlyLongName Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon]] a.k.a. The Order of the Temple a.k.a. The Knights Templar were a Christian [[TheOrder religious order]] founded during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades. Despite the title of ''poor'' fellow soldiers, the Order eventually became renowned for being the wealthiest ChurchMilitant, especially renowned for its banking prowess.

* In ''NationalTreasure'' the Templars found the treasure in Jerusalem and survived their dissolution in the form of the Freemasons, who smuggled it to America.