By any other name: The Templars after Acre

Introduction.

One event, apparently unrelated with them, was to ensure the survival of the Knights Templar after the fall of Acre in 1291 marked the end of the Crusades.

It all began after the Sicilian Vespers, when the kings of the House of Barcelona became the rulers of the kingdom of Tinacria, that is, of the island of Sicily. Thus, Frederick III of Sicily, as part of the Peace of Castalbellotta (1302), to appease the Pope, gave Malta to the Knights Templar led by Jacques de Molay

Initially, de Molay was less than thrilled by this gift,busy as he he had his hands full with asserting the influece of the Order in Cyprus, but this changed in 1305 with his death. His successor, Hugues de Peraud, the visitor of France, even if he focused too in what was going on in Cyprus, he found time to pay some attention to Malta, that was reinforced and fortified by the Templars.

Because, basically, de Peiraud's time as Grand Master of the Knights Templar was marked with turmoil and chaos that kept him away from the island. First there was the death of Phillip IV of France in 1305 and the whispered rumours spreaded by a Esquieu de Floyran, who claimed that the French king had been poisoned by the Templars because he knew some dark secrets about the Order. Thus began the black legend of the Templars.

Then came the next crisis that gave little time to de Peiraud to waste with those rumours, busy as he was with Cyprus, where, in 1306, king Henry II of Jerusalem had been deposed by his brother, Amalric, Prince of Tyre, and posioned later on.
 
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1. Peace in Cyprus, troubles in France

Amalric III of Jerusalem had initally little problems as king, but soon gave reasons to the Templars to mistrust him. In spite of having supported him against his brother, Amalric was not willing to rely more on them than in the Hospitaliers, that had joined Henri II's side. Knowing that he was to need all the help he may muster, he was ready to forget past slights.

Meanwhile, the rumours that had spread about the supposed "evil" side of the order and his role in the death of Phillip IV of France were soon forgotten amidst the continual feuding of his son and heir, Louis X, with the noble factions within the kingdom. If by the end of his father´s reign opposition to the fiscal reforms was growing, after his death and the accession of Louis, this opposition rapidly developed into open revolt. When those problems were sorted out around 1315, Louis X was fully busy with Flanders. When the king died unexpectedly in 1316, his infant son was crowned as Jean I. His uncle, Phillip The Tall, count of Poitiers, was named Regent for his nephew.

Soon Phillip and the Templars clashed, as the latter distrusted the former's ambition to the throne, while Phillip wanted to curb the Templar's power as soon as possible. The dispute forced Grand Master de Peiraud to leave Cyprus to go to France. There, while he was trying to find a peaceful solution, de Peiraud died of natural causes in 1318, and Aymon d'Oselay became the new Grand Master of the Temple but for a short time, as he died in 1319. Renaud de Vichiers was his replacement and soon found himself in a troublesome situation.
 
2. Fighting the Muslims again.

Neighboring Muslim powers were potentially a great threat to Cyprus. However, as they had their eye fixed on the rump that remained of the Byzantine Empire, for a time there was peace. In addition, they were primarily a land power, and for the moment the remaining Latin Christian entities in the region could hold their own on the seas, and followed the Crusading tradition in the form of sea-born raids, and were remarkably successful given their limited resources. However, one of those raids misfired.

Trusting too much his power and the disarray of the Muslim powers caused by the fall of the Selyucid Empire and the ravages of the Black Death in the Ilkhanate empire, King Hugh IV of Jerusalem, the nephew of Amalric III , who died in 1326, began in 1330 to launch a series of very ambitious raids. Helped by the division among the Anatolian beyliks, his policy worked well for some time, until the Karamanids, tired of the constants attacks, prepared to strike back and threatened, in 1334, the city of Korikos, a fortified harbor in the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia was threatened by the Karamanids. Hugh IV sent an expedition led by Robert de Luisignan, who helped the city to resist.

Worried by the Cypriot attacks and busy fighting the Turks in Anatolia, the Karamanid ruler asked their Mamluk ally for help. Al Nasir Muhammand, worrying that Hugh IV may become too bold after his victories against the Karamanids and try to intervene in Egypt in favour of the Cristian communities, he decided to strike first and send his son Abu Bakr in a retaliatory expedition against Cyprus that achieved little but to mightly worry Hugh IV, who began to reinforce the Cypriot fleet.

During this time the Templars under Reinaud de Vichiers became, along with the Hospitallers, very important for Hugh IV, as their growing fleets helped him in their raids against the Muslim powers. By the 1340s their fleet was not as powerful as the Hospitaller one, but it was, nevertheless, an important asset for the Cypriot king. Also, de Vichiers kept reinforcing Malta, which became an important fortress towards the end of the 14th century.

However, even if de Vichiers had his hands full with the events in the Eastern Mediterranean, France wasa constant source of problems. Since the death of Phillip, earl of Poitiers, in 1322 there had been a continuous flow of rumours that he had been poisoned by the Templars. This suspicion arose, mainly, due to the deep enemity between the former Grand Master and the late prince. Initially, little happen, but around 1323, the new Regent, the younger uncle of the king, Charles I, king of Navarre, accused some knights who had been close to the late Huges de Paraud of having poisoned his brother, causing a diplomatic incident as the Templars argued that only the Pope had any power over them.

From this moment on, the issue grew out of control, as to this accussatios many other followed, including black magic, sodomy, heresy and blasphemy against Pope Boniface. This event took place in the worst moment, as the Pope John XXII was distracted with his feud with the German Emperor, Ludwig, and was in deep need of the help of the French king. When Jacques Fournier succeeded John XXII and became Benedict XII in 1334 many feared that the Templars were in a dire situation.
 
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3. The Trial of the Templars

The attack against the Templars in France was no surprise to the Order. Warned not only by their spies but also by leaks from the royal authorities and with their leaders in Cyprus, when Jean I of France moved against them he only managed to arrest a few knights and, in the case he hoped to find it, with the treasure of the Temple placed safely in any other place.

To make it worse, his "warnings" to the other fellow kings felt in dumb ears. The accusations of heressy against them made many remember similar accusations made by Pope Gregory IX against the Hospitallers or the ones put against the Teutonic Order in Livonia by its enemies. In short, the attack against the Templars, some how succesful in France, was a disaster outside its borders.

Edward III refused to pay any atention to the accusations because he needed the Order in his war against the Scots. The same reason was argued by Alfonso XI of Castille, who was fully busy fighting the Moors, and by Alfonso IV of Aragon. In the best of cases, their answer was, the accusations seemed to be quite flimsy and, in the worse, sheer fabrication and lies. A similar attitude could be found in Afonso IV of Portugal and from Hugh IV of Jerusalem.

In the end, the last word upon the question came from the Pope. Benedict XII, in his times as inquistor against the Cathar heressy, was an expert on the matter and took affairs personally. To make it worse for Jean I, his relations with the Pope were, to put it midly, quite frigid, and the whole affaire did not improve them. As the Templars defended them quite vigorously and the charges seemed to be weak, the position of the French king became soon quite untenable. He could point out at a few knights to blame for heressy or any other crime, but the Order, as a whole, remained untouched and innocent.

In England the confessions amounted to nothing and just two knights were guilty of minor offenses. In Cyprus the trials ended in acquitting all Templars of all charges. In Portugal, Castille and Aragon it was proclaimed that no fault of heresy, blasphemy or immorality had been foud in the Templars in their respective realms. Thus ended the trials, with the Order, at large, proclaimed innocent of all charges when the process was over in 1336.

One year later the Grand Master Renaud de Vichiers died. The new Grand Master, Jobert des Moulins, was to lead a radical transformation of the Templar Order.
 
4. Reforming the Temple

When the process was over in 1336, the Templar Order was facing a crisis of its own. The new Grand Master, Jobert des Moulins, was determined to use the momentum given by the trial to urge the order and to reorganize it.

Almost fifty years after the fall of Acre it was quite obvious that the Holy Land was lost forever. The mood had changed and after the failures of the last crusades, there was hardly any intention to try to strike again in the East. The truth was that the time to be on the defensive had arrived. Des Moulins improved the already impressive defenses of Malta and then purged the Order. Those members of it that that had been accused of any crime during the trial had been long ago punished, either by the King of France or by the same Templar order. Even Benedict XIII was involved in that process and the matter had been settled. But not for des Molisns, who, as it has been said, purged the order.

As those who were deemed guilty of any crime had been dealt with, he went after those who remained in some "grey area". He simply solved the question by creating some special units, some kind of disciplinary force, to which those knights were sent to atone for their crimes. Those Templars who were not knights, were simply expelled from the order. Des Moulins also changed the internal structure of the order, removing some Priors and bailis and named new ones.

The military role of the Order was not forgotten and the need to fight the Barbary pirats led to a reinforcement and improvement of the tiny Templar fleet, which helped the Hospitallers to defeat an attack of the Sultan of Egypt against Rhodes in 1346. This affaire was a sign of the times to come.
 
5. Bankers of Rome, Sword of God

The second half of the 14th century saw the Templars asuming an increasing role as bankers, as Templars became increasingly involved in banking activities. From 1378 to 1382 they had a role in the Ciompi Revolt, although very little is know about their real actions in the affaire. There were rumours pointing out that they joined hands with Salvestro di Medici, who represented the middle and upper classes during that time of turmoil in Florence, and even with the misterious “The Eight (Saints)” radical Ciompi rebels. All in all, it was claimed the Templars were determined to destroy the power of the Ciompi. Whatever happened, the Ciompi Revolt marked the beginning of a close relationship between the Templars and the di Medici that would leave a deep mark on history. Thus the Templars won a terrible enemy, the Albizzi family

By that time, also, the Templars became closely asociated with the Trastamara family, whose rise to power they financed during the civil war and after. In fact, it was the Templar gold that bought the support of Aragon and of Betrand du Gluescin's mercenaries. However, they were conspicously absent during Juan I's invasion of Portugal that led to the defeat at Aljubarrota (1385), but supported Enrique III in his war against Granada (1406)

Meanwhile, they also joined the Knights Hospitallers in their fight against their Muslim enemies, specially the Barbary pirates, which attracted a great deal of the Templar's attention to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
 
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Why would there be a Hundred year war the English have no Right to the Throne of France with Jean as King and even Otl they also were usurper.
 
Why would there be a Hundred year war the English have no Right to the Throne of France with Jean as King and even Otl they also were usurper.

Indeed, with Jean I there was hardly a reason, but since he became king, Jean and his succesors had been always quarrelling with the French nobility, who were not too happy about the king trying to have the upper hand over them. Things went a bit hot and civil war ensued, with some rebels offering the crown to the English king, who used the chance to invade France. Then, as the Burgundian did IOTL, they changed their minds and joined hands with their king. Thus, a silly little long war.
 
Indeed, with Jean I there was hardly a reason, but since he became king, Jean and his succesors had been always quarrelling with the French nobility, who were not too happy about the king trying to have the upper hand over them. Things went a bit hot and civil war ensued, with some rebels offering the crown to the English king, who used the chance to invade France. Then, as the Burgundian did IOTL, they changed their minds and joined hands with their king. Thus, a silly little long war.
Ok thanks for the clarification.
 
Indeed, with Jean I there was hardly a reason, but since he became king, Jean and his succesors had been always quarrelling with the French nobility, who were not too happy about the king trying to have the upper hand over them. Things went a bit hot and civil war ensued, with some rebels offering the crown to the English king, who used the chance to invade France. Then, as the Burgundian did IOTL, they changed their minds and joined hands with their king. Thus, a silly little long war.

Sorry. The English have no claim to the English crown at all with John I alive. John was the son of Louis X, who was the son of Philip IV, the son of Philip III, all the way to Hugh Capet. The Capetians during the 13th and 14th century are in power longer than any other noble house. What legal claim could the English use?

In order to claim the throne, they must have a legal leaf, or a legal justification. Edward III in OTL has one. The English king in this one would have none.

The king of England has no claim on France. Without it, England would lose easily. Just look at what happened in the War of Saint Sardos to see what would happen in a war between France and England about Gascony. And in this case, there would be no gigantic Burgundian house since that was created by John II giving Burgundy to his younger son. John II in this TL does not exist, and Burgundy by itself, without inheriting Flanders, Franche Comte, the Netherlands, would be easily overrun by the forces of the King of France.
 
Sorry. The English have no claim to the English crown at all with John I alive. John was the son of Louis X, who was the son of Philip IV, the son of Philip III, all the way to Hugh Capet. The Capetians during the 13th and 14th century are in power longer than any other noble house. What legal claim could the English use?

In order to claim the throne, they must have a legal leaf, or a legal justification. Edward III in OTL has one. The English king in this one would have none.

The king of England has no claim on France. Without it, England would lose easily. Just look at what happened in the War of Saint Sardos to see what would happen in a war between France and England about Gascony. And in this case, there would be no gigantic Burgundian house since that was created by John II giving Burgundy to his younger son. John II in this TL does not exist, and Burgundy by itself, without inheriting Flanders, Franche Comte, the Netherlands, would be easily overrun by the forces of the King of France.

Thanks a lot for your correction, Tonifranz. The Hundred Year's War goes out of the picture of this TL.
 
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