Templars Survive?

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You may call it ASB, but I'm thinking about a timeline where the Templars are granted an entire country of their own, where they can be safe from the greed of powerful monarchs. Not the Holy Land, but some place on the edge of Christendom - like southern Spain or Portugal; perhaps some of the fiefs of the Frankokratia, where they decide to spread Catholicism and root out Orthodoxy, before the Empire of Nikeia reclaims its homeland.

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I'm liking the Templar Pope thing. Rather than break up the Warrior/Banker symbiosis have it better run, with more secrecy. By the time folks figure out whats up the Papacy & significant number of the Bishops are controled by the Templars. If with some adroit diplomacy they win over a few of the most powerful aristocratic families = kingdoms they are well on their way to revival of the Holy Roman Empire.
 
You may call it ASB, but I'm thinking about a timeline where the Templars are granted an entire country of their own, where they can be safe from the greed of powerful monarchs. Not the Holy Land, but some place on the edge of Christendom - like southern Spain or Portugal; perhaps some of the fiefs of the Frankokratia, where they decide to spread Catholicism and root out Orthodoxy, before the Empire of Nikeia reclaims its homeland.

Perhaps Carthage?
 
Actually, the Knights of Christ in Portugal--who are still around, I believe--were created by disbanding the Templars--then creating a new holy order under protection of the king that was essentially "Knights Templar with the serial numbers filed off".
IIRC didn't the Knights Hospitallers absorb most of the remaining members and assets of the Templars as well after all the unpleasantness had wound down?
 

Sir Chaos

Banned
How about this idea: The financial branch of the Templars is dissolved by the Papacy and one or more of the kings in whose realms they were most active, with the cooperation (or at least acquiescence) of the Templar military branch, which is led by someone hoping to take the Templar "back to their roots", so to speak, by focussing on military action against those heathens that threaten Christianity (from their point of view) - such as by joining the Reconquista or curbing the nascent activity of the Barbary pirates, or shoring up the defenses of the Eastern Roman Empire against the Ottomans.

In this scenario, to give the whole thing a veneer of legitimacy, the Templars are compensated for the loss of their assets in the Christian kingdoms in some way - with land to serve as a base for their activities, or with funds to raise and maintain an army for their campaign, or something like that. That, or the military branch, plus a "generous donation" by those kings who confiscated the Templar assets, are folded into one or more existing knight orders.
 
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