What if the French King, Phillip IV, doesn't kill off the Knights Templar? What happens to them? For example, do they create their own nation sorta like what the Teutonic Order did or do they just continue doing what they do?
What if the French King, Phillip IV, doesn't kill off the Knights Templar? What happens to them? For example, do they create their own nation sorta like what the Teutonic Order did or do they just continue doing what they do?
Too many kings owed them money. Something like that was going to happen sooner or later anyway.
Teutonic Knights maintain their own kingom in East Prussia, Poland and Estonia. They moderate rivalries between Russian, Polish and Germanic kings, bringing peace to the Baltic coast. Teutonic allegiance to the Catholic Church extends Rome's influence farther east.
Don't the Knights need a local population base to draw on for foot-soldiers to help keep the kings at bay?
Cyprus certainly, if they can hold it (they didn't really want to since it was a pain in the ass), which should give them an extra 100 years of life if they do (until the Muslim states invade anyways).give them somewhere to have as a base (like Hospitaliers had Rhodes, later Malta, and Teutonic Knights had in the baltics), would be a good start, exactly where through is a good question, grabbing control of the ionian islands maybe? or would Venice have to large interest in that for them to pull it off?