Templar America

Following the Siege of Acre
Sixteen years passed since the Templar stronghold of Acre fell to the hands of the Mamluks the Templar order lost their last foothold in the Holy Land. This was a devastating blow to the order as they had managed to lose control of the Holy Land, possibly for good. The duty of their order was to protect the pilgrims of all faiths on the road to Jerusalem and defend the Holy Land from all invaders. With the city of Acre falling, in 1291, to the overwhelming forces of Mamluks and their allies the order lost their influence in the Holy Land for the first time in over one hundred years.

With this crushing defeat the Holy Land was for the first time in over one hundred years, out of Christians influence. There was an attempt to reclaim the city from their base on Acre, with the help of the Mongols, yet once again the Mamluks stopped them by taking the island from the Christian defenders, pushing the order even further away from the Holy Land.

Hope in Europe
It was in this sixteen year period of time that the Templar Order set up their military presence across Europe. Yet during this period of time the Order did not see much, if any, action at all as they were prevented by the Pope from fighting in unsanctioned battles and wars without the consent of the either the ruling King or Papal Authority. However they were not inactive hanging up their weapons and armor to live a life of peace.

The Templar Order built up a vast network of industry and trade networks as well as handling an early for of banking that they first developed in the Holy Land which they were now able to use to a greater effect in Europe. This would grow their wealth and influence quickly to where they managed to rebuild their ranks with new recruits who were trained in the art of war and other skills needed to be an asset for the order.

They did this in preparation for the next Crusade whenever it might be. The order prayed night and day that they may once again retake the Holy Land and avenge their defeat Acre. Until that time the order stood ever vigilant awaiting the call for Crusade.

Enter Pope Clement V
With the election of Pope Clement V who desired to reclaim the Holy Land from the Saracens and allow the paths to Jerusalem made clear for Christian Pilgrims once more. However with the lack of enthusiasm for another Crusade, the Pope tried to find another solution. One idea Pope Clement pitched to the heads of all of the Holy Orders (Knights Templars, Knights Hospitallers, and Teutonic Order) was the idea of a single order that would have both the manpower and the influence to convince the Kings of Europe to join a new crusade.

All of the Grand Masters of declined such a proposal as they feared losing their independence to a new Grandmaster that would not know how to run each of the independently run orders. However each of the orders were in support of another crusade and were willing to pool their resources together to form a large army and reclaim the Holy Land once more.

The Templar’s began gathering the loans needed for the upcoming war as they had the most money out of the three Holy Orders. Many of the nobles of Europe, who owed money to the Templars paid back their money, some begrudgingly, except for one. A King, who owed so much money to the Templar Order, that his debt was equivalent to all the money owed by every noble in Europe combined. Philip IV of France was this King.

Enemy from Within
King Philip was known for borrowing large sums of money from the Templar Order that he wasted over the course of his reign. He spent the money on parties and his lavish lifestyle so much so that the previous Pope, Boniface VIII, condemned his lifestyle. Instead of investing his money in areas that would have made him enough money to repay the Templars in full, he was now in debt and out of money. When he was approached time and time again by the Templars to repay the money owed to their order, his rage grew.

Fearing that the Templars would demand payment, in the form of land or royal heirlooms, Philip, with the help of his closest advisor, Guillaume de Nogaret, they found a solution to France’s national debt. At first he tried to tax the clergy yet this caused him to become at odds with both the Templar Order and the Church of France. With the risk of open battle being a real threat to his throne, Nogaret offered him a solution that would allow him to expunge all of his debt to the Templars, and remove the threat to his throne once and for all.

Heresy
On October of 1307, Friday the 13th, Philip IV of France with the confession of several “ex-Templars” he claimed the Templar Order as a whole were heretics. There were charges of idol worship, homosexual acts, spitting and urinating on the cross, and even claims that the order did not believe in God.

The claims were serious on their own yet all of them aimed at a single order was damning. The Templar Grandmaster Jacques de Molay was quick to ready their legal defense bringing all of their lawyers and high ranking members to Paris to defend their order from such accusations. This later proved to be his downfall as King Philip arrested all of the members in his presence as well as any Templar who was in the streets of Paris when this happened. The number of men that were arrested, has been rumored to be in the hundreds; yet some of today’s order doubt that no more than one hundred Templars were arrested in all of France, with only two hundred more across Europe.

Official Order Disbandment
Despite the best efforts of Pope Clement V to convince Philip to release the Templars he was threatened by the King, with military action, to allow him to continue his investigation of the order’s heresy. In actuality he was searching all of the Templar’s strongholds, and castles in France in an attempt to gather money he believed they were hording in their castles, to his dismay all of their vaults were empty.

For seven long years the Grandmaster Molay pleaded his innocence as he, and all of his imprisoned subordinates, was tortured in an attempt to gain a confession. In 1312 Pope Clement tried to officially disband the Templar Order in an attempt to halt Philips actions. It had the opposite effect and he ordered even worse acts of violence onto the Templars in an attempt for them to confess and to reveal where all of their treasure was hidden.

In one final act of violence Philip order that Grandmaster Moley be executed. The date was set, and on March 18, 1314 in front of the Holy Notre Dame itself the Grandmaster Jacques de Molay was burned alive. As the Grandmaster was burning alive he cursed both King Philip of France and Pope Clement, saying that they would meet him with God very soon. Either by divine will or chance of luck the Pope would die a month later and King Philip would die in a hunting accident in late November of that same year.

Arrival in Scotland
While many of the high ranking members of the Templar Order were being persecuted, the rest of the order were following several key instructions that were given to each order in the event such as this. (The original purpose for said orders was in the event of an overwhelming invasion by either the Mongols, or any of the Islamic Caliphates in which the armies of Europe could not hold back the endless hordes on their own.) Gathering up all of their wealth, (cleverly hiding it in bags of food, hidden wagon compartments and even in their weapons) each chapter set out on this journey.

Some Templars were forced to hire ships to travel to Scotland while others, who managed to meet in larger groups, used the Templar ships stationed in Northern France and Germany. Those who were unable to safely travel to Scotland sought refuge with the Knights Hospitaller where they would remain for the seven year persecution.

The majority of the order managed to arrive on the south western coast of Scotland in early February of 1308, with their numbers totaling twelve thousand strong, though be many estimates only eight thousand of them were fighting men. A month after their arrival they were greeted by King Robert the Bruce (Robert I of Scotland)  himself who was wary at seeing the large Templar army on his recently liberated lands.

The Pact of Bruce
Despite his uneasiness Robert saw an opportunity that he could not pass by as he needed fighting men to help him reclaim Scotland from the English. Despite the previous King of England's death boosting the moral of the Scottish people, Robert knew that without men he could not hope to hold back the larger English armies to the south.