The Knights Templar at War 1120–1312 by Paul Hill

Author:Paul Hill [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Ancient
ISBN: 9781473874947
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2018-01-29T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Mongols and Mamelukes

The Templars were certainly wary of the Mongol threat. In late 1256 Guy of Baisanville, a Templar Commander of Knights, had written to the Bishop of Orléans explaining that the Mongols had invaded many of the Muslim lands and were bearing down upon Jerusalem. In either 1256 or 1257 Thomas Bérard sent twelve brothers to Jerusalem, but four of them soon left the city. As there were Mongols in the countryside, Thomas sent a letter to the Commander ordering him to leave the city and retire to Jaffa. Four brothers, probably those who had left earlier, approached the Commander asking him to obey the instruction but he refused to leave the brothers of the Hospital who were with them. He also refused to order the brothers to stay, creating a loophole which had to be resolved by clause 576 of the Templar Rule. The four then left and returned to their Master pleading for mercy knowing that they had left their commander and banner in the city but had tried to honour the Master’s original order. According to clause 576, the brothers escaped harsh punishment. This was the sort of upheaval the threat of the Mongols could have on the protocols of a military order.

The fear Thomas felt was made worse by the damaging events which became known as the wars of Saint Sabas which broke out in Acre at around the same time and which sucked in many important families with ties to each of the groups involved. The Genoese and Venetians were in conflict over the property of the abbey of St Sabas in Acre and the constant flare-ups between these two Italian merchant communities, which also involved the Pisans, did nothing to convince anyone of a Christian united front in the face of a much greater threat. Worse, the Hospitallers sided with the Genoese and the Templars and Teutonic Knights with the Venetians. So fierce was the conflict in the city of Acre that at one point in 1258 Thomas Bérard found himself holed up in the tower of St Lazarus when his own quarter was caught in the crossfire between all three squabbling groups whose siege engines were hurling missiles at one another. The military orders, however, saw sense and agreed to keep the peace by October 1258. Eventually, the Genoese were driven out and went on to help the Byzantines wrest the imperial throne from the Franks in 1261.

The rise of the Mongols was inexorable. The Assassins in their Persian bases had been all but wiped out by the invaders. Early in 1258 Baghdad had fallen and further west Aleppo had succumbed in January 1260. By March even Damascus had capitulated to the Mongol leader Kitbogha. It is no surprise to find Christian leaders sending urgent letters to the West for help. Amongst these was a letter from the prolific Thomas Bérard carried by a Templar messenger to the order’s English treasurer, Amadeus Morestello, in London with such a degree of urgency that he made it from Dover to London in a single day.

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