Hugues de Payns

French knight who founded the Knights Templar and served as its first Grand Master.

Life

Knight from Champagne

Hugues de Payns was a French knight from Champagne who came to Jerusalem after the First Crusade. At the time, pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land were often robbed and murdered on the road.

Oath of the nine

In 1119 he and eight other knights took vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, dedicating themselves to protecting pilgrims. King Baldwin II of Jerusalem gave them the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount as their quarters, and so they became known as the "Knights of the Temple."

First Grand Master

In 1129 he returned to Europe to recruit members and raise donations, and the Council of Troyes approved the order's Rule. He went back to the Holy Land and died in 1136; the order quickly grew into an organization as rich as a kingdom.

Legacy

Hugues de Payns created a new kind of organization, the "armed monks," and the Knights Templar became the most powerful military order of the Middle Ages.

Did you know? The order's seal shows two knights riding a single horse, a symbol of their original poverty.

Key dates

• 1119Founded the Knights Templar
• 1129Council of Troyes approved the Rule
• 1136Died