In military action, the Templars were elite soldiers. They showed courage and proved themselves to be clever strategists. They were present on all the battlefields where the Frankish army was and joined the royal armies from 1129.
Second siege of Ascalon (August 16, 1153)
The siege of Damascus having been a big defeat for the King of Jerusalem, Baldwin III, he decided to launch an attack on Ascalon.
The master of the order, Bernard de Tramelay, supported the king's opinion and the attack was launched on August 16, 1153. It was a slaughter for the Templars who entered the city in number of forty behind their Master. Indeed, they were all killed by the Egyptian defenders of the city and their bodies hung on the ramparts.
This episode raised many controversies because some claimed that the Templars wanted to enter the city alone in order to appropriate all the goods and treasures while others thought that they wanted, on the contrary, to mark the order of a feat of arms.
However, the city of Ascalon fell on August 22, 1153 and the Order of the Temple was elected a new master:André de Montbard. He accepted this appointment to counter the election of another Knight of the Temple, Guillaume II de Chanaleilles, son of Guillaume I (one of the heroes of the First Crusade alongside the Count of Toulouse Raymond IV, known as Raymond de Saint- Gilles), favorite of the King of France Louis VII and who would have allowed the king to control the Order.
Battle of Montgisard (November 25, 1177)
This battle, fought on November 25, 1177, was one of the first for the young king of Jerusalem Baldwin IV, then sixteen years old. The king's troops had been reinforced by eighty Templars who had come from Gaza on a forced march.
This alliance of forces defeated Saladin's army at Montgisard, near Ramla.
Battle of Hattin (July 4, 1187)
After the death of leper King Baudoin IV, Guy de Lusignan became king of Jerusalem through his wife Sybille, the king's sister.
On the advice of the Temple and the Hospital, Guy de Lusignan prepared the army. As the weather was particularly arid and the only water point was at Hattin, near Tiberias, the king ordered his troops to head in that direction.
On July 4, 1187, Saladin surrounded the Franks. Almost the whole army was taken prisoner (about fifteen thousand men), as well as the king himself. Saladin having a particular dislike for the Templars, they were all executed by decapitation (as well as all the Hospitallers). Only one Templar was spared, the master himself:Gérard de Ridefort.
Battle of Arsuf (September 7, 1191)
After the fall of Jerusalem, a third crusade was launched from Europe. Richard Coeur de Lion found himself alone after the withdrawal of the majority of the German troops of Frédéric Barberousse (after the drowning of the latter in a river) and the return of Philippe Auguste to France. Richard marched his army along the sea, which allowed him to stay in communication with his fleet and thus ensure the continuous supply of his troops.
Made up of an immense column, Richard's army had the corps of the Templars as its vanguard, followed by the Bretons and the Angevins, Guy de Lusignan with his compatriots Poitevins, then the Normans and the English and finally in the rear. the Hospitallers.
In the early days of the battle, Richard suffered Saladin's initiative but took the situation in hand to finally rout Saladin's army with two successive charges from the Frankish knights, despite the premature outbreak of the first charge.
Battle of Mansoura (February 8, 1250)
Count Robert I of Artois, disobeying the orders of his brother King Saint-Louis, wanted to attack the Egyptian troops despite the protests of the Templars who recommended that he wait for the bulk of the royal army. The Frankish vanguard entered the city of Mansoura, scattering through the streets. Taking advantage of this advantage, the Muslim forces launched a counterattack and harassed the Franks. It was a real disaster. Of all the Templars, 295 perished, including the master of the order Guillaume de Saunhac. Only 4 or 5 survived. Robert d'Artois himself, the instigator of this disorderly and completely meaningless attack, lost his life.
Saint Louis regained the advantage the same evening by annihilating the troops who had just exterminated his vanguard. However, the Templars had meanwhile lost almost all of their men.