1113

Pope Paschal II approves the expansion of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalemxe "Jerusalem" (a.k.a. Hospitallers) from a small Amalfi hospital group formed in 1070.  The Order’s first Grand Master is Peter Gérard.

According to The Knights Templar, Templars install Hugues de Payns as Grand Master on February 15 in Champagne.

According to the Principality of Seborga’s official website, Bernard de Fontaine establishes a monastery in Castrum Sepulchri (now called Seborga) in northern Italy to protect a “great secret.” This monastery, under the direction of Prince Abbot Edouard, includes two monks who will be future Templars, Gondemare and Rossal.

In March, the Treaty of Gisors gives Brittainy to English King Henry I.

Sultan Kilij Arslän dies and Muhammad Tapar becomes ruler of the Seljuk Turks and begins a successful campaign against Assassin towns.  In the Turks, Templars and Assassins now share a common enemy.

1114

On January 7, Holy Roman Emperor Henry V marries Matilda, the daughter of English King Henry I.

Count Hugues de Champagne receives a letter from Bishop Ivo of Chartres (dies December 12, 1115) saying "We have heard that … before leaving for Jerusalem you made a vow to join 'la Milice du Christ,' that you wish to enroll in this evangelical soldiery." La Milice du Christ (a.k.a. Soldiers of Christ) is another name by which the Templars are known and one Bernard de Fontaine often uses to refers to them. This letter establishes that the Templars were organized earlier at least by 1115.

Count Hugues de Champagne and Hugues de Payns leave for their second trip to Jerusalem.

According to The Templars: Knights of God, Michael the Syrian, Patriarch of the Syriac Church at Antioch and chronicler of the Crusades, will later write that Hugues de Payns was in Jerusalem for three years before founding the Templars.

1115

Count Hugues de Champagne returns from Jerusalem and provides land and funding for a new Cistercian Abbey at Clairvaux, 35 miles east of Troyes.  Hugues de Payns stays behind in Jerusalem.

On July 7, Peter the Hermit dies.

Abbot of Citeaux Etienne Harding appoints the young Bernard de Fontaine as Abbot of Clairvaux.

The Archbishop of Cologne imprisons Tanchelm of Flanders who escapes and is later killed for preaching against the corruption of priests and encouraging people not to tithe to the Catholic Church.

King Bauduoin I builds one of the great Crusader castles, the Krak de Montreal, in the Negev desert.

1117

In February, Bernard de Clairvaux goes to Castrum Sepulchri (Seborga) to release André de Gondemare and Rossal from their monastic vows, according Seborga’s official website.

In March, King of Jerusalem Baudouin I negotiates a constitution for the Knights Templar with Hugues de Payns and Godfroi de Saint-Omer.

1118

On January 21, Pope Paschal II dies and Gelasius II takes over three days later.   Holy Roman Emperor Henry V appoints his own pope, an act for which Gelasius II excommunicates him.

On April 2, King Baudouin I dies of disease at El-Arish while attempting to take Egypt. 

On April 14, Baudouin du Bourg of Edessa becomes Baudouin II, King of Jerusalem, reigning until 1131.

Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus dies.

In September, according to Seborga’s official website, Cistercian Abbot Prince Edouard of Seborga consecrates the nine original Templars in the presence of Bernard of Clairvaux and Count Hugues de Champagne. This means that de Payns must have traveled back to Seborga from Jerusalem to be with the other eight. 

In November, except for Count Hugues de Champagne, all nine Templars leave for Jerusalem, arriving May 14, 1119.  The principality of Seborga, located on the border of France and Italy, becomes the first and unique sovereign Cistercian state in history.

According to Paul Naudon concerning Lawrie’s History of Freemasonry, “…Hugh de Payens was initiated by Theocletes, Grand-Pontiff of the Nazarenes, or "St. John Christians," who had inherited the esoteric instructions of Jesus as found in the original  Gospel of Matthew. The first Templars regarded Jesus as a Brother, not a God, and strictly adhered to the secret teachings of their Chiefs in the East.”

Peter Gérard, Grand Master of the Hospitallers, dies and his successor Raymond de Puy increases their military role aided by Jerusalem King Baudouin II.

Medieval historian Guillaume de Tyre puts the beginning of the Templars during this year. 

Templars leave Europe for Jerusalem.

1119

Pope Gelasius II dies on January 29, succeeded by Pope Callistus II (1050-1124).

At Easter, Muslims attack 700 Catholic pilgrims on the road to the Jordan River.

On May 14, Templars arrive in Jerusalem.  King Baudouin II gives the Templars the al-Aqsa mosque and the adjacent area called Solomon's Stables on the Temple Mount for a headquarters.

Pope Callistus II calls the Council of Reims which turns public opinion away from Holy Roman Emperor Henry V.  Count Hugues de Champagne attends and aligns with the Pope.

Pope Callistus II negotiates a peace between the Kings of France and England at Gisors, which becomes a Norman village.

On June 28, Ilgazi, the Muslim Emir of Mardin (dies 1122), slaughters 3700 Catholic troops at the Battle of the Field of Blood (a.k.a. Battle of Ager Sanguinis, Battle of Sarmada) including Roger of Salerno.  Only 20 crusaders survive.

The Council of Toulouse condemns the Manicheans for heresy.

On Christmas Day at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Templars take their monastic vows from Warmund of Picquigny, the Patriarch of Jerusalem.  This moment is the orthodox founding date of the Order.

1120

In January, the Patriarch of Jerusalem (a distant cousin of Bernard of Clairvaux) at the Council of Nablus officially recognizes the Knights Templar Order and gives them their first insignia, a red cross.  King Baudouin II of Jerusalem gives them exclusive use of the al-Aqsa mosque located at the former Temple of Solomon.

In March, Templars set up a preceptory at La Fontenotte in Dijon.

Count Hugues de Champagne convenes a meeting in Troyes, agenda unknown.

Count Fulk V of Anjou takes an oath to join the Templars.

King Alexander I of Scotland establishes the country’s first Augustinian monastery at Scone.

On November 25, the English Treasury and 140 knights including the sole son of King Henry I drown off of France, opening up a power vacuum leading to an English civil war.

1121

Pope Callistus II captures his rival, Pope Gregory VIII, and returns to Rome in June.

According to The Second Messiah, Count Fulk V of Anjou travels to Jerusalem to visit the Templar excavations.  He returns to Europe and grants the Templars a large endowment.

The Council of Soissons condemns Peter Abelard (1079-1142) who believes in the use of reason rather than faith to prove the Bible.  Abelard’s process of questioning leads the seeker to truth rather than asking him to accept it without question. “Nothing is to be believed until it is understood.” -- Peter Abelard.

Death of Lambert de Saint Omer, an encyclopedist whose best-known work is a map called the Heavenly Jerusalem.  He may have translated documents for Templar Geoffrey de Saint Omer from excavations under Solomon’s Stables.

1122

Settling years of conflict, Pope Callistus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V sign the Concordat of Worms dividing power between the Pope and the Emperor. 

Pope Callistus II officially recognizes the Sacred and Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

1123

In March through April, Pope Callistus II calls the 1^st Lateran Council (9^th Ecumenical) in Rome which forbids simony (the selling of sacraments), forbids the marriage of priests, grants crusaders indulgences (forgiveness for their sins without punishment but usually involving payment), and discusses how to rule the Holy Land taken from the Muslims. 

On April 18, Ilgazi’s nephew Emir Artekid Balak of Aleppo imprisons King Baudouin II.

Count Hugues de Champagne and Elisabeth de Varais give birth to a son, Eudes I Champlitte.  The Count does not believe the boy is his.

1124

On May 6, Emir Balak dies and King Baudouin II is released the next month. 

In July, King Baudouin II and Count Pons of Tripoli successfully take Tyre, bringing a near-total Western occupation along the Holy Land’s coast except for Ascalon.

King David I brings unity of rule to Scotland and becomes King of Scots after the death of Alexander.

Death of Al-Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, leader of the Assassins.   His trusted general, Buzurgumid, takes over until 1138.

In December, Honorius II becomes Pope upon the death of Callistus.

1125

On May 14, Count Hugues de Champagne leaves his wife and son, transfers his enormous assets (4-5 times the wealth of the King of France) to his nephew Thibaud II, and travels to Jerusalem to be with the Templars.

In June, King Baudouin II, Joscelin I, and Count Pons of Tripoli defeats Assassin leader Buzurgumid (a.k.a. il-Bursuqi) at Azaz.

Peter DeBruys becomes extremely popular in southern France. He and his progressive followers, the Petrobrussians, believe that communion symbolizes cruelty and torture and that wine into blood is a lie; that priests may and should marry; and the fundamentalist view that religious authority comes only from literal interpretation of Scripture and not from apostolic tradition (i.e., the Pope).  Catholic clergy seize and burn DeBruys at the stake in Saint Gilles in 1126.

Archbishop Raymond of Toledo starts translating the works of Aristotle from Greek into Latin.

1126

In June, Count Hugues de Champagne dies.

On October 15, King Baudouin II dies.

1127

Templars Andrew and Gondemar leave Jerusalem for Europe on the first Advent Sunday with a letter from King Baudouin II to Bernard of Clairvaux asking his intervention with Pope Honorius II (formerly a Cistercian monk under Bernard) to sanction and fund the Templars as a military order.

Hugues de Payns, William de Bures, Guy de Brisbarre, and three other Templars leave Jerusalem for an audience with Pope Honorius II in Rome.

According Seborga’s official website, the Templars stop there on their way to France and Bernard de Clairvaux and Prince Abbot Edouard make Hugues de Payns the first Templar Grand Master. Also present is Friar Gerard de Martigues of the Knights of Malta.  In that same day, the website claims, a vow of silence was made between the Knights and the Great Bishop of the Cathari to safeguard "The Great Secret."

According to Ian Sinclair in Pinkham’s Guardians of the Holy Grail, Hugues de Payns and the Templars bring back five cases from Solomon’s Temple to Kilwinning Scotland that are later moved to Roslin Castle then to Rosslyn Chapel.  Sinclair states that ground scans at the Chapel show the five cases as well as five tunnels linking the Castle with the Chapel.

In October, Count Thibaud II de Champagne gives the Templars property 55 miles northwest of Troyes at Barbonne-Fayel. 

Hugues de Payns donates his own properties to the Templars.  Hugues’ eldest brother, Edmund de Payns, inherits all the remaining family wealth. 

1128

On March 19, Portuguese Queen Theresa gives the Templars the castle Soure and the town of Fonte Arcada.

In April, Hugues de Payns and the Templars travel to France to visit Count Fulk V, carrying a proposal from King Baudouin II for the count to marry his daughter Melissande.  The Count accepts.

Payen de Montdidier becomes Templar Grand Master for France north of the Loire river.

In late April, Hugues de Payns and Andre de Montbard travel to England where King Henry I welcomes them with large gifts of property. 

On June 17, Hugues de Payns attends the wedding of Count Fulk’s son, Geoffrey to King Henry I’s daughter, Matilde, heiress to the Norman throne.

Crusaders unsuccessfully attack Damascus but find victory conquering Aleppo.

Hugues de Payns sets up a Templar preceptory at London (now the Holborn Underground Station).   Hugh d'Argenstein is named the first Grand Master for England. 

Hughes de Payns and Andre de Montbard meet with King David I of Scotland (1084-1153). They also travel to Roslin, Scotland. 

Hugues de Payns’ wife, Catherine de Saint Clair, and her father give the Templars land at Balantrodoch for a preceptory. They will have three sons: Edmund de Payns, Thibaud de Payns, and Thomas de Payns.

In September, Hugues de Payns travels to Flanders (later Belgium) to the homeland of fellow Templar Geoffroi de Saint-Omer.

King David I of Scotland builds three abbeys: Dunfermline for Benedictine monks, Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh for Augustinian monks, and Kelso Abbey as a home for Tironensian monks relocated from an older house in Selkirk. 

Cistercians establish Abbeys at Igny and Reigny in France and in England at Waverley.

In December, Bernard of Clairvaux convenes a special Council of Troyes to welcome de Payns and the Templars.  Those present also include Templars Roland, Godefroi de Saint-Omer, Geoffroi Bisor, Payen de Montdidier, and Archambaut de Saint-Amand; Abbot Etienne Harding and the Archbishops of Reims and Sens; Count Thibaud IV of Champagne, Count William II of Nevers, and André de Baudemant.   

1129

On January 19 at the Council of Troyes, Pope Honorius II’s legate Matthew de Albano gives the Templars a Papal blessing and formally adopts the Order into the Catholic Church.

In May, Hugues de Payns returns to Jerusalemxe "Jerusalem" with 300 newly recruited Templars.

In May, Count Fulk V accepts betrothal to wed Melissande, daughter of Jerusalem King Baudouin II and Queen Morphia of Armenia.  Their first child is Baudouin III, the second is Amaury (a.k.a. Amalric).

In November, with Assassin leader Abu Fewa’s loan of his fortress at Banyas, King Baudouin II of Jerusalem unsuccessfully attacks Damascus with the aid of the Templars -- their first formal military mission.  Making matters worse, William de Bures’ men break off from the battle, decide to pillage instead, and are attacked by enemy cavalry. 

Everard de Barres becomes Templar Grand Master for Barcelona, Spain.  Hugh de Rigaud becomes Templar Grand Master for southern France, based in Carcassonne.

Council of Chalons.

1130

On February 13, Pope Honorius II dies.  Innocent II and Anacletus II (dies 1138) both claim the Papacy with Innocent II eventually fleeing to France for safety from his opponent’s forces.

A special conference in Toulouse gathers gifts of clothing, money, and property for the Templars.

Bernard of Clairvaux finishes In Praise of the New Knighthood about the Templars.

King Alfonso I (a.k.a. the Battler, Anfortius, Amfortas) of Aragon joins the Templars.

Council of Clermont.

Templars build a church at Cambridge in England.

Templars set up a preceptory in Graniére in southern France.

Troubadours and female troubadours (trobaritz) in the French Pyrenees pursue two themes involving the divine feminine: courtly love focused on the Goddess, the ideal woman; and adventures in search of the Holy Grail.  Meanwhile, Templars and other knights influence the idea of chivalry -- the belief that a true knight is not simply a warrior for his master, but has a higher duty to protect the powerless and those less fortunate.

1131

In June, King Baudouin II dies and on September 14, Templar Count Fulk V of Anjou and Melissande become King and Queen of Jerusalem.

Joscelin I of Edessa dies and his son Joscelin II succeeds him.

Council of Reims.

Count Ramon Berenguer III gives the Templars the stronghold of Granyena.

On October 25, Pope Innocent II crowns Louis VII as the King of France.

1132

Council of Piacenza.

Lothar III, King of the Romans, successfully attacks Italy to bring Innocent II back to Rome.

Templars set up a preceptory at Bacares in southern France and at La Neuville in the Champagne area.

1133

On June 4, Pope Innocent II declares Lothar III as Holy Roman Emperor in Rome.

Templars set up a preceptory at Douzens in southern France.

1134

King Alfonso I of Aragon dies and wills his kingdom to the Templars.  The King’s vassals refuse to relinquish the land to the Templars, choosing instead to surrender small estates in Aragon.

Abbot Etienne Harding dies at Citeaux on March 28. He is buried in the tomb of predecessor Alberic in the cloister.

Construction begins on the North tower of a large Cathedral at Chartres.

1135

Bernard de Clairvaux writes Liber ad Milites Templi De Laude Novae Militae in support of the Templars, attracting many new recruits.

In May, Pope Innocent II calls the Council of Pisa to excommunicate anti-Pope Anacletus II and extend eternal indulgences, special favors, and funding for new crusader recruits to fight the Vatican’s enemies.

Zwengi tries and fails to take Damascus back from the crusaders.

Templars set up preceptories at Coulouis in Champagne and Shipley in England.

In December, King Henry I of England dies.  Stephen of Blois takes the crown two weeks later.

1136

On May 24, Hugues de Payns dies and Robert de Craon of Burgundy becomes the second Templar Grand Master. 

Templars establish themselves in the Amanus March, an area near modern-day Antakya, Turkey.

Geoffrey of Monmouth writes the History of the Kings of Britain (a.k.a. The Matter of Britain), popularizing Arthurian legends and indirectly exposing the Rex Deus bloodline.

Rise of Henry of Lausanne whose Henricians condemn Catholic clergy for their love of wealth and power. Henry teaches that the sacraments are valid only from priests dedicated to the purity of poverty.  His movement spreads throughout the south of France.

Templars set up a preceptory in Richerenches in France.

1137

On July 22, Louis VII marries Eleanor of Acquitane. 

On August 1, King Louis VI of France dies.

In August, Muslims under Imam al-Din Zwengi capture King Fulk of Jerusalem then let him go in exchange for land at Montferrand 

Templars build their Paris preceptory on land granted by King Louis VI.

Templars receive the Essex manor of Cressing from Matilda of Boulogne, Queen of England and niece of King Baudouin I of Jerusalem.

Peacemaker Count Pons of Tripoli dies.

King David I builds Melrose Abbey, the first Cistercian Abbey in Scotland.

Templars set up a preceptory at Mas-Dieu in southern France.

The Assassins take the fortress of Khariba from the Templars.

1138

Anti-Pope Anacletus II dies and is briefly replaced by new Anti-Pope Victor.  Pope Innocent II returns to Rome.

King David I of Scotland builds Jedburgh Abbey in Scotland for Augustinian monks.

Templars build preceptories at Rome in Italy, Roaix in France, and Cressing in England.

Assassin leader Buzurgumid dies and his son Muhammad takes over until 1162.

1139

In March, Pope Innocent II writes Omne datum optimum, granting the Templars exemption from the authority of local bishops, exemption from taxation by any king, release from all obedience except to the Papacy, and other quite extraordinary privileges.  This is their official sanction to become the world’s most powerful group.

In April, the 2^nd Lateran Council (10^th Ecumenical) at Rome under Pope Innocent II and King of Germany Conrad III condemns the Petrobrussians, the Henricians, and exiles Arnold of Brescia. Bernard de Clairvaux preaches against the use of lay ministers in church services.  The Council enacts a stronger celibacy policy for priests, partially to prevent priests’ children from inheriting Catholic property.

Thibaud de Payns, son of Hugues de Payns, becomes Abbot of Saint Columba-de-Saens.

King Fulk of Jerusalem dies on November 7.  Queen Melissande serves as regent for her young son, Baudouin.

Pope Innocent II grants a charter to a group called the Prieuré de Sion. 

Templars build castles at Port Bonnet, Baghras, and Darbask in the Holy Land and preceptories in La Rochelle, France, Novillas Spain, and Temple Crowley in England.