In the late 1200s, the King of France was Philip IV, the Fair. At that time, he was at war against the King of England, Edward I Longshanks (yes, the one portrayed in the movie Braveheart). Edward owned many lands in France, but at the same time, he was a vassal to Philip. The relations between them soured and war erupted.
This war was very costly to the French coffers, causing the country to experience hyperinflation. To solve that, Philip began to seize properties and money from public debt investors: first, the Jewish, who also were expelled from France; then Lombard bankers; and finally, the Knights Templar, who, along with their military and ecclesiastic roles, also had a very important role as bankers in Europe. Philip invented many false accusations of heresy against the Knights Templar, who were tortured and imprisoned in France, in 1307. The Pope Clement V, acting under Philip’s menace, dissolved the order and decreed that all remaining members should be arrested throughout all European kingdoms.
But in Portugal, the King Denis I managed to protect the knights and transfer their properties and money to be secured; the mighty Templar navy was supposedly transferred to Portugal too, making it the birth of the Portuguese Navy. A new order was created, the Military Order of the Knights of Christ, absorbing many former members of the Knights Templar. This order played a major role in Portuguese navigations around 100 years later, as its members financed and were part of Portuguese expeditions to West Africa, India and Brazil. This is also why Portuguese caravels and carracks had big red crosses on their sails: it’s a [redesigned Templar logo](https://warhistory.org/media/2024/01/Portuguese-Campaigns-against-Diu-1509%E2%80%931547.jpg).
Vector_Strike on
Good King Denis
TheArizonaRanger451 on
Cool!
Apprehensive_Gur_302 on
King of france was with the assassin brotherhood
RodrigoEstrela on
GLORIOSA ORDEM DE CRISTO DE PORTUGAL NAÇÃO TEMPLÁRIA E FIEL REINO CATÓLICO
Glum-Football-5220 on
Pope: “Hey Portugal, lots of templars are going there. You do not have a regional preceptories of the order there, right? Is pecifically said the templars were to be banned and dissolved”
Portugal: “Of course not, those blasfemers. We do not want anything to do with them… completely unrelated, but can we create an order, in everything similar to the templars, in which all property of the templars would go to that order and all the people previously in the templar order would be transfered to these new order?”
Pope: “that sounds suspiciously as just renaming the templars”
6 Comments
In the late 1200s, the King of France was Philip IV, the Fair. At that time, he was at war against the King of England, Edward I Longshanks (yes, the one portrayed in the movie Braveheart). Edward owned many lands in France, but at the same time, he was a vassal to Philip. The relations between them soured and war erupted.
This war was very costly to the French coffers, causing the country to experience hyperinflation. To solve that, Philip began to seize properties and money from public debt investors: first, the Jewish, who also were expelled from France; then Lombard bankers; and finally, the Knights Templar, who, along with their military and ecclesiastic roles, also had a very important role as bankers in Europe. Philip invented many false accusations of heresy against the Knights Templar, who were tortured and imprisoned in France, in 1307. The Pope Clement V, acting under Philip’s menace, dissolved the order and decreed that all remaining members should be arrested throughout all European kingdoms.
But in Portugal, the King Denis I managed to protect the knights and transfer their properties and money to be secured; the mighty Templar navy was supposedly transferred to Portugal too, making it the birth of the Portuguese Navy. A new order was created, the Military Order of the Knights of Christ, absorbing many former members of the Knights Templar. This order played a major role in Portuguese navigations around 100 years later, as its members financed and were part of Portuguese expeditions to West Africa, India and Brazil. This is also why Portuguese caravels and carracks had big red crosses on their sails: it’s a [redesigned Templar logo](https://warhistory.org/media/2024/01/Portuguese-Campaigns-against-Diu-1509%E2%80%931547.jpg).
Good King Denis
Cool!
King of france was with the assassin brotherhood
GLORIOSA ORDEM DE CRISTO DE PORTUGAL NAÇÃO TEMPLÁRIA E FIEL REINO CATÓLICO
Pope: “Hey Portugal, lots of templars are going there. You do not have a regional preceptories of the order there, right? Is pecifically said the templars were to be banned and dissolved”
Portugal: “Of course not, those blasfemers. We do not want anything to do with them… completely unrelated, but can we create an order, in everything similar to the templars, in which all property of the templars would go to that order and all the people previously in the templar order would be transfered to these new order?”
Pope: “that sounds suspiciously as just renaming the templars”
Portugal: “no, completely unrelated as I said”
Pope: “you SOB, I’m in!”