ABSTRACT
King Baudouin's reign in Jerusalem, which lasted from 1118 to 1131, saw the establishment of the Crusader military orders, the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a large red cross on it, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades, and the most warlike. The Templars being the foremost Crusader fighters, their fortunes were tied closely to those of the crusades. The first Grand Master of the Templiers was Hugues de Payens, the French knight from the Champagne region, and the co-founder with his relative, Godefroy de Saint-Omer, of the Order of the Knights Templar. The abrupt disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure of the Templiers gave rise to much speculation and legends about the Templars' subsequent fortunes, which have kept the "Templar" name alive into the modern day.
