The Templars

The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of a Military Religious Order

Jochen Burgtorf, Shlomo Lotan, Enric Mallorquí-Ruscalleda

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000374995
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia mondiale

As the oldest of the military religious orders and the one with an unexpected and dramatic downfall, the knighthood of the Templars continues to fascinate academics and students as well as the public at large. A collection of fifteen chapters accompanied by a historical introduction, The Templars: The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of a Military Religious Order recounts and analyzes this community's rise and establishment in both the crusader states of the eastern Mediterranean and the countries of western Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, reflects on the proceedings launched against it and its subsequent fall (1307–1314), and explores its medieval and post-medieval legacy, including an assessment of current research pertaining to the Templars and suggestions for future explorations. Showcasing a wide range of methodological approaches and primary source materials, this volume unites historical, art-historical, theological, archaeological, and historiographical perspectives, and it features the work and voices of scholars from various academic generations who reside in eight different countries (Israel, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, and the United States of America).

Part I
RISE

1
ANDREW DE BAUDEMENT AND THE EARLY YEARS OF THE TEMPLARS IN CHAMPAGNE

Karol Polejowski

And of the others who have not been listed it seems profitable to furnish guarantees in this matter, that they are lovers of truth: they are Count Theobald; the count of Nevers; [and] André de Baudement. These were at the Council and acted in such a manner that by perfect, studious care they sought out that which was fine and disapproved that which did not seem right.¹

1 Judith M. Upton Ward, The Rule of the Templars: The French Text of the Rule of the Order of the Knights Templar (Woodbridge 1992), 21. The quote’s capitalization and spelling has been adjusted to match the remainder of this chapter.

This quote from the prologue to the Rule of the Knights Templar describes the circumstances under which the Council of Troyes was held in January 1129, and it lists some of the individuals who attended the event. The vast majority of those gathered at Troyes were ecclesiastics, but, as this quote shows, several secular dignitaries participated as well, among them Count Thibaut II of Champagne, Count William II of Nevers, and Andrew de Baudement, who would all play a leading role in the establishment of the new Order.

In his monograph, Templar Families: Landowning Families and the Order of the Temple in France, c. 1120–1307 (2012), Jochen Schenk draws attention to the connections between the Baudement family and the Templars, as well as their contacts with other religious orders, such as the Cistercians.² Due to the scope of his work, Schenk does not dwell extensively on this particular case; however, I believe that it is so significant and interesting that it deserves a separate study. The evidence indicates that members of the Baudement family, particularly the aforementioned Andrew and his son William, belonged to the group of the founders of this new military religious order and played a leading role in the development of the Templars in Champagne until the middle of the twelfth century.

2 Jochen Schenk, Templar Families: Landowning Families and the Order of the Temple in France, c. 1120–1307 (Cambridge-New York 2012), 128–32, 171.

The connections between the Baudement family and the Knights Templar can be observed primarily through the activities of Andrew de Baudement because, as the seneschal of the county of Champagne, he was the most prominent representative of his family in the period under examination (namely, the 1120s and 1130s). It is no coincidence that we find his name in the prologue to the Order’s Rule that was composed at the Council of Troyes. To illustrate the arguments presented in this chapter, two appendices of sources and three genealogical tables are supplied at the end.

* * *

While Andrew de Baudement’s life is well documented, we know nothing definite about the origins of his family. Since the Baudement family was strongly connected to the court of the counts of Champagne and Blois, it may be that Andrew’s first mention dates from 1099: in a document issued by Count Stephen (or Stephen-Henry) of Blois, a man named Andreas, filius Leteri,³ appears as a witness. This was at the time when Count Stephen had returned from the First Crusade, but before his wife Adelaide sent him back to the Holy Land, and we do not know whether Andrew took part in Stephen’s expedition to the East. It is worth noting that Andrew’s father is called Letheric in this charter – a name that also appears in Baudement in the first half of the twelfth century (1133).⁴ The 1099 document pertains to Count Stephen’s rights to land and revenues in Brie, which is the region where Baudement is located (département de la Marne, canton Anglure, on the banks of the Aube River).

3 Michel Bur, “Chartes Comtales pour la Champagne et la Brie (963–1151)” [pré-édition 1988], 2 vols., 2011, available online, https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00638840/, doc. ETHo (p. 3), dated [1099].

4 Appendix 1.

Count Stephen died in the East in 1102,⁵ and his land and power in Blois were taken over by his widow, Adelaide of Normandy, acting as regent for their son (Thibaut II) who was still a minor. Meanwhile, since 1093, power in Champagne was in the hands of Count Hugh of Troyes, Stephen’s half-brother. In documents issued by Adelaide between 1102 and 1109, Andrew de Baudement’s name does not appear anymore. However, since 1103, Andrew is present as a witness in charters issued by Count Hugh of Troyes: thus, we find him in Hugh’s entourage in documents from the years 1103, 1104, and 1108.⁶ In 1109, Count Thibaut II of Blois issued a document for the abbey of Molesme and stated that, among the witnesses, were his milites et homines, including his vassals Andreas de Baldimento, Rocelinus de Vendoperio et multi alii.⁷ If my supposition is correct, Andrew, the son of Letheric, took over the lordship of Baudement sometime before 1103 and became a direct vassal of the counts of Champagne and Blois; Thibaut II’s 1109 document appears to confirm this.

5 Willelmi Tyrensis archiepiscopi Chronicon / Guillaume de Tyr, Chronique, ed. Robert B. C. Huygens (identification of historical sources and determination of dates by Hans Eberhard Mayer and Gerhard Rösch), Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 63–63A (Turnhout 1986), 477 (X 19 (20)).

6 Bur, “Chartes Comtales,” doc. HOgg (p. 3), dated [1103]; doc. HOhh (p. 3), dated Troyes, April 2, 1104; doc. HOii (p. 3), dated Troyes, April 2, 1104; and doc. HOqq (p. 7), dated Châtillon-sur-Seine, 1108.

7 Henri d’Arbois de Jubainville, Histoire des ducs et des comtes de Champagne, vol. 3 (Paris 1861), 414 no. LXXXI. Vendoperio is Vendeuvre-sur-Barse.

The lord of Baudement’s crusading activities during this time period are also noteworthy. While we do not know whether Andrew of Baudement took part in Count Stephen’s expeditions (the sources available to us are silent on this topic), he was involved in the crusading activities of his feudal overlord, Count Hugh of Troyes/Champagne. Hugh organized his first expedition to the Holy Land in 1104, when he went to Jerusalem and stayed there until at least the end of 1107 or the beginning of 1108; Hugh made a second pilgrimage to the East in the years 1114–1116, and there are strong reasons to believe that Andrew of Baudement took part in both of these expeditions. A document issued by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem – and dated by Reinhold Röhricht and Hans Eberhard Mayer to the year 1108 – features a witness by the name of Andreas de Valdement, and Mayer identifies him as Andrew de Baudement.⁸ This identification relates to another document, also issued by Baldwin I and dated to 1115, which names as one of its witnesses as Andreas de Baldement who, without a doubt, should be identified with Andrew de Baudement.⁹

8 Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani (MXCVII–MCCXCI) with Additamentum, ed. Reinhold Röhricht (Innsbruck 1893–1904), no. 52; Die Urkunden der lateinischen Könige von Jerusalem, ed. Hans Eberhard Mayer (Old French texts by Jean Richard) (Hannover 2010), 149–51 no. 32.

9 Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani, ed. Röhricht, no. 80; Urkunden der lateinischen Könige, ed. Mayer, 195–8 no. 64.

It is significant that another one of Count Hugh of Champagne’s vassals, namely, Hugh de Payns (the future cofounder and first master of the Templars), also participated in both expeditions to the Holy Land. The witness lists of the aforementioned documents issued by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem also contain the name of another Champenois: Guy de Milly. It is evident that, between 1104 and 1116, crusaders from Champagne under the leadership of their count constituted a significant group of pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. Some of them, including Guy de Milly and Hugh de Payns, eventually decided to settle in the East permanently; however, they did not sever their ties with France and Champagne.

Andrew de Baudement’s career at the court of Count Hugh of Champagne, where he acted as the seneschal of Champagne, is well known. Andrew even kept this title after 1125, when Hugh resigned, passed the power to his cousin, Count Thibaut II of Blois, and joined the ranks of the Knights Templar: in a document issued in 1128, he is mentioned (in the genitive form) as domini Andreae, dapiferi sui, of Count Thibaut.¹⁰ In twelfth-century France, the title and responsibilities of the steward (dapifer) were incorporated into the duties of the seneschal of the court. Thus, at the beginning of the twelfth century, Andrew de Baudement and his family were members of the nobility of the county of Champagne with strong ties to the Latin East.

10 Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa, Tomus Decimus: De provincia Remensi (Paris 1751), Instrumenta Ecclesiae Remensis, col. 39 no. XXXVII. The donation is referenced in a document issued by Archbishop Rainaldus of Reims.

Andrew’s career certainly benefitted from his marriage to Agnes, the heiress of the lordship of Braine (département de l’Aisne), whose name also appears in documents issued during the first half of the twelfth century.¹¹ We do not know when exactly their marriage was arranged, but it must have been at the end of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth century, because their numerous children were already adults in the years 1128–1133. The precise origins of the lordship of Braine are uncertain, but in the year 1049 there was a lord named Hugh who was excommunicated because of his political and ecclesiastical activities. The son of this Hugh was probably Guy de Braine who, from the 1070s on, can be found in the entourage of Count Thibaut I of Blois-Champagne (d. 1089). Agnes de Braine appears to have been Guy’s daughter and the heiress of the lordship which, even then, was a fief of the counts of Champagne.¹² There is, however, no convincing evidence that, at this time, the lordship of Braine enjoyed “comital” status. The marriage between Agnes de Braine and Andrew de Baudement probably took place with the consent of their feudal overlord, in this case the Count of Champagne: this would have been either Thibaut I, his older son Stephen (or Stephen-Henry), or his y...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of maps
• List of figures
• Acknowledgments
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• Part I Rise
• Part II Fall
• Part III Legacy
• Suggested readings
• Index