Editing Knights Templar (section)

=== War ===
[[File:King Baldwin II and the Templars.jpg|thumb|King [[Baldwin II of Jerusalem|Baldwin II]] presiding over a council with the Templars]]
Accounts of the Order's early military activities in the Levant are vague, though it appears their first battles were defeats, because the Seljuk Turks and other Muslim powers used different tactics than those in Europe at that time. The Templars later adapted to this and became strategic advisors to the leaders of the Crusader states.{{sfn|Burman|1990|pages=53–54}} The first recorded battle involving the Knights Templar was in the town of [[Teqoa]], south of Jerusalem, in 1138. A force of Templars led by their grand master, [[Robert de Craon]] (who succeeded Hugues de Payens about a year earlier), was sent to retake the town after it was captured by Muslims. They were initially successful, but the Muslims regrouped outside the town and were able to take it back from the Templars.{{sfn|Howarth|1982|page=97}} 

The Order's mission developed from protecting pilgrims to taking part in regular military campaigns early on,{{sfn|Burman|1990|pages=53–54}} and this is shown by the fact that the first castle received by the Knights Templar was located four hundred miles north of the pilgrim road from [[Jaffa]] to Jerusalem, on the northern frontier of the [[Principality of Antioch]]: the castle of [[Bagras]] in the [[Nur Mountains|Amanus Mountains]].{{sfn|Burman|1990|pages=53–54}}{{sfn|Forey|1995|p=191}} It may have been as early as 1131, and by 1137 at the latest, that the Templars were given the mountainous region that formed the border of Antioch and [[Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia|Cilician Armenia]], which included the castles of Bagras, [[Trapessac|Darbsak]], and [[Roche de Roissel]]. The Templars were there when [[List of Byzantine emperors|Byzantine emperor]] [[John II Komnenos]] tried to make the [[Crusader state]]s of Antioch, [[County of Tripoli|Tripoli]], and [[County of Edessa|Edessa]] his vassals between 1137 and 1142. Templar knights accompanied Emperor John II with troops from those states during his campaign against Muslim powers in [[Syria (region)|Syria]] from 1137 to 1138, including at the [[Siege of Aleppo (1138)|sieges of Aleppo]] and [[Siege of Shaizar|Shaizar]].{{sfn|Burman|1990|pages=51–53}} In 1143, the Templars also began taking part in the [[Reconquista]] in [[Iberia]] at the request of the [[County of Barcelona|count of Barcelona]].{{sfn|Forey|1995|page=187}} 

In 1147 a force of French, Spanish, and English Templars{{sfn|Philips|Hoch|2001|p=145}} left [[Kingdom of France|France]] to join the [[Second Crusade]], led by King [[Louis VII of France|Louis VII]]. At a meeting held in Paris on 27 April 1147 they were given permission by [[Pope Eugenius III]] to wear the red cross on their uniforms. They were led by the Templar provincial master in France, [[Everard des Barres]], who was one of the ambassadors King Louis sent to negotiate the passage of the Crusader army through the [[Byzantine Empire]] on its way to the Holy Land. During the dangerous journey of the Second Crusade through [[Anatolia]], the Templars provided security to the rest of the army from Turkish raids.{{sfn|Barber|1994|pages=66–67}} After the Crusaders arrived in 1148, the kings Louis VII, [[Conrad III of Germany]], and [[Baldwin III of Jerusalem]] made the decision to [[Siege of Damascus (1148)|capture Damascus]], but their siege in the summer of that year failed and ended with the defeat of the Christian army.{{sfn|Barber|1994|pages=68–70}}{{sfn|Howarth|1982|pages=106–107}} In the fall of 1148 some returning Templars took part in the successful [[Siege of Tortosa (1148)|siege of Tortosa]] in [[Spain in the Middle Ages|Spain]], after which one-fifth of that city was given to the Order.{{sfn|Philips|Hoch|2001|p=145}}

Robert de Craon died in January 1149 and was succeeded as grand master by Everard des Barres, one of the few leaders at the siege of Damascus whose reputation was not damaged by the event.{{sfn|Barber|1994|pages=68–70}} After the Second Crusade, Zengid forces under [[Nur ad-Din Zengi]] of [[Aleppo]] attacked the [[Principality of Antioch]], and in June 1149 his army defeated the Crusaders at the [[Battle of Inab]], where Prince [[Raymond of Poitiers|Raymond of Antioch]] was killed. King Baldwin III led reinforcements to the principality, which led Nur ad-Din to accept a truce with Antioch and not advance any further.{{sfn|Runciman|1951|pages=325–328}} The force with King Baldwin included 120 Templar knights and 1,000 sergeants and squires.{{sfn|Barber|1994|p=70}}

In the winter of 1149 and 1150, King Baldwin III oversaw the reconstruction of the fortress at [[Gaza City]], which had been left in ruins.{{sfn|Smail|1956|pages=211–212}}{{sfn|Barber|1994|p=73}} It was part of the ring of castles that were built along the southern border of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to protect it from raids by the Egyptian [[Fatimid Caliphate]], and specifically from the Fatimid troops at the fortress of [[Ascalon]], which by then was the last coastal city in the Levant still under Muslim control.{{sfn|Barber|1994|p=73}}{{sfn|Fulton|2022|p=25}} Gaza was given to the Knights Templar, becoming the first major Templar castle.{{sfn|Barber|1994|p=73}} In 1152 Everard stepped down as grand master for unknown reasons, and his successor was [[Bernard de Tremelay]].{{sfn|Barber|1994|page=71}} In January of the following year, Bernard led the Templars when King Baldwin III led a Crusader army to [[Siege of Ascalon|besiege Ascalon]]. Several months of fighting went by until the wall of the city was breached in August 1153, at which point Bernard led forty knights into Ascalon. But the rest of the army did not join them and all of the Templars were killed by the Muslim defenders. Ascalon was captured by the rest of the army several days later,{{sfn|Barber|1994|pages=73–75}}{{sfn|Nicholson|2001|pages=74–75}} and Bernard was eventually succeeded by [[André de Montbard]].{{sfn|Barber|1994|page=75}}

After the fall of Ascalon, the Templars continued operating in that region from their castle at Gaza. In June 1154 they attacked [[Abbas ibn Abi al-Futuh]], the vizier of Egypt, when he tried to flee from Cairo to Damascus after losing a power struggle. Abbas was killed and the Templars captured his son, who they later sent back to the Fatimids.{{sfn|Barber|1994|page=75}} In the late 1150s the Egyptians launched raids against the Crusaders in the areas of Gaza and Ascalon.{{sfn|Fulton|2022|p=26}}