The Templars: The Rise and Fall of God's Holy Warriors

by Dan Jones

Dozens of Templar houses sprang up from the Gulf of Genoa to the new Atlantic kingdom of Portugal, which was also being clawed out of Islamic hands and resettled by Christians under the self-proclaimed first King of Portugal, Afonso I Henriques. During the 1140s, Afonso Henriques cleared the valley of the lower Tagus, eventually conquering as far south as Lisbon, where the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean. As early as 1128 Afonso Henriques described himself as a brother (confrater) of the Templars.26 He placed several magnificent strongholds in Templar hands, including the castles at Soure and Almoural, and in April 1147 issued a charter diverting the revenues of every church in the region of his castle at Santarém into Templar hands ‘for the... knights and their successors to have and to hold with perpetual rights so that no clergy or layperson may make any claim in them’.27 Knitting the Templars into the affairs of his new kingdom brought security and prestige. It was also a practical way of colonizing and garrisoning newly won land.