Hugues de Payens also
Hughes de Payns (yɡ də pɛ̃),
Hughes de Pagan (English:
Hugh of Payens or
Hugh Pagan) (c. 1070–1136), a
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
knight from the
ChampagneThe Champagne wine region is a historic province within the Champagne administrative province in the northeast of France. The area is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name...
region, was the co-founder and first Grand Master of the
Knights TemplarThe Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
. With Saint
Bernard of ClairvauxBernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...
, he created the
Latin RuleThe Latin Rule was a document with 72 clauses attributed to Bernard de Clairvaux and Hugues de Payens. It is also known as the "Specific Behavior for the Templar Order". It outlines the ideal behavior of a knight....
, the code of behavior for the Order.
Hugues de Payens also
Hughes de Payns (yɡ də pɛ̃),
Hughes de Pagan (English:
Hugh of Payens or
Hugh Pagan) (c. 1070–1136), a
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
knight from the
ChampagneThe Champagne wine region is a historic province within the Champagne administrative province in the northeast of France. The area is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name...
region, was the co-founder and first Grand Master of the
Knights TemplarThe Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
. With Saint
Bernard of ClairvauxBernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...
, he created the
Latin RuleThe Latin Rule was a document with 72 clauses attributed to Bernard de Clairvaux and Hugues de Payens. It is also known as the "Specific Behavior for the Templar Order". It outlines the ideal behavior of a knight....
, the code of behavior for the Order.
Biography
There is no contemporary biography in existence and no later writers cite one that is still extant. Information is therefore extremely scanty and any embellishments often rely on people writing decades or even centuries after De Payens' death.
He was probably born at Château
PaynsPayns is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France.-Population:-References:*...
, about 10 km from
TroyesTroyes is a commune and the capital of the Aube department in north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about southeast of Paris. Many half-timbered houses survive in the old town...
, in
ChampagneChampagne is a historic province in the northeast of France, now best known for the sparkling white wine that bears its name.Formerly ruled by the counts of Champagne, its western edge is about 100 miles east of Paris. The cities of Troyes, Reims, and Épernay are the commercial centers of the area...
.
Hugo de Pedano, Montiniaci dominus is mentioned as a witness to a donation by Count Hugh of Champagne in a record dated to 1085-90, indicating that the man was at least sixteen by this date—a legal adult and thus able to bear witness to legal documents—and so born no later than 1070. His name appears on a number of other charters up to 1113 also relating to Count Hugh, indicating that De Payans was almost certainly part of the Count's court and allowing speculation that he was related to the Count. Within this period he also married, to a woman recorded as Elizabeth de Chappes (or by later chroniclers as Catherine St. Clair), and fathered at least one child—Thibaud, later abbot at
La ColombeLa Colombe is the name of several communes in France:*La Colombe, in the Loir-et-Cher département*La Colombe, in the Manche départementand may also refer to*La Colombe , the opera by Charles Gounod...
.
Some sources suggest the Count went on the
First CrusadeThe First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...
in 1096, other sources do not. If he did it is reasonable to believe De Payens accompanied him and therefore it is likely that Hugues served in the army of Godfroi de Bouillon during the Crusade. Count Hugh did make a pilgrimage to the
Holy LandThe Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
in 1104-07 and visited Jerusalem for a second time in 1114-16. It is probable that he was accompanied by Hugues, who remained there after the Count returned to France as there is a charter with "Hugonis de Peans" in the witness list from Jerusalem in 1120 and again in 1123. In 1125 his name appears again as a witness to a donation, this time accompanied by the title "magister militium Templi".
Later chroniclers write that De Payens approached King
Baldwin II of JerusalemBaldwin II of Jerusalem , formerly Baldwin II of Edessa, also called Baldwin of Bourcq, born Baldwin of Rethel was the second count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118, and the third king of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death.-Ancestry:Baldwin was the son of Hugh, count of Rethel, and his wife Melisende,...
with eight knights, two of whom were brothers and all of whom were his relatives by either blood or marriage, in order to form the first of the Knights Templar. The other knights were Godfrey de Saint-Omer, Payen de Montdidier, Archambaud de St. Agnan,
Andre de MontbardAndré de Montbard was the fifth Grand Master of the Knights Templar and also one of the founders of the Order....
, Geoffrey Bison, and two men recorded only by the names of Rossal and Gondamer. The ninth knight remains unknown, although some have speculated that it was Count Hugh of Champagne himself—despite the Count returning to France in 1116 and documentary evidence showing that he joined the Knights on his third visit to the Holy Land in 1125.
As Grand Master, De Payens led the Order for almost twenty years until his death, helping to establish the Order's foundations as an important and influential international military and financial institution.
On his visit to England and
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1128, he raised men and money for the Order, and also founded their first House in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and another near
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
at Balantrodoch
http://www.clansinclair.org/Timeline6.htm, now known as
Temple, MidlothianTemple is a village and parish in Midlothian, Scotland. Situated to the south of Edinburgh, the village lies on the east bank of the River South-Esk.-Pre-Reformation:...
.
He died in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
in 1136—May 24 is often stated—and was succeeded as Grand Master by
Robert de CraonRobert de Craon was the second Grand Master of the Knights Templar, from June 1136 until his death.He was born around the turn of the 12th century, the youngest of the three sons of Renaud de Craon...
.
In popular culture
It has recently been claimed that the wife of Hugues de Payens was Catherine St. Clair within the context of the alternative histories of
RosslynRoslin is a pretty village in Midlothian, Scotland, 7 miles to the south of the Scottish Capital city Edinburgh. It is situated approximately 12 miles from Edinburgh Airport.-The name:...
.
A biography of Hugues de Payen by Thierry Leroy identifies his wife and the mother of his children as Elizabeth de Chappes. The book draws its information on the marriage from local church cartularies dealing chiefly with the disposition of the Grand Master's properties, the earliest alluding to Elizabeth as his wife in 1113 and others spanning Payen's lifetime, the period following his death and lastly her own death in 1170.
Hugues is the main protagonist of the
Jack WhyteJack Whyte is a Scottish-Canadian novelist of historical fiction. Born and raised in Scotland, Whyte has been living in Canada since 1967. He resides in Kelowna, British Columbia....
novel Knights of the Black and White.
Cathedrale de Payens (situated in 14th arrondissement of Paris) is one of the game locations in
Deus ExDeus Ex is an action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000, which combines gameplay elements of first-person shooters with those of role-playing video games...
. The protagonist -
J.C. DentonJC Denton is the player character and protagonist of the first-person role-playing computer game Deus Ex. He is voiced by Jay Anthony Franke in both Deus Ex and its sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War....
- must reach
MJ12Majestic 12 is the alleged code name of a secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, supposedly formed in 1947 by an executive order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman...
computer network terminal located in the cathedral.
Though overshadowed by several larger and more well-known cathedrals, the
Cathedrale de Payens in the 14th arrondissement remains a historical curiosity
of interest to many scholars. Construction was begun in 1218 and completed
before the end of the century, financed by the Templar Knights -- an order of
warrior monks -- as part of a similar network of churches, cathedrals, and forts
(or "commanderies" as they were called) throughout Britain, Europe, and the Holy
Lands.
In the cathedral's library player can find four books about
Knights TemplarThe Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
contain mention of Hugues de Payens.
External links