Evrard was born at Meaux in Champagne around 1113 and rose rapidly through the Order of the Temple. He came from a family of seven brothers, whose father, Fredelus des Barres (alias Jean des Barres), was a knight and lord of Oissery, in Brie-Champenoise. One of Evrard's brothers, Guillaume Ier des Barres (the fourth of the siblings), is the first recognized historical member of the house of Barres. The Barres lineage later divided into nine branches, and its numerous offshoots successively spread to Nivernais, Orléanais, Beauce, Franche-Comté and Burgundy.
The exact date of the reception of Evrard into the order is not known, but he entered at a very young age. By 1143, he was Preceptor of the Templar Order in France. As from 1143 no mention is available of then Grand Master Robert de Craon, who died 13 January 1147 after which Evrard was elected Grand Master.
On Easter of April 27, 1147 Evrard convoked the General Chapter of the Order in Paris, France. There he committed himself to the second crusade in front of Pope Eugene III, King Louis VII the Younger. The French crusaders departed from Metz in June 1147, led by Louis, Thierry of Alsace, Renaut I of Bar, Amadeus III, Count of Savoy and his half-brother William V of Montferrat, William VII of Auvergne, and others, along with armies from Lorraine, Brittany, Burgundy, and Aquitaine. A force from Provence, led by Alphonse of Toulouse, chose to wait until August and cross by sea. At Worms, Louis joined with crusaders from Normandy and England.
The Second Crusade was the first of the crusades to be actually led by European kings Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany. Evrard accompanied King Louis and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine to the Holy Land. He was head of the French armies alongside Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders. After a successful march through Anatolia (January 1148), he was given command of the entire French force by King Louis, succesfully deploying his Templar knights as commanders all over the army groups. King Louis praised the Templars and their organizing scills in a letter to Abbot Suger, his regent in France during his absence.
Once arrived in Antioch (March 19, 1148), having noticed that the royal military coffers were going exhausted, Evrard arranged a loan for Louis from the Templar treasury at Acre, launching the Templars career as bankers to the French monarchy. Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, wanted to take advantage of the presence of the Crusader army to lay siege to Damascus. Evrard took part in the siege of Damascus. The attack on July 27, 1148 was a failure. In the light of arriving Muslim reinforcements, the local Crusader lords refused to carry on with the siege, and the
three kings had no choice but to abandon the city. First Conrad, then
the rest of the army, decided to retreat to Jerusalem on July 28. This ended the crusade, and king Louis retreated to the West. Évrard des Barres, with some of his knights, returned to the West with king.
In May 1150, Evrard presided over the General Chapter of the Order in Paris. André de Montbard, then Seneschal of the Order in the Holy Land, sent several letters to his Master requesting his presence in the Holy Land and asking him to send reinforcements and money. Evrard did not respond to these letters, as he had decided to renounce his function as Master of the Order.
In April 1151 or 1152 Evrard embraced the monastic life and sent his abdication to Jerusalem, persevering in his new vocation. He was replaced by Bernard de Tramelay. After that he lived for more than 20 years as a monk of Clairvaux, dying on November 12 or 15, 1174.
Based on a blog by Dom Donald's blog, November 2010 combined with much additional information from wikipedia.org, lumenlearning.com histophile.com and templiers.net. The ilustration shows Evrard des Barres during the assembly of the crusaders at Ptolemais in 1148. depiction from 1839 by Charles-Alexandre Debacq, source Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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