Hugues de Payns - A Champagne Knight's Hidden Family Ties

Every history of the Knights Templar opens with Hugues de Payns, yet who he actually was remained hazy for centuries. Was he a knight of Champagne, as tradition holds? Or was he an outsider from Italy, as some historians argue? And was he indeed kin to Bernard of Clairvaux as is sometimes claimed also? Can this post lift the veil?

Monks, Farmers and Neighbours - Everyday Life at a Templar House

The Templars are usually imagined as secretive warrior monks guarding crusader treasure. The records made when their houses were seized, in France in 1307 and in England in 1308, tell a far more ordinary story of farms, mills, hired hands and neighbours. What was daily life like in a Templar house, a commanderie, in England or Normandy?

Hugues 1er de Champagne, from Count to Templar knight

Born around 1074, Hugues, the later Count of Champagne, was the third son of Thibaud I Count of Blois and Adèle of Valois. In 1089, his half-brother Etienne-Henri succeeded Thibaud as the head of the Counties of Blois and Meaux.

On 1 January 1093, Hugues inherited from his other brother Eudes (Odo) IV the Counties of Troyes, Vitry-le-François and Bar-sur-Aube. Only to abdicate in 1125 to become a Templar knight in the Holy Land.

How did his lifes develop from being a rich and important French nobleman to becoming a poor Templar?

Geo-politics in 11th and 12th century Francia

For the purpose of TemplarsNow the medieval geo-political landscape of what is now France is important. The County of Champagne, especially the area around Troyes, was the native region of many an early knight Templar. This geo-political situation was fragmented to say the least, as the adjacent maps show.

Troyes - trading hub and Templar cradle

The court of one of the founding fathers of the Knights Templar, Hugues I Count of Champagne (c.1074–1130) stood at the old city of Troyes. Troyes has been in existence since the Roman era, as Augustobona Tricassium. It stood at the hub of numerous highways, primarily the Via Agrippa. Key to its international position.

Champagne, the Templar cradle

To understand the origin of the Knights Templar and the mechanisms that lead up to their birth, one should explore their place of origin. Standard historical belief places their origin in Jerusalem in the year 1118, 1119 or 1120. This, however, is not the case. The cradle of the Knights Templar stood at the court of the Count of Champagne in the French town of Troyes. The establishment of a fraternity at Jerusalem was just another step in a development that started years before.