Knights Templar: Horses, Equipment and Campaign Service

From their emergence in Jerusalem around 1119–1120 until the order’s dissolution in 1312, the Knights Templar depended on horses and carefully managed equipment for service in the eastern Mediterranean and, at times, the Iberian Peninsula. Their European houses helped support operations farther east, including by supplying resources and, in some regions, horses. The order’s regulations show how mounts, arms and clothing were allocated and cared for, with officers allocating mounts and equipment according to a brother’s duties.

The Rule was approved at the Council of Troyes in 1129. It was translated, revised and supplemented by later statutes, so its provisions developed over time. These regulations combined the obligations of a religious community with the demands of military service: a Templar’s possessions and conduct were subject to the order, while his physical condition and equipment had to be maintained for work that could include protecting pilgrims and joining campaigns.

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How the rules governed equipment

Templar equipment was part of an organised household system, not simply a collection of privately chosen possessions. The Rule specified what brothers could receive, while later statutes set out allocations for particular offices. A knight was normally assigned three horses, and the master could permit additional mounts. Keeping the allotted animals fed and fit made this allowance a continuing expense.

Rank affected the number of mounts. The master of the order and senior officials, including the marshal, seneschal and several commanders, were assigned four horses. Certain sergeant officers were allowed two, while other sergeants had one. Turcopoles, auxiliary horsemen serving the order, were required by the regulations to provide their own mounts. These differences linked equipment to duties and status within the institution.

The rules also restricted personal display. They prohibited gold or silver decoration on horses’ bridles, stirrups and spurs. Such prescriptions expressed the order’s commitment to restraint, even though the practical demands of military service required substantial and costly equipment.

Horses and the people who cared for them

Mounted service used several kinds of animal. The destrier was the trained warhorse. A palfrey was a riding horse suited to travel, while packhorses or mules carried supplies and equipment. Keeping several mounts made it possible to distribute the burden of riding and transport, although the animals still depended on feed, handling and regular attention.

Squires were responsible for caring for a knight’s horses. They were often hired for a limited period and were not necessarily members of the order. The marshal, the senior official responsible for military equipment, supervised the horses as well as arms, armour and bridles. He arranged purchases and was expected to check quality; a horse that behaved badly could be brought to him for assessment before it was withdrawn from service. A farrier, who shod horses, was also included among the attendants of the master.

Rules governing senior officers make clear that animal care required provisions as well as labour. The master’s horses were allotted measured quantities of barley, a valuable feed that supplied more energy than hay alone. When a Templar died or was transferred, his horses returned to the marshal’s administration. The regulation treated mounts as resources managed by the order, rather than possessions automatically passed on by an individual brother.

Some Templar houses in southern France and in Castile, Aragon and Gascony were associated with horse breeding. Animals could then be sent east by sea and distributed according to need. Special transport ships, sometimes called huissiers, were designed to embark horses. On some large vessels, horses were carried in slings to help keep them stable during the voyage; such ships could transport up to about a hundred animals. This maritime supply connected European houses with the order’s military operations overseas.

Arms and armour for mounted service

The Rule’s listed weapons included a sword, a lance, a mace and three knives. The sword was a one-handed, double-edged weapon in the forms used when the order was established. A lance was suited to fighting from horseback. The mace had a short handle and a metal head, while the knives also served practical purposes such as eating and routine work. The inventory sets out a regulated equipment allowance, though weapons and their forms changed over the order’s long history.

Protection combined several pieces. A shield, or ecu, was generally triangular and made of wood covered with leather or metal. Its size was reduced during the twelfth century, making it lighter and easier to handle. The main body armour was a mail hauberk, made from thousands of linked and riveted iron rings. Mail chausses protected the legs, and a mail hood, or camail, covered the head and neck. Padded headwear helped cushion the weight of the helmet and mail.

Armour also changed over time. Mail garments varied in length and coverage; a shorter mail shirt was called a haubergeon. Head protection could include a close-fitting iron cap or a broad-brimmed iron helmet known as a chapel-de-fer. Later helmets enclosed more of the head and extended towards the neck. These changes affected how protection was worn and balanced the need for defence against the strain of travelling and fighting in heavy equipment.

The riding saddle was another important part of a knight’s equipment. A raised, supportive form helped keep the rider seated during a mounted charge. Saddles, bridles and other tack had to remain functional: the prohibition on precious-metal decoration did not lessen the marshal’s responsibility for their upkeep.

Clothing, identity and possessions

Clothing marked distinctions within the order. Knight brothers, who came from the nobility, were entitled to wear a white mantle. Sergeant brothers wore a brown or black one. The order supplied the habit and retained authority over it; the Rule rejected requests for more splendid clothing and called for a plainer garment instead. In serious disciplinary cases, a brother could lose the habit, a penalty that could mean temporary or permanent exclusion.

A red cross on the outer garment identified the wearer with the Templars. The garment worn over armour, often called a surcoat, displayed the cross on the front and back. It made affiliation visible while a brother travelled or served in the field. The white mantle and the darker garments of sergeants also made differences of rank apparent beyond the order’s own houses.

The Templar commitment to poverty did not mean that brothers went without costly military necessities. Rather, it placed their equipment within an institutional framework: the order regulated clothing, arms and horses, and could assign or withdraw them. A noble entering the order might donate a warhorse, but the regulations governed the mounts available for service. In this way, the vow of poverty sat alongside the practical need to maintain well-equipped mounted soldiers.

Service and daily obligations

The order’s Rule combined religious observance with active service. It set times for communal prayer and prescribed a common life, while recognising that brothers needed to remain fit for military duties. Fasting was less severe than under the Benedictine rule, whose practices influenced the Templars’ own regulations, so that brothers would not be weakened when required to fight. The rules also covered communal meals and conduct, placing everyday routines within the same discipline that governed equipment.

Military readiness depended on more than the knight who rode into service. Squires cared for horses, specialists such as farriers tended their hooves, and the marshal oversaw purchases and the distribution and condition of mounts and equipment. Knights had to keep their arms and armour usable and comply with the order’s regulations. Their work could include protecting pilgrims and serving in campaigns in the eastern Mediterranean or Iberia, while the order’s houses and supply arrangements supported those commitments.

Templar allocations therefore joined social rank, religious discipline and practical military requirements. A horse allowance defined what an officer or brother could expect; care by attendants and oversight by the marshal helped make those mounts useful; and regulated weapons, armour and clothing equipped the brothers for service without erasing the order’s rules on restraint and obedience. These arrangements operated across changing regions and circumstances until the order was dissolved in 1312.