Two Knights Templar are shown in battle garb (175); armed and wearing chainmail armor beneath his robes; and in house wear (176); or monastery robes.The Order of the Knights Templar was a military order founded in 1118 by Hugues de Payens; a knight of Champagne; and eight other knights to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land. From humble beginnings as 鈥楶oor Knights of the Temple;' they grew to become a powerful and rich army of warrior monks; with barracks / monasteries all over Europe; and several castles in Palestine: Safed (1140); Karak (1143); and Castle Pilgrim (1217). The order came to a tragic end in 1312 when all the Templars were branded as heretics; tortured and executed.Handcolored copperplate engraving of a knight from a religious military order from Robert von Spalart's 鈥楬istorical Picture of the Costumes of the Principal People of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages' (1796).