"They wear white mantles with a red cross, and when they go to war a standard of two colors called balzaus is borne before them." -- Anonymous contemporary source (Dafoe & Butler 2001, Beausant)

The Importance of Arms

The purpose of armorial colours and insignia in the Medieval period was for identification on and off the field of battle. This served a number of purposes. Since a knight's face was generally covered for protection when he fought, his men needed another way to recognise him, so they could rally to his aid if he was in need of assistance.

If a knight performed a great deed, everyone would know, without question, who had performed it, and it would enhance his prestige. No other knight could steal the glory by claiming mistaken identity. Even people who did not know him by name might recognise him by his heraldry for the deeds they had witnessed him performing. As Franklyn (1963, p. 52) tells us, "the knight, identified by his arms, was constrained to act in a manner that could bring nothing but fair renown on his family, and his travels and his conquests added to the brilliance and complexity of his arms."

Even in the worst-case scenario, a knight's heraldry was useful. If a knight failed to return from the field of battle, his men could find his body with relative easy, based on the colours of his arms. This meant his body could be returned to his relatives, or at least given proper Christian burial.

While other knights stood out as individuals, the Templars had a group identity, and at the same time, anonymity. A Templar on the field of battle had nothing to distinguish himself from his brothers. Any deed he did, no matter how great, would not be to his own credit, since as an individual, a Templar was relatively anonymous. His actions contributed to the reputation of his Order.

"Brothers should not be encouraged to strive for distinction, as this would undermine the discipline of the Order," (Nicholson 1995, p. 119). A brother who gained celebrity would disrupt the communal life of the Order. It is perhaps for this reason that no Templar brother ever attained sainthood--a popular martyr's cult would have trouble forming around an anonymous knight, despite the frequency of martyrdom within the Order.

St Bernard praises the Order for their lack of flamboyance, saying "they arm themselves... with steel rather than decorate themselves with gold, since their business is to strike fear in the enemy rather than to incite his cupidity," (Blanchard 1995, Military Orders). To the Templars, it was about winning, not showing off and gaining recognition. This behaviour, somewhat ironically, gained the Order as a whole far greater recognition than secular knights who intentionally sought glory found.

The Order's banner or standard provided a rallying point for their company in battle. An army that did not stick together in a fight was doomed, so it was important to have an eye-catching standard, to make finding one's position easy, even in the most chaotic circumstances.

The importance of the banner inspired a kind of team spirit. The Templars, as any other group of their day, were fiercely proud of their banner, and would protect it at all cost. The feeling it inspired was important, for if the standard fell, the company, lacking a rallying point, was in danger. To keep the standard's emblem visible from the greatest possible distance, it was held rigid by rods at the top and bottom, keeping it at right angles from the staff which held it aloft (Dafoe & Butler 2002, Beauseant).

Because of the importance of the standard, strict rules were made regarding its treatment. In peace, the Seneschal protected the banner, but in battle, the Marshall was charged with holding it aloft, and ten Templars were chosen to guard him, and he always carried a spare, in case anything should befall the original. If the Marshal was killed, it was the commander's duty to take the standard. As long as the banner flew, they must fight, and as long as the fight continued, the banner must fly (Dafoe & Butler 2002, Beauseant).

"At no time was it permitted to lower a banner in order to strike a blow at an opponent," (Upton-Ward 1992, p. 186). The punishment for such an offense--one of the greatest offenses a Templar could commit--was expulsion from the Order, and possible life imprisonment. The banner was taken very seriously indeed!

St George's Cross in the Arms of the Order

Many people erroneously associate St George's cross with the arms of the Order. When they think of the Templars, they imagine a shield bearing a red cross on a white field, matching the Order's habit. This was not the case--or not entirely. Franklyn (1963, pp. 69, 309) is one of the only authors I found who strongly associated St George's cross with Templar arms.

He describes their shield as a pale and fess cross, which is defined as a vertical and a horizontal bar, extending to the edge of the shield. In some situations, the limbs of the cross might be cut short, or couped. He also tells us that this emblem is an early example of counterchanging, or reversing the colours of a shield. In this case, that of the Hospitallers, whose shield and banner bore a white cross on a red field.

St George's cross was, however, not the usual shield and standard of the Order. It was more likely to be associated with crusading knights or images of the host of heaven. Their official banner was called the Beauseant.

The Beauseant

The Templar standard (Plate 1, 2, 27, 28), called the Beauseant, was a simpler design--argent with a chief sable, meaning the bottom part was white and the top black--often called a piebald. According to heraldic tradition, white was the colour of peace and serenity, while black represented constancy, and red, military fortitude. However, scholars believe that the Templar use of the black and white arms represented the contrast between the sinfulness of the world they had left behind and the purity their new life offered them--a transformation from dark to light. The reason for the arrangement of the two colours on the shield and standard is unclear, though some suggest it may have been Hugues de Payens' own family crest (Anonymous 2002, Grand Masters Heraldry).

The Rule of the Order makes many references to the piebald banner or "confanon baucon", but the origin of that name or Beauseant is unclear. It is variously spelled baucon, baucaut, balzaus, baucent and Beauseant, though some variation in Medieval spelling is far from unusual. Brault (1997, p. 160) tells us that is comes from the Old French baucent or Vernacular Latin balteanus which are derivatives of the Latin baltus or "belt". This name, says Brault, refers to the black stripe which caps the banner. Thus, the banner became known as the "Beau Seant", which was also the Templar's war cry.

Dafoe and Butler (2002, Beauseant) suggest an altogether different derivation. They take it from the French word "beau", which in modern French means "beautiful", but which, they say, in Medieval French meant something closer to "glorious" or "magnificent". This would render their war cry as "be glorious" or "to glory".

Ernoul, a late twelfth century French chronicler, also mentions the "baucaut", but his description is very different (see below). He states that the derivation is "piebald". Perhaps the Templars were just calling the banner what it was. Or perhaps it was called after a favourite horse of the Order, since piebald is certainly a term which refers to horse colouration. This translation is not so lofty, but may be closer to the mark. a good horse was all-important to a knight in battle. He must depend upon his mount not to panic in the face of chaos.

Variations

Upton-Ward (1992, p. 44) describes the Templar arms as "a two-pointed pennant divided horizontally with white above and black below." What she describes is similar to the banner found in the frescoes of the Templar church in Perugia (Plate 28) where we see a banner, shield, and the draping of a horse, all with the white-over-black arms, and featuring a black cross in the white portion.

However, Matthew Paris depicts the Beauseant in several places as a rectangular, vertical banner with the black crowning the white (Plate 1, 2, 26, 27). Since no actual Templar standard survives, it is impossible to say which is true, or even if they were both true, either at the same time, or during different periods of the Order's history. Nicholson (2001, p. 118) suggests that the arms depicted in Perugia may be the personal banner of a master of the Temple, while the simpler piebald banner was the one carried by the regular troops.

However, Ernoul also seem to be describing the Perugian banner in his chronicle (Nicholson 2001, p. 29). He tells us that the first Templars fell under the jurisdiction of the prior of the Holy Sepulchre. They had come to the Holy Land as crusaders, and wanted to form their own knightly Order. When they moved to their own headquarters in the Aqsa Mosque, the Prior allowed them to carry with them a badge with a red cross--the symbol of the holy sepulchre was a cross with two red arms--not a black one as in the Perugian church fresco. He refers to this banner as the baucaut or piebald standard.

While his story seems plausible, and we may assume that he did not intentionally record facts and events that he and his contemporaries knew to be untrue, it was written nearly seventy years after the events he describes. This account probably comes from popular legend, based on a few original facts. Though it may explain the origin of this important Templar symbol, the origins of the Order are shrouded in mystery. The original Templars, it seems, left no record of their founding, and after their deaths, no one could be sure how it had really happened.

Brault (1997, p. 144, 160) also tells us that the Beauseant was, according to some sources, "surcharged with a red cross," which would mean that the cross was over the black and the white of the standard. Another of his sources calls it "argent, on a chief sable a cross patonce gules," which describes Matthew Paris's version of the Beauseant, but with a red cross on the black portion. Yet another of Brault's sources lists Paris's banner, but with the red cross in the white half.

It seems that every combination of black and white with a red cross may have been used. Certainly they are all very simple, high-contrast colours, visible from a great distance. It is possible the the Templars recognised them in any combination, or that different houses combined them in different ways to differentiate themselves.

Though these stark, uncomplicated heraldic devices would have stood out on the field of battle, and become recognisable as a regular feature of any battle against the Franks, the Muslim chroniclers, unfortunately, make no mention of them. Modern historians attribute this to their general disinterest in "Frankish" ways. Even if they had had much to say on the subject of the Templars, it would not have been detailed, says Hillenbrand (1999, p. 333), "even their descriptions of Muslims are stereotyped." It is difficult to glean anything at all about the Templars from the Muslim sources, other than that they were respected by some and hated by others.

The Templars impressed more than just their enemy in battle. Despite the record history leaves us, they were very popular figures in their day, because they represented an ideal of noble purpose and purity of heart. They stood out, both visually and in people's minds. Their selflessness on the field of battle earned them a reputation in a way that doing great deeds could never have done. Their high-visibility told people that they were not afraid to die. They lent optimism to the battle--the knowledge that death, too, brought reward.

Back to Main Page

©2005 Mary Adelle Leinart