Grand Master of the Templar Order
| This article is about the highest rank of the Templar Order. You may be looking for other uses of the title. |
The title of Grand Master is one of the highest ranks of the Templar Order. Originally it was the supreme head of the entire order, but evolution of the organization over the centuries led to this status being superseded by newly created authorities such as the Guardians and the General of the Cross. Since the establishment of major branches of the order, the title has designated the heads of the Rites of the order, each corresponding to a specific geographic region, where they serve as the highest authority.[1]
During the times of the Order of the Ancients, the rank was known under different names depending on the region, with the Persian branch of the Order using the title of Ra's Al-Af'a (English: Head of the Snake) to designate its leader,[2] while the Anglo-Saxon branch used the title of Grand Maegester instead. The rank was also synonymous with that of "Father of Understanding", or simply "The Father". This term was adopted from the similarly named title within the ruling triumvirate of Isu society, in which the Father of Understanding ruled alongside the Mother of Wisdom and the Sacred Voice.[3]
Having previously borne a more public face, most Grand Masters of the Templar Order were better known than their Assassin counterparts. However, as the Templars slipped back into the shadows, the identities of their leaders eventually fell from the public consciousness.
By the early 17th century, the Templars were no longer ruled by a single Grand Master or independent leaders but instead by a council of the Order's most prestigious members, the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order and the Council of Elders. The Sanctum was in charge of creating a globalized plan for the Order and to ensure the cooperation of all the Rites and their leaders while also preventing any corruption of the Templar ideals. While the Council maintained an advisory role meant to maintaining the integrity of the Order according to the Templar Code.
While still in charge of their respective and autonomous Rites, the Grand Masters were nevertheless accountable to the members of the Inner Sanctum and their inquisitor, the feared Black Crosses. Furthermore, the Inner Sanctum was in charge of promoting the Grand Masters, keeping their numbers under strict control.
While it was commonly assumed that all Templar leaders were drawn from the stock of Western nobility, due to the prominence of the front-organization that was the Knights Templar during the Middle Ages, the truth was that as the Order developed, diversified and relocated, many different people of various ethnic backgrounds and cultural heritages had assumed the mantle of Grand Master throughout the Templars' longevity.
Structure
Training
- "It is a requirement when you are raised in the manner that I was. Perception is fundamental to the Order. It guides the feet when running and climbing. Informs the hands when striking and fighting. But most important, it transforms the senses. And we begin to know the world in a different way."
- ―Haytham Kenway discussing his training with Charles Lee, 1754.[src]-[m]
The Templar Order requires that any member trained to become a Grand Master is prepared to make difficult decisions and confident in their own leadership abilities before being promoted. To uphold the Templar belief of killing for efficiency instead of emotional grounds, they are expected to be resourceful to further the Templars ideals in pursuit of the greater good.[4]
The strongest minds among the Order are meant to bear the responsibility of the people's will for freedom and responsibility;[5] therefore they themselves seek to take the mantle of leadership in society and expect the people to fall in line because, in their view, humanity was built to serve.[6][7] Additionally, both combat and strategem are part of their training.[5][4] The training itself is under another Grand Master, where it is a chosen Templar being trained,[4] or it is a birthright in a Templar lineage that ruled a Rite.[5][8] After the foundation of the Inner Sanctum, promotions to Grand Master came under their control.[9]
Authority
A Grand Master controls a specific geographic region and their Rite is named after it.[1] Under their leadership was the ability to appoint a Lieutenant as their second-in-command.[5] Despite holding the highest attainable rank within their Rite, a Grand Master is not all-powerful and is dependent on the support of their fellow Templars and other Rites around the world. Nevertheless, their duties are essential to the proper functioning of the Templar Order as a whole, so Grand Masters may elect to have bodyguards to protect them at all times, such as Frederick Weatherall for the De la Serre family,[5] and El Tiburón for Laureano de Torres y Ayala.[10] With the Grand Master themselves being the ruling authority for the plans of their own Rite, the permission of changing it by other Templars is dependent on approval from the Grand Master.[11]
The power of a Grand Master can extend beyond their own Rite, as their higher rank allows them to have influence over members of other Rites, including Master Templars.[6][12][13] However, this does not mean they can neglect the duties of their own Rite to actively participate in the duties of another Grand Master and their Rite. An example of this is Reginald Birch entrusting the search for the Grand Temple to Haytham Kenway and the Colonial Rite while Birch himself remained in England.[4]
The Grand Master would also have meetings with Templars from other Rites to discuss the politics of their nation, domestic and global, and the conditions of the Templar Order itself,[5] while also communicating through their various businesses and organizations such as Templar fleets, like Shay Cormac's fleet.[12] An advantage of being Grand Master is a personal network that functions as their eyes and ears everywhere, and they get regular updates from agents, especially Templars directly under their command.[4] Another responsibility of the Grand Master is the initiation of new Templar members,[6][12][10] as well as the exile of Templars who have betrayed the Order, either directly or indirectly.[14]
After the foundation of the Inner Sanctum, the Grand Masters' powers were kept under check by the Black Crosses, whose main objective was to keep the various Rites free of corruption. If a Grand Master was found guilty of breaking the Order's principles, the Black Cross held the authority to execute them on the spot. During an ongoing investigation, all Templars, including the Grand Master, were obliged to assist the Black Cross by providing them with any information or resources they demanded, but were otherwise forbidden from interfering with the investigation or even speaking of their interactions with the Black Cross.[9]
In the 21st century, the number of Grand Masters worldwide has become kept under strict control by the Inner Sanctum, and Grand Masters became answerable to Guardians and the General of the Cross.[14]
Accession
A rival Templar aiming to become the Grand Master would have to contact other Rites to convince them that overthrowing the current one is necessary, and recruit members within the Rite before initiating a coup d'état.[5][14] Failure to do so would result in the death of the rival Templars, such as Cavanagh, who sought to overthrow Crawford Starrick with an Apple of Eden, being killed on Starrick's own orders.[15] Another example is Grand Master Rodrigo Borgia attempting to poison his own son Cesare, who had assumed de facto leadership of the Roman Rite, due to seeing his actions as a betrayal of the Templars' principles.[8]
In the case of the Parisian Rite in the late 18th century, François-Thomas Germain successfully petitioned the American, Roman, and Spanish Rites for support following his banishment by Grand Master François de la Serre. After Germain had de la Serre assassinated in a coup d'état and began purging all French Templars opposing him, Élise de la Serre and Chrétien Lafrenière petitioned other Rites for aid but they only lent their sympathies, as the Parisian Rite ran smoothly under Germain's control, so there was no need for their intervention.[5]
In the event of a Grand Master's untimely death, a successor may be appointed as de facto leader of the Rite until a new Grand Master is officially elected, as was the case during the Third Crusade, when Basilisk assumed temporary leadership of the Levantine Rite following Grand Master Gerard de Ridefort's death.[16] The same is true in the case of Templar leaders who did not hold the title of Grand Master, such as James Wardrop succeeding Lawrence Washington as leader of the Templars in the Thirteen Colonies.[12]
There have also been several instances of a Grand Master being chosen by the Rite itself for their own qualities as leaders, such as Ahmet becoming Grand Master of the Byzantine Rite while Manuel Palaiologos was demoted to his second-in-command,[1] and Crawford Starrick's rise in the British Rite until he was appointed Grand Master.[15]
History
Order of the Ancients
- Main article: Grand Maegester of the Order of the Ancients
- Main article: Ra's Al-Af'a
Prior to the establishment of the Templar Order, the Order of the Ancients used various titles to denote the leaders of its different branches around the world. In 44 BCE, when asked by the Hidden One Aya if Julius Caesar was the King of the Order, the Ancient Lucius Septimius corrected her, claiming that Caesar was the "Father of Understanding". Following Caesar's assassination by the Hidden Ones,[17] his adoptive son Octavian succeeded him as leader of the Order, though he did not inherit the title of Father of Understanding and the name eventually fell out of use.[18]
In the 9th century, the leader of the Order in the Abbasid Caliphate was called the Ra's Al-Af'a, or the "Head of the Snake".[2] By the 860s, the position had been attained by the royal concubine Qabiha, whose Order eventually fell to the Hidden Ones based in Alamut while Qabiha herself was killed by the Master Assassin Roshan.[19]
In the case of the Anglo-Saxon branch of the Order based in Great Britain, the organization was headed by a Grand Maegester, who was also known by the title of "The Father".[3] During the 9th century, the position was held by members of the House of Wessex, beginning with King Æthelwulf. After his death, King Ælla of Northumbria, another high-ranking Order member, was expected to succeed him as Grand Maegester, but due to his own demise at the hands of the Great Heathen Army, the title passed down to Æthelwulf's son Æthelred I.[20]
In 871, Æthelred died from wounds sustained during the Battle of Meretun,[21] and his younger brother Alfred succeeded him as both King of Wessex and Grand Maegester of the Order. Unlike his father and brother, however, Alfred was against the Order's beliefs and secretly sought to bring about its collapse.[20]
Working under the pseudonym of a "Poor Fellow-Soldier of Christ", Alfred manipulated the Viking Eivor Varinsdottir into helping him achieve his goal, rendering the Order in Great Britain extinct and the title of Grand Maegester obsolete by 878.[22] Alfred subsequently set about rebuilding the Order into a new organization that more closely followed his Christian beliefs, and became its first Grand Master.[20]
Middle Ages
The first known Grand Master of the Templar Order was the French knight Hugues de Payens. When he and his colleague Bernard de Clairvaux realized they needed the protection of the Church for their endeavors, they transformed the Templars into the publicly recognized military and monastic Order of the Knights Templar, trusted with the protection of pilgrims to the Holy Land, with Hugues becoming its first Grand Master in 1129.[23]
After two years without a Grand Master following Gerard de Ridefort's death, Robert de Sablé joined the Templar Order and reigned as the Grand Master of the Levantine Rite during the year 1191. During his reign, he sought a Piece of Eden, specifically an Apple of Eden, intending to use it to achieve the Order's goal of establishing a New World Order. After losing the Apple, he launched an attack on the Levantine Assassins' stronghold of Masyaf to recover it, but was defeated. Later on, during the Battle of Arsuf, he was killed by his rival, the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad.[24][25]
After the death of Robert, Armand Bouchart took on the mantle of Grand Master as he and the Templars retreated to Cyprus. However, Altaïr pursued him and the two fought in the Templar Archive, after the Assassin foiled the Grand Master's plans, resulting in Altaïr's victory and the Templars losing another leader.[26]
During the early 14th century, the French King Philip le Bel was unknowingly influenced by the Assassins, and conspired against the Templars. As a result, they were branded heretics and hundreds of them were arrested, with the last official Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, understanding that the Order would not survive as a public organization. With this, he allowed himself to be burned at the stake, saving the lives of his brethren and making his enemies believe that the Templars were finished, though in reality, the Order continued to exist underground.[23]
Renaissance
In 1476, the Roman Rite came under the leadership of the Spanish-born Rodrigo Borgia, a cardinal under Pope Sixtus IV. Operating from Rome, Rodrigo's primary objective was to unite Italy under the Templar banner,[11] however, the Italian Templars strayed far from the main Templar ideology and used the Order as a way to achieve and sustain power for themselves.[23] Despite facing complications from the Assassins, mainly Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Rodrigo managed to bribe the other cardinals, and was named Pope in 1492, taking on the name Alexander VI.[11]
Rodrigo then secured the power of the Church for the Templars, and from the Vatican, he oversaw the progress of the other Templars in Europe, including England and Spain. However, by 1500, Rodrigo's resolve had weakened, and control over the order fell to his son Cesare Borgia, who acted as the de facto Grand Master.[8]
After he killed his own father in August 1503, Cesare became the official Grand Master of the Order,[27] though without his father's power in the Church, he could not maintain the same influence in Europe that his father had. Cesare was soon imprisoned with the ascension of the next Pope, Julius II, and upon escaping, he fled to his brother-in-law John III of Navarre in Navarre, Spain. The Grand Master was ultimately killed during the Siege of Viana in 1507 by Ezio Auditore,[8] destabilizing the Templars in Europe and causing them to temporarily withdraw.[28]
Circa 1509, the Ottoman Prince Ahmet became the Grand Master of the Byzantine Rite,[23] and sought to acquire the Masyaf Keys and open the library of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, believing the knowledge inside could lead the Order into a new era. However, his efforts were opposed by Ezio Auditore, who assisted the Ottoman Assassins in driving the Templars out of the Empire, while Ahmet himself was killed by his brother Selim I for betraying his country.[28]
Colonial era
During the time of colonial expansion by the major European empires, the Cuban governor Laureano de Torres y Ayala assumed the role of Grand Master of the West Indies Rite. Operating out of Havana, he sought the fabled Observatory in order to spy upon and thus bend the leaders of the European colonial empires to Templar will, ensuring peace through order. Torres was ultimately assassinated by the pirate-turned-Assassin Edward Kenway in 1722, before he could succeeed in his goal.[29]
In Britain, the Grand Master of the British Rite was Reginald Birch, an Englishman who used the pretext of business to cover his affiliations. He was responsible for the growth of Templar influence in the British colonies, sending over Haytham Kenway to lead them. Upon his arrival in the colonies, Haytham gathered his co-conspirators, who had been recruited and located by Birch, and became the first Grand Master of the newly-founded Colonial Rite.[6]
During the French and Indian War, part of the wider Seven Years' War, the Colonial Rite grew in power, acquiring such influence that they soon posed a serious threat to the Colonial Assassins under Achilles Davenport. At the time, the Assassins were more preoccupied with investigating Pieces of Eden and largely ignored the organization's new leadership, an error that proved fatal.[12]
Shortly after founding the Colonial Rite, Haytham led the rite in an assault against the Assassins.[6] Aided by the Assassin turncoat Shay Cormac and led on the field by Haytham himself, the Templars removed key figures in the Brotherhood, greatly reducing the Assassin's presence.[12] This cumulated in an attack on the Davenport Homestead in 1763, where the remaining Assassins were killed and Achilles was exiled on the condition that he never revive the Brotherhood, thus effectively exterminating the Colonial branch.[6]
In 1781, the title of Grand Master was bestowed upon Charles Lee, following Haytham's death during the siege of Fort George at the hands of his son, the Assassin Connor. Lee, as the only Templar conspirator left from Haytham's rule, attempted to flee back to England by ship after his initial plan to kill Connor failed. He was unsuccessful however, and Connor assassinated him inside a tavern in 1782.[6]
In Europe, François de la Serre had risen to the position of Grand Master of the Parisian Rite. However, he was ultimately deposed in a coup d'etat orchestrated by François-Thomas Germain, who usurped the position of Grand Master following de la Serre's death. Germain's ascension was opposed by de la Serre's daughter Élise, who worked with her lover, the Assassin Arno Dorian, to hunt the Grand Master and his allies, eventually succeeding in killing Germain in 1794.[14]
Early modern era
By 1868, the British Rite was controlled by Crawford Starrick, who expanded the Templars' reach to every major corner of industrialized society, from the highest official to the lowest criminal. He was opposed by the few remaining Assassins in London, namely Henry Green and the Frye twins, Jacob and Evie, who killed Starrick during his quest for a Shroud of Eden, freeing London from Templar influence.[30]
In 1925, Sun Yat-sen, the Grand Master of the Chinese Rite, was killed by the Assassins. He was succeeded by Stirling Fessenden, who hoped to recruit Chiang Kai-shek into the Order and have him become the new Grand Master. However, Chiang ultimately rejected Fessenden's offer and ended his alliance with the Templars after they helped him gain control of Shanghai.[9]
By 1927, Thaddeus Gift had become the Grand Master of the British Rite, although he was a corrupt leader who used the Templars' connections to embezzle money for his personal gain. In retaliation for breaking the Order's principles, Gift was later assassinated by the Black Cross Albert Bolden.[9]
Contemporary era
In 1937, the "Founders" created Abstergo Industries, which from that point on served as the public front of the Templar Order. Though its highest-ranking employees all held some form of leadership in the Order,[31] there were multiple Grand Masters who still maintained control over their operations. As of 2014, there are three known Grand Masters operating respectively in Cuba, Mexico and the United States.[32]
During this period, the Grand Masters were no longer the highest rank among the Templar Order. They were instead answerable to the Guardians, who in turn answered to the General of the Cross.[32]
Known Grand Masters
Order of the Ancients
Fathers of Understanding
- Main article: Father of Understanding
![Julius Caesar[17] Rome c. 47 BCE – 44 BCE](/wiki/File:ACO_Julius_Caesar_render.png)
Ra's Al-Afa's
- Main article: Ra's Al-Af'a
![Qabiha[2] Abbasid Caliphate c. 860s](/wiki/File:ACMirage_DB_Qabiha.png)
Grand Maegesters
- Main article: Grand Maegester of the Order of the Ancients
![Æthelwulf, King of Wessex[3] England until 858](/wiki/File:Wiki_noimage.jpg)
![Æthelred I, King of Wessex[3] England c. 865 – 871](/wiki/File:ACV_BB_-_%C3%86thelred.jpg)
![Alfred the Great[3] England 871 – c. 873](/wiki/File:ACV_Alfred_the_Great_render.png){kind=small}
Order of the Knights Templar
![Hugues de Payens[23] French Rite / Levantine Rite Knights Templar 1118 – 1136](/wiki/File:Hugh_de_Payns.jpg)
![Robert de Sablé[24][25] Levantine Rite Knights Templar 1190 - 1191](/wiki/File:AC1_Robert_render.png)
![Armand Bouchart[26] Levantine Rite 1191 – 1193](/wiki/File:Bouchart1.png)
![Jacques de Molay[23] French Rite Knights Templar 1292 – 1312](/wiki/File:ACU_De_Molay_Render.png)
![Rodrigo Borgia[11][8] Roman Rite 1476 – 1503](/wiki/File:ACB_Rodrigo_render.png){kind=small}
![Cesare Borgia[27] Roman Rite 1500 – 1503 (de facto) 1503 – 1507 (de jure)](/wiki/File:ACB_Cesare_render.png)
![Ahmet[1] Byzantine Rite c. 1509 – 1512](/wiki/File:ACR_Ahmet_v.png)
![Laureano de Torres y Ayala[29] West Indies Rite c. 1673 – 1722](/wiki/File:AC4_Laureano_Torres_render.png){kind=small}
![Reginald Birch[6] British Rite c. 1735 – 1757](/wiki/File:Reginald_Birch_ACIII.png){kind=small}
![Haytham Kenway[6] Colonial Rite 1754 – 1781](/wiki/File:AC3_Haytham_Kenway_render.png)
![Charles Lee[6] Colonial Rite 1781 – 1782](/wiki/File:AC3_Charles_Lee.png)
![François de la Serre[14] French Rite 1768 – 1789](/wiki/File:ACU_De_La_Serre_Render.png){kind=small}
![François-Thomas Germain[14] French Rite (radical faction) 1789 – 1794](/wiki/File:ACU_Fran%C3%A7ois-Thomas_Germain_Render.png)
![Crawford Starrick[30] British Rite until 1868](/wiki/File:ACS_Crawford_Starrick_Render.png){kind=small}
![Thaddeus Gift[9] British Rite until 1927](/wiki/File:ACT_Thaddeus_Gift.png){kind=small}
![Stirling Fessenden[9] Chinese Rite began 1925](/wiki/File:ACT_Fessenden.jpg)
![Alan Rikkin[36] Worldwide until 2016](/wiki/File:ACM_Templar_Rikkin.jpg)
Trivia
- Assassin's Creed material occasionally identifies Assassins, including Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Mario Auditore, Mirabeau and Mujir as Grand Masters of the Assassin Order.
References
hu:A Templomos Rend Nagymestere
pt-br:Grão-Mestre
ru:Великий Магистр Тамплиеров
fr:Grand Maître