The Knights Templar - A society so secret that its purpose is debated to this day

 

The first Templars were nine French knights, headed by Hugh de Payens, all from the Champagne region, and most of them dependents of Count Hugh de Troyes, Count of Champagne. The composition of this first group established a tendency ever after for the centre of gravity of the Order to be French – which may have been the first of the seeds of its ending.