I. INTRODUCTION

Needless to say, most beginners in the Society realize (with growing horror) the staggering expense and time investment involved in preparing gear for an SCA persona.  I have found that as a person becomes better educated, the more authentic they want their equipment to look, in spite of the expense.  I had some preconceived notions on what a Templar should look like, and a lot of those were based on nights watching movies dealing with the Crusades Period (circa 1097-1291).   

In the nineteen years of involvement I’ve had in the Society, I’ve recreated a Templar persona. During those years I have learned a great deal about the Order.  Most of the research done to make my gear look the part is based on either the Rule of the Temple, the wall frescos of the Templar churches at Cressac and San Bevignate, a map of Jerusalem, circa 1170 C. E. and Matthew Paris’ Chronica Majora.   These sources have really helped me a great deal in getting the proper Templar look I wanted.

 II.  GETTING STARTED

If your persona is just starting out, you’ll probably want to concentrate on getting your habit assembled first.  This will help you to better identify with the persona you wish to work with.  The habit consists of: undertunic, braies, chausses, long supertunica, hooded cloak, linen coif and skullcap.  A belt of cord completes the look.  According to the Rule, the cloak is to have a red cross formee’ on the left shoulder measuring about nine inches square, and the supertunica is to have a smaller one on the left breast, at four-and-a-half inches square.  Templars of knightly lineage wore white habits; sergeants wore black or brown ones, chaplains

And priests wore green habits.   Fabrics available during the crusade period include linen, cotton, silk and wool, and any combination of these can be used.

 For constructing the fighting surcoat, the aforementioned fresco at Cressac shows Templars riding out to engage the Saracens.  It also clearly shows the knights wearing the appropriate cross on the left side of the surcoat.  Depending on time period, the Cressac fresco shows the surcoat could be either long-sleeved or sleeveless, and the length varies from mid-calf to knee-length.  Mail, scale, cuir-boulli or lamellar armour was used, as well as padded gambesons.

Shields were shown emblazoned in a variety of ways.  In the Chronica Majora, the shields shown are white with a black bar on top, like the Templar banner Baucent.  On the Cressac fresco, and on the map of Jerusalem, the shields are shown as white with the Greek style Templar cross prominently displayed.  One other design shows a Templar cross surmounting a raven displayed, which is indicative of personal heraldry, though the Rule expressly forbids it.  This would seem to indicate that personal heraldry was used to a limited degree. 

To date, I have found no period pictorial source that shows Templar clothing with the cross displayed dead center of the chest, but the Rule states that Brother Sergeants of the order was to wear the red cross front and back of the surcoat.  Nor have I been able to document that Templar chaplains and priests wore a green colored version of the habit with gloves, though it is mentioned in passing by John J. Robinson in Dungeon, Fire and Sword, Chapter 3, pg. 47. Mr. Robinson doesn’t site his source for this, however--though that doesn’t prove that priests and chaplains in the Order didn’t wear green!

 On the frescos in the Templar church of San Bevignate, the Templars are shown in hooded white habits very much like Cistercian monks, inside a castle, with a raging  lion outside.  According to Malcomb-Barber, this may be an alliteration to St. Jerome, in which the saint removes a thorn from a lion’s paw  This is the one extant pictorial source I am aware of that shows Templars as they saw themselves when they were in convent. 

There was also a secular arm attached to the Templars, that of confrere’ brothers. These were men associated with the order, taking vows for a set time limit, but who were required to live in separate quarters from the monks.  They are frequently seen on the Cressac fresco, and Templar writings refer to them a lot.  During their time with the order, they dress like Templars, but with a plain, unadorned robe.

 Consequently, if you have a fighting persona, you will want to acquire armour.  This subject is covered at length in Pulling it all Together and Pulling it all Together, II, a set of articles you can find here.   You will also want to get a list of weapons and other gear appropriate to the Crusades period as you can.

If you are wealthy enough to afford authentic tentage, there are several tent companies that build to suit reenactors of all stripes.  There are four common varieties of tent in use during the Crusade period: “A”-frame wedge tents (like the Anglo-Saxon “geteld” style), round or octagonal center-pole pavilions, double belled wedge tents or round marquee tents.   

The Rule mentions that the Master, Seneschal, Draper and Marshall were to have a large round tent, but it doesn’t elaborate on what other brothers should use.  Baron Sir Meurisse de Lune-Sombre (an SCA Midrealm knight who alternately plays a Templar persona) used a square pavilion with his trailer acting as a bed.  He currently has a 16’ diameter round pavilion, purchased from Panther Pavilions.  Such tentage will vary in price from $450-$1500 (at 1999 prices). 

 My tent is a belled back wedge, but I will soon upgrade to a 20’ diameter round pavilion, purchased from Tentsmiths.  Others in the Baillie de Safad use an inexpensive (between $115 and $165 from Fall Creek Sutlery, Whitestown, IN) standard Civil War style wedge tent about nine feet long, six feet tall and eight feet wide.  A wedge tent changes little in the time between the Middle Ages and the American Civil War.  Such a tent could have been used as an inexpensive, easily mass-produced option for the rank and file knights, Turcopoles and sergeantry.

 Ultimately, one is only limited by pocketbook and imagination. 

Furnishings in your tent can be as simple as a cot, stool and small table to as elaborate as trestle tables with benches, currule chairs (a type of medieval director’s chair), ropebeds with mattresses and embroidered pillows, clothing racks, carpets, tapestries, lanterns and wrought-iron tiki torch holders, armour-stands and chests for clothing and other gear.  A canopy or dining-fly can double your living space, and give you a shaded area to sit and watch the world go by.  With some imagination and hard work, your camping equipment can be as comfortable as your own home!

 III.  CONCLUSION

 I close this article to point out that in order to be the most accurate, we in the Society are compelled to use actual sources in period whenever practical.  This is what will make us different from the “duct-tape and plastic” crowd that tends to permeate our events.  The question we should ask ourselves is “Can we be seen as actually recreating the Middle Ages as it should be?”  

If we are not, we should think of how to set ourselves apart from those that don’t.  Believe me, the people that come to see us will be more attracted to those that “look like knights” rather than someone from the movie Knightriders.   I hope this article helps to put you on that road.