Pedro de Montaigu

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grandmaster coat of arms of Pedros de Montaigu

Pedro de Montaigu , also Pierre de Montaigu or Petrus de Monteacuto († January 28, 1232 ) was the fifteenth Grand Master of the Templar Order .

Pedro came from Montaigut-en-Combraille in Auvergne . Between 1206 and 1212 he was Grand Preceptor of the Order in Aragon and Provence and then Master of the Sea on this side ( magister citra mare ). In 1212 he took part in the victorious battle of Las Navas de Tolosa .

Pedro took part in the Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) and probably reached the Holy Land in May 1218 with a German fleet that had helped siege and conquer Alcácer do Sal the previous autumn and spent the winter on the Iberian Peninsula. The crusade army besieged the Egyptian city of Damiette from 1218 . Pedro was a close confidante of the then Templar Grand Master Guillaume de Chartres . Guillaume was wounded during the siege of Damiette and eventually died of infection. Only shortly after his death, Pedro was elected Grand Master of the Templar Order in 1219 and took over command of the Templar troops. During the siege, the Sultan of Egypt offered the Crusaders a peace treaty and the return of Jerusalem . The papal legate of the crusade, Cardinal Pelagius von Albano , however, confidently refused to negotiate with the Muslims, although he was also encouraged by Pedro. Damiette was conquered in November 1219. The fighting in Egypt dragged on for two years before the crusaders were finally driven out again.

At the same time, his brother Guerin de Montaigu was Grand Master of the Order of St. John . Benefiting from this, the two knightly orders maintained close relationships in the following years. His brother Eustorgue de Montaigu was Archbishop of Nicosia from 1217 .

At the second attempt of the Fifth Crusade (1228-1229) under Emperor Frederick II , the latter made up for the opportunity given in 1219, and achieved the return of Jerusalem from the Muslims.

literature

  • Malcolm Barber: The new knighthood. A history of the Order of the Temple. Canto, Cambridge 1995, ISBN 0521558727 , p. 128 ff.
  • Wilhelm Havemann: History of the exit of the Templar order. JG Cotta, Stuttgart / Tübingen 1846, p. 64 f.
  • Johann Jakob Herzog: Real encyclopedia for Protestant theology and the church. Volume 15, R. Besser, 1868, p. 524.
predecessor Office successor
Guillaume de Chartres Grand Master of the Knights Templar
1219–1232 		Armand de Périgord
personal data
SURNAME Pedro de Montaigu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pierre de Montaigu; Petrus de Monteacuto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Grand Master of the Templar Order
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1232