The thirteenth day of the month falls on a Friday at least once and up to three times per year. On each Friday the 13th, superstitions rise up that the day will be full of bad luck for everyone. But does Friday the 13th really bring bad luck, or is it just universal imagination. To find out where the curse of bad luck on Friday the 13th comes from, we must take a look at the Knights Templar, who served during the Crusades and became major power brokers in Europe and the Middle East.
Origins of the Knights Templar: During the First Crusade in 1096, European armies succeeded in capturing Jerusalem and wresting it away from Muslim control. Christian pilgrims living mostly in coastal areas would take pilgrimages to visit the holy city which was inland. These pilgrimages were subject to raids by thieves and brigands, and the pilgrims were sometimes killed as well as robbed. To attempt to remedy this situation, a French knight, Hugues de Payens, approached Jerusalem’s King Baldwin II asking for the creation of a monastic order of knights to protect the pilgrims on their travels. The King agreed and granted them a headquarters in the Royal Palace. The order became the “Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon”, or the Templar Knights.
Early days of the order: The nine original Knights Templar had to rely on donations to survive. However, owing to the efforts of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, they became a “favored charity” throughout Christendom, and received money, land, businesses, and other valuable property to carry on their efforts. In 1139, Pope Innocent II exempted the knights from local laws making them only responsible directly to him, thereby creating a privileged status among the secular rulers of Europe. Their mission remained primarily military-oriented, but many of the members were non-combatants who managed the business side of the order. In 1150, the order began accepting letters of credit from pilgrims by storing their valuables in a Templar repository before their journey and issuing a document which would be exchanged for like kind valuables upon arrival in Jerusalem. This kept the pilgrims from being targets for bandits. It also constituted an early form of banking, and may have been the first usage of checks as negotiable financial documents.
Resource driven growth: In time the Templars grew to over 20,000 members whose financial reach stretched across Christendom in both Europe and the Middle East. They continued to acquire real estate and other valuable assets as their earnings were for the benefit of the entire order and not for the enrichment of any individual. The empire included, farm lands, vineyards, castles, cathedrals, manufacturing plants, importing and exporting, and a fleet of ships. At one point the order owned the entire island of Cyprus. They qualified by even today’s standards as the world’s first multinational corporation.
Decline of the order: The Islamic world rallied and retook Jerusalem and other key areas of the Middle East after several more crusades and a lot of fighting. The city exchanged hands again to Christian control and back to Muslim control where it remained until 1917. The Knights’ military role declined with the falling fortunes of all Christianity in the Middle East. They relocated first to the seaport city of Acre, then to Cyprus, and finally gravitated back to Europe in the early 1300’s.
Friday the Thirteenth: On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Phillip IV of France, sent out his own forces to arrest the all the Knights Templar that settled in France. Many were put on trial for heresy, some were burned at the stake, others driven out of the country. Pope Clement V then issued a papal bull requiring the heads of sovereign states in Europe other than France to arrest the remaining members of the order. King Phillip and the Pope clashed over the disposition of the order until the Pope agreed to disband it. The monies and properties were distributed mostly to other monastic orders in Europe. Although many more were arrested, the surviving templars generally were not convicted as heretics, and were absorbed into other Catholic military orders, or given pensions to retire from their duties.
Conclusion: Why King Phillip rose up to strike down the Knights Templar is not completely clear, although he was called in by Pope Clement V to investigate stories of heresy among the Knights. King Phillip was deeply indebted to the order, and may have used the opportunity to rub them out to give him a clean slate. In any case, Friday the 13th went down in history as a day of bad luck for the Knights Templar. Over time, and owing to many superstitions as well as a lot of imagination, Friday the 13th became a day of bad luck for all.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar