Peire de Montagut Known in Catalan as Pere de Montagut and in French as Pierre de Montaigu. (? – 28 January 1232) was Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1218 to 1232. He took part in the

Fifth Crusade The Fifth Crusade (1217–1221) was a campaign in a series of Crusades by Western Europeans to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering Egypt, ruled by the powerful Ayyubid sultanate, led by Al-Adil I, al-Adil, brothe ...

and was against the Sultan of Egypt's conditions for raising the siege of

Damietta Damietta ( arz, دمياط ' ; cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ, Tamiati) is a port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt, a former bishopric and present multiple Catholic titular see. It is located at the Damietta branch, an easter ...

. He was previously Master of the Crown of Aragon.

Personal details

A close friend of William of Chartres, it was most likely the trust the previous Grand Master had in him which meant he himself was elected so quickly in 1218. At the same time, the Grand Master of the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

was

Guérin de Montaigu Guérin de Montaigu (died 1228), also known as Garin de Montaigu or Pierre Guérin de Montaigu, was a nobleman from Auvergne, who became the fourteenth Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, serving from 1207–1228. He succeeded the Grand Mast ...

, who is likely to have been Pere's brother. The close relationship between the two military orders during this period was probably a result of this.

Military record

His actions against the Muslim forces working for the capture of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

were so effective, that they were forced to propose a surrender. In return for the Templars calling off their siege at

, the Islamic forces would return many Frankish soldiers, halt attacks on Jerusalem and most importantly, return the part of the

True Cross The True Cross is the cross upon which Jesus was said to have been crucified, particularly as an object of religious veneration. There are no early accounts that the apostles or early Christians preserved the physical cross themselves, althoug ...

, captured from the Europeans at the Battle of Hattin. Catholic pressure meant the Muslim terms were refused and the carnage continued. His military victories, aided by the Hospitaller knights, made him a renowned warrior. He died in 1232 of

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montagut, Pere De Grand Masters of the Knights Templar Christians of the Fifth Crusade 1232 deaths