Hugues de Payens' Wife

["Katherine Kurtz" <kkurtz@iol.ie>]

Dear Sinclairs,

Since I'm in the process of writing a story about Hugues de Payens and
the founding of the Templars, I couldn't resist commenting.  It
appears that we really don't know whether his wife was a Sinclair, but
we do know that he had at least one son, who became Abbot of St. Sens;
this is documentable.  However, it would be my contention that Hugues
married as a young man, as most of his station would have done, and
then went off to the Crusades, as was also common.  Souces speak of
him having been "east of Constantinople" for 22 years in 1118, or
having been 22 years in the Levant when he became Grand Master at age
48.  This means that he must have gone to the Holy Land around 1096,
possibly serving with Geoffroi de Buillon in First Crusade.  At this
point, he still would have been married.  He probably was not a
widower at that time, but left his lands in his wife's care, little
guessing that his son would eventually heed a call to the religious
life.

When Hugues and his fellow founders made their vows, he presumably
would have made arrangements with his wife, if she was still alive.
(Or maybe she had died by then, if he truly stayed in the Holy Land
for more than 20 years.)  We do know that his son was Abbot of St.
Sens when he went back to France to obtain the Rule for the Order.

Incidentally, since we don't know the name of that ninth man who
helped found the Order, I've made him a Sinclair, to tie in with my
previous suppositions that there must have been important St. Clair
Templars.   Watch for Henri de Sancto Claro in the next Templar
anthology, due out next year!

Regards,
Katherine Kurtz
Sir Adam Sinclair's "Mom"



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