c. 1070
Champagne or Burgundy, France

1136
Jerusalem

Crusader; founder of Knights Templars

"In [1118] certain noble men of knightly rank, religious men,...promised to live...without possessions, under vows of chastity [purity] and obedience. Their foremost leaders were the venerable Hugh of Payens and Geoffrey of Saint Omer."

—William of Tyre, "The Foundation of the Order of Knights Templars," in the Internet Medieval Sourcebook, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tyre-templars.html.

Hugh (also called Hugues) de Payens was a French nobleman who fought in the Holy Land during the First Crusade (1095–99), the initial stage of what...