Dress code became as important to the Knights Templar as anything else they did. Manners (no kissing women, not even your mom, but a brother-on-brother “Kiss of Peace” was okay), strategy (never retreat, surrender, or charge), ideology (slaughter the “infidels” and such), and more: Templars were, as History tells us, all about that austere, rule-bound life.

As for the dress itself: It consisted of a white “mantle” (cloak) and one of history’s most iconic logos, the St. George’s cross, a red cross on a white background. At first, though, Templars just wore whatever they had. In 1128, as History says, Pope Honorius II officially declared them an “army of God,” which is when they adopted their white mantle, likely because of their connections to the Cistercian order of monks, who wear white to symbolize purity. The mantle’s red cross, which symbolizes the blood of martyrdom, worn on the left side, didn’t come until Pope Eugenius III granted them the right to wear it in 1147 at the offset of the Second Crusade, per History Collection. This is when the Templars came into universal notoriety in both Europe and the Holy Land. Their uniforms, “dark caps,” “dark tunics,” and, yes, boffo beards, as Helen Nicholson wrote in her 2001 book “The Knights Templar: A New History,” made them instantly recognizable. 

Templar armor constitutes military technology that changed over time, and was only worn in combat. No knight wore 30-50 pounds of medieval armor just hanging around the house.