92 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
(Valenciennes, 1167; Saint Omer, 1200). In fact, as we saw earlier, the
importance of the francs metiers was so great in Flanders that the four
cities of Bruges, Audenarde, Gand, and Alost were called the "four
francs metiers." The exercise of crafts in franchise was no doubt
unknown in the West before the Templars introduced the free forms of
craft associations that they had created earlier in the Holy Land based
on Byzantine or Muslim models. It could be said that under the
Templar influence, Flanders became the cradle for the franc metiers.
This explains and provides justification for the theory, presented by
some other authors, that freemasonry was created by the Templars in
the kingdom of Jerusalem and imported from there into Flanders and
Hainaut and England as well.
In England the Order received large donations, notably from King
Henry I, and Hughes de Payans visited the country personally to found
a new province.^8 In London in 1154, when the commander of the
Temple of London undertook construction of the Fleet Street chapel, he
had at his disposal an architectural association that had come from the
Holy Land—proof that few workers in the English capital at that time
had the qualifications necessary to realize this work successfully, and
that no community of masons existed there at that time. This builders'
association from the Middle East remained in the English capital under
Templar guidance until 1199.^9 During this time it may have become the
constitutional core of the Company of Masons of London. This trans-
formation, which coincided with the social and political evolution of
that time, was achieved when the association became important enough
to escape Templar tutelage and find in the guild the legally autonomous
structure its members were seeking. Indeed, the Company of Masons of
London appears to date from the beginning of the thirteenth century.^10
The likelihood of this influence of the Templars in England is all the
stronger when we consider that the Order was the beneficiary of the
English kings' personal trust. Bernard Le Tresorier informs us that King
Henry kept a treasury in the Temple to which he sent large sums. The
prestige of the Templars was especially great under the reign of Richard
the Lionheart (1189-1199). When he took possession of the island of
Cypress following his crusade with King Philip Augustus of France, he
commanded the Templars to guard it. After the capture of Saint John