How did the Knights Templar influence modern Freemasonry?

The belief that Freemasonry descended from the medieval Knights Templar arose in France around 1736, heavily driven by Chevalier Ramsay's 1737 Oration 2. Ramsay linked the Fraternity's origins to Crusaders who sought to unite men of all nations through virtue and science 2. Although Ramsay may not have intended to launch a new system of degrees 2, his ideas sparked continental imagination and led to the creation of high degrees, Ecossais Masonry, and chivalric rites 132. Continental figures expanded this myth through fabrications such as the College of Clermont legend and Baron von Hund's Rite of Strict Observance, both of which claimed a direct lineage from crusading knights through Scotland 12.

While historical research and Masonic consensus view the direct Templar lineage as a myth—attributing the true origins of Freemasonry instead to medieval operative stonemasons and guilds, as a paper read before Quatuor Coronati Lodge notes and the United Grand Lodge of England states—the theory radically reshaped the Masonic landscape 1. Albert C. Mackey observed that although the historical theory was unsupported, no eighteenth-century system exercised a greater influence on the creation of advanced degrees 1.

In modern English Freemasonry, Knights Templar practice exists not as a historical origin for Craft Masonry, but as a distinct, Christian side Order open to Master Masons who belong to the Royal Arch, as the United Grand Lodge of England states. The English Masonic Templar bodies evolved through Thomas Dunckerley’s establishment of the Grand Conclave in 1791, the traditions of the Camp of Baldwyn, and the ultimate reorganization under the Convent General in 1873 1.