Hugues de Payen (1070?-1136), French knight, vassal to Hugh, Count of Champagne, first Grand Master and one of the nine founders of the Knights Templar.
He was the Grand Master who saw the Order through its most mysterious time, the ten years they spent in Jerusalem, apparently digging up the foundations of the Temple of Solomon with the blessing of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, under the ingenious cover story that they were supposed to be "protecting the pilgrims." Under his leadership the Order also obtained its monastic rule at the Council of Troyes in 1128, which was penned in part by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and began their meteoric rise to power of the Templars. | 
