Robert de Sablé Robert de Sablé ( died 23 September 1193 ) was the eleventh Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1191 to 1193 and Lord of Cyprus from 1191 to 1192 . Personal life . No exact record of his birth date exists , but it is believed he was relatively old at the time of his death . He was born to a respected military family in Anjou and was " a leading Angevin vassal of the King " . His lordship was based in a cluster of lands in the River Sarthe valley , which he inherited in the 1160s . He married Clemence de Mayenne ( died before 1209 ) . He was succeeded in Anjou by his daughter Marguerite de Sablé , who by marriage passed the entire estate to William des Roches , also a knight of the Third Crusade . Robert died in the Holy Land on 23 September 1193 . Military record . Angevin Civil War . In 1173 , Sablé supported Henry the Young King in a revolt against Henry II . The uprising was crushed but Robert must have remained in favour with the Angevin Kings , as Richard I would later be instrumental in his appointment as Grand Master . He contributed money to French monastic houses in 1190 as a way of making amends . Third Crusade . Despite only having a short tenure , Sablé ' s reign was filled with successful campaigning . Before his election as Grand Master , he led Richard I ' s navy from England and Normandy to the Mediterranean , getting involved in the Reconquista in passage . The combined might of Richard the Lion Heart ' s strategy , seasoned troops , and the elite Templar knights scored many victories . During the Third Crusade , they laid siege to the city of Acre , which soon fell . Throughout August 1191 , they also recaptured many fortress es and cities along the Levantine coast in the Eastern Mediterranean , which had been lost previously . The new coalition ' s finest hour was the Battle of Arsuf , 7 September 1191 . Saladin ' s Muslim forces appeared to have become far stronger than the Christians , and a decisive victory was desperately needed . Pooling all of the crusader ' s strength , the Knights Hospitaller joined the ranks , plus many knights from Sablé ' s native Anjou , Maine , and Brittany . They met Saladin ' s troops on the dry plains and soon broke his ranks . Those who stayed to fight were killed , and the remaining Islamic troops were forced to retreat in a chaotic rout . Acquisition of Cyprus . At the end of 1191 , Richard Lion Heart agreed to sell Cyprus to the Templars for 25 , 000 pieces of silver . Richard had plundered the island from the Byzantine forces of a rival ruler in Cyprus some months earlier and had no real use for it . The Hospitallers would later establish solid bases on the islands of Rhodes and Malta , but Sablé failed to do the same with the island of Cyprus . He was lord for two years , until he gave ( or sold ) the island to Guy de Lusignan , King of Jerusalem , as he was without a kingdom . Sablé did manage to establish a Chieftain House of the Order in Saint - Jean d ' Acre , which remained for almost a century . Delayed election . Sablé was lucky to have been Grand Master at all , as at the time of Gerard de Ridefort ' s death , he was not even a member of the Templar Order . However , the senior knights had become increasingly opposed to Masters fighting on the front line , and the capture and beheading of Grand Master Gerard de Ridefort became the final straw . They delayed elections for over a year so that the rules regarding active service of Grand Masters could be reviewed . During this hiatus , Sablé did join the order , just in time to be considered for election . When he was made Grand Master , he had been a Templar knight for less than a year . In popular culture . In the 2007 video game " Assassin ' s Creed " , Robert de Sablé is presented as the secondary antagonist ( in addition to being presented as the leader of the Knights Templar within the game ' s story ) . However , the game dates Robert ' s assassination in 1191 , whereas in actuality he died in 1193 , in addition to being far younger than his historical counterpart .