In the Crusades, turcopoles, turcoples, turcopoli or turcopoliers (from the , "sons of Turks") were locally recruited mounted archers employed by the Christian states of the Eastern Mediterranean.

History

The crusaders first encountered turcopoles in the Byzantine army during the First Crusade. These auxiliaries were the children of mixed Greek and Turkish parentage, and were at least nominally Christian although some may have been practising Muslims. Some Byzantine turcopole units accompanied the First Crusade and may have provided a model for the employment of indigenous auxiliary light horse in the crusader states.

In the crusader states the turcoples were not necessarily Turkish or mixed-race mercenaries, but many were probably recruited from Christianized Seljuqs, or from Syrian Eastern Orthodox Christians under crusader rule. In the Holy Land, turcopoles were more lightly-armoured than knights and were armed with lances and bows to help combat the more mobile Muslim forces. They served as light cavalry: skirmishers, scouts, and mounted archers, and sometimes rode as a second line in a charge, to back up the Frankish knights and sergeants. Turcopoles had lighter and faster horses than the western mounted troops and wore much lighter armour. Usually this comprised only a quilted aketon or jerkin and a conical steel helmet.

There were turcopoles in the secular armies of Outremer but they were also often found in the ranks of the military orders. In the military orders turcopoles had lower status than the Frankish sergeants, and were subject to various restrictions, including eating at a separate table from the other mounted soldiers.

The turcopoles had their own leaders called Turcopoliers, who were higher in rank than normal sergeants, at least in battle. The senior office-holders of the Knights Templar included a Turcopolier who commanded both the mercenary cavalry recruited by the Order in the East and the sergeant-Brothers. The personal attendants of the Grand Master of the Temple included a turcopole - possibly as an interpreter or orderly.

The Mamluks considered turcopoles to be traitors and apostates and killed all those whom they captured. The turcopoles who survived the Fall of Acre followed the military orders out of the Holy Land and were established on Cyprus with the Knights Templar and Rhodes and Malta with the Knights Hospitaller. The Teutonic Order also called its own native light cavalry the "Turkopolen".

Modern survival

There is always an appointed Turcopolier in a modern Priory of the Masonic Knights of Malta.