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The Rule of the Templars.
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I became fascinated by history when, as a child, I visited the Coliseum in Rome; my father told me, “This is where they fed the Christians to the lions.” That awakened my curiosity for people of the past, and I went on to earn an undergraduate degree and a PhD in history at the Universities of Michigan and Hamburg respectively. My interest in the crusades was ignited by the enormous disconnect between popular perceptions and historical reality, and I have published two nonfiction books on the Crusader States, as well as seven novels set in the era of the crusades. The Knights Templar were an important component of my research.
Historical accuracy is important to me. I am not interested in fantasy or alternative history, so when I read about any topic, whether in fictional or nonfictional form, I want books based on the historical record. Malcolm Barber is one of the leading scholars on the Knights Templar of the last three decades.
This book is a concise summary of his scholarship and is for me the absolute bible on the history of the Knights Templar.
The Order of the Temple, founded in 1119 to protect pilgrims around Jerusalem, developed into one of the most influential corporations in the medieval world. It has retained its hold on the modern imagination thanks to the dramatic events of the Templars' trial and abolition two hundred years later, and has been invoked in historical mysteries from Masonic conspiracy to the survival of the Turin shroud. Malcolm Barber's lucid narrative separates myth from history in this full and detailed account of the Order, from its origins, flourishing and suppression to the Templars' historic afterlife.
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
As my father was a keen amateur historian, family holidays always involved visits to medieval castles, abbeys, and Roman antiquities, but it wasn’t until I’d finished a University history degree and started training as an accountant that I encountered the Templars. Reading a primary source from the Third Crusade, I found the medieval author praised the Templars – yet few modern histories mentioned them, or, if they did mention the Templars, they claimed they were unpopular. My curiosity led me to undertake a PhD on medieval attitudes towards the Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights, and eventually to a university post and a professional career in medieval history, writing history books focused on primary sources.
This is a detailed study of what life would have been like at the Templars’ commandery at Temple Balsall in Warwickshire.
Its author, Eileen Gooder, was a leading scholar in local history and an expert on the Templars in England. The book is based on her unparalleled knowledge of the inventories that King Edward II of England ordered to be made of the Templars’ estates when the Templars were arrested in England in 1308 and the accounts kept by the royal officials who ran those estates until 1313.
Gooder also reconstructed the trial proceedings against the Balsall Templars and what became of them, and their English brethren, after the trial. This is an excellent, short, readable, and reliable introduction to the Templars’ lives in Europe.
As my father was a keen amateur historian, family holidays always involved visits to medieval castles, abbeys, and Roman antiquities, but it wasn’t until I’d finished a University history degree and started training as an accountant that I encountered the Templars. Reading a primary source from the Third Crusade, I found the medieval author praised the Templars – yet few modern histories mentioned them, or, if they did mention the Templars, they claimed they were unpopular. My curiosity led me to undertake a PhD on medieval attitudes towards the Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights, and eventually to a university post and a professional career in medieval history, writing history books focused on primary sources.
Where did the Templars get the resources to build and maintain castles in the Holy Land and carry on their warfare against the enemies of Christendom? This book focuses on the Templars’ extensive properties in Lincolnshire, England, to show how the Templars generated wealth from their vast estates across Europe.
Using the Templars’ own record of their English holdings in 1185 and the English government records from the Templar trial period, 1308–13, Jefferson produces a fascinating study of Templar land- and people-management, showing that the Templars were at least as effective as farmers and managers as they were as warriors. He then takes the story on through the Hospitallers’ administration of the estates until the sixteenth century.
If you want to get to grips with real Templar life, read this book.
A new survey of major Templar landholdings offers fresh insights into key questions about their medieval history.
Much has been written about the history of the Knights Templar, the legendary Order of military monks. Far less attention, however, has been paid to the Templar estates in Western Christendom which supported their endeavours. Set within the context of the turbulent history of medieval and Tudor England, the book follows the fate of the Templar estates in the county of Lincolnshire. Beginning with the survey of Templar property undertaken by Geoffrey FitzStephen in 1185, the story of the estates is followed through…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
As my father was a keen amateur historian, family holidays always involved visits to medieval castles, abbeys, and Roman antiquities, but it wasn’t until I’d finished a University history degree and started training as an accountant that I encountered the Templars. Reading a primary source from the Third Crusade, I found the medieval author praised the Templars – yet few modern histories mentioned them, or, if they did mention the Templars, they claimed they were unpopular. My curiosity led me to undertake a PhD on medieval attitudes towards the Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights, and eventually to a university post and a professional career in medieval history, writing history books focused on primary sources.
Alain Demurger is the world’s leading expert on the French Templars during the trial of the Order.
This book, originally published as La Persécution des Templiers Journal(1307–1314), narrates the events of the Templars’ trial as they unfolded day by day, allowing readers to follow the twists and turns in proceedings. I confess that I read the French edition of this book, but I’m sure that the English version is just as compelling!
Alain Demurger has also written an excellent history of the Templars and assembled a reference guide to all the Templars in France during the trial – but these are not available in English.
The definitive account of history's most infamous trial, following the doomed Order of the Knights Templar from scandal to suppression.
The trial of the Knights Templar is one of the most infamous in history. Accused of heresy by the king of France, the Templars were arrested and imprisoned, had their goods seized and their monasteries ransacked. Under brutal interrogation and torture, many made shocking confessions: denial of Christ, desecration of the Cross, sex acts, and more.
This narrative follows the everyday reality of the trial, from the early days of scandal and scheming in 1305, via torture, imprisonment and the…
I’m an associate professor in medieval history at Nottingham Trent University. My interest in the military orders began over twenty years ago with a very simple question – why? Jesus’ teaching to my mind clearly does not condone the use of lethal violence, so how did medieval Christians come to think that holy war warfare could ever be acceptable in the eyes of God? From this underlying question (which I still don’t feel I’ve satisfactorily answered!) emerged a curiosity about the military orders, who so epitomized crusading ideology. I began to ask wider questions such as: who supported the orders? How did they view people of other faiths? Why were the Templars put on Trial?
The Templars and the medieval military orders are well known to have been enthusiastic castle builders, creating many massive fortifications across the Crusader States during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Nevertheless, their building activities extended far beyond the creation of strongholds. Whole regions lay under their dominion and they constructed many other structures including chapels, townhouses, mills, and workshops. This fascinating book explores the archaeological remains of the military orders, demonstrating their impact on the broader landscape of the Near East. It also examines the surviving objects they used in their everyday life, such as tableware and seals.
Including previously unpublished and little known material, this cutting-edge book presents a detailed discussion of the archaeological evidence of the five military orders in the Latin East:
the Hospitallers the Templars the Teutonic Knights the Leper Knights of St Lazarus the Knights of St Thomas.
Discussing in detail the distinctive architecture relating to their various undertakings (such as hospitals in Jerusalem and Acre) Adrian Boas places emphasis on the importance of the Military Orders in the development of military architecture in the Middle Ages. The three principal sections of the book consist of chapters relating to the urban quarters of…
I became fascinated by history when, as a child, I visited the Coliseum in Rome; my father told me, “This is where they fed the Christians to the lions.” That awakened my curiosity for people of the past, and I went on to earn an undergraduate degree and a PhD in history at the Universities of Michigan and Hamburg respectively. My interest in the crusades was ignited by the enormous disconnect between popular perceptions and historical reality, and I have published two nonfiction books on the Crusader States, as well as seven novels set in the era of the crusades. The Knights Templar were an important component of my research.
Regina Pernoud is one of my favorite scholars on the Middle Ages generally. Her books, Those Terrible Middle Ages: Debunking the Myths, and Women in the Days of the Cathedrals, are witty and well-aimed attacks against ignorance and prejudice.
In this book on the Knights Templar, she takes on with verve the many myths and misconceptions about the Templars. I particularly loved her analysis of Templar architecture, which starts with looking at the more than 9,000 Templar commanderies across Western Europe and their humble agricultural character.
Her chapter on the Templars’ banking activities is really more a dissection of the myth about Templar wealth and is completely compelling. All in all, this is a book that brings you back to reality and away from the silly conspiracy theories that still dominate so much literature about the Templars.
For centuries, historians and novelists have portrayed the Knights Templar as avaricious and power-hungry villains. Who were these medieval monastic knights, whose exploits were the stuff of legend even in their own day? Were these elite crusaders corrupted by their conquests, which amassed them such power and wealth as to become the envy of kings?
Indignant at the discrepancies between the fantasies, on which "writers on history of every kind and hue have indulged themselves without restraint", and the available evidence, RTgine Pernoud draws a different portrait of these Christian warriors. From their origins as defenders of pilgrims to the…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I've been fascinated by medieval history ever since I played hide and seek around Welsh castles as a boy. At university – a medieval invention, of course – I was able to sit at the feet of some of the finest historians of the Middle Ages, experts like Maurice Keen and Patrick Wormald. As a writer, I have tackled medieval subjects like Alfred the Great and Richard III, as well as the history of English rebellion. I have come to realise that the Middle Ages could be cruel and violent, just like our own time, but that they were also a time of extraordinary achievements that form the foundations of the world we live in.
I blame Dan Brown, but mention the Templars and you are usually met with a glazed look, as if you’re about to share your favourite conspiracy theory. William Watson’s book is a class, if not a universe, apart from Brown and co. It is an almost unbearably vivid re-creation of the world of the crusader kingdoms, and the corruption at the heart of Europe that first sustained and then destroyed their knightly protectors. In spare, unshowy prose, Watson demonstrates the darker side of the Middle Ages, in all its forbidding glory.
In the chaotic aftermath of the fall of Acre in 1291 and the reconquest of the Holy Land by the Moslems, the last survivors of the Order of the Temple make their bloody retreat from the Middle East. Loading the treasure of their Order into a decrepit, leaky vessel, they set sail for Europe, where, unbeknownst to them, King Philip of France plots their destruction. Among their number is Beltran, a native of the Holy Land, who has led the life of a soldier-monk for the past thirty years. World-weary yet incorruptible, Beltran is guardian both of the treasure and…
I’m an associate professor in medieval history at Nottingham Trent University. My interest in the military orders began over twenty years ago with a very simple question – why? Jesus’ teaching to my mind clearly does not condone the use of lethal violence, so how did medieval Christians come to think that holy war warfare could ever be acceptable in the eyes of God? From this underlying question (which I still don’t feel I’ve satisfactorily answered!) emerged a curiosity about the military orders, who so epitomized crusading ideology. I began to ask wider questions such as: who supported the orders? How did they view people of other faiths? Why were the Templars put on Trial?
Helen Nicholson is a leading scholar who has written extensively on the history of the military orders. I pickedA Brief History of the Knights Templarbecause it has the great virtue of being both extremely readable and entirely authoritative. Covering the Templars’ military and political roles, their economic activities, their religious life, and their famous demise, this is the book I recommend to my students if they want a solid and scholarly introduction to the Templar order.
Much has been written about the Knights Templar in recent years. A leading specialist in the history of this legendary medieval order now writes a full account of the Knights of the Order of the Temple of Solomon, to give them their full title, bringing the latest findings to a general audience. Putting many of the myths finally to rest, Nicholson recounts a new history of these storm troopers of the papacy, founded during the crusades but who got so rich and influential that they challenged the power of kings.
I became fascinated by history when, as a child, I visited the Coliseum in Rome; my father told me, “This is where they fed the Christians to the lions.” That awakened my curiosity for people of the past, and I went on to earn an undergraduate degree and a PhD in history at the Universities of Michigan and Hamburg respectively. My interest in the crusades was ignited by the enormous disconnect between popular perceptions and historical reality, and I have published two nonfiction books on the Crusader States, as well as seven novels set in the era of the crusades. The Knights Templar were an important component of my research.
A picture is worth a thousand words! History books are filled with text and lots of footnotes and bibliographies, but so much of what is written can be boiled down or better explained by good pictures. And that’s what Nicholson has done in this book.
To supplement her concise and factual text (she’s a leading scholar on the topic of the Military Orders), she’s collected hundreds of images that illustrate the Templars—their castles and manors, their churches, their seals. She also provides colorful depictions of them from medieval sources, both frescoes and illuminated manuscripts. This book evokes the Templars and their lifestyle in a way that other books don’t even try. I love it!
Much has been written about the Knights Templar in recent years, most of it highly speculative and with no historical foundation. They have been associated with everything from Freemasonry to the Holy Grail, the pyramids, the Shroud of Turin and space travel. A leading specialist in the history of this legendary medieval order now writes a full account of the knights of the Order of the Temple of Solomon, to give them their full title, bringing the latest findings to a general audience. There is no other accurate popular history of the Templars currently available aimed at a general audience.…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I became fascinated by history when, as a child, I visited the Coliseum in Rome; my father told me, “This is where they fed the Christians to the lions.” That awakened my curiosity for people of the past, and I went on to earn an undergraduate degree and a PhD in history at the Universities of Michigan and Hamburg respectively. My interest in the crusades was ignited by the enormous disconnect between popular perceptions and historical reality, and I have published two nonfiction books on the Crusader States, as well as seven novels set in the era of the crusades. The Knights Templar were an important component of my research.
What I found so exciting about this book is that it focuses on the vast majority of Templars who were not fighting men at all. Furthermore, it depicts the Templar's monastic and communal life. This is an aspect of Templar life that many novelists appear never to have heard about.
I particularly enjoyed the detailed look at recruiting and demographics, and as a novelist, Nicholson’s discussion of career paths was helpful. Yet it was the degree of integration in local communities that was perhaps most surprising to me. I wish that no one would write a novel featuring Templars without first grasping the essence of this book: that the vast majority of Templars lived out their lives like humble monks working on farms and praying far from the ‘glamour’ attached to their fighting brethren in the Holy Land.
The Knights Templar did not write about themselves, or keep diaries, so you would be forgiven for thinking there would not be much to know about their everyday lives. However, the records of the Templars' estates tell us how they lived—from the buildings they lived in and their furnishings, to the books and ornaments in their chapels, and their clothes and crockery. These early fourteenth-century records tell us about the men and women who worked for the Templars on their lands and in their houses, their tenants, and the people who owed them money. We can see what animals they…
