Together with parliament, it was built on an island – or eyot – formed by sediment deposited by the River Tyburn which split into two and flowed into the Thames at Westminster. The Tyburn is now in a sewer beneath London. The island was called Thorney Island.

The first church may have been built as early as 604CE but it was Edward the Confessor in the 11th century who built the first major monastery. The Saxons didn’t place as big an importance on the crowning of monarchs as the Normans did – who made Westminster Abbey the place to be hailed officially as king after they invaded England in 1066.

Westminster went through a wholesale reconstruction under Henry III (1216-1272) who pretty much wiped out the earlier Romanesque church and replaced it with a Gothic edifice. The bulk of what you see today is Henry III’s work.

Interestingly, as I mentioned before in another post, the work was funded in part by the Jewish moneylender Licoricia. This wouldn’t save her life as England – consumed by crusades related xenophobia -

turned against its Jewish communities and eventually banished them under Edward I.

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I’d put Jedward in the front line of any Templar army – they’d scare the ‘bejabers’ (good Irish word) out of any Saracen force. They almost look like they’re wearing armour here.

Quest for the True Cross – first in the Templar series

This week sees the official launch of Quest for the True Cross – my Templar adventure, which you can download HERE. I’ve been asked certain questions over and over – and in case you can’t get hold of me this week, here are some quotable answers.

Will this be a Dan Brown type book?

Absolutely not!  From day one, when I started work on this two years ago, I wanted to ground a story about the Templars in the medieval period. There is mystery, adventure and suspense – but all seen through the eyes of 12th century Templars, Moors, kings, bishops and Saracens.

Tell us about the main character?

Sir William de Mandeville is based on a real person – the son of the first Earl of Essex who did indeed end up in a coffin suspended above the ground in an apple tree as I describe.  William is forced to return from the crusades in the Holy Land and in modern terms is suffering from something like post traumatic stress.  This being the Middle Ages though, he thinks he possessed by a demon. Finding his father hanging in a tree doesn’t improve his mental state and propels him on a quest. This is the key theme of the book – William’s struggle to win back his family honour and hold on to his sanity.

What about his companion Pathros?

He’s an important character. A Syrian Christian whose family has fallen victim to the invasion of the Seljuk Turks. Pathros’ father is imprisoned in a dungeon never to be seen again. He leaves Saracen-controlled Aleppo to make a life for himself among the crusaders in Jerusalem. But even though he is taken in by the Templars as a ‘turcopole’ – an auxiliary – his background precludes him ever becoming a full knight. Pathros is stuck between two worlds: he’s rejected by the Saracen east because he’s not a Muslim and he’s rejected by the crusader west because he’s a Syrian and his version of Christianity is viewed as heretical.

You say this book will disappoint those on the far right who have tried to appropriate the Templars for themselves?

Oh yes. If Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik thinks killing children at a summer camp bears any resemblance to the Knights Templar then he’s as deluded as most sane people think he is. The Templars were not sociopathic, murderous loners – they were very much a part of medieval society operating at its highest echelons. They were bankers, farmers, politicians, monks and warriors.

So how do you depict the Middle Ages?

I show all the political dirt, the intriguing, the violence and the massive upheavals that shook people and destroyed their lives.  William lived in a world where Constantinople was still the greatest city and trade was conducted between Cairo, Cordoba, Paris and London. It was a much more globalised place than we sometimes imagine. Christian western Europe was establishing its ascendancy over the Islamic south and the Byzantine east. The balance of power was about to be hugely altered.

Is it full of battle action?

From the start, you’ll get plenty of war!  But it’s the last hundred pages and the taking of Al-Usbuna that will have you on the edge of your seat. William fights alongside the great heroes of Portuguese history – Dom Afonso Henriques, Geraldo Geraldes Sem Pavor, Gualdim Pais, Hugo Martins, Martin Moniz and Pedro Pitoes. I don’t portray them all sympathetically and I might upset some readers with my depictions of these characters. But it’s a warts and all read and neither side – Christian or Muslim – comes out of it unblemished.

Related articles

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William and the Templars join with the armies of Dom Afonso Henriques – king of Portugal – who is seeking to conquer the city of Al-Usbuna. He succeeds, but only after many bloody engagements. The city of Al-Usbuna – now modern Lisbon – centred on the Qasr (alcazar in Spanish, alcacer in Portuguese) which roughly corresponds to the modern castle of Saint George.

The area around the castle – the large stone platform dominating the hill – would have been the Qasba, where the nobility lived. Many of their houses – or ‘riads’ – are being excavated currently by archaeologists. The rest of the city – the medina – then stretched down the hill to the vast Tagus estuary. The medina roughly corresponds to the present day Alfama and Mouraria district. The cathedral was once the site of the Great Mosque. The area of the city now regarded as the centre – Rossio square – was under water!

I visited last year – here are some of my pictures.

From Porto – a medieval bishop called Pedro Pitoes brought crusaders from all over Europe to march south and defeat the Moors, taking the city of Al-Usbuna – which would be renamed Lisbon. My book depicts these amazing events and last year, I visited Porto yet again (I go every year!) and took these photos.

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The village of Witham is where William has a violent meeting with his older brother, the Earl of Essex. It’s also where William meets the boy-thief Nicholas who I show stealing bread from a leper in the cemetery of the church of Saint Nicholas. Today, I re-visited that church and took these photos.

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I visited Acre this year – or Akko as the Israelis have renamed it – and you can see the Templar and Hospitaller fortress including the secret tunnel built by the Templars.  I then walked through the old town to the port where the remains of the medieval harbour can still be seen. There is also a beautiful building, still very much intact, where the Court of the Chain was held – a tribunal dealing with maritime commercial disputes.

Here are my photos.

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The book starts in Jerusalem with the Knights Templar returning after a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Saracens.  They trudge, battered and wounded, to the Temple Mount. In those days, today’s Al-Aqsa mosque was the Temple of Solomon and headquarters of the Templars.

Nearby was the Dome of the Rock – then converted into a church and known as the Templum Domini. The Augustinian canons occupied a building that was subsequently demolished after Saladin retook Jerusalem.

I visited in March this year to help describe accurately the first scene in the book.

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Answer three questions about my newly published Templar adventure – Quest for the True Cross – and win these great cufflinks!

You can buy the book HERE

Obviously you have to read the book to get the answers – so here goes:

1) What is the name of the preceptor of Cressing Temple who hates our hero William de Mandeville?

2) Tell me the name of the Portuguese village where William freaks out at the sight of pagan dancing and cavorting?

3) When King Afonso goes out to battle he wears the finger bones of a saint round his neck – which saint?

Closing date for the competition will be June 13th, 2012 – Saint Anthony of Padua’s day!  Correct answers will be printed out, put in a Templar chalice and then one lucky winner chosen at random.  There is only one winner and one pair of cufflinks. My decision on the winner is final.

So get reading and enter the competition!!