Enguerrand de Marigny may not be a name you are familiar with when it comes to the history of the trials of the Knights Templar. But he played a key role in securing the conviction and executions of Templars. Sadly for him, the means he used to destroy the order would rebound on him. Let me explain.
King Philip IV of France set about the destruction of the Knights Templar. He brought charges of heresy and sodomy against the order and issued mass arrests in the year 1307. Yet the trials that ensued dragged on for five years and it was only seven years later, that the last Templar grand master – Jacques de Molay – was finally burned at the stake.
The reason things took so long was the equivocation of Pope Clement V. Often written off as a puppet of the king, he actually displayed occasional flashes of courage and attempted to reassert his authority. The Templars had been his loyal servants – accountable only to the papacy – and so Philip’s unilateral decision to annihilate them was a shock.
Clement’s push backs emboldened the Templars to mount a more strident defence of themselves. Initially, often under torture, they had confessed to the crimes detailed in the arrest warrants. But seeing the pope appearing to take their side, the knights began tearing up their confessions in 1310 and demanded a fair hearing. King Philip was mortified.
Up until then, his chief minister – Guillaume de Nogaret – had been leading the charge against the Templars but now Philip turned increasingly to an ambitious figure: Enguerrand de Marigny. He in turn suggested to the king that the vacant archbishopric of Sens should be given to his equally ambitious brother, Philippe, who was already bishop of Cambrai. Philip agreed. Now the De Marignys set about proving their worth by snuffing out the Templars’ resistance.
This was done brutally. Philippe took 54 Templars and burned them at the stake outside one of the city gates of Paris. Meanwhile, Enguerrand renewed efforts to implicate the Knights Templar as sorcerers, necromancers, and diabolists. His campaign of disinformation was successful. Two years later, the Templars were banned by the pope at the Council of Vienne and De Molay executed another two years after that.
But karma – as they say – comes to the wicked. After Philip died, he was succeeded by Louis X. The nobility loathed Enguerrand and he was charged with corruption. However, the charges were difficult to prove and so Louis agreed to the disgraced minister being prosecuted for sorcery. It was said that together with his brother, the archbishop, his wife, and his sister, they had conspired with a witch and a young man, Paviot, versed in the dark arts.
They set about using wax dolls and spells to kill members of the royal family by demonic means. It was all nonsense but it secured Enguerrand’s conviction. He was hanged from a gibbet, like a common criminal, alongside, while the witch was burned.
If you want to find out more about the Knights Templar and their downfall – get yourself a copy of this book: The Knights Templar – History & Mystery – by Tony McMahon – available on Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith, and Barnes & Noble.
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