England was a bit sluggish when it came to arresting and interrogating the Knights Templar in 1307. In fact, it took a good year for Yorkshire to fall into line with the orders from Pope Clement and arrest its Templars. But eventually, they obeyed.
DISCOVER: The origins of the Knights Templar
The Knights Templar had a significant presence in Yorkshire which included preceptories at Copmanthorpe (with the Castle Mills of York), Faxfleet, Foulbridge, Penhill, Ribston, Temple Cowton, Temple Hirst, Temple Newsam, Westerdale, and Whitley. They also held manors like Alverthorpe and Etton, which, though possessing chapels, did not seem to be as significant as the preceptories.
Yorkshire accounted for a large portion of the Templar’s wealth in England, with an annual income of about £4,720. That doesn’t sound much in today’s money but this is when a pound was a substantial amount of money. In terms of purchasing power, a pound would have been the equivalent of thousands of pounds today.
One Yorkshire Templar preceptory that felt the impact of the clampdown on the order was Temple Newsam – just outside Leeds. The preceptor was a knight called Geoffrey des Arches and he was taken away into custody along with his counterparts at Temple Hirst, Faxfleet and Cowton.
Other Yorkshire Templars rounded up included Thomas de Betterby; a porter at Temple Hirst called Adam Creyte; Henry de Kereton and Roger de Sheffield from Cowton and Stephen de Radenage, a priest from Westerdale. Other names include Henry Craven, Patrick de Ripon and Richard de Ripon and Thomas de Stanford.
It must have come across to the Templar knights as a terrible twist of fate to have Edward II shutting Temple Newsam down when just eight years earlier, they had put up his father, Edward I, on his way to fight the Scots. And the Knights Templar had fought alongside Edward I in his war against William Wallace – better known as Braveheart.
The arrested Templars were put on trial in York Minster – in the chapter house. I visited this building recently which is still very much intact – pictured below.
