What connects the Knights Templar to Rosslyn Chapel?

Thousands of Templar enthusiasts visit Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh in Scotland every year convinced that this sacred place of worship is connected to the knights in some way. Recently I visited Rosslyn and interest has not abated. Every seat on the pews was taken as the local guide talked about the official history of the church while also acknowledging the theories about the Templars and Freemasons.

Since the mid-2000s, Rosslyn Chapel has been propelled into the limelight thanks to the novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – and the movie based on the book. This is a work of fiction but it wove in theories about the Templars and the Holy Grail that have gained currency in recent decades. For example, claims made in the 1980s non-fiction bestseller, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent, and Richard Leigh. In fact, two of those authors – Baigent and Leigh – unsuccessfully sued Dan Brown for alleged plagiarism in a costly legal action.

FIND OUT MORE: Scotland, the Knights Templar, and the Holy Grail

Brown located the final scene of The Da Vinci Code in Rosslyn. The characters in the story, Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu, follow clues that lead them to the chapel as a potential location for the Holy Grail. Rosslyn has become the headquarters of a secret society, the Priory of Sion, that guards the holy bloodline of Christ, the true meaning of the Holy Grail. And – spoiler alert – Sophie is the last living descendant of Jesus Christ. The guardian of Rosslyn Chapel, Marie Chauvel Saint Clair, is Neveu’s long-lost grandmother.

The name “Saint Clair” is a pointer to the founder of Rosslyn Chapel, Sir William Sinclair, the 3rd Prince of Orkney, who laid the foundation stone in 1446. Even though this was 134 years after the official banning of the Templar order by Pope Clement V, many believe the knights are linked to Rosslyn. This flows from a theory that the Templars escaped from France in 1307 with their treasure, from the port of La Rochelle, and made their way to Scotland, where the king – Robert the Bruce – had been excommunicated by the pope.

These fugitives from papal justice were sheltered by the Scottish king and the Sinclair family. There have been a number of books conjecturing on the supposed relationship between the Templars and Sinclair clan. Was Rosslyn chapel built to house the Holy Grail brought to Scotland by the knights? Might the Ark of the Covenant or the embalmed head of John the Baptist be in the chapel? And – most outlandish of all – did Earl Sinclair take the Templar knights on a seaborne journey to America in the 1390s a hundred years before Christopher Columbus?

Evidence for the last claim is said to be visible in Rosslyn. Look closely at the carvings within the chapel and some of the plants around a window seem to resemble maize – a crop unknown in Europe until the New World was discovered. This is held out as proof that the Templars and Earl Sinclair got to America.

Mainstream historians counter this with a collective eye roll. They argue that there is no evidence of a flight of Templars from La Rochelle, laden with treasure, bound for Scotland. The claim of a special relationship between the Sinclair family and the Templars is somewhat undermined by the fact that the Earl Sinclair gave evidence against the knights at their trials after 1307. And the notion of the Holy Grail being buried underneath Rosslyn Chapel is met with hoots of derision.

If you would like to know more about the Knights Templar, then get your hands on a copy of my book: The Knights Templar – History & Mystery. Published by Pen & Sword and available on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and WHSmith. Don’t miss out on your copy!