The Templar Knight
Mysteries of the Knights Templar
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A Portuguese queen and the Templars
The role of Teresa of Portugal in introducing the Knights Templar to the young kingdom and granting them castles and lands
Read MoreTop ten medieval battles – in the movies
Ten movies with great medieval battles! The first is the Battle of Montgisard in 1177 where the leper king of Jerusalem Baldwin IV managed to defeat a numerically superior Saracen force. Here’s how the movie Arn portrayed it. An incredible…
Read MoreAl-Karak – crusader jewel in Jordan
The castle of Al-Karak in Jordan – الكرك – الأردن – was visited by my good self in 2013. It is one of the great crusader forts still standing in the region. Unfortunately, three years after my visit, ISIS terrorists…
Read MoreLast Templar Grand Master executed on March 18th
The year was 1314 and near to the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar was burnt at the stake in front of a huge crowd. After two hundred years of crusading, it…
Read MoreTemplar HQ and the mysterious fire
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem was once the platform on which the great Temple of the Jewish people had stood – destroyed or severely damaged in turn by pharaohs from Egypt, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greek and finally by the Romans. Recognising…
Read MoreThe Knights Templar and money lending
The Knights Templar were warriors, monks, farmers, royal advisers and bankers all rolled into one. Whether they sat on fabled mountains of gold – it was certainly widely believed (particularly by certain monarchs) that they did – they certainly lent…
Read MoreThe mysterious Templar attack on the Assassins
It’s one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Crusades and one to ponder if you get bored with your family’s company over the Christmas dinner – which I am sure you will not. But just in case! The story…
Read MoreTurcopoles – a Crusader’s best friend?
From the Roman empire onwards, armies have always vexed over how to get hold of the necessary manpower. This is particularly an acute problem when an empire is expanding far from home. Supply lines have always needed to be maintained…
Read MoreWho was Jacques de Molay – last Templar Grand Master?
Everybody knows that Friday the 13th is unlucky because it was the day that Jacques de Molay and the last Knights Templar were rounded up and imprisoned by King Philip of France. De Molay would eventually be burnt to death…
Read MoreBurial place of Templar Grand Masters
This is a Templar jewel – something everybody should visit. It’s the burial place of the Templar grand masters of Portugal – a church in the town of Tomar built in the very century that the order was formed by…
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