For over 200 years the Knights Templar were the most powerful of all Europe’s military orders, holding sway over a massive area ranging from Britain to Jerusalem. However, as their power began to threaten that of the Pope and France’s King Philip IV, the Templars were destroyed and vanished almost overnight, leaving behind a legacy of mystery and intrigue that has lasted throughout history and up to the modern day.
With In Search of the Knights Templar, Simon Brighton delves into the history of the Knights Templar and then catalogues wonderfully every significant site of Templar activity in Britain.
History of the Knights Templar
The Knights Templar is perhaps the most famous of all the Western Christian military orders although the organization lasted for just around two hundred years during the Middle Ages.
Around 1119, two veterans of the First Crusade, French knight Hugues de Payens and his relative Godfrey de Saint-Omer, formed monastic Order with the mission of protecting pilgrims on their journeys to and from the Holy Land. The Knights Templar, as the Order became known, was officially endorsed by the Pope in 1129 and quickly grew in both membership and power.
The Templar knights wore distinctive white mantles with a red cross and were among the most skilled of all the various fighting units during the Crusades. The non-combative members of the Order managed the Templars large economic infrastructure, pioneering new banking techniques and building fortifications across the Christian world.
Since the Templars’ existence was so closely tied to the Crusades, when the Holy Land was eventually lost support for the Order waned. Mistrust and rumours of sacrilegious practices by the Templars began to spread and the French King Philip IV, being himself heavily indebted to the Order, took advantage of this popular distrust and, in 1307, had most of the Templars in France arrested. Many of those arrested were tortured into making false confessions of heresy and then burned at the stake.
Under pressure from Philip IV, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order of the Knights Templar in 1312.
The Sites of Britain
The first recorded gift of land to the Templars is at Cressing Temple in Essex and it was donated by Matilda, wife of King Stephen, in 1137. From then on, the Templars quickly grew to become major landowners in Britain. For In Search of the Knights Templar Simon Brighton has personally visited, photographed and compiled an historic profile of each of the significant Templar sites in Britain.
Ranging from churches to manor houses to farm buildings, the sites that Brighton has selected provide a context for the Templars’ life, both spiritual and secular, in medieval Britain. The sites also provide a fascinating chronology of the Templars’ rise and fall. The Templars’ initial holdings were relatively modest but they grew to become more substantial before falling into rapid decline and leaving the knights in the position of being able to mark their presence in Britain only through carvings on the walls of their prison cells.
In Search of the Knights Templar is an indispensible guide for anyone wishing to visit these notable Templar sites since, as well as all the vital historical information, address details, directions and opening hours for all of the official or protected sites are listed.
Simon Brighton
In his introduction to In Search of the Knights Templar, Simon Brighton mentions that he has been fascinated by the Templars since he was an inquisitive fourteen year old living near Temple Bruer, Lincolnshire, and this book is quite clearly a labour of love based around passionate study and research.
Although In Search of the Knights Templar is Brighton’s first book, his photography of Templar sites and relics has long been respected and his photographs have appeared in numerous online and print publications, perhaps most notably in the illustrated edition of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Given this photographic pedigree, it is no surprise that In Search of the Knights Templar is a beautifully illustrated book
With a fascinating combination of historical information, site locations and details, and excellent photography, In Search of the Knights Templar is really the complete package and a ‘must have’ for anyone seeking more information on the Templars, whether they be armchair enthusiasts, scholars or keen explorers of Britain’s historical landscape.
In Search of the Knights Templar: A Guide to the Sites of Britain by Simon Brighton
ISBN 978-0753822289, Phoenix, 2008, £12.99, pp 256
