Templars Archive
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Steamy Syrian Scandals: Matthew Paris on the Templars and Hospitallers
Posted on December 30, 2014 | No CommentsMatthew Paris is a major source of information on the Templars and Hospitallers. But we ask: ‘How far can this Mad Monk be trusted? Was he in the pay of the Evil Emperor?’ -
Templar attitudes towards women
Posted on December 16, 2014 | No CommentsThe rule of the order of the Temple took a traditional monastic attitude towards women, being strongly anti-feminine in tone, and seeing women as contaminating the brothers. -
Strange Bedfellows : The Rise of the Military Religious Orders in the Twelfth Century
Posted on November 27, 2014 | No CommentsAlthough they were devout members of a pacifist religion, they were also its dominant military force. By the most basic tenants of Christianity, the Military Orders should never have existed. -
Ghost Commandery: Shaping Local Templar Identity in the Cartulary of Provins
Posted on October 25, 2014 | No CommentsWhat makes the case of this cartulary particularly interesting is that the Templar house in Provins was not established until 1193, sixty years after André's gift. In 1133, there were no Templars living in Champagne at all. -
BOOK REVIEW: “Defending the City of God” : A Medieval Queen, the First Crusades, and the Quest for Peace in Jerusalem, by Sharan Newman
Posted on May 9, 2014 | No CommentsThis is my review of Sharan Newman's latest book, Defending the City of God: A Medieval Queen, the First Crusades, and the Quest for Peace in Jerusalem. -
Bernard of Clairvaux’s Writings on Violence and the Sacred
Posted on March 18, 2014 | No CommentsMonk, exegete, political actor and reformer, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was not just a man of his times; he was a man who shaped his times. -
A Heresy of State: Philip the Fair, the Trial of the ‘Perfidious Templars,’ and the Pontificalization of the French Monarchy
Posted on March 18, 2014 | No CommentsThis article provides an outline for a new interpretation of the trial of the Templars, with special attention to the texts written by the instigators of the case, namely, Philip the Fair and his ministers. -
Star Wars and the Middle Ages
Posted on March 16, 2014 | No CommentsWhen George Lucas wrote up the screen play that would become Episode IV: A New Hope, he would make use of medieval history to help create his galaxy far, far away. -
The impact of the crusading movement in Scotland, 1095-c.1560
Posted on February 15, 2014 | No CommentsThe involvement of Scots in the Crusades has never been studied in detail either by historians of Scotland or of the Crusades, but it is hoped that the present thesis will show such a detailed study to be worthwhile. -
Sodomy and the Knights Templar
Posted on January 26, 2014 | No CommentsIn this article, I will analyze testimony relevant to the charges of the Inquisition that members of the order of Knights Templar throughout Christendom practiced homosexual acts of various sorts from illicit kisses to sodomy. -
The Cult of the Cross in the Order of the Temple
Posted on October 21, 2013 | No CommentsThe military orders were unique religious institutions in very obvious ways, but one characteristic feature that has so far attracted little attention is the fact that of all the regular religious orders and communities that existed during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries only they wore the cross, which was the sign of the crusader, permanently on their habit. -
Templar (Graphic Novel)
Posted on September 21, 2013 | No CommentsGraphic novels that focus on the medieval period are getting more and more popular - and works like Templar are a good reason why. Set during the downfall of the Templar Order in 1307, it is a historical adventure story that combines action, humour and romance with some royal politics and a mysterious treasure. -
The Participation of the Military Orders in Truces with Muslims in the Holy Land and Spain during the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Posted on June 10, 2013 | No CommentsAlthough the military orders’ primary function was to fight against the infidel, warfare in the Middle Ages was never continuous, as armies could not be kept in the field indefinitely, and when there was an imbalance of power between Christians and Muslims it was in the interests of the weaker side to seek truces, even at the expense of concessions. -
The Hospitallers’ and Templars’ involvement in warfare on the frontiers of the British Isles in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries
Posted on June 8, 2013 | No CommentsAlthough in theory they were independent religious orders answerable only to the pope, in the British Isles the Templars, and particularly the Hospitallers, were increasingly secularised institutions, serving the king of England and playing important roles in royal government -
The Battle of La Forbie (1244) and its Aftermath
Posted on June 6, 2013 | No CommentsHow did the kingdom’s leaders cope with the battlefield defeat? How did the settlements survive? Above all, what was the Military Orders’ contribution to the kingdom’s stability after the chaos following the battle? -
Muslim Perspectives on the Military Orders during the Crusades
Posted on April 15, 2013 | No CommentsWhat caused the particular enmity between Saladin and the Templars and Hospitallers? To understand this situation one must begin with examination of Muslim perspectives on monasticism in general. -
The patronage of the Templars and of the Order of St. Lazarus in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
Posted on January 15, 2013 | No CommentsThe religious revival of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries saw the rise of a host of new orders ranging from the Cistercians and Carthusians to the Augustinian and Premonstratensian canons. In addition, it also saw the development of the Military Orders which originated in the Holy Land after the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, and fulfilled a mixture of military, hospitaller, religious and political functions. -
Hot Holiday Reads!
Posted on November 23, 2012 | No CommentsPut down those turkey left-overs and check out some of these hot holiday reads! -
Salutare Animas Nostras: The Ideologies Behind the Foundation of the Templars
Posted on November 18, 2012 | No CommentsThe meteoric rise of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon (more commonly known as the Knights Templar) and their equally swift fall has fueled fanciful tales and scholarly research. The order promoted their mythological origins and the extreme charges leveled against them by Philip IV of France (1285-1314) created an atmosphere of speculation. -
Nomadic Violence in the First Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Military Orders
Posted on October 8, 2012 | No CommentsThat the threat posed by bands of marauders was taken seriously by the early crusader settlers can be seen by some of the barons’ brutal reactions to it. -
Templars and Confraternities: Organizational Competition in Thirteenth Century Iberia
Posted on August 12, 2012 | No CommentsThe undoing of the Templars was in part a result of their own over-reaching, but it also came because they opened up an organizational arena that other military orders and confraternities came to fill. -
The Sword Brothers – Knights Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights
Posted on July 16, 2012 | No CommentsListen to the three-part programme The Sword Brothers, broadcast by the CBC radio show Ideas -
Reflections on The Malleus Maleficarum in Light of the Trial of Joan of Arc
Posted on June 27, 2012 | No CommentsAlthough Joan’s trial took place in France and The Malleus Maleficarum was published in Germany, they are suitable for comparison because this text became the definitive manual for witchcraft inquisitors across Europe. -
The Creation and Demise of the Knights Templar
Posted on December 14, 2011 | No CommentsThis thesis investigates the Order of the Knights Templar by examining the varied phenomena that led to the formation of the Order in the early twelfth century and its dissolution nearly two hundred years later -
Saints or Sinners? The Knights Templar in Medieval Europe
Posted on November 24, 2011 | No CommentsWhat did medieval contemporaries think of military orders such as the Knights Hospitaller and Teutonic Knights? Helen Nicholson investigates.
