The Templar's first task: highway police in peace time

After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 the Kingdom of the Franks did not endure a perpetual state of emergency, as the chroniclers and many historians wanted us to believe. Rather, the roughly ninety years leading to Saladin’s decisive victory over the Frankish army at Hattin in 1187, which put an end to the first Frankish kingdom, can be divided into a period of frequent military engagement between Franks and Muslims, a period of relative security, and a period of sustained Muslim offensive, which resulted in the creation of the Frankish frontier. 

Evrard des Barres - Templar Grand Master and Cistercian monk

"Evrard des Barres was the third Grand Master of Knights Templar from 1147-1151. After his career at the Temple he retired to Clairvaux near the end of the life of St. Bernard (died 1153). This again is an illustration of the close relationships that existed between the Knights Templar and the Cistercian Order.

Templars in Sweden?

People who read Jan Guillou's books on Arn Magnusson, the imaginary Swedish Knight Templar, often ask if there really have been Knights Templar as far up north as Sweden. It has of course been speculated that the noble man who appears in the relief on Forshems church, and who inspired Guillou, must have been a Knight Templar. Is there reason to believe this?

The Templars and Nostradamus - myth or truth?

In his book  Nostradamus and the Lost Templar Legacy (2003) Rudy Cambier presents the results of his decade long research and analysis of the verses of Nostradamus' 'prophecies'. He argues that the language of those verses does not belong in the 16th Century, nor in Nostradamus' region of Provence, France. An intriguing alternative vision unfolds.

Back to the truth in sound sources

TemplarsNow seeks to collect and present the true story of the Knights Templar in north-western continental Europe. However, history is taken into consideration if it contributes to a better understanding of the original character of the Knights Templar which may still be of importance today. Historical items mainly focus on the early years of the Knights Templar and their partners and direct predecessors at the end of the 11th and the first half of the 12th century.

This work is hampered by much pseudo-information in books and on internet that is at least imaginative and at worst sensational. Such work is often characterized by repetition of earlier published information without presenting any or sufficient primary sources. Obviously, well documented information, based on sound historical research with ample professional references, preferably primary sources, is of the utmost importance for an objective picture of the Knights Templar, their origin and their impact then and, probably, now.

The following set of well annotated sources are sound and valuable introductions to professional literature on the Knights Templar. A useful collection of annotated primary sources is The Templars Selected Sources Translated And Annotated by Malcolm Barber and Keith Bate (2002).

The best introductions to the Templars are
* Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (1994, reissued 1996)
* Alan Forey, The Military Orders from the Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Centuries (New Studies in Medieval History) (1992)
* Helen Nicholson, The Knights Templar: A New History, new ed. (2004).

The fall of the Templars is discussed in Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars, 2nd ed. (2012).

Templar myths are the subject of Peter Partner, The Knights Templar and Their Myth, rev. ed. (1990).





A full collection of books thought of by scolars as sound and reliable can be found on our special "Reliable Books" Page. 
  
source

 

Support TemplarsNow™ by becoming a Patron, tipping us or buying one of our Reliable Books