In England, King Edward II could have followed the example of his stepfather
Philippe le Bel, King of France. The Templars of his kingdom held much
properties and were too few in number to put up any serious resistance. Yet
the King of England, unlike his counterpart on the other side of the Channel,
at first gave no credit to the charges against the Temple and chose not to
bring anything against them. Edward II, however, rallied on December
14, 1307 to the pope's decision to authorize the arrest of the brothers. They were seized on the following January 10, 1308 and immediately heard. But
the conditions of detention were probably less painful than in France.
Especially without the use of torture, their confessions had nothing in common
with those of their counterparts on the continent and mainly did not establish
any reprehensible fault.
King James I of Aragon behaved in a manner quite similar to the King of
England. But due to the Reconquista, the Order there had a large number of
fighters who were working in the defense of the kingdom and who therefore
benefited from royal clemency. Yet the king did not take long in rallying to
the wishes of the Pope, although without much enthusiasm. In Aragon no
condemnable confession was encountered. In the kingdoms of Castile-Leon and
Portugal, the arrest did not take place until 1308 and gave very poor
results.
It was in Cyprus that the resistance to the arrest order
was fiercest. The island was indeed home to the Templar headquarters, and the
temple marshal, the highest dignitary present, refused to hand over the arms
and the treasure. The brothers, 83 knights and 35 sergeants, had a declaration
read publicly exonerating the Order. Yet yielding to pressure from the King of
France, the governor of the island proceeded to arrest the brothers at the end
of May 1308. The British historian Malcom Barber estimates that on this
occasion a large part of the treasure of the Templars escaped the authorities without
it being known where the Knights Templar concealed it.
Translated from French by TemplarsNow, source, original source mentioned therein: Thierry PF. Leroy. Illustration Arrest of the Templars on a late 14th century miniature in the Chroniques de France ou de St. Denis, source Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
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