Templar Tithes and Justice at Oosterhout, the Netherlands

Oosterhout, north of Breda, the Netherlands, is hardly known as a Templar place, yet the Knights Templar held a quarter of its lordship, most of its tithes and the right to present its parish priest. An inquest of 1312 and an inventory of 1313 describe these rights in detail. What did Templar lordship in a Brabant village look like?

Pope Urban II Before Clermont - How the East Entered the Picture

In March 1095 envoys of Emperor Alexios asked the council of Piacenza for help against the pagans. Eight months later, at Clermont, a decree of Pope Urban II counted a journey to liberate the Church of God, with Jerusalem named, as full penance. What do the sources between these dates show?

Jacques de Molay Before He Was Master - 1265 to 1292

For the general public Jacques de Molay is mainly known as the last Grandmaster of the Knights Templar. But there is more to the man and the various stages of his life deserve more attention. His youth has been dealt with in an earlier post. The present post follows De Molay in his early years as a common Templar. What did the witnesses, mainly those that testified at the Templar trials after 1307, see before he became master?

How the Templars Ran Their Estate at Rixtel, the Netherlands

In 1214 the count of Megen gave his estate at Rixtel, in eastern Brabant, the Netherlands, to the Knights Templar as told in our post on Low Countries nobles [1]. Less known is what the order did with it: a lease to a town family, a dispute over arrears, and a farm that outlived the order. What do the sources show?

Friday 13 October 1307 - Esquieu de Floyran and the Informer's Reward

On Friday 13 October 1307 royal officers arrested the Templars all over France. The man who claimed to have started it, Esquieu de Floyran (also Esquin or Floyrac), soon asked to be paid. How were the arrests organised, and what did the informer get?

Power Play - The Pope, the King and the Templars 1305-1307

Around the middle of 1305 the informer Esquieu de Floyran (also Esquin or Floyrac) told Philip IV of France that the Templars denied Christ. The king struck only on 13 October 1307. In between, pope, king and master met, wrote and waited. Why two years, and was the real fight about the Templars at all?

Esquieu de Floyran - The Jailed Informer

On 28 January 1308 one Esquieu de Floyran, or Esquin de Floyrac, calling himself valet of the French king, wrote proudly to King James II of Aragon. The affair of the Templars, revealed by him to James at Lerida probably in 1305, was now proven, he claimed, and the promised reward was due. Who was this man, and how did he work?

Rumours in the South - Trigger of the Templar Arrests

The charges of 1307 against the Templars are usually dismissed as standard slander against heretics and political enemies. Yet reports from 1306 and 1307 show that rumours about the Order had circulated for years in south west France, le Midi. What was said, who spread it, and did it indeed trigger the arrests?

Den Tempel Vlaardingen, the Netherlands - a Templar House?

North of Vlaardingen (Vlaardingue), beside the Bommeer, the farmstead Den Tempel stood for centuries until Rotterdam harbour sludge buried it after 1958. A Dutch website on Templar traces suggests the name may preserve a lost outpost of the Order of the Temple. Is that supported by documentary record?