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?

Beyond the Templars - Hospitaller Traces in the Low Countries

TemplarsNow normally restricts itself to the Order of the Temple. Yet across the Low Countries the Knights Hospitaller left a far denser and longer footprint, absorbing Templar patrimony after 1312 and outlasting the Templar Order by nearly five centuries. What still survives there roday  of this parallel Order?

Tempel in the Low Countries - Water Control, Power, and Place

In medieval Holland and Zeeland, controlling water meant controlling people. The word tempel named not only sacred spaces but sluice mechanisms, bounded terrain, and were often combined with seats of exceptional jurisdiction. Were the most politically significant tempel locations chosen precisely because they mastered the water?

High Justice and Vanished Charters - the Fingerprints of Templars in the Netherlands?

Across the medieval Netherlands, several tiny estates held powers very disproportionate to their size: the right to hang criminals, to levy no taxes, and to answer to no one but the pope or the count. These estates reveal a pattern that points insistently in one direction: the medieval knightly orders such as the Knights Templar. Evidence, or coincidence?

De Tempel Manor near Rotterdam - A Vanished Estate and Its Unresolved Mysteries

Near Rodenrijs, north of Rotterdam, lay a tiny lordship called De Tempel. Its old manor farm decayed, and from 1715 the surrounding land was dug away for peat. Yet this estate of twelve morgen held high jurisdiction, even a gallows. Was De Tempel a water management post, or a former house of the Tempeliers, the Templars?

Medieval Monasteries in the Netherlands

The Netherlands had hundreds of medieval monasteries, but very few houses of the Templars. Popular lists name dozens of Templar sites. Why did monastic life come late to the northern Low Countries, and how many Templar houses can we actually prove?

A Possible Templar Site at Westervelde Near Norg, the Netherlands

Near Norg in Drenthe lie two farms called De Grote Tempel and De Kleine Tempel, with meadows named the Tempelstukken. The names suggest the Templars. But is there any evidence that the order ever owned land in Drenthe?

A Possible Templar Location at Groessen, the Netherlands

Groessen, a village near Duiven in Gelderland, has a Tempelstraat, a farm called De Tempel and a Commendereijstraat. These names have been read as the traces of a lost Templar house. Do the sources support that idea?

A Templar Location at Chaam, the Netherlands

Chaam, near Breda, lies only a few kilometres from Ter Brake, the one Dutch Templar commandery whose existence is undisputed. What do the documents allow us to say about the Templars at Chaam, and where did their farm stand?

A Templar Location at Breda, the Netherlands

In the centre of Breda, on the corner of the Halstraat and the Sint Jansstraat, stood a chapel of Saint John that is sometimes said to go back to the Templars. The lords of Breda certainly had ties with the order. But was there ever a Templar chapel in the town itself?

A Templar Location at Beuningen, the Netherlands

In Beuningen, west of Nijmegen, a house on the Tempelstraat is called De Oude Tempel. A nineteenth century owner believed that a Templar monastery once stood there. What do the documents and the building actually tell us about the Templars at Beuningen?

The Templar Site at Averlo, the Netherlands

At Averlo, near Deventer, stands a farm called De Tempel. A name like that invites thoughts of the Templars, and a Marian statue from the farm adds to the mystery. What do the documents really tell us about a Templar presence at Averlo?

Map of medieval monasteries in the Netherlands published

In 2019 the Vrije Universiteit at Amsterdam, the Netherlands, published The Map of Monasteries. This map shows the monasteries of all orders which have been represented in the present-day Netherlands during the Middle Ages and Early Modern period (until 1800). 

Modern Templars at Relic Pilgrimage, Maastricht, the Netherlands

 
"Participants in a historic religious procession during the 2018 Heiligdomsvaart (Relics Pilgrimage) in Maastricht, Netherlands. 
The history of this seven-yearly catholic pilgrimage goes back to the Middle Ages. The first 'modern' version took place in 1874. On both Sundays of the 10-day festival, a procession is held in which the main relics and other devotional objects are exhibited. 
This photo was taken at Het Bat during the (second) procession on Sunday 3 June 2018. This particular group consists of members of the interdenominational OSMTH Order of the Knights Templar. They are followed by a group representing the nearby parish of Houthem-Sint Gerlach, where Saint Gerlachus is venerated."

Source text and illustration Wikimedia. Photo by Kleon3 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

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

The great work of Dr Bernadus Theodoor (Ben) Brus - 1917 - 2016

In The Netherlands only a few researchers focus on the Knights Templar and their presence in the Low Countries. One of them was Dr Ben Brus.

In 2017 I found out that Dr Brus passed away in 2016, only a year before his one hundredth birthday, which would have been Saterday, September 30th.

I had the honour to be in contact with Dr Brus for my own research several times. His work, summarized on his website and visually quoted on Templars Now, is the cornerstone of Templar research in The Netherlands and will remain so for many years to come. With great respect I acknowledge his work and vow to continue it as much as I can in my own way.

In 2019 I met with the family of Dr Brus. We agreed that TemplarsNow will continue the work of Dr Brus in a modest way. First step is by simply re-plublishing in English parts of his work on certain and probable sites on TemplarsNow channels. Later on TemplarsNow intends to undertake additional research on Templar sites in the Netherlands indicated by Dr Brus as probable and possible. All this will be done in honor of Dr Brus' monumental work.

Rest in Peace, Dr Ben Brus.

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

The Temple of Zaamslag, the Netherlands

The Temple of Zaamslag or Tempelhof was a Commandery of the Knights Templar, located at Zaamslag, a village in the south-west of the Netherlands. It is a very important archaeological site.