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Beaufort Castle - A Templar and Present Day Stronghold

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High above the Litani River in southern Lebanon rises Beaufort Castle, known in Arabic as Qal'at al-Shaqif ("Castle of the High Ro...

Templar Matthew and Sultan Baibars - Blood Brothers Across the Divide

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The mid-thirteenth century Crusader states operated under sustained Mamluk ("Egyptian") military pressure, with successive Templar...

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

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Across the medieval Netherlands, several tiny estates held powers very disproportionate to their size: the right to hang criminals, to levy ...

The Hidden Hydraulics of the Knights Templar

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When we picture the Knights Templar, we summon white mantles, red crosses, and distant Crusader citadels. Rarely do we imagine them stooped ...

Trade, Marriage, and Military Orders - Medieval Links between Flanders and Scotland

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Between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, Flanders and Scotland maintained a relationship built on commercial exchange, dynastic marria...

Monks, Farmers and Neighbours - Everyday Life at a Templar House

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The Templars are usually imagined as secretive warrior monks guarding crusader treasure. The records made when their houses were seized, i...

From Knights to Monks - How Secular Skills Helped Build the Cistercian Order

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What happens when an entire noble household abandons power, warfare, and inheritance for a life of discipline and prayer? In the early twelf...

Who Really Founded the Knights Templar?

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The Knights Templar rank among the most studied and mythologized institutions of the medieval world. For nearly nine centuries, one name has...

Stone, Symbol, and Myth - Rethinking the Architecture of the Knights Templar

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The Knights Templar have long fascinated historians, architects, and mystics alike. Their commanderies and chapels, scattered across medieva...