By Steve Tibble
The British Templars are a blank page torn from a lurid novel.
Blank because the lack of context and hard evidence allows us to write anything we want upon it, and lurid because of the vast number of baseless, almost laughable charges thrown against them.
It is because of these bizarre accusations that a huge, labyrinthine set of (often contradictory) mythologies have been built up surrounding the Templars – myths that have become almost an industry in their own right.
To help bust these myths, I have been investigating some of the stories about the Templars in Britain, how plausible (or otherwise) they were, and how they helped form the order’s current reputation.
Revenge of the Renegades
One of the richest seams for conspiracists is the idea that there were large numbers of ‘Templar renegades’ roaming around Europe and the Middle East in the aftermath of the order’s suppression, doing whatever outlandish idea might come to mind in a pub.
Most importantly, of course, the presence of ‘fugitive Templars’ is an essential prerequisite for many other aspects of the Templar mythology that has grown up around the brothers. Conspiracies are impossible without a critical mass of conspirators. Renegades were needed, and in large numbers, to turn the tide at the Battle of Bannockburn, for instance. They also had to be present to carry away their huge treasure chests and precious items, such as the Holy Grail, and to man the fleets that would supposedly take the Templars to America and other places in the (still yet to be created) Spanish and British empires of the West.
So, let’s look at the Templars in Britain as a case study. What is the evidence? And what was the likelihood of the British brothers becoming renegades and mercenary adventurers?
The overwhelming evidence is that there were very few brothers left in Britain by the beginning of the 14th century, when the Templar order was wound down.
This embarrassing fact has been contested by the recurring rumours of huge numbers of Templars escaping arrest. According to this version of events, there were far more British Templars than ever appeared at the trials. Large numbers of them, presumably using their special forces skills, managed to avoid arrest.
Sadly, for conspiracists, the evidence for the lack of British Templar renegades is plentiful and clear.
A detailed inventory of the Templars’ personal possessions was taken immediately after their arrests. Because we have a broadly accurate sense of the normal range of personal effects each brother was allowed to keep with him, we can create a good correlation in most locations between chattels, prisoners, and, by extrapolation and a process of elimination, fugitives.
The evidence of personal belongings suggests there were some temporary absconders. At Sutton, in Essex, for instance, there were items in situ that typically would have been the personal effects of two Templar brothers – there were two lances, two ‘barhuds’ (the brothers’ distinctive travelling chests), and so on. But no brothers were there to be arrested when the king’s men arrived, so the assumption has to be that a couple of the brothers decided to avoid capture. In the vast majority of cases, however, the items listed corresponded closely to the number of brothers taken into custody, even down to their individual ‘barhuds’.
Similarly, we have the astonishingly detailed evidence of the lengthy interviews conducted with the captive brothers. These interviews included explicit questioning about those members of the order who had escaped arrest. The interrogations produced evidence of 16 runaway brothers, a figure we know to be approximately correct because their names tended to crop up in multiple interrogations. Even of this 16, there is little that is mysterious – we know that the majority either gave themselves up in the coming months or were soon recaptured.
There were excellent reasons why most brothers did not go on the run and why the few who did soon gave themselves up. Going on the run indefinitely was fraught with difficulties. Escape to the continent, particularly to France, was unattractive in the extreme – there, Templar brothers were being routinely tortured and executed. Staying in Britain, where there was no torture and the realistic prospect of a pension and retirement at the end of an increasingly inevitable process, was a far lesser hardship.
The myths of Templar soldier bands indulging in wild adventures after the order had been dissolved make a wonderful backdrop for stories. But that’s all they are.
Stories.
Please visit the publisher’s website or buy this book
on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
Dr Steve Tibble is a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge and London University. He is an Honorary Research Associate at Royal Holloway College, University of London. Steve is a leading authority on warfare and violence in the crusading era.
You can check out Steve’s other books: Crusader Criminals, The Crusader Armies and The Crusader Strategy
- Barber, M., The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple, Cambridge, 1994.
- Barber, M., The Trial of the Templars, 2nd edn, Cambridge, 2006.
- Nicholson, H., The Knights Templar on Trial: The Trial of the Knights Templar in the British Isles, 1308–1311, Stroud, 2009.
- Nicholson, H., The Everyday Life of the Templars: The Knights Templar at Home, Stroud, 2017.
By Steve Tibble
The British Templars are a blank page torn from a lurid novel.
Blank because the lack of context and hard evidence allows us to write anything we want upon it, and lurid because of the vast number of baseless, almost laughable charges thrown against them.
It is because of these bizarre accusations that a huge, labyrinthine set of (often contradictory) mythologies have been built up surrounding the Templars – myths that have become almost an industry in their own right.
To help bust these myths, I have been investigating some of the stories about the Templars in Britain, how plausible (or otherwise) they were, and how they helped form the order’s current reputation.
Revenge of the Renegades
One of the richest seams for conspiracists is the idea that there were large numbers of ‘Templar renegades’ roaming around Europe and the Middle East in the aftermath of the order’s suppression, doing whatever outlandish idea might come to mind in a pub.
Most importantly, of course, the presence of ‘fugitive Templars’ is an essential prerequisite for many other aspects of the Templar mythology that has grown up around the brothers. Conspiracies are impossible without a critical mass of conspirators. Renegades were needed, and in large numbers, to turn the tide at the Battle of Bannockburn, for instance. They also had to be present to carry away their huge treasure chests and precious items, such as the Holy Grail, and to man the fleets that would supposedly take the Templars to America and other places in the (still yet to be created) Spanish and British empires of the West.
So, let’s look at the Templars in Britain as a case study. What is the evidence? And what was the likelihood of the British brothers becoming renegades and mercenary adventurers?
The overwhelming evidence is that there were very few brothers left in Britain by the beginning of the 14th century, when the Templar order was wound down.
This embarrassing fact has been contested by the recurring rumours of huge numbers of Templars escaping arrest. According to this version of events, there were far more British Templars than ever appeared at the trials. Large numbers of them, presumably using their special forces skills, managed to avoid arrest.
Sadly, for conspiracists, the evidence for the lack of British Templar renegades is plentiful and clear.
A detailed inventory of the Templars’ personal possessions was taken immediately after their arrests. Because we have a broadly accurate sense of the normal range of personal effects each brother was allowed to keep with him, we can create a good correlation in most locations between chattels, prisoners, and, by extrapolation and a process of elimination, fugitives.
The evidence of personal belongings suggests there were some temporary absconders. At Sutton, in Essex, for instance, there were items in situ that typically would have been the personal effects of two Templar brothers – there were two lances, two ‘barhuds’ (the brothers’ distinctive travelling chests), and so on. But no brothers were there to be arrested when the king’s men arrived, so the assumption has to be that a couple of the brothers decided to avoid capture. In the vast majority of cases, however, the items listed corresponded closely to the number of brothers taken into custody, even down to their individual ‘barhuds’.
Similarly, we have the astonishingly detailed evidence of the lengthy interviews conducted with the captive brothers. These interviews included explicit questioning about those members of the order who had escaped arrest. The interrogations produced evidence of 16 runaway brothers, a figure we know to be approximately correct because their names tended to crop up in multiple interrogations. Even of this 16, there is little that is mysterious – we know that the majority either gave themselves up in the coming months or were soon recaptured.
There were excellent reasons why most brothers did not go on the run and why the few who did soon gave themselves up. Going on the run indefinitely was fraught with difficulties. Escape to the continent, particularly to France, was unattractive in the extreme – there, Templar brothers were being routinely tortured and executed. Staying in Britain, where there was no torture and the realistic prospect of a pension and retirement at the end of an increasingly inevitable process, was a far lesser hardship.
The myths of Templar soldier bands indulging in wild adventures after the order had been dissolved make a wonderful backdrop for stories. But that’s all they are.
Stories.
Please visit the publisher’s website or buy this book
on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
Dr Steve Tibble is a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge and London University. He is an Honorary Research Associate at Royal Holloway College, University of London. Steve is a leading authority on warfare and violence in the crusading era.
You can check out Steve’s other books: Crusader Criminals, The Crusader Armies and The Crusader Strategy
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