The history of the Knights Templar in England began when the French nobleman Hughes de Payens, the founder and Grand Master of the order of the Knights Templar, visited the country in 1128 to raise men and money for the Crusades.

King Henry II (1133-1189) granted the Templars land across England, including some territory by Castle Barnard on the River Fleet, where they built a round church, patterned after the Knights Templar headquarters on Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The Order was also given the advowson (right of use) of St Clement Danes.

In 1184 the Templars' headquarters was transferred to the New Temple in London where once again they built a round church.

The first Templar House was also in London. Early patrons included Earl Robert de Ferrers, Bernard de Balliol, King Stephen of England and Queen Matilda.

An inventory by Geoffrey Fitz Stephen reveals that by 1185, the Order of the Knights Templar had extensive holdings in London, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Salop, Oxfordshire, Cornwall, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

The involvement of Templars in financial matters is highlighted by Walter of Coventry's story of Gilbert de Ogrestan, the knight Templar accused of embezzling taxes collected in the Saladin tithe of 1188. He was severely punished by his contemporary Master.

In 1200 Pope Innocent III issued a Papal Bull declaring the immunity of persons and goods within the houses of the Knights Templar from local laws. This ensured that the New Temple became a royal treasury as well as the repository for the order's accumulated revenues. These financial resources provided the basis for the development of the Templar's local banking facilities.

King Richard I (1157-1199) confirmed the Templars' land holdings and granted them immunity from all pleas, suits danegeld and from murdrum and latrocinium.

King John (1166-1216) had substantial financial dealings with the Knights Templar. At the time of Runnymede, not only was Aymeric de St Maur present, but King John was also resident at the Temple when the Barons first presented their demands. He awarded them the Lundy as well as land at Huntspill, Cameley, Harewood, Radenach and Northampton.

King Henry III (1207-1272) also had substantial dealing with Templars, the king's Wardrobe being located there in 1225. He entrusted Templar knights with military, financial and diplomatic commissions, and even considered being buried in the Temple. He did in fact establish a chantry there in 1231.

Persecution and Dissolution

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In 1312, under pressure from King Philip IV of France, Pope Clement V officially disbanded the Order at the Council of Vienne. In 1314, the remaining Templar leaders in France were executed, some by being burned at the stake.

King Edward I (1239-1307) had accorded the Knights Templar a slighter role in public affairs, financial issues often being handled by Italian merchants and diplomacy by mendicant orders. Indeed Edward I raided the treasury in 1283.

When Philip IV, King of France suppressed the order in 1307, King Edward II of England at first refused to believe the accusations. But after the intercession of Pope Clement V, King Edward ordered the seizure of members of the order in England on January 8, 1308. Only handfuls of Templars were duly arrested however. The trial ran from October 22, 1309 until March 18, 1310 in front of Deodatus, Abbot of Lagny and Sicard de Vaur. Most of the Templars acknowledged their belief that the Order's Master could give absolution was heretical, and were then reconciled with the church. However, Willian de la More refused to do so and remained a prisoner in the Tower of London until his death.

The papal Bull of Clement V granting the lands of the Templars to the Knights Hospitaller was ignored until 1324. In 1347, the priests started letting (renting) part of the Temple to lawyers, from which the evolution of the Inner Temple and Middle Temple as Inns of Court derives.

The Templars in Hertfordshire

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Baldock in Hertfordshire was a town founded by the Knights Templar and between 1199 and 1254 it was their English headquarters. There was great public support for the Templars in England and nowhere more so than in Hertfordshire where they held extensive lands and where, around the time the persecution began, the Templars of Temple Dinsley in particular were greatly respected as holy men and supporters of the local community.

When six Templars from the Temple Dinsley Preceptory were imprisoned in the dungeons of Hertford Castle, there were incidents of public unrest and disobedience in protest, perhaps illustrating why, according to tradition, Hertfordshire became a place of refuge for fugitive Knights Templar from all over Europe. (One of the most prominent and powerful organisations in the world suddenly became one of the most secret.)

Hertford, though obscure now, has not been entirely insignificant in the past. During the plague parliament, the law courts and the Privy Council were moved to the town, which has also been a royal residence more than once. Intriguingly the official date of Easter was decided in Hertford, in the first general synod of the English Church in 673 AD. So, tradition has it, the Templars survived in the town where the festival of life after death was fixed in the calendar.

Templar Survival in England

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Between October 13, 1307 and January 8, 1308 the Templars went unmolested in England. During this period many fugitive Templars, seeking to escape torture and execution, fled to apparent safety there. But after repeated pressure from Philip IV and Clement V on Edward II, a few half-hearted arrests were made. During a trial running from October 22, 1309 until March 18, 1310 most of the arrested Templars were forced to acknowledge the belief that the Order's Master could give absolution was heretical, and were officially reconciled with the church, many entering more conventional monastic Orders.

But most Templars in England - and indeed elsewhere outside France - altogether escaped arrest, let alone torture and execution. Obviously the disbandment in 1312 did not precipitate the sudden spontaneous deaths of all Templars and tradition has it that many Templars carried on as normal, only in secret. The Order was, after all, a tightly bound group of men who relied upon each other for survival in battle and shared a secrecy that remains a source of intrigue for many people today. The Templars' shared suffering and secrecy might only have served to bind its men more closely together and harden their commitment to the innocent and wrongfully accused Order. The Church now acknowledges that they were innocent.

Even though records suggest that most Templars escaped, along with virtually all of their treasure, ships and other mobile assets, some historians claim that the Knights Templar somehow suddenly ceased to exist, simply because after that point they created no more records. But even before their persecution the Templars were experienced in keeping their secrets, and a total secrecy - derived from the threat of horrible torture and shame - was not likely to give rise to convenient records or evidence for historians to refer to. So it is not surprising that so many stories persist about a Templar continuation.

As early as 1291 the Templars had ceased to be Crusaders on any significant scale but everybody agrees they remained operational at least up until 1307. In the words of Ben Acheson, a Templar historian from Hertfordshire, "The Knights Templar existed only to worship God. One does not require the permission of mortal men to worship God."

Royston Cave in Hertfordshire

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Tradition has it that after the persecution began the Templars were forced to meet in caves, tunnels and cellars in Hertfordshire and possibly, for a while, elsewhere in South-East England as well. These places would of course have had to be well-kept secrets.

But after lying undiscovered for at least 300 years workmen accidentally stumbled upon Royston Cave, hidden under a heavy millstone and a covering of soil. Since the Templars had disappeared with their treasures and King Edward had indeed searched in vain for Templar treasure in Hertfordshire, the cave's discovery created much excitement. Today it still awes and inspires visitors who can see carvings depicting, among other images, Templar knights, Saint George and Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Before the persecution began the Templars had no reason to hide below the ground and they had wealth and access to stonemasons if they required religious carvings. Some historians therefore regard Royston Cave as proof that fugitive Templars continued to meet and worship in secret after the disbandment.

According to tradition Saint Catherine held special significance for the fugitive Knights Templar. Like the Templars she was tortured and executed for crimes she did not commit. She is also significant to Gnostics and anybody interested in the Ark of the Covenant: Catherine traditionally had a vision in which she married Jesus, representing the Gnostic Mystical Marriage. Her cult was founded at the foot of Mount Sinai, where the Ark of the Covenant was built and below its summit where Moses was given the Ten Commandments by God himself.

There have been some highly questionable claims made about Royston Cave and its history, including the suggestion that its Templar builders may, in effect, have been early Freemasons. This claim in particular is at best tenuous, as are any suggestions of a direct historical link between Freemasonry and the Knights Templar.

Royston Cave is beneath the crossroads of the ancient Icknield Way and Ermine Street.

See also:

• Royston Cave

The Templar Legacy

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Many symbols associated with the medieval Knights Templar have evolved into modern terms and symbols.

• The flag of England is St. George's Cross, shown above. Saint George was styled as the Crusader Saint and his red cross is in fact the cross of the Templar Crusaders.

• The Templar cross, like the snake-wrapped Caduceus of the Therapeutae, is also an ancient and international symbol of healing and medicine: the Red Cross. (The Caduceus is also evocative of the staff of Moses that turned into a snake before the Pharaoh.)

• The Templar Cross is the main feature of the coat of arms of the City of London where it appears alongside a Templar sword (which is tapered so that it can stab through the weak points in enemy armour.)

• The Templars' land in London was later rented to lawyers who still use it today, at "Inner Temple" and "Middle Temple".

• The Temple Church still stands on the site of the old Preceptory in London and the graves of Crusading Templars can still be seen there today.

• The Templars pioneered international banking and introduced the practice of writing letters of credit to transfer money perhaps, in a sense, inventing the cheque.

For more information about legends associated with the Templars, see Knights Templar legends.

Templar locations in England

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Churches

• Temple Church, London

• Holy Sepulchre (Round Church), Cambridgeshire (The Round Church in Cambridge)

• Garway Church, Herefordshire (Templar church with carvings and part of original round church excavated and fully visible)

• Cressing Temple, Essex

• Temple Balsall & Church, Warwickshire

• Temple Church, Temple, Cornwall

• Temple Ewell & Church, Kent

• Rothley Temple Templar Chapel, Rothley Court, Leicestershire, (and Templar window)

• Shipley Church, Shipley, West Sussex

• St. Mary's House, Bramber, West Sussex

• Sompting Church, Sompting, West Sussex

• Poling Church, Poling, West Sussex

• Templar Church, Dover, on the Dover Western Heights, traditionally the site of King John's submission to the papal legate in 1213 ^*

Place names

• Temple Dinsley, Hertfordshire (now the village of Preston)

• Templecombe, near Bath

• Bristol City centre is rich in Templar place names and history such as Temple Cloud, Temple Bridge, Temple Gate, Temple Street...

Other locations

• Royston Cave, Hertfordshire

• Baldock, Hertfordshire (a town founded by the Templars)

• Hertford
  • Hertford Castle, Hertford, Hertfordshire (where the famous Temple Dinsley Templars were imprisoned. The King searched in vain for the treasure he believed they had hidden in Hertfordshire.)
  • Hertford Suberranea: the "ancient subterranean tunnel" network beneath Hertford is said to have been used by fugitive Knights Templar long after the disbandment. (Part of the network was shown on the sale documentation of Bailey Hall in 1898, a copy of which can be seen in Hertford Museum.) In 2005 Subterranea Britannica began an investigation of the tunnels and caves but the investigation was aborted after the group received mysterious anonymous threats.

Masters of the Temple, London

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• Richard de Hastyngs, 1160
• Richard Mallebeench,
• Geoffrey Fitz Stephen, 1180 to 1185
• William de Newenham,
• Thomas Beard, 1200
• Aymeric de St. Maur, 1200,1205 and 1228
• Alan Marcell, 1220 and 1228
• Amberaldus, 1229
• Robert Mounford, 1234
• Robert Saunforde, 1231 to 1247
• Rocelin de Fosse, 1250 to 1253
• Amadeus de Morestello, 1254 to 1259
• Imbert Peraut, 1267 to 1269
• William de Beaulieu, 1274

• Robert Turvile, 1277 to 1289
• Guy de Foresta, 1290 to 1294
• James de Molay, 1297
• Brian le Jay, 1298
• William de la More, 1298 to 1307

Sources

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Crusades | Medieval Knights Templar | History of England | Middle Ages