The Knights Templar: Warriors For Christ

The rise and fall of the legendary religious order were equally dramatic, says Sandra Haurant

- Sandra Haurant

Few religious orders have caught the imagination like the Order of the Temple of Solomon. These mysterious warrior monks have long been the centre of quests, myths and legends, not to mention the inspiration for countless novels. And yet, details of their origins are notoriously hard to pin down, as very little written evidence has survived.

According to Professor Helen Nicholson, a leading scholar in research into the military religious orders and the Crusades, there are effectively two medieval accounts of the Templars’ beginnings; one by Archbishop William of Tyre and another by a French chronicler believed to have been a squire named Ernoul. “Modern scholars tend to prefer Ernoul’s view, because it is less weighted in favour of obvious vested interests,” says Prof Nicholson.

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