Post by Sir Dmitrii Zurban on Jun 17, 2008 14:54:16 GMT -6
Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici, Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, known as the Knights Templar, protectors of the Holy Land and its pilgrims… soldiers and businessmen for two hundred years of their existence… found support for the organization beginning to dwindle. They were a standing army that could pass freely through all borders, but that no longer had a well-defined mission and was so embedded in European daily life. The Order continued to not be subject to local government, making it everywhere a "state within a state." This situation heightened tensions with some European nobility, especially as the Templars were indicating an interest in founding their own monastic state, just as the Teutonic Knights had done in Prussia, and the Knights Hospitaller were doing with Rhodes.
The Templars' success was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. Rumors about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, began pressuring Pope Clement V to take action against the Order. In 1307, many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. In 1312, Pope Clement, under continuing pressure from King Philip, disbanded the Order.
The Templars were charged with numerous heresies and tortured to extract false confessions of blasphemy. The confessions, despite having been obtained were under duress. Nobility and governments were ordered to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.
With the last of the Order's leaders gone, the remaining Templars around Europe were either arrested and tried under the Papal investigation, with virtually none convicted, absorbed into other military orders such as the Knights Hospitaller, or pensioned and allowed to live out their days peacefully. Some fled to other territories outside Papal control, such as excommunicated Scotland or to Switzerland. Templar organizations in Portugal simply changed their name, from Knights Templar to Knights of Christ.
The abrupt disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends
The mystery of the missing Templar fleet - At least 18 ships vanished from the French Atlantic coast port of La Rochelle, and an unknown number from the Templars' Mediterranean fleet. On the grounds that these vessels must eventually have put ashore somewhere, several people reviewed the the options and found that the west coast of Scotland was an ideal destination. Not only were there plenty of isolated places where a large number of ships could find safe haven, but also by sailing around the western coast of Ireland, they could be reached without passing through other shipping lanes and being spotted.
Scotland was an ideal place for the Templars to go to ground. Its King, Robert Bruce had been excommunicated the year before the Order's suppression, so the Pope's order to the kings of Europe to arrest the Templars simply didn't have any force there. Neither did his decree of 1312 officially abolishing the Order and ordering that its land and possessions be handed over to the Knights Hospitaller.
This was the period of the bitter conflict over Scotland's sovereignty between The King of England and Robert the Bruce. At the time of the Templar roundup in France of 1307, The English King was in the stronger position - but with much more important things to worry about than the Scottish Templars. Robert the Bruce, who, because of their fighting skills, eagerly accepted the Templars. But by the time of the abolition of the Order five years later, Robert the Bruce was in the ascendancy. His position was secured by his victory at the Battle of Bannockburn on 24 June 1314.
There are five known Templars living in or around Skye, where Lord Aberdeen has declared no religious faction shall hold power in state affairs. This was the security that the Templars needed when Scotland split North and South, the North staying aligned with Skye and the South aligning with the King of England.
Many times had the Templars and their army come to the aid of ther Duke and Duchess… those five men never had to answer any inquiries by the Aberdeens.
The Templars' success was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. Rumors about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, began pressuring Pope Clement V to take action against the Order. In 1307, many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. In 1312, Pope Clement, under continuing pressure from King Philip, disbanded the Order.
The Templars were charged with numerous heresies and tortured to extract false confessions of blasphemy. The confessions, despite having been obtained were under duress. Nobility and governments were ordered to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.
With the last of the Order's leaders gone, the remaining Templars around Europe were either arrested and tried under the Papal investigation, with virtually none convicted, absorbed into other military orders such as the Knights Hospitaller, or pensioned and allowed to live out their days peacefully. Some fled to other territories outside Papal control, such as excommunicated Scotland or to Switzerland. Templar organizations in Portugal simply changed their name, from Knights Templar to Knights of Christ.
The abrupt disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends
The mystery of the missing Templar fleet - At least 18 ships vanished from the French Atlantic coast port of La Rochelle, and an unknown number from the Templars' Mediterranean fleet. On the grounds that these vessels must eventually have put ashore somewhere, several people reviewed the the options and found that the west coast of Scotland was an ideal destination. Not only were there plenty of isolated places where a large number of ships could find safe haven, but also by sailing around the western coast of Ireland, they could be reached without passing through other shipping lanes and being spotted.
Scotland was an ideal place for the Templars to go to ground. Its King, Robert Bruce had been excommunicated the year before the Order's suppression, so the Pope's order to the kings of Europe to arrest the Templars simply didn't have any force there. Neither did his decree of 1312 officially abolishing the Order and ordering that its land and possessions be handed over to the Knights Hospitaller.
This was the period of the bitter conflict over Scotland's sovereignty between The King of England and Robert the Bruce. At the time of the Templar roundup in France of 1307, The English King was in the stronger position - but with much more important things to worry about than the Scottish Templars. Robert the Bruce, who, because of their fighting skills, eagerly accepted the Templars. But by the time of the abolition of the Order five years later, Robert the Bruce was in the ascendancy. His position was secured by his victory at the Battle of Bannockburn on 24 June 1314.
There are five known Templars living in or around Skye, where Lord Aberdeen has declared no religious faction shall hold power in state affairs. This was the security that the Templars needed when Scotland split North and South, the North staying aligned with Skye and the South aligning with the King of England.
Many times had the Templars and their army come to the aid of ther Duke and Duchess… those five men never had to answer any inquiries by the Aberdeens.