In the 12th century they expand their possessions in the West very dramatically. One of the challenges they face is how do they link up their Western properties and their Western houses with the east? And originally they rely on Italian merchants to do this, but in the 13th century the Templars develop their own kind of maritime arm. They have their own ships by around 1207 that are operating in the Mediterranean,. Then by the midpoint of the century they have small fleets of galleys, which are participating in crusades and providing logistical support for the crusades in the east.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the military order founded around 1119, twenty years after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem. For almost 200 years the Knights Templar were a notable fighting force and financial power in the Crusader States and Western Europe. Their mission was to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land, and they became extremely wealthy yet, as the crusader grip on Jerusalem slipped, their political fortune declined steeply. They were to be persecuted out of existence, with their last grand master burned at the stake in Paris in 1314, and that sudden end has contributed to the strength of the legends that have grown up around them.
With
Helen Nicholson
Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University
Mike Carr
Lecturer in Late Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh
And
Jonathan Phillips
Professor of Crusading History at Royal Holloway, University of London
Producer: Simon Tillotson