Melvin: As the Templars had been abolished, there were no Templars there to defend their reputation. So for the other religious orders, anyone that came up with stories like this would probably find themselves at the courts,. But there's no one to defend the Templars. Melvin: I suppose because they died out in the 14th century, it allows you to paint on what you would like. And so you can use their memory and legacy in all sorts of different ways. The In Our Time podcast gets some extra time now with a few minutes of bonus material from Melvin and his guests.
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