Some contemporaries said that Philip had hopes of taking over the crusading movement and making himself King of Jerusalem. But he was basically to get is to keep his money, wasn't it? The Templars did venerate heads, they were the heads of saints, as was common Catholic practice at the time. They were still trying to organise a new expedition to recover the holy places in the East. What is Philip doing? He argues that these men are guilty of blasphemy,. sodomy, worshiping idols, described as a head during the trial.
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