Q'depan, a nobleman from Champagne in the Holy Land, witnessed the killing of pilgrims and decided to protect them by forming an association with fellow knights. Initially, the group numbered between six to 30 members but needed to recruit more supporters from Western Europe and gain approval from religious authorities to become a sworn religious group. They were named the Templars after the Temple of Solomon, as they were tasked with safeguarding pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land.
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