The Knights Templar: The History and Myths of the Legendary Military Order

This book is an essential exploration into the history of a legendary group of Crusaders, which are prominently featured in Dan Brown's recent best seller, The Da Vinci Code. The Knights Templar rose from humble beginnings to become the most powerful military religious order of the Middle Ages. Formed to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land, they participated in the Crusades and rapidly gained wealth, lands, and influence. Seemingly untouchable for nearly two centuries, they fell from grace spectacularly after the loss of the Holy Land. In the ensuing centuries the Templars have exerted a unique influence over European history; orthodox historians see them as nothing more than soldier-monks whose arrogance was their ultimate undoing, while others see them as occultists of the first order. With clarity and ease, Martin navigates between the orthodox and the speculative, the historical and the myth, to bring alive the story of the Templars. Like those other legends of the Middle Ages—the characters of the Arthurian tales—The Knights Templar holds captive the imagination of all those intrigued by conspiracy and how history and myth intertwine to become the stuff of legend.

• The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (Canto Classics)
• Knights Templar: Christian Chivalry and the Crusades, 1095-1314
• The Trial of the Templars (Canto Classics)
• The Real History Behind the Templars
• The Templars: The History and the Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons
• The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land
• Knights Templar Encyclopedia: The Essential Guide to the People, Places, Events, and Symbols of the Order of the Temple
• The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors
• The Last Templar: The Tragedy of Jacques de Molay, Last Grand Master of the Temple
• The Knights Templar