The Templars flourished with the Crusades, earning vast sums from their ventures in banking and commerce; indeed they could be described as being the first retail bankers, issuing notes to confirm deposits which could then be redeemed in other countries. Massive estates were given to them by supporters, providing rich sources of income to help maintain their army. By the end of the 1200s the Templars were a force to be reckoned with.
However, Philip IV was in dire need of funds. In 1306 he moved against a rich but disliked and unprotected group. In one day, every Jew in France was arrested. All their records and assets were seized and auctioned to the benefit of the Crown. Meanwhile, Jewish citizens were thrown out of the kingdom with nothing. Conveniently, all notes confirming royal debts to the Jews were destroyed, though monies owed by subjects were now payable to the King – and he required prompt payment. All in all, this proved a thoroughly successful venture, and soon Philip began to cast around for other similarly wealthy groups to fleece.
The Templars were hardly an easy target, but they were certainly rich – although as a religious Order, they were protected by the Pope. How could the King gain access to their money while the Pope was nominally responsible for them?
Fortunately, Pope Clement V was a man with a thoroughly modern attitude. He was absolutely committed to his own wealth. Usefully, he was also close to hand, now that he lived in France. Still, even he would have balked at the idea of robbing the Templars, so the King moved without telling him.
The Templars’ fate was really sealed earlier, in 1291, when the last significant holding in Palestine was captured, because their whole reason for existence disappeared with it. Acre was the sole remaining possession of the old Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was attacked in April 1291, and on May 28 it fell under the massive Muslim onslaught. With it died the hopes of the whole of Christendom for the old Kingdom. Much of the respect for the Templars died at this time, too. Other Orders were similarly held in some disdain after the fall of Acre, but only the Templars had their headquarters in France, and this was their downfall.
On Friday, October 13, 1307 – a date which has given us the popular superstition – every member of the Order in France was arrested. Many wild conspiracy theories have been proposed about their destruction, but only one fact is absolute and inescapable: beforehand the Templars were wealthy; afterward their wealth disappeared. Philip was the prime mover in accusing them of various crimes, at a time when he sorely needed money. The Pope soon came round to agreeing to the charges pressed by the King. It seems likely that Clement V enjoyed some financial benefit from the Order’s destruction, and this helped him to believe the allegations.
The Order was disbanded. Some of the knights were already dead. Others, especially the more prominent, were burned publicly. Of the rest, many were allowed to disappear into monasteries, a few faded away and joined the Teutonic Knights or the Knights Hospitaller, or one of the other Orders fighting pagans at the fringes of Christianity.
In England and Scotland there was never much faith in the accusations against the Templars. The English King, Edward II, trusted them, for they had helped his father in battles against the Scots and their Master had died in the war against William Wallace. When Edward received a papal communication ordering him to arrest his old friends, he dithered for some weeks. He was a weak man (who was later to be ousted by his wife and her lover), and he already had too many enemies to want to lose the Templars and their support. By the time he made a move the majority of the Templars had disappeared – as had their treasure.
Most of the Templars were never found; some almost certainly made their way to Scotland. In that miserable event for Edward II, the Battle of Bannockburn, it was said that the Templars’ standard was seen. The Scottish King, Robert I (“the Bruce”), had no fear of upsetting the Pope – he was already excommunicated and his country under Papal Anathema: no holy rites could be performed by the priesthood.
In 1315 and 1316, the whole of Europe suffered from a devastating famine. Fragile economies were disrupted, especially those of England and France, and hundreds of thousands died. Floods destroyed crops and entire flocks of sheep. Bands of outlaws took to the roads, robbing and killing to try to survive, and there were rumors of cannibalism.
This was a bleak and brutal time, when warlords bickered and fought. King Edward was ineffectual and considered a fool. Arguments between him and the French were soon to flare, which led a few years later to the Hundred Years War. Theologians battled among themselves, disputing such fine points of Christianity as whether humor was blasphemous. Yet at the same time, men like Bacon were inventing spectacles and gunpowder, classical learning was being taught in the new universities, and trade was booming. Only some seventy years later, Chaucer would write his Canterbury Tales and Froissart his Chronicles. Gradually, English Common Law was developing, and litigation made lawyers wealthy – and objects of disgust!
In the midst of the hardship, some areas were still relatively calm and ordered. While the coastal towns were raided by pirates, and English possessions on the Continent were taken over by the French King, and while the border regions were overrun by Scottish reivers, and Ireland was invaded, the West Country stayed peaceful.
This was the time of Sir Baldwin Furnshill, who had been a Knight Templar, and his friend, the Bailiff of Lydford Castle, Simon Puttock.
