The Knights Templar by Stephen Howarth

This one I read a while back, as the continuous pre-1066 history was starting to becoming, in a small way, tiresome. I thought it might also help me to settle a growing religious confusion within me, which is the choice between Paganism or Christianity. Funnily enough I found this book about two years ago in a charity shop for £1; ironically, just prior to finding it I was confronted on the street by an evangelical Christian who was protesting outside the local council offices, mainly against abortion. I had a pleasant conversation with him on the topic, as I am also in alignment with the Christian take on the matter, and it finished with him saying a prayer for me before I moved on.

Stephen Howarth makes a statement early on in which he explains that the knowledge of the Templars is constantly evolving and that his own book will no doubt be out of date in a decade or so; it was published in 1982. Perhaps there is a lot more knowledge know on the Templars than the book portrays, or perhaps the book was intended as more of an introduction to the Templars, as it felt very much like a brief history of the Crusades. Of course, the chronology of the Crusades is very important in understanding the history of the Templars, however there was much more focus on this than the customs and attitudes of the knight’s order. This may well be because in the imagination of the laymen the history of such a prestigious order must be bottomless, when in reality there may well have been some very simple and few sets of rules and traditions that they adhered to down the centuries. To join the Templars was to accept a life of celibacy and impoverishment, where the individual would spend his usual week getting up early and labouring intensively, reciting psalms and only eating protein on two days of the week. The lack of elaboration in these areas could well be put down to the fact that the Templars were secretive in their internal affairs. A trait which ultimately led to their destruction.

The events start with Peter the Hermit and his extraordinary rise from peasant to military leader, leading the peasants Crusade which resulted in disaster. Peter himself managed to latch onto the more organised armies of the first Crusade with what troops he had left. The pope had thought up the idea of Crusading with a pragmatic view to resolving unemployment in Europe, and to prevent the brothers of the Christian faith from in fighting; giving them a common foe. The second stage of the first Crusade was fronted by three military leaders with an army each. One of these, called Stephen of Blois, was not keen on going Crusading at all, but was urged by his wife to do so. In the end he chose Crusading over his nagging wife, which we know from the letters he sent her while he was away. He was so unenthusiastic about Crusading that he procrastinated in southern France for a few extra days so that the other two armies would always be ahead of him. Eventually all three armies converged on Antioch, but with a long and protracted siege which placed the armies of Christendom in an almost hopeless position. Stephen of Blois told his comrades that he was ill and had to turn back, along with his army. Unfortunately for Stephen, Antioch fell the following night after he left via a bribed blacksmith opening the gates. This was a double tragedy for Stephen as when he got home the news of the victory had reached the ears of his wife, who was furious with him, and demanded he return to the Holy Land. He obliged his wife, and died in battle shortly after returning. The Authors comedic approach on this saga was much enjoyable.

With the success of the Crusade there became a demand for a standing army that could offer protection for the newly conquered provinces. This is where the Templars became a major force and the dominant power in the area for centuries to come. Once they proved their worth as a religious and military institution, the pope gave them their blessing, thus making them in many ways a personal army for the Papacy. Pope Innocent then issued the papal bull ‘Omne Datum Optimum’ which allowed the Templars to keep all the spoils of war, as well as a bull which stated that those who go on Crusade were excused murdering Muslims, and furthermore they were absolved of previous sins for doing so. This essentially gave the Templars free reign in the Holy Land, and resulted in them acting law until themselves, and frequently disobeying the orders of the Kings of Jerusalem; as we will see with our next interesting character, Reynauld De Chatillon.

Reynauld De Chatillon first appears in the early events following the second Crusade. Antoich which was previously ruled by Raymond (who had died at the battle of Inab), was now being ruled by the child Constance, whose mother, Alice, was acting regent. The issue with this was that Alice was in favour of allegiance with Byzantium and was planning to marry her daughter to the prince, which would have eventually restored Byzantine rule to Antioch. Reynauld was on his way to the Holy Land with an army when a message reached him from King Baldwin asking him to deal with the issue at hand. Reynauld rushed to Antioch and informed Alice that the gates must be opened, and that they had arrived to help defend Antioch from a huge Muslim army which was in the area. He also told her to take cover in the highest tower, and that he would see to the defences. This of course was a lie, and as soon as the gates were opened and Alice was hiding in a tower, Reynauld seized the child Constance and married her there and then, thus making himself Prince of Antioch. Following this Reynauld went frequently raiding and battling Muslim armies, winning many great victories until he became somewhat over confident, and attempted to siege Aleppo with a tiny force of around 500 troops. This naturally failed, and Reynauld was imprison in Aleppo for 15 years. In the book the author makes no mention of how long he has been imprisoned until after he is released, leaving the reader to assume that his exploits end with the siege of Aleppo.

He suddenly appears on the scene again when the King of Damascus releases a group of 150 Templar captives as thanks for Jerusalem helping to lift the siege of Aleppo. Reynauld immediately resumes where he left of, and starts by capturing himself the castle of Karak; using it as an excellent position in which to launch raids on the silk road. He subsequently becomes a big wheel in the Templars due to the immense wealth he starts to accumulate, and then he puts into action the most daring deed of his career yet. He builds five warships on the dead sea and trains a crew to man them, and after doing this, he has the ships transported over land to the Gulf of Aqaba! From this point the ships engage in acts of piracy along the coast, and made Reynauld the richest man in Christendom. These ships remained unmolested for almost a year before Saladin was able to raise a fleet and destroy them. After this Reynauld went back to his life of raiding the silk road, and made the mistake of raiding a caravan which contained Saladin’s sister, leading to Saladin supposedly claiming that he would personally slay him. Reynauld also led the army for King Baldwin IV (the leper king) against Saladin at the battle of Montgisard, resulting in a purely amazing victory which showed 500 knights route an Islamic army of 20,000. After such a spiffing career Reynauld then participated in the calamitous crusader defeat at the Horns of Hattin, and was captured and beheaded by Saladin himself. Many historians portray Reynauld as an idiot who destroyed Jerusalem by continually breaking treaties signed with Saladin, but some have attempted to renovate him, as the only man who was doing anything to stop Islamic expansion. An interesting point by the authors brings up the crimes of Richard the Lionheart and compares them with Reynauld; then going on to explain that if Reynauld had started out with the reputation that Lionheart had, he would have been hailed as a hero instead of demonised as a villain.

These are the most interesting parts of the chronology of the Crusades. Frederick and the IV crusade is also very interesting, in that it was not sanctioned by the pope, and Frederick himself became excommunicated, and it was Templar law that anyone who socialised with a person excommunicated would result in themselves enjoying the same status. However, when it became apparent that Frederick was going to successfully reconquer Jerusalem, it produced the humorous movement which seen the Templars march alongside Fredricks army with a mile different between the two. They claimed they just happened to be marching in the same direction… Unfortunately, Saladin had Jerusalem’s walls demolished, and so any future occupation by crusaders would be short, as it would prove impossible to defend the city in the long term.

In Europe the Templars had become a major economic powerhouse, holding incredible power. This, coupled with the secrecy of the order eventually resulted in their downfall. Philip ‘The Fair’ of France had already borrowed a significant amount of money from the Jews, and following this he physically removed them from the country, so that the loans would not have to be repaid. Philip was debasing his currency fast, and so needed a fresh source of income. Philip simply repeated his tactic with the Templars, and with him being the most pious king in Europe he hoped he could also claim all their assets. Rumours were first spread about how behind closed doors the Templars were sodomising each other, and were worshiping heathen idols. There was no validity to these claims, but Philips strength of words and action eventually got him what he wanted, or at least partially. He had all the Templars arrested, with only 20 evading capture in France, and demanded all other Christian nations do the same, of which most did. He then extracted confessions under torture, strengthening his case. In England, Edward the II and public opinion did not believe the accusations, and so the Templars were put on a loose form of house arrest. Furthermore, when Philip tried to have all the Templars in Europe expedited to France, he found in England that he could not do this as the English common law was valued above any international religious laws, and so the Templars in England were let off lightly. Eventually after years of squabbling Philip got what he wanted, and all unrepentant Templars were burned at the stake and thus bringing an end to the order. Unfortunately for Philip though, the pope had all the assets of the Templars transferred to the Knights Hospitallers, who managed to adapt to life after the fall of Outreamer much better than their counterparts. The last Master of the Templars was Jacques De Molay, and he had been in the order for about 50 years when he was burned at the stake. He is blamed in some ways as being responsible for the downfall of the order, as his age and past experience made him stubborn to a changing world.

This was a mighty fine read, even if there were a few inaccuracies. Some of the facts have appeared to change in the years since this was written, and it looks like there are much more in-depth books on the market, in terms of the customs, traditions and rituals of the Templars. But in all I was deeply impressed, and it has led me to discover books on some of the historical figures mentioned. Such as ‘God's Wolf: The Life of the Most Notorious of All Crusaders: Reynald de Chatillon’ by Jefferey Lee, which I will purchase when I feel in the mood for another non-Celtic or Anglo-Saxon read. It was also somewhat shameful of me not to have read at least some basic history of the Crusades up until now, so it was nice to have also ticked that box when enjoying this title.

Looking for the Lost Gods of England by Kathleen Herbert

At the time I purchased this book I was already half way through Hengist by Bryan Evens, and I had decided that it was so good that I ought to pick up some of the other books published by the ‘Anglo-Saxon Books’ company. At the time I was unable to get myself a hardback copy of Brian Branston’s ‘The Lost Gods of England’ for a reasonable price, and so I thought I would get this fifty page book on the same subject. It was of a price and size of which I could introduce myself to Anglo-Saxon Paganism, and thus decide if I wanted to go deeper with larger studies. Subsequent to reading this, I have actually managed to get myself a copy of Brian Branston’s work for the total price of £7, with the only issue being a slightly sun damaged cover. However, the highly recommended book on Anglo-Saxon Paganism by David Wilson still evades me, and is likely to do so for some time with its asking price of £120.

We are first introduced to the books subject matter, and what will and will not be included in the discussion. Kathleen tells how much of Anglo-Saxon Paganism is really just Norse Paganism, with a number of slight name differences, and that those gods and customs will not be discussed at length in her work. What ‘Looking for the Lost Gods of England’ intends to do is to look at what elements of the Pagan tradition were unique to England. Unfortunately what we know about these unique elements is somewhat limited, as the literate people in society were the Christian Priests who looked upon Paganism with a biased view, and furthermore were reluctant to write about Pagan practices at all. Herbert does give a short overview of some of the classic gods in their Anglo names, such as Woden, Thunor, Tiw, Freya and Frey, the latter of which she suggests was of special significance to the English.

Much of what we know about Anglo-Saxon Paganism is through what has been morphed into the Christian religion. We know for example, the Pagan idea of an eye for an eye was a problem which the Church of Rome found impossible to make a dent in rectifying. The idea of ancestral worship was also an idea that persisted through the Anglo-Saxon period, as even the converted kings still claimed descent from Woden; although Alfred the great had his family tree altered so that it also claimed descent from Adam. The main emphasis the English seemed to place on their religious practices was fertility and harvest. Herthus provided both of these blessings, and is said she resided in her sacred grove on an island along with her holy cart which brought a bountiful harvest to the places she chose to visit. There are a great number of traditions that survived the transition to Christianity such as the festival of ‘Samhain’, which was the slaughtering of animals before the winter period so as to lower the maintenance of livestock over the harsh months; this has survived as Halloween. There was also the idea of cleansing the earth, which involved cutting out a square patch of land and taking it to the local shrine to have an antidote of some sorts transferred to the patch before it was returned to the field it came from.  The author suggests it may have even had a Rune inscribed on the underside before it was returned.

As the end of the book drew near the author also touched upon some of mythical elements that had an impact on the religion, such as ‘Elves’ which were described as being beautiful but also deadly, with the ability to seduce men to their deaths. Erik the Wild was such a person said to have been seduced, according to folklore. Erik the Wild was an earl and a resistance fighter during the Norman Conquest, along with his contemporaries Hereward the Wake and Earl Morcar. Like Earl Morcar, Erik simply disappears from the historical records and his name is thus replaced by a French one. However, it is said that the ghost of Eric and his soldiers is seen marching towards the south coast whenever England is being threatened with invasion. Definitely a character I will be looking out for in more detail in the future.

The Life and Times of Hengest by Bryan Evans

Once finishing Lloyd Liang’s book ‘The Origins of Britain’, it was tempting to go straight onto his sequential book ‘Celtic Britain’. If I had not had my fill of archaeological evidence for the time being then this is exactly what I would have done. Instead, I decided it was time once again to turn to the Saxons, and to go to the earliest point in time; this being the arrival of Hengest. When reading Leonard Dutton’s work on the power struggles in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, I was most excited with the coming of the Saxons and the crisis developing in Britain. A time in which the Romano-British had both enemies within and without, and ultimately their inability to put differences aside and unite against a common enemy proved to be their downfall once more. I understood when picking Bryan Evans’ book up that there was very little information available on Hengest, and that it is even a possibility that the legendary figure did in fact not exist at all, as explored and debated in the book he could well have been manufactured as part of an origin Myth.

The events prior to the arrival of the Saxons capture a great deal of atmosphere, and much more detail than was contained within Leonard Dutton’s work. It goes through all the events surrounding the battle of Catalonian Fields, giving the right amount of depth to the important peoples involved during the battle. Interestingly, Bryan Evans differs from Leonard Dutton on the importance of Votigern’s concerns that Rome might return to Britain. Dutton says that Votigern invited the Saxons with the sneaking intention to use them against Rome when they decided to return, but that he realised all too late the mistake he had made (that a Roman return was impossible) once he had given the Saxons a foothold in Kent. Bryan Evans doesn’t attempt to contradict this, but he does mention an alternative which I found most captivating. He assumes that many elements of the Roman style of government still persisted in Britain after they separated from the empire, and that the British government simply adopted the conventional Roman policy for putting a stop to foreign invaders. The Picts, Irish and Saxons were frequently raiding over the border and on the coast, and so the Romano-British administration created Foederati troops like their cousins back on the continent. This will have removed much of the threat of the Saxon invaders, as they now became the mercenaries; their might used to destroy the Pict and Irish invaders. This policy proved in the end to carry more negatives than positives, as is seen with the decline of Rome in general, when you fail to pay your mercenaries then they become a law unto their own.

Hengest himself is said possibly to have been a Foederati soldier in the service of Rome on the mainland in Gaul prior to coming into the service of Votigern. Evans puts forward this hypothesis during a chapter scrutinising the validity and meaning of the Finnsburg fragment. The Finnsburg fragment being 48 lines of an Anglo-Saxon poem discovered by George Hicks in 1700. It was quickly copied down but then subsequently lost almost right away. Whether this poem truly existed does not seem to be disputed by historians, as George Hicks was renowned for translating a lot of Anglo-Saxon literature throughout his career, and the fragment contains all the usual translation mistakes that his other work accommodated. The latter events of the poem are also known to us through an episode in Beowulf when the poet speaks of the story of Finn and Hengest in the great hall. The part of the story which is available to us speaks of the leader Hnaef and his second in command, Hengist, being besieged in a great hall by the warrior Finn. The author picks over the piece and deduces some interesting likelihoods about the events Hengest found himself in. The problem with the poem is first of all proving that the Hengest in the fragment is one and the same as the Hengest who become king of Kent. Secondly we also have to assume that the events in the poem are a fictionalised account of some historical events. Bryan Evans makes a great case in favour of the events being real, and that this is the same Hengest that arrived with Horsa on Thanet. This is not a case I shall make here, as I don’t believe I could do it justice, but he does spend a good deal of the book analysing how legitimate contemporary sources are.

Coming to the chapter about contemporary sources; Evans takes Gildas, Nennius, Bede and the Chronicle; giving them a thorough going through in relation to how accurate and seriously we can take them. Gildas’ work ‘On the Ruin of Britain’ was never meant to be intended as a source of history, but was in fact a polemic of the day reeling against the sins of Britons and the acts of decadent kings; and so it comes with many of the biases any political treatise would have. Evans makes the point however, that if looked at in the correct light then one can pick gems of correct information out from these sources. I may have mentioned this once before in a previous post, but the importance that Bede placed on careful attention to the truth in his book ‘History of the English Church and People’ is something that I believe every historian of early medieval England is eternally thankful for. Obviously Bede is not infallible, but he is a strong exception of the times and his work should be taken very seriously. In fact where Bede has used the oral tradition as a source for information, he even makes it clear that it is not certain that these events happened, but ‘that it is said’ that they happened. Bryan Evans follows up with analysing the oral tradition which stretched back hundreds of years, and he concludes that although there will have been many mistakes, the oral traditions will have been much more honed and accurate than oral tradition in a nation which could rely on literacy to replace memory.

There is one other area of which I found interesting enough to mention. It was an analysis of the origins of the Anglo-Saxons prior to the migration, as well as the size of the migration. It was said the decline of the Roman Empire happened during a mini-Ice Age, and although Bryan Evans does not mention this, he does talk about the erratic changes to the sea level. This can be demonstrated through the archaeological records which show that Saxon settlements on the coast of Old Saxony were built up on mounds of earth to survive the rise and fall of these changes. This combined with the pressure from the expansion of the Huns is said to be some of the reasoning for the Saxons search for a new homeland. The estimates for immigration given by Bryan Evans is around 50,000 – 100,000 Anglo-Saxons and Jutes settling in England, compared to a native population of around two million. The enigma is that modern DNA tests give a result of just over 50% Anglo-Saxon DNA for the average Englishman. According to Evan this percentage could not be achieved with such small numbers, but he gives a few hypotheses including an apartheid system which would have reduced the birth rate of native Britons and thus favour the rate of the Saxons.

When I purchased this book I was sceptical of a number of things. First that the information available for Hengest was so negligible that the book would have very little to do with the actual man, and more with the times in which he lived. This was in part true, but all the information presented was incredibly interesting and all related to the search of identifying Hengest and the life he led. The author also reconstructed the Finnsburg saga and filled in the gaps himself to create a frilling story, and although the cover art is truly atrocious and there are frequent typos located within; I have to say that this is the best Anglo-Saxon history book to date that I have read. There appears to be an air of professionalism that the publishers, ‘Anglo-Saxon books’, has about what it chooses to print, and I will be certainly checking out more of their products in the future.