KNIGHTS TEMPLARS 1119-1314

 If I went back which I will one day. I will research for more Knight Templars because our ancestors come from a long line from France. Plus I really want to research the Templars because of the history. Who knows because of Templars life these might be the only 2. It takes a lot of research on finding them. If I do it will posted on here. If you watch the TV show "The Curse of Oak Island" it has a lot of Knights Templar history. I have found 4 ancestors from watching the show. Bruce 

NIGHTS TEMPLARS 

1119-1314

I  couldn’t believe that I had uncovered a Knights Templar in our family. That’s just like unreal. I myself was very happy. This just doesn’t happen in family Descendants but like, well it’s very unexpected. I only found 2 and that’s even more unusual. Now that you can tell it made me very happy, I guess you just have to read or look up about Knights Templars. I’ve studied a lot and have researched the Knights Templars for the last 2 years. Yes in my spare time (haha). 

Templar, also called Knight Templar, member of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, a religious military order of knighthood established at the time of the Crusades that became a model and inspiration for other military orders. Originally founded to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land, the order assumed greater military duties during the 12th century. Its prominence and growing wealth, however, provoked opposition from rival orders. Falsely accused of blasphemy and blamed for Crusader failures in the Holy Land, the order was destroyed by King Philip IV of France.

A mounted Templar charging into battle, detail of a fresco in the Templar chapel at Cressac, France.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Templars particularly exalted the Virgin Mary.

The Templars not only owned ships but also the entire island of Cyprus.

The Templars evolved from physically protecting pilgrims from robbery to running a banking system that protected and guaranteed pilgrims their valuables.

After the Templar order was disbanded many former Templars became Hospitallers.

Following the success of the First Crusade (1095–99), a number of Crusader states were established in the Holy Land, but these kingdoms lacked the necessary military force to maintain more than a tenuous hold over their territories. Most Crusaders returned home after fulfilling their vows, and Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem suffered attacks from Muslim raiders. Pitying the plight of these Christians, eight or nine French knights led by Hugh de Payns vowed in late 1119 or early 1120 to devote themselves to the pilgrims’ protection and to form a religious community for that purpose. Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem, gave them quarters in a wing of the royal palace in the area of the former Temple of Solomon, and from this they derived their name.

Chwarszczany: Templar chapel

Templar chapel in Chwarszczany, Poland

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Although the Templars were opposed by those who rejected the idea of a religious military order and later by those who criticized their wealth and influence, they were supported by many secular and religious leaders. Beginning in 1127, Hugh undertook a tour of Europe and was well received by many nobles, who made significant donations to the knights. The Templars obtained further sanction at the Council of Troyes in 1128, which may have requested that Bernard of Clairvaux compose the new rule. Bernard also wrote In Praise of the New Knighthood (c. 1136), which defended the order against its critics and contributed to its growth. In 1139 Pope Innocent II issued a bull that granted the order special privileges: the Templars were allowed to build their own oratories and were not required to pay the tithe; they were also exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, being subject to the pope alone.

Templar

Chapter of the Order of the Temple Held at Paris, 22 April 1147,  Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France.

The rule of the order was modeled after the Benedictine Rule, especially as understood and implemented by the Cistercians. The Knights Templar swore an oath of poverty, chastity, and obedience and renounced the world, just as the Cistercians and other monks did. Like the monks, the Templars heard the divine office during each of the canonical hours of the day and were expected to honour the fasts and vigils of the monastic calendar. They were frequently found in prayer and expressed particular veneration to the Virgin Mary. They were not allowed to gamble, swear, or become drunk and were required to live in community, sleeping in a common dormitory and eating meals together. They were not, however, strictly cloistered, as were the monks, nor were they expected to perform devotional reading (most Templars were uneducated and unable to read Latin). The knights’ primary duty was to fight. The Templars gradually expanded their duties from protecting pilgrims to mounting a broader defense of the Crusader states in the Holy Land. They built castles, garrisoned important towns, and participated in battles, fielding significant contingents against Muslim armies until the fall of Acre, the last remaining Crusader stronghold in the Holy Land, in 1291. Their great effectiveness was attested by the sultan Saladin following the devastating defeat of Crusader forces at the Battle of Ḥaṭṭīn; he bought the Templars who were taken prisoner and later had each of them executed.

By the mid-12th century the constitution of the order and its basic structure were established. It was headed by a grand master, who was elected for life and served in Jerusalem. Templar territories were divided into provinces, which were governed by provincial commanders, and each individual house, called a preceptory, was headed by a preceptor. General chapter meetings of all members of the order were held to address important matters affecting the Templars and to elect a new master when necessary. Similar meetings were held at the provincial level and on a weekly basis in each house.

The Templars were originally divided into two classes: knights and sergeants. The knight-brothers came from the military aristocracy and were trained in the arts of war. They assumed elite leadership positions in the order and served at royal and papal courts. Only the knights wore the Templars’ distinctive regalia, a white surcoat marked with a red cross. The sergeants, or serving-brothers, who were usually from lower social classes, made up the majority of members. They dressed in black habits and served as both warriors and servants. The Templars eventually added a third class, the chaplains, who were responsible for holding religious services, administering the sacraments, and addressing the spiritual needs of the other members. Although women were not allowed to join the order, there seems to have been at least one Templar nunnery.

The Templars eventually acquired great wealth. The kings and great nobles of Spain, France, and England gave lordships, castles, seignories, and estates to the order, so that by the mid-12th century the Templars owned properties scattered throughout western Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Holy Land. The Templars’ military strength enabled them to safely collect, store, and transport bullion to and from Europe and the Holy Land, and their network of treasure storehouses and their efficient transport organization made them attractive as bankers to kings as well as to pilgrims to the Holy Land.

Templar castle at Tomar, Port., designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.

The Templars were not without enemies, however. They had long engaged in a bitter rivalry with the other great military order of Europe, the Hospitallers, and, by the late 13th century, proposals were being made to merge the two contentious orders into one. The fall of Acre to the Muslims in 1291 removed much of the Templars’ reason for being, and their great wealth, extensive landholdings in Europe, and power inspired resentment toward them. Although an ex-Templar had accused the order of blasphemy and immorality as early as 1304 (though more likely 1305), it was only later—after Philip IV ordered the arrest on October 13, 1307, of every Templar in France and sequestered all the Templars’ property in the country—that most of the people of Europe became aware of the extent of the alleged crimes of the order. Philip accused the Templars of heresy and immorality; specific charges against them included idol worship (of a bearded male head said to have great powers), worship of a cat, homosexuality, and numerous other errors of belief and practice. At the order’s secret initiation rite, it was claimed, the new member denied Christ three times, spat on the crucifix, and was kissed on the base of the spine, on the navel, and on the mouth by the knight presiding over the ceremony. The charges, now recognized to be without foundation, were calculated to stoke contemporary fears of heretics, witches, and demons and were similar to allegations Philip had used against Pope Boniface VIII.

The reasons why Philip sought to destroy the Templars are unclear; he may have genuinely feared their power and been motivated by his own piety to destroy a heretical group, or he may have simply seen an opportunity to seize their immense wealth, being chronically short of money himself. At any rate, Philip mercilessly pursued the order and had many of its members tortured to secure false confessions. Although Pope Clement V, himself a Frenchman, ordered the arrest of all the Templars in November 1307, a church council in 1311 voted overwhelmingly against suppression, and Templars in countries other than France were found innocent of the charges. Clement, however, under strong pressure from Philip, suppressed the order on March 22, 1312, and the Templars’ property throughout Europe was transferred to the Hospitallers or confiscated by secular rulers. Knights who confessed and were reconciled to the church were sent into retirement in the order’s former houses or in monasteries, but those who failed to confess or who relapsed were put on trial. Among those judged guilty was the order’s last grand master, Jacques de Molay. Brought before a commission established by the pope, de Molay and other leaders were judged relapsed heretics and sentenced to life in prison. The master protested and repudiated his confession and was burned at the stake, the last victim of a highly unjust and opportunistic persecution.

Jacques de Molay

An illustration of Templar grand master Jacques de Molay.

At the time of its destruction, the order was an important institution in both Europe and the Holy Land and already an object of myth and legend. The Templars were associated with the Grail legend and were identified as defenders of the Grail castle through the remainder of the Middle Ages. In the 18th century the Freemasons claimed to have received in a secret line of succession esoteric knowledge that the Templars had possessed. Later fraternal orders similarly invoked the Templar name to bolster claims of ancient or revealed wisdom. The Templars were also identified as gnostics and were accused of involvement in a number of conspiracies, including one that was allegedly behind the French Revolution. One often cited but likely apocryphal account relates that, after the execution of Louis XVI, a French Freemason dipped a cloth in the slain king’s blood and cried out, “Jacques de Molay, you are avenged!”

Templar

Parade of the Knights Templar 

In the 20th century the image of Christ on the Shroud of Turin was identified as the head allegedly worshipped by the Templars. Resurrecting a vein of pseudo-history and Grail legends, authors in the 20th century, claiming to assert historical fact but writing what most scholars regard as fantasy, implicated the Templars in a vast conspiracy dedicated to preserving the bloodline of Jesus. Similar occult conspiracy theories were also used by writers of fiction in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Two Templars 

Robert de Holland 1283-1328

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS 20 December 1307

Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand (c. 1283 – 1328) was an English nobleman, born in Lancashire.

Holland was a son of Sir Robert de Holland of Upholland, Lancashire and Elizabeth, daughter of William de Samlesbury.

Holland was a member of the noble Holland family and a favourite official of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster and was knighted by 1305. He was appointed on 20 December 1307 in a matter concerning the Knight Templars, shortly before Edward II ordered their arrest and trials in January 1308. In October 1313 Holland was pardoned for his role in the death of Piers Gaveston. From 1314 to 1321 he was called to Parliament as a baron and was appointed as secretary to the Earl of Lancaster.

Banastre Rebellion (1315)

Holland's favored treatment by the powerful earl caused his rival knights in the area, led by Adam Banastre, Henry de Lea, and William de Bradshagh (Bradshaw), to start a campaign of violence towards him and the earl's other supporters known as the Banastre Rebellion. The rebels protested against the earl's actions and authority by attacking the homes of his supporters and several castles, including Liverpool Castle. Holland later assisted in the hunt for fugitives after the rebels had been routed in Preston by a force under the command of the Sheriff of Lancashire.

Battle of Boroughbridge (1322) and Invasion of England (1326)

On 4 March 1322 Holland was ordered to join the king with horses and men to defend against Lancaster's rebellion. Twelve days later Holland betrayed the king and fought alongside Lancaster at the Battle of Boroughbridge.

After their defeat, Holland surrendered and was imprisoned and had his lands confiscated. He was released from prison but was accused of having joined with other rebels in raids on the estates of Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester over the next few years. Holland was again imprisoned in Warwick Castle before being moved in 1326 to Northampton Castle from which he escaped.

Demise

Following Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer's overthrow of Edward II, Holland was pardoned for his escape from Northampton at the request of Henry de Beaumont; his lands were restored to him on 24 December 1327.

Holland still had enemies from the Banastre Rebellion though and in June 1328 they attempted to outlaw Holland for the deaths of Banastre and his followers, thirteen years after their deaths. Holland appealed against this but was killed in October in a wood near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Thomas Wither is named by some as the murderer and is claimed to have been a supporter of the new Earl of Lancaster, Henry but in light of Holland's outlawry in June may have been a supporter of Banastre as well. Holland was beheaded, his head sent to the Earl of Lancaster at Waltham Cross and his body to Preston, Lancashire where it was buried in the church of Grey Friars. The inaccuracies of some accounts of Holland suggest his rivals may have smeared him deliberately.

An Inquisition Post Mortem held in October 1328 found he held lands in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and London.

Holland married before 1309/10 (being contracted to marry in or before 1305/6) Maud la Zouche, daughter and co-heiress of Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche of Ashby, by his wife, Eleanor de Segrave. 

Holland and Maud had nine children:

1. Robert de Holand (born c.1311–12 [aged 16 in 1328, aged 30 and more in 1349] – died 16 March 1372/3), 2nd Baron Holand. He married before 25 June 1343 (date of fine) Elizabeth _____.

2. Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent, KG (died 26 or 28 December 1360), of Broughton, Buckinghamshire, Hawes (in Brackley), Brackley and King's Sutton, Northamptonshire, Horden, Durham, etc., created Earl of Kent in 1360. He married Joan Plantagenet, the "Fair Maid of Kent", daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, a son of King Edward I by his second wife Margaret of France, daughter of Philip III of France.

3. Sir Otho Holland, KG (died 3 September 1359), of Ashford, Chesterfield, and Dalbury, Derbyshire, Yoxall, Staffordshire, Talworth (in Long Ditton), Surrey, etc., Governor of the Channel Islands, 1359. He married Joan _____.

4. Alan de Holand, of Great Houghton, Yorkshire, living 13 October 1331 (date of fine). He was killed sometime before 30 October 1339 by William Bate, of Dunham-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire.

5. Isabel de Holand. Mistress of John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey.

6. Margaret de Holand (died 20 or 22 August 1349). She married Sir John Tempest, of Bracewell, Yorkshire, England.

7. Maud de Holand (living 1342). She married (1st) John de Mowbray, 3rd Baron Mowbray; (2nd) Thomas de Swinnerton, 3rd Lord Swinnerton.

8. Elizabeth de Holand (died 13 July 1387). She married Henry Fitz Roger, of Chewton, Somerset, descendant of Herbert of Winchester.

9. Eleanor de Holand (died before 21 Nov. 1341). She married John Darcy, 2nd Lord Darcy of Knaith.

Sir Laurence Hammerton 1380-1449. 

Knights Templars Seneschal 

Hellifield and The Hamertons The origin of the name Hellifield Some commentators have said that the name originates from Helgi Field or Hells Field. Hell can mean holy and also ‘Hell’ was the Norse goddess of the underworld, so perhaps that is more to the local myth than meets the eye. Sir John Harcourt was one of the last Knights Templar Senchenals and was buried upright ready to serve in the afterlife.

The history of Hellifield Peel is intertwined with the Hamerton family, who came to be joint lords in the late 14th Century. Laurence Hamerton was granted a license to add crenellations and Towers in 1441; the towers can still be seen both inside and out, the building construction clearly visible. The Hamertons’ most infamous period was the northern rebellion and Pilgrimage of Grace. These were the Catholic populace rising up to rebel against Henry VIII’s suppression of the church to justify his marriage to Anne Boleyn and to swell the empty coffers of the King. Sir Stephen Hamerton rebelled against the King twice; the first time he was pardoned. Objecting to Henry VIII was not the most intelligent action - Sir Stephen was lucky to be let off the first time. The second time he was hanged and beheaded at Tyburn. Incidentally, he was betrayed by his uncle, Lord Clifford, who took over as joint Lord from the Hospitalizers. All of the Hamerton houses and lands were annexed by the Crown which, when you realize you could ride from Lancaster to York on Hamerton, property must have been worth his uncle betraying him. These lands now form part of Duke of Devonshire’s estates.

Sir Stephens’ son died of a ‘broken heart’ and his wife and child died within the year, most likely poisoned to avoid any complications. The Peel was then annexed by the Crown for nearly 40 years. The building was returned to the Hamerton ownership in the 1570’s. This marked the biggest change in the house’s history for 250 years. The Peel Tower was doubled in size by the addition of 3 levels of major rooms. These are now the kitchen, the drawing room, and our bedroom - ‘the square room’. The majority of existing crenellations also date from this period as well as the mullioned windows. The existing Chapel was most likely removed at this stage, the lancet windows being removed and the Piscina blocked up. The Tower would have finally become a home. Huge mullioned windows were constructed on all levels and you can still see the outline of lintels, jambs and sills. The building would most likely have been completely rendered and lime washed although this is up for debate. From this period the Hamertons had periods of financial difficulties when the Peel was leased and split in two, then three, ownerships in the early 17th Century between 1601 and 1630. In this period ‘James Hamerton Esq’ is recorded as riding out to meet King James I on his procession down to London to claim the throne. Much is made of the wife and sister-in-law, so they were probably ‘pretty fit’ as I believe the modern parlance is for such a description. James was also reputed to be one of the magistrates at the trial of the ‘Witches of Pendle’. The next period of activity at the Peel was the late 18th Century. In around the 1780’s the Peel was completely remodeled with large Georgian windows being introduced. The internal plan would have been greatly altered with the construction of a cantilevered stone staircase. The original spiral stone stairs were ripped out along with many other period features, no doubt. No English Heritage then to stop you - I bet Laurence Lewellyn Bowen would have had a field day.

There is a description of the Peel and its interior by the artist Philip G. Hamerton who was a distant relative of the Hamertons of Hellifield Peel. P.G. Hamerton described an antique paneled ceiling with panelling throughout; Philip was obviously smitten with Hellifield Peel as he wrote a novel about the house and this family seat called Wenderholm. He also sketched the building and described the elderly James Hamerton who introduced the game law repeal, nearly prompting revolution across the country.

The Hamerton line finally came to an end with the death of Chrisnall Hamerton. Chris Hall's daughter Dorothy leased the Peel to Sir William Nicholson who restored the property extensively adding extensions to the existing tower circa 1914. Sir William was also a close friend of the Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who often used to stay at The Peel designing several buildings whilst in residence. Gledstone Hall, being close by, was one of the projects Lutyens supervised from his residence at The Peel. Sir William was taken ill in the late 1930’s, moving to live at Ruthin Castle. Shortly after, The Peel was requisitioned by the MOD as a prisoner of war camp for firstly the Italians, then German prisoners and, after the war, a home for the displaced or homeless. In 1948 it was returned to Dorothy Hamerton, who sold the estate at auction.

Harry Lund of Otley (whose furniture shop still exists) bought the estate along with the nearby woods and lake. Lund was responsible for stripping out much of the building materials. He held a dilapidation auction at The Peel which is where Tot Lord, a local Archeologist, bought a lot of the existing fabric, selling panelling off to pubs in Settle and a house in Kirby Malham. Tot has received a lot of unfair criticism for destroying Hellifield Peel, but I believe he was trying to salvage the building’s history before it got destroyed by the elements. The estate was bought in 1965 by Florence Hargreaves, passing to her son Nigel who sold the Peel Tower to Karen and Francis Shaw in 2004.