The Templars began as a small group of soldier/monks whose goal was to protect Christian pilgrims from being harassed by Saracens on their way to the Holy Land. Eventually they expanded, were given money and land by Western monarchs and nobles and became soldiers in the Crusades.

If you recognize the name Templar, you've probably read Dan Brown's best seller THE DA VINCE CODE, Umberto Eco's FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM or watched the cable series about the treasure supposedly buried on Oak Island in Nova Scotia. The Templars have also aroused the interest of various conspiracy theorists who think they're still around and involved in world dominance.

There are some familiar names that crop up while reading Dan Jones's book on The Templars. There are two that are equally famous: Richard the lion-hearted and Saladin, the Moslem sultan who won back Jerusalem. The first Crusade was successful because of the disarray of the various Moslem sects, who hated each other as much as the Christians. The first Crusade captured Jerusalem and crowned their own king Baldwin I. I knew about Baldwin but I didn't know the kingdom lasted, off and on, from 1099 until the early thirteen hundreds. Appendix III lists all the kings and queens. Saladin is important because he united the various Moslem sects into a fighting force able to win back Jerusalem. As you read about the various crusades it appears the Moslems usually had the upper hand, sometimes because the Christian leaders were such terrible tacticians with giant egos, constantly bickering. But the Crusaders had success under Richard (although he never attacked Jerusalem) and later under Frederick II Hohenstaufen, the Holy Roman emperor, who negotiated a truce with the Egyptian sultan to allow Christian soldiers to visit Jerusalem.

The thread that runs through the book is “How did the Templars meet their demise”? If you want to blame somebody, blame Phillip IV of France who thought he was God on earth. Phillip needed money; at first he tried to get it by expelling the Jews from France and confiscating their money and lands. It wasn't enough. What the average history freak doesn't know (I certainly didn't) was that the Templars were so good at handling money that some of the Western monarchs used them as a treasury. Phillip knew they were loaded. I was also under the impression that the Templars were rounded up on one fateful day. Actually it was a long involved process, and Pope Clement V came to their defense. He didn't want some secular king punishing his soldier monks. But Phillip used torture to elicit confessions. He even got one from James of Molay, the master of the Templars who was in France trying to work up enthusiasm for another Crusade. There's another glossary that lists the various Templar masters from Hugh of Payns to James of Molay.