Table of contents for Knights Templar - Lost secrets revealed in Inside History Collection

Historians find the Middle Ages a period shrouded in mystery. On the one hand, sources speak of greedy kings and corrupt popes who flourished during a time of widespread hunger, disease and servitude. On the other, nobler thoughts began to flourish. Led by their blind faith in the Word of God, holy orders of knights attempted to protect the weak. The most powerful was the Knights Templar, loved by the people and whose code was the epitome of honour. But the Knights slowly succumbed to dark forces – if contemporary rumours are to be believed. The order made alliances with Muslim princes, performed devilish rituals and were corrupted by their immense wealth. And then one fateful day the Knighthood’s most dangerous enemy decided to strike – with fatal consequences. This…

The heavy sound of the chapel’s bell tore apart the night’s silence. Theuderic had been dreaming, but the bell’s toll made him stumble out of bed – or rather off the thin straw mattress that served as his bed. The young man knew that in a few minutes he must be in the chapel, otherwise he would invoke God’s – and more especially his commander’s – wrath. Theuderic ran across the courtyard to the chapel, where the house’s four other Knights nodded at him by way of greeting. For half an hour the men immersed themselves in prayer, overseen by the house’s priest. Afterwards, Theuderic walked around the stable, checking on the Knights’ horses, before returning to his small chamber and settling once more on to his mattress. As his…

Three heavy blows on the door signify the arrival of the Apprentice. Blindfolded, he is led by a group of Freemasons into a lofty hall where the ceremony is to take place. The newcomer blinks as hands deftly remove the blindfold. At first, he can see very little, because the hall is dimly lit, and heavy curtains cover its narrow windows. Above him, the ceiling is painted midnight blue, and scattered with glittering stars that represent the constellation Orion. The muffled sound of organ music reaches his ears. The new arrival looks around. In the dim, yellow light of three candelabras placed in a triangle on the floor, he sees three brothers standing before him. The men are dressed in dinner jackets, with aprons around their waist. The new initiate…

It was late afternoon on 18th March 1314 when two men rowed out on the River Seine towards Île des Juifs. The sun was setting over Paris when the men landed, but they could still see the bonfire they were supposed to light. It was small – deliberately so – with only a few pieces of firewood. Men had to burn slowly so that they had time to confess their sins. As the fire licked up their legs, they would have a chance to admit their heresy before they met God. One of the men who would burn was Jacques de Molay, grand master of the Knights Templar. On paper, his title made him one of God’s most-important servants on Earth, and the head of arguably the most powerful army…

The wind tugged at John Bowers’ long green coat as he moved back and forth across the Glastonbury Tor in Somerset. With his trained eye, Bowers scoured the terrain for tell-tale hollows while his dowsing rods looked for traces of water that might reveal caves beneath Glastonbury’s fertile grass. The days Bowers had spent on the 158-metre-tall hill numbered in the hundreds. The former bus driver was convinced that Glastonbury Tor hid the Holy Grail, and for years he’d searched around Glastonbury along with thousands of other Grail hunters. The mythical hill, which first gained prominence in the legends of King Arthur, has become a magnet for adventurers with one shared obsession: finding Christianity’s most fabled object. According to tradition, the Holy Grail is the cup that Jesus Christ drank…

Saladin watched with increasing unease as the enemy approached. The Sultan of Egypt and Syria looked on as a cloud of men, horses and dust roared towards his army. The earth shook under the horses’ heavy hooves as the enemy spurred them into a gallop. Saladin’s Muslim warriors unleashed a rallying cry and fired a swarm of arrows at the approaching enemy – to no effect. Wearing heavy armour covered by fluttering white surcoats with blood-red crosses on their chests, the Knights Templar continued their charge. Around 50 metres before the first line of Muslim defence, the Knights lowered their lances. Sources say that the Knights were “so close together that an apple thrown into their midst would not fall to the ground without touching people or horses”. Their lances…

Two priests entered the cathedral in Turin early one morning in April 1988. The men switched off the alarm system and pulled out a heavy wooden box. Inside this box was a silver casket containing what is perhaps the Catholic Church’s greatest treasure: a piece of linen four metres long with dark markings that has been revered for centuries. The markings are believed to be an imprint of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth – the burial shroud of Christ. Under the supervision of the Archbishop of Turin, the two priests spread out the cloth on a long table to allow an expert in textiles to cut three thin strips from one corner. Among those present were Michael Tite from the British Museum. Tite’s job was to transfer the strips into…