The Templar's Curse

On the 18th March 1314, in Paris, Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, by then an old man, and Geoffroi de Charney, preceptor of the Knights Templar in Normandy, are led to the stake. Before the pyre at their feet is set alight, Jacques de Molay speaks to the watching crowd, flinging a curse at those who had condemned them:

“…God will revenge our death…

All who are against us

Will suffer for us…”

A month later Pope Clement V, who had helped to condemn the Knights Templar, died. Their chief persecutor, Philip IV of France, followed him to the grave a few months later. Famine, plague and revolt throughout Europe were to follow. Was the Templar’s Curse coming home to roost?

Did the Knights Templar curse 14th century Europe? And what happened to them after the order was disbanded?

• The author has translated the transcript of the Templar’s trial from Latin and includes many of these passages in the book – this will be the best available source for the trial transcripts in English
• The book is written with great flair and style – the book opens with a gripping translation of Molay’s curse and will hold readers attention from the word go!
• Lots of information on sources will help readers investiagte the sources further

Evelyn Lord is course director of the Master of Studies of Local and Regional History at the Universityof Cambridge, and staff tutor in local history. She has published widely on local history in academic and popular journals. Her latest paper compares the way in which the Templars farmed their land in Hertfordshire with other ecclesiastical and secular landlords. Her books include DerbyPast, Investigating the Twentieth Century: A Local Historian's Guide to Sources, The Knights Templar in Britain(Longman)and The Stuarts' Secret Army (Longman). Her interest in the Templars comes from leading field trips to Denny Abbey in Cambridgeshire; one of the Templars' hospitals in England.