"Da Vinci Code", the Knights Templar and William Marshall, the "greatest knight that ever lived", see it all in the Temple Church hidden in the City of London.
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See the effigies of nine knights in the amazing round church of the mysterious Knights Templar consecrated in 1185. One of the effigies is William Marshall, who, when he was buried, was described by the Archbishop of Canterbury as the greatest ever knight. In January 1215, a deputation from the barons in dispute with their king, met king John in this temple which eventually resulted in him signing Magna Carta in June of that year. Magna Carta being the foundation of democracy and bills of rights throughout the world. This was also the place featured in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code where Sophie and Robert unsuccessfully looked for a coded clue and Sophie has shivers down her spine as she gazed at the “grotesques” (ugly distorted faces) on the temple’s wall.
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What is there to see at the Temple Church, London?
Who were the Knights Templar?
What have the The Knights Templar have to do with King Arthur, the “Quest for the Holy Grail” and Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code”?
Who was William Marshall and why was William Marshall called, “The greatest ever knight”?
Why is Magna Carta important and what are the key principles of Magna Carta, partly brokered by William Marshall and sealed by King John and later by Henry III?
What is there to see at the Temple Church, London?
Above. The exterior of the Temple Church. In this area and going down to the River Thames, the Knights Templars had their round church, (consecrated in 1185) two halls, cloisters, domestic buildings, a forge for the creation of armour and weapons, a tide mill and a treasury, a safe area for deposits from the barons, wealthy merchants and the kings of England. They chose to build a round church based on the design of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which was the place where Jesus was buried, having been crucified and, from where he was resurrected. It was, to Christians, the most holy place on earth and so the Temple Church was their link to the Holy Land. Being round, it stood out as a very different shaped church from the norm as did the Knights Templar. The church of the Holy Sepulchre was less than a mile away from their headquarters, the Aqsa Mosque, which they believed was the “Temple of the Lord where Jesus was presented to God according to Luke’s Gospel.
Note one of the symbols of emblems of the Knights Templar is two knights on one horse. The “Grand Masters” of the Temple Church often used this symbol on their seals. There have been many interpretations of what it symbolises. One theory is that it represents the knight’s dual function as a monk and a knight. Another is that it shows their vow of poverty but I prefer the idea that they are there for each other. If a knight loses his horse in battle, he can always depend on another knight helping him out, a kind of chivalric duty or obligation.
Above, you can see the circular structure of the Temple church which differs from the typical rectangular shape of English churches of that time. Often most churches that you visit will be cruciform (cross) in shape. Have a look at some of the cathedrals elsewhere in this blog.
Above, 8 effigies of knights and 2 copies of effigies of Kings, John and his son Henry III. Please note, the effigies are not tombs, the knights bodies are be somewhere under the floor along with another one hundred more.
Above, the 8 effigies as seen from the clerestory, a kind first floor gallery.
Above. On the left, the great William Marshall and on the right, his eldest son. Note his son has crossed legs. It is now believed that the knight has these to show that he is walking towards the viewer. Marshall served five kings and was one of the chief mediators between King John and the rebellious barons resulting in Magna Carta, a document that guaranteed individuals rights to this day.
Below. Unfortunately a Second World War bombing raid on London in 1941 resulted in the temple roof collapsing onto the effigies and damaging them. Fortunately, plaster copies of four of the effigies were made in 1850 and are now in the V and A museum. Consequently, copies of the copies were made and this one shows what William Marshall’s effigy was like, undamaged by aerial bombing situated quite close to the original.
Above, six of the effigies and in the background, two copies of effigies of kings associated with the Temple, John and Henry III.
Above, a copy of King John’s effigy from Worcester Cathedral. King John was the king who sealed the first Magna Carta with the help/advice of William Marshall.
Below, a copy of an effigy of Henry III, who re-issued Magna Carta in 1225. Henry enlarged the Temple Church by adding the chancel so that his body could be interred there along with his queen. At some point, Henry changed his mind and he ended up in Westminster Abbey. You can see the original effigy in Westminster Abbey.
Above; Two more effigies, one of which is Geoffrey de Mandeville, the first Earl of Essex.
Below: Some effigies that are sadly unidentified. Unfortunately, it was such a beautiful day that the light coming through the windows blotted out the right knight’s head!
In the film, the Da Vinci Code, Sophie Neveu walks into the Temple Church and is taken aback at what she sees on the wall. Below are three sets of the grotesques that she saw. Some are medieval but some are Victorian copies.
Below, a view of the floor in the clerestory or gallery. These are Victorian copies of medieval tiles that even have little holes/marks to make them look medieval. If you look closely you will see plenty of Knights Templar in full battle gear.
Above; the windows were destroyed in the bombing of World War two and so are modern. Look closely in the bottom right and left corners and you will see templars.
Above; the East Window. The arrow on the bottom right shows the emblem of the Knights Templar, the two knights sharing a horse. Above it is an image of how the Victorians saw the church with its extended pepper pot roof which was destroyed in World War Two and returned to its original look. Arrowed on the left of the window is St Pauls in the “Blitz” of World War Two with flames all around. In the middle is a reference to the New Testament story where Jesus throws out the money-lenders from the temple in Jerusalem.
Below; on entering the stairwell to climb up to the clerestory, I noticed this little window which looked to my untrained eye as medieval. It shows the templars’ emblem, two knights sharing a horse.
Alec Loxton, in a “History Hit” article “ Templars and Tragedies: The Secrets of London’s Temple Church”, pointed out that; ”The circular staircase of Temple Church hides a secret space. Behind a door is a space four and a half feet long and two feet, nine inches wide. The story goes that this is the penitentiary cell where Walter Bacheler spent his final, miserable days”. She explains that: “Walter Bacheler, the preceptor of Ireland, refused to follow the Order’s rules. He was locked away for eight weeks, and starved to death. And in a final insult, he was even refused a proper burial”!
2. Who were the Knights Templar?
The simple answer is that they were one of the most important organisations in the medieval world. In his introduction to his amazing book, “The Templars”, Dan Jones wrote;
that senior Templar officials were….. “friends and enemies (of) kings and princes, queens and countesses, patriarchs and popes. The order helped finance wars, loaned money to pay kings’ ransoms, subcontracted the financial management of royal governments, collected taxes, built castles, ran cities, raised armies, interfered in trade disputes, engaged in private wars against other military orders, carried out political assassinations and even helped make men kings``.
In a short article on the internet he went on to write;
“From as early as the 13th century, the Templars have been popping up in popular culture. Around 1200 A.D. they appeared in a wildly popular German edition of the legends of King Arthur, in which Templar-like knights were portrayed as guardians of a mysterious object known as the Holy Grail.
He goes on to say that it was only natural that their “reputation as fearsome warriors” would lead authors to romanticise them and that now in the 21st century we are obsessed with them. He cites as examples, Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and other such books, films and TV dramas and video games such as “Assassins Creed”.
It is hard to merge the concepts of a monk and a knight but that is exactly what a Knights Templar was in the medieval world. How did this odd union come about? We need to go back to the period 1095-1102 and an event known as the “First Crusade”. This was a campaign of Western European armies (approximately 60 000 soldiers) uniting to recapture the Holy Land and', Jerusalem in particular, from the occupying Muslim forces (Seljuk Turks). This was in response to calls for help from the Byzantine Emperor and Pope Urban II to recover for all Christians, the burial place of Jesus and the Holy Land. Muslims had controlled the Holy Land since 638 AD and had allowed Christians to visit it but in the 11th century AD, visiting could only be achieved safely with an armed guard. It was the third holiest city to Muslims, after Mecca and Modina. It was important because, according to interpretations of the Koran, the Prophet Muhammad was taken, at night, to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem with the assistance of the Archangel Gabriel and a mythical creature called a “Buraq” and from there, they ascended to heaven. He could make such a long journey so quickly because he was able sit on the “Buraq” which had wings and could fly.
In July 1099, the Crusaders were successful in their goal and in regained control of Jerusalem. Sadly, victory in Jerusalem was followed by a massacre of Jews and Muslims. Their beheaded bodies were left in piles in the streets to fester. Some even had their stomachs slit wide open in a search for gold coins that they may have swallowed to prevent the crusaders form seizing them!
People from Europe could once again make pilgrimages to the Holy Land but there was now a question of how safe would Pilgrims be in their movements in the Holy Land. Pilgrims travelled across the Holy Land in fear of an ambush by brigands. According to Dan Jones, “everywhere corpses lay rotting in the heat, in some cases half eaten by wild animals, foxes, jackals and even leopards! It was very hard to bury the dead in the sun baked earth and no-one wanted to hang about attempting it when they could suddenly be facing an ambush. In march 1119, the annual spectacle in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ended in a massacre of 300 christians. Every Easter an oil lamp is placed near the rock of Jesus’ tomb and miraculously it would burst into flame. On this particular occasion, 700 excited pilgrims rushed out of the church and into the desert in the vague direction of the River Jordan hoping to bathe in its waters twenty miles away. Being unarmed and unprotected it was easy for nearly 50% of them to be butchered.
The answer was the creation of the “Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon”—later known simply as the Knights Templar by a Frenchman called Hugues de Payens (or Hugh of Payns) and between 8 and 30 companions in 1119. Their “raison d’être” would be ensuring the pilgrims’ safety. It has been suggested that they may have got their idea from hearing of a group of people who had created a free hospital (the “Hospital of St John”) for pilgrims in Jerusalem in 1080 who became to be known as “The “Hospitallers”. The Templars’ base was to be the al-Aqsa mosque on “The Temple Mount” in Jerusalem (hence Knights Templar), given to them by the King of Jerusalem having once been the site of the Temple of Solomon. In 1126, they received support from Bernard of Clairvaux, a prominent and influential French abbot who published a document titled, “In Praise of the New Knighthood,” a text that supported the Knights Templar. Dan Jones has written, “there was probably no-one better in Europe to have asked to help.” Bernard, later, St Bernard, contacted the Pope and he too, gave the Knights Templar support. From here, they now sent representatives all over Europe to encourage people to join their organisation and to motivate the rich and the poor to donate money to their cause. A substantial amount of the donations they received were from “ordinary people” who didn’t have vast riches but believed in their cause. Small amounts of land and products that could be sold as well as small amounts of money would add up to equal some of the large donations they received from the rich, powerful and famous.
A closeup of Victorian Knights’Templar tile
The knights were asked to take their monastic vows of poverty, chastity and odedience as well as pledge themselves to ensure the safety of pilgrims. Following their rules meant that they weren’t allowed to drink, gamble or swear. As with other monks prayer seven times a day was also a duty but they also had to agree to never wear fashionable pointy shoes ( pagan possessions) or fashionable clothing, rarely speak at mealtimes and even never to kiss their mothers! Initially, there were 68 rules but overtime as the order expanded in number, wealth and roles, these rose to over one hundred.
In his article on the “Knights Templar Rulebook”, Bryn Holland wrote that the Templars were warned about the company of women;
“the company of women is a dangerous thing, for by it the old devil has led many from the straight path to Paradise. Henceforth, let not ladies be admitted into the house of the Temple, that is why, very dear brothers, …………. the flower of chastity is always maintained among you.”
Bryn holland also quoted ;
“We believe it to be a dangerous thing for any ….(templar) to look too much upon the face of woman. For this reason none of you may presume to kiss a woman, be it widow, young girl, mother, sister, aunt or any other; and henceforth the Knighthood of Jesus Christ should avoid at all costs the embraces of women, by which men have perished many times, so that they may remain eternally before the face of God with a pure conscience and sure life.”
Mark Cartwright in the World History Encyclopaedia writes”:
Skilled with the lance, sword and crossbow, and well-armoured, the Knights Templar and other military orders were the best trained and equipped of any members of a Crusader army. For this reason, they were often deployed to protect the flanks, vanguard and rear of an army in the field. The Templars were particularly renowned for their disciplined group cavalry charges when, in tight formation, they blasted through enemy lines and caused havoc which could then be exploited by allied troops following up their advance. “
From the British Library
Militarily, the Knights Templar took part in wars all over Europe as well as the middle east. In Spain and Portugal they helped christian forces push back the Muslim Moors in what is known as the “Reconquest”. In the Iberian peninsula they built castles such as at Almurol in Portugal and Peniscola in Spain. They were often given a key role to play in some of the Crusader battles and according to Livia Gershon, seemed to be highly professional and well trained, compared to some of the “ragtag christian armies” with minimal training. She goes on to say:
“They acted as the advance force in a number of battles of the Crusades, including the Battle of Montgisard (1177), when they helped the greatly outnumbered Christian forces defeat an army led by the great Muslim commander Saladin”. This defeat was one of the most notable battles of the Crusades with muslim historians considering that Saladin’s defeat set him back ten years until his victory at the battle of Hattin in 1187.
Over time Templar knights were often a key component of military operations but the Templar’s financial operations made them very rich. Their reputation for security encouraged rich landowners and even kings to place their wealth in the hands of the Templars for safekeeping. They arranged international money exchanges so that a lord going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem could deposit money in the Temple in Paris or London and draw out money when he arrived in Jerusalem. The Templars acquired and were given land and with land, comes wealth. The Templars became used to handling large sums such as £29 000 in taxes from Nottingham were deposited in London in 1238 and in 1307, King Edward II withdrew £50 000 from the Temple in the form of gold, silver and jewels. By the end of the 13th century, the Templars were handling a large part of the French royal finances and with such wealth came influence and power. Merchants were now issuing credit notes via the Templars in one part of Europe for merchandise and these notes when presented in another part of Europe could be cashed. All of this was tax free due to their religious status which served to increase their wealth even more. Envy of that vast wealth and power eventually led to their downfall.
The fall of the Templars
In the last quarter of the 13th century the crusaders hold on the Holy land diminished and eventually faltered completely. The Knights Templars had to make their new headquarters in Cyprus an island that they had purchased from Richard the Lionheart, a hundred years earlier. However, the Knights Templar had made too many enemies from their own side, in Europe. People became envious of their riches despite their vow of poverty. They incurred the wrath of both Kings, popes and nobles because they refused to cancel debts and yet they paid no tax and seemed like a money making machine. They were now the centre of lots of rumours about their practices and to top it all, some influential people were now questioning their reason to exist now that all of the Holy Land was now gone. The king of France, Philip IV had financial problems and saw the demise of the Knights Templars as a way as easing some of them. Pope Clement IV was also thinking along similar lines and in October the axe came down on them. On Friday 13th October, Philip ordered that every Knights Templar in France should be arrested, kept in solitary confinement and questioned. Various religious crimes now came to light such as spitting and urinating on the crucifix as part of their initiation ceremony and worshipping idols They were given the choice, confess their sins and return to “the true church” or be condemned to death for heresy. On the 12th May, 54 Knights Templar were burnt to death in Paris and more were to follow in the weeks ahead. By 1312, armed with all the confessions, Philip was able to persuade Pope Clement V to dissolve the Templars Order and could now seize their assets. He had a track record of seizing assets, having taken them from Italian merchants and Jews in 1306. He had debased the French coinage and so the assets of the Knights templars was an obvious and very fruitful, next step.
54 Knights Templar were burnt to death in Paris from the British Library
Edward II ordered Knights Templars to be arrested in January 1308 and, after the Pope had sent two inquisitors, some confessed to heresy. As in France, assets were seized and the Temple Church was handed over to the Knights Hospitallers. Today, most historians believe that the Knights Templar across Europe and England, were innocent of most of the charges. Eventually, two hundred years later, Henry VIII closed down all monasteries and religious houses, and in the process, dissolved the Knights Hospitallers and gave the Temple grounds to two colleges of law.
3. What have the The Knights Templar have to do with King Arthur, the “Quest for the Holy Grail” and Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code”?
The story of King Arthur was made popular in the 12th Century by the monk, Geoffrey Of Monmouth. However, no mention of “The Holy Grail” was made in his “History of the Kings of Britain” completed around 1138. Fifty years later, the Frenchman, Chretien de Troyes added to Geoffrey’s account and adds various aspects of what we think of as Arthurian, such as Knights Lancelot and Percival, the “Round Table” and “The Holy Grail”. The story of the Grail was further enhanced by German Wolfram Von Eschenbach who believed it was a special stone. Chretien suggested it was a dish, whereas today, people usually think of it as a cup used by Jesus in “The Last Supper”. In the various stories it was given miraculous powers such as providing eternal youth. Any mention of knights in literature would have used the Knights Templars as role models and so over time they became linked to the grail and quests to find it.
By the 20th century the author, Dan Brown suggested, in his best selling book, “The Da Vinci Code”, that the Grail was a secret and that the Knights Templar were the guardians of that secret. The basis of the book was the secret that Jesus got married to Mary Magdalen and they had a child. From that act, a family line over the generations was created and the Templars had to protect the secret and the descendants of Jesus. The film of the book came out in 2006 and created further interest in the Knights Templars and this new version of the “Grail Quest”. In the process, the main characters fly to London and visit the Temple Church hoping to solve a riddle which would help them discover more about the grail. Unfortunately for them, this was an error because the clue they were looking for was Sir Isaac Newton’s tomb in Westminster Abbey. They erroneously believed that the effigies in the temple were tombs and thus they had to rush over to Westminster.
4. Why is William Marshal considered the greatest ever knight?
A statue of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, outside of Pembroke Castle.
In the in his biography of William Marshal, “The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power behind five English Thrones”, Thomas Asbridge wrote:
“William also possessed innate qualities and acquired skills that set him apart. Marshal’s raw physicality allowed him to absorb battering blows that might fell others, while his strength lent jarring force to the attacks he delivered with either lance or sword. Few could match the assured agility of his horsemanship and a canny, guileful strategic awareness meant that he was able to outthink opponents.”
He goes on to give evidence about Marshal’s exploits in a tournament;
“At an event held at Eu, on Normandy’s eastern frontier with Picardy, he captured ten knights and twelve horses in a single day, and the History reported that ‘the tide of his valour and reputation now began to rise, lifting him to high eminence’.” His aim was never to kill a knight at such a tournament but rather, to capture them, take all of their valuable equipment and make him pay a ransom. Needless to say, he became wealthy because of his knightly skills displayed at tournaments. He must have been exceptionally courageous facing a knight or several knights, charging at him at 25 miles per hour on a half a ton of horse with a lance pointing straight at his heart. There were no rules in the melees or tournaments with sometimes over a thousand knights partaking in this “free for all”.
From the British Library
He was not only a very skilful knight, from relatively humble beginnings being the son of a minor lord, he rose to the importance of being regent to the young Henry III and saving England from having a French monarch. He worked for five kings including Henry II’s eldest son who was crowned in Henry II’s own lifetime (theoretically to reign in association with his father to prevent any possibility of an accession dispute) but died before his father. In the reign of King John, the barons rebelled against their monarch and it was Marshall who played a key part in advising the king to sign Magna Carta and gain peace at least for a short time. John soon renaged on the Charter but soon after his death, William sealed the charter in the name of John’s young successor, Henry III and people’s rights in England were guaranteed forever.(see the next section for details).
Above and below; William Marshal’s new statue, showing him carrying Magna Carta outside Pembroke Castle.
5. Why is Magna Carta important and what are the key principles of Magna Carta, partly brokered by William Marshall and sealed by King John and later by Henry III?
As stated earlier, William Marshall played a key role in getting King John to agree to the “Great Charter” Magna Carta and it was from this temple that negotiations for its acceptance took place. It is seen by many historians as one of the most important documents in history because it established first in 1215, the principle that everyone is subject to the law, even kings and queens and it guarantees the rights of individuals, the right to justice and the right to a fair trial. It is significant because it put England on the way to democracy. Over time the powers of English kings were curtailed especially in the 17th Century. Furthermore, Magna Carta is often cited as having strongly influenced the American Bill of Rights in 1791 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rightist 1948.
A facsimile of Magna Carta
Kings after King John have agreed to later versions of Magna Carta and its principles of freedom from arbitrary arrest and no tax rises without the people’s consent in some form are still valid today. One of the reasons for the English Civil War was that Charles I was arbitrarily raising taxes, he asked for “Ship Money” an ancient tax on coastal towns during war time but he asked everyone to pay the tax and England was not in a war. Furthermore, he tried to imprison anyone who refused to pay and he even attempted to arrest 5 MPs sitting in the House of Commons without getting any courts or judges involved.
In the USA, colonists opposing the British crown quoted Magna Carta, shouting no taxation without representation. Magna Carta strongly influenced the The American Constitution and several states’ constitutions. 1791 Bill of Rights cites Magna Carta and it has been quoted for legal purposes in the USA ever since.
Click here to find out more about Magna Carta and where you can see it.
Essential information
Getting there;
The Temple Church
Temple
London
EC4Y 7BB
By train
The nearest Underground stations are Temple and Blackfriars on the Circle and District lines. Access for pedestrians after 8.30pm on weekdays and all weekend is via Tudor Street only.
Driving
Vehicles enter via Tudor Street Gate and exit via the Embankment Monday to Friday 6.00am to 9.00pm. Entry and exit for vehicles at all other times is via Tudor Street Gate. There is no parking available on weekdays before 6.30pm.
Tickets
£5 or £3 concessions
Free to children, the Inns members, Inns’ and Chambers’ staff and their guests.
Opening times
The Church is usually open Mon–Fri, 10.00am–4.00pm
Click here to check their website for current opening times and ticket prices https://www.templechurch.com/contact-and-find-us/opening-times-and-charges
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