23rd January 2006

Knights Templar

posted in digitalstorytelling, history |

Got lucky yesterday, but shows like these are EXACTLY the reason I want to have a DVR/mythTV box in our home at some point in the not-too-distant future.

I was enthralled to watch two History Channel programs last night relating to themes and movies I have watched recently, including Kingdom of Heaven and National Treasure. The programs were both from the History Channel series “Decoding the Past.” The first was entitled “The Templar Code: Crusade of Secrecy.” The web description is:

For nearly two centuries, the Knights Templar were the medieval world’s most powerful order, a fearsome and unstoppable Crusader militia. Then came accusations of unspeakable crimes. Who were the Templars, really? How did they become so powerful, so fast, and why did they fall just as quickly? Evidence hints that the Templars excavated under Jerusalem’s Temple of Solomon. What did they find there? Was it, as The Da Vinci Code suggests, the true identity of the Holy Grail–the bloodline of Christ? Or an unimaginable treasure, documented in the Dead Sea Scrolls, buried 1,000 years before Christ’s birth? We explore the Templar’s origin, how they lived, trained, fought and became a medieval world power, and the suspicious circumstances behind their sudden downfall.

The second program in the series was “The Templar Code: The Quest for Templar Treasure,” described as:

They were called The Militia of Christ; God’s Special Forces. But the medieval Knights Templar were also brilliant capitalists, traders, and bankers–creating a hierarchy still followed by today’s multi-national super-powers. Then, in 1307, their leaders were accused of high crimes; arrested; imprisoned; burned. But the order’s ships, gold, and records all disappeared. What happened to the surviving Templars and the treasure–both sacred and earthly–they were said to possess? Did they hide gold in Nova Scotia, conceal secrets at Scotland’s Rosslyn Chapel, or use their riches to establish the Swiss banking system? This episode reveals why these warriors, dead for seven centuries, and their treasure still populate Hollywood blockbusters like National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code.

I have previously read Dan Brown’s “Angels & Demons”, but have not yet read the “The Da Vinci Code.”

We are living in a remarkable era of education, when documentarians can bring alive the potentially dull facts of history through a powerful mix of narration, photographs of artwork and illustrations, re-enactments, videos of actual sites, interviews with historical experts, and of course music. I am sure there will be more programs like these as a result of the upcoming release of the DaVinci Code movie. If viewers and readers are indeed inspired to “seek the truth” as the movie website slogan reads, the book’s author and everyone involved in the movie production will have succeeded in doing far more than entertain the masses.

On this day..

This entry was posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2006 at 9:00 am and is filed under digitalstorytelling, history. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 6 responses to “Knights Templar”

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  1. 1 On February 15th, 2006, lynn joines said:

    There is a really cool story “Chapel Perilous” on the Student Operated Press. You may want to check it out.

  2. 2 On March 12th, 2006, Susan said:

    I think the templar Treasure made it to Dighton Rock in Massachusetts- after that I’m guessing its in Fort Knox.
    I’m just learning how to work this blog stuff, so the site is in its early stages.

  3. 3 On July 22nd, 2006, Mike said:

    I think that the Templar treasure is what is buriud at Oak Island in Nova Scotia. The treasure was bobby trapped so well that it has not been recovered to this day. The Templars were the best engineers of their era and were fully capable of the contruction that is on the island.

  4. 4 On January 11th, 2007, Bjorn Ursfjord said:

    In response to the Oak Island theory: If we are to assume that the fleet departed from la Rochelle the night before the arrests, the winds are not favorable that time of year (October, 13.). The passage north would provide much easier and swifter sailing, and the fact is, they had significant land possessions in this part of the world as well, including the (now Danish) island of Bornholm, some 50 km in circumference, isolated in the middle of the Bothnical Sea between Denmark, Sweden, various states of the former Soviet Union, and Poland and Germany. The templars did a bit of construction work there, they have left several of their characteristic round churches on the island, alleged by some in a pentagonal shape. I very much doubt that the treasure, at least initially, was taken any further than this, or a similar Templar stronghold. Malta is not out of the question eiter, that would also have given the fleet the benefit of the Golf Current.

    Regards,
    Bjorn Ursfjord,
    former Sea Captain, now law student
    at the Uni. of Copenhagen
    mailto:bjoernur@m1.stud.ku.dk

  5. 5 On February 23rd, 2007, Ray said:

    As for the Oak Island theory… By the size of the hole dug and the fact that too many palm branches were used, I doubt that the Templars would have gone south to collect palm trees and leaves to construct the treasure site.
    The hole was way to small to have occupy the huge treasure the Templar’s had to dispose of.

  6. 6 On February 27th, 2007, Nancy said:

    During the time of the Inquistion when Knights - both Templar and King’s Guard - were being executed, the removal of treasure wouldn’t be that difficult. We presume that all the treasure was in one location: the Templar Church of London. But with the education and skills of the Templar’s they would have known to not keep all the eggs, so to speak, in one basket.
    I have documentation that once the executions began personal treasures of the nobles also ‘disappeared’. This was in the response to The Doomsday Book.