Knight Templar's Part VII

   Brother Yeves a brother of the warrior monks was approached by a Brother Cisterian and a Flemish Knight.  The Flemish Knight conveyed a message from the Order through the network of spies they had in both the Palace of King Philippe the Fair and the Vatican.

   They knew that they were going to be investigated, dismantled and reorganized by the Church of Rome. The church was by now a puppet arm of the Kings Palace. They knew that the Dogs of the Lord would come knocking and the order needed to make preparations.

 The leadership of the Order felt that they would lie low during the investigation but they did not understand the full fury of the inquisition that was about to descend upon the Order Of The Poor Knights Of The Temple Of Solomon, known as “God's Army,” and would be absolved of all wrong and continue with their financial empire at a later date.

  King Philip IV of France was deeply in debt to the Templar’s and on Friday 13th October 1307 accused them of heresy and had them arrested in France. Many were tortured to obtain confessions of heresy. This was a way to avoid paying back debts, and by confiscating further Templar assets Philip was able to make further money.

  Pope Clement under pressure from King Philippe, then issued the bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae on November 22, 1307, instructing all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templar’s and seize their assets.

  Pope Clement called for hearings run by the papacy to try members of the order, and many withdrew their confessions given under torture. It was normal practice at that time to burn at the stake anyone who recanted their confessions of heresy as relapsed heretics, and when the Templar’s did so Philippe had many burnt in Paris to force the proceedings along.

  A document found in the papal archives in 2001 known as the Chinon Parchment and records the papal trials showing that Pope Clement absolved the Templar’s of all heresies in 1308.

  King Philippe applied pressure to Pope Clement, even threatening military action and Pope Clement finally disbanded the order in 1312 at the Council of Vienne, with the papal bull Vox in excelsior and the papal bull Ad providam which turned over the majority of the Orders assets to the Hospitaller's.

  Jacques de Molay the Grand Master of the Order and Geoffrey de Charney the Preceptor of Normandy both retracted their statements and declared guilty of being relapsed heretics. Both were burnt to death in Paris on 18th March 1314. Jacques de Molay is reported to have said that both Pope Clement and King Philip would soon meet him before God. Pope Clement died a month later, and before the end of the year king Philip died in a hunting accident.

  The remainder of the Templar’s were either arrested or tried or absorbed into other military orders such as the Knights of Christ, or left to live their lives out peacefully.

  Some fled to other countries, and in Portugal the Order changed their name to Knights of Christ. Many sites today are related to Templar sites such as Temple Bar in London, Cressing Temple in Essex, and Temple combe in Somerset.

  Some societies today such as some Freemasonry groups use symbols of the Order or claim links to the Order. Much controversy has been caused over the allegations of heresy, and links to the Holy Grail.

Knight's Templar Part VI

Historians believe that the Order of Christ was the main refuge for the Knights Templar that escaped the spate of arrests on Friday, 13 October 1307, in France; the new Portuguese order became the (only?) resurgence of the Order of the Temple.

 As a result, the Order of Christ inherited the Templar's knowledge in terms of construction and maritime navigation. It was used a century later by Henry the Navigator, the Grand Master of the Order of Christ, to develop his famous caravel, whose sails proudly flew the Templar cross, and later still by Christopher Columbus, who was also a Grand Master of the Order of Christ.

There are two aspects to the Knights Templar. The Templar's were protectors of the Holy Grail, part of their methods of operation  was by compartmentalize information. As you grew in rank you were given more responsibility and knowledge. 

 There were only three Templar's including the Grand Master who knew the location of the secret, and the Holy Grail. Their covert aspect was the Priory of Sion, whose entire reason of existence was to protect the Bloodline or descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

 The descendants were the Merovingian Royal family of France, and their offspring that exist today.  And yes the Priory of Sion still exists and is very active.

  The roots of the Templar's beliefs have always been claimed to be the Bible, but only in part. To truly understand the Templar's, one must go deeper into the studies of the Gnostic's.

 The esoteric followers of the TRUTH and farther back to the early Hebrew traditions, to the time of Solomon, when there was not only Yahweh but also the Goddess Ashtoreth. 

 She was known in Mesopotamia as Astarte. Ashtoreth or Asherah is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. She was openly worshiped by the Israelite s until 6th century B.C. when she was replaced by the single supreme male god of Jehovah.

In one painting of the Middle Ages hanging in the Louvre, the Magdalene is shown in the pose so often seen in Sumerian sculptures, of the Goddess Astarte, with her hands cupped under her breasts.

The Templar's were known for the high value they placed on women, their role as "knights in shining armor" from the Middle Ages. Some say they were followers of the ancient wisdom or Sophia, the Goddess of truth and wisdom.

The Templar's relationship to the Grail stories of Wagner, of King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake. Their place in the arts, poetry and the expounding of courtly love of the middle ages.

This surely places the Templar's if not within the realm of Goddess worship at least within the realm of their acknowledgement of the feminine principal of divinity.

 Because of the Inquisition and the persecution of the Templar's they went underground, using sacred geometry, symbology, art, and architecture to pass their beliefs, knowledge and secrets to the generations. Only the select few with sacred knowledge could interpret them.

 The Holy Grail was an allegory term to hide the real meaning of the treasure.  History records it as the Chalice that Joseph of Arminthia caught blood from Jesus side wound.

  Also it is thought to be an allegory reference to the womb of Mary Magdalen as the Sangrail, another name of the Holy Grail,  that was to contain the Holy Blood or bloodline of Jesus Christ.

                           

  

Knight Templar's Part V ( Port-O -Grail)

PORT-O-GRAIL             

The Mediterranean fleet came around to Portugal where the Templar's had reorganized into the Order of the knights of Christ.  Almourol Castle was a Templar strong hold, on an Island in the Tagus River near Abrantes Portugal (Port of Grail) .

The castle was built in 1171 over the foundation of a Roman castle which in turn was built over the foundation of a Phoenician castle. It was built by Master Templar Gualdim Pais, who was also an excellent navigator and sailor.

Portugal is extremely important in the history of the world but little credit is given to them.  The history of Portugal is directly related to the Templar's and their “lost fleet”.  King Alphonso IV, became the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Christ and later Prince Henry the Navigator and also Christopher Columbus became Grand Master.

  Portugal has always had close ties to England, where the Templar's were very strong; England was like Portugal’s big brother.  To be as small as Portugal is and to remain independent in the Middle Ages it helps to have a very strong army and to be strong in seafaring.

 The entire country of Portugal was a Templar strong hold and I wouldn't be over stating it if I said it actually was a Templar country!

 On December 30th 1308, while the case of the Knights Templar had already been a burning issue in France over the past year, the pope ordered King Denis of Portugal to arrest the Knights Templar under his jurisdiction.

 A commission of enquiry was created in the country and was chaired by the Bishop of Lisbon and attended by the superior of the Franciscan Order and a jurist, Joao de Luis. 

28 knights were then questioned, as well as six other witnesses. To prevent the Temple's possessions from falling into other hands, the king ordered the possessions to be confiscated.

  In January 1310, until such time as the Church had officially reached a verdict concerning the accused order. The inquiry conducted in Portugal, though without resorting to torture, could not find any blame concerning the Temple or its members, and a provincial council held shortly after to decide on any follow-ups came to the same conclusion.

 King Denis was worried about the rumors that the Pope was apparently thinking of awarding all the Temple's possessions to the Hospitallers. The Hospitallers already owned several possessions on the south bank of the Tagus. Giving them the Templar holdings on the north bank of the same river, would provide them with such a build-up in what was a strategic area, that they would undoubtedly be capable of undermining the royal authority.

 After various negotiations, the king obtained the ruling in 1319 whereby the Temple's possessions would go to a new, specifically Portuguese order.

The bull of foundation Ad ea ex quibus granted by Pope John XXII on 14 March 1319, first proclaimed the creation of a new order called the "Order of the Knights of Christ" (Ordem de Cavalaria de N. S. Jesus Cristo), and established the fortress of Castro Marim as the knights' house in the south-easternmost part of the country, at the mouth of the Guadiana. 

Then it imposed the rule of Calatrava on the new brotherhood and appointed Dom Gil Martins as Grand Master, the previous Grand Master of the Order of Aviz. 

It transferred all the possessions and rights of the Knights Templar to the new militia, but placed it under the eminent authority of the Cistercian abbot of Alcobaça Monastery, in the diocese of Lisbon. 

The abbot was therefore entitled to visit and collect all the house belongings to the Order of Christ. Each master of the order had to pledge his loyalty to the abbot, ultimately representing the Supreme Pontiff.

 Finally, should the master's position be left vacant, the bull stipulated that the new master should be someone both military and religious, and specifically professed by the new order.

 Unfortunately, in the following century, this protective framework could not hold up against the greediness of the Portuguese sovereigns, attracted to the order's considerable wealth.

                           To Be Continued 

                               

Knights Templar Part IV

  The actions of the King and Pope were sudden swift and deadly.  Sealed orders were issued to his senchaels and sheriff throughout the country.  They were to be opened simultaneously throughout the country and implemented at once.

  At dawn on Friday the 13th of October 1307, the orders were implemented, all the Knights Templar's in France were to be seized and arrested.  Their preceptories were taken over by the King, their goods seized, all except the incredible treasure of the Temple. 

   Very few of the Knights were actually arrested, according to Inquisition records later found in the Vatican Archives only six hundred and twenty, fewer than five percent, and the ones that were, went willingly without a fight, as though under instruction. 

 The Templar's were expecting this event, they destroyed their financial records, most of the knights fled prior to the event, they removed their treasury and treasure, and departed. Some went with the lost Templar Fleet to Scotland and the rest, most of the ones in the Mediterranean went to Portugal.

  Close to a year before the lethal date of 1307 the Temple had gained intelligence that King Philippe was to begin a persecution of the order. They started making preparations, they called in many of the orders financial records, books, rules, and had them burned.

  A knight that was withdrawing from the order was told by the Treasurer that he was making a very wise decision, because something was in the winds! 

  An official decree was issued to all preceptories in France instructing them not to release any information on the Orders policies, rituals and procedures.

 Many knights fled the preceptories in France, there was an orderly evacuation of certain knights all of whom were associated with the Treasurer.

  Under torture one knight confessed that the Templar treasure was taken from the Paris Preceptory, and was taken shortly before the arrests.  The same witness also stated that the Precepitor of France also left France by sea with fifty horses.

  Historians believe that the Templar's were acting under orders when they were arrested because these fierce warriors went passively, without hostility, as though they had been waiting for the event.

  At dawn on Friday the 13th, 1307. The Atlantic fleet had already departed Rochelle France during the proceeding night.  Orders were unsealed throughout the country of France, with actions that were sudden swift and lethal.

  But only six hundred twenty Templar's were arrested, including the leadership of the order.  They were all tortured, most killed, some were tortured for years.

 The Grand Master of the order Jacques de Moray was tortured extensively for several years.   He was blinded by red hot irons stuck into his eyes, his genitals were boiled in oil, and then pulled off with cords, most of his bones had been broken or dislocated on the rack and was finally, after seven years of torment, slowly burnt alive by order of the King and Pope.

  

 There were six hundred and twenty Knights arrested but only two confessed under torture to charges of homosexuality, blasphemy, spitting on the cross and heresy.

  The Templar's had at least two fleets of ships, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic fleet.  There is also a possibility that they had a separate fleet that serviced the Hanseatic League, in the Baltic sea. 

   The ships left their respective home ports and the whole order of the Templar's went through an immediate reorganization, they went underground, they regrouped joined several already existing Knight groups and started a few of their own.

 The fleet out of La Rochelle with 13 ships sailed as a fleet, for security they had merchant ships and armed galleys they used for protection

.  

  They moved the night of October 12, 1307 out of la Rochelle harbor and begat one of the greatest mysteries of the world.  From that point no one has ever seen the ships again.  Or have they?

 Legends have it that They initially stopped at the Seine River, where they picked up fleeing Templar's from the Paris Preceptory, fifty horses, and at least part of the Solomon/Cathar/Templar Treasure which has been known to history as the Holy Grail.  There was a material portion to the Holy Grail, a knowledge portion and a secret that they held.

From the Seine River they headed for Scotland, they went by the west coast of Ireland to avoid detection from the English or French forces. They went to Scotland which wasn't under the control of the Pope, but was the home of the Sinclair family!

                       To be continued

                                              

Knight's Templar Part III

  Pope Clement called for hearings run by the papacy to try members of the order, and many withdrew their confessions given under torture.

   It was normal practice at that time to burn at the stake anyone who recanted their confessions of heresy as relapsed heretics, and when the Templar's did so Philippe had many burnt in Paris to force the proceedings along.

   A document found in the papal archives in 2001 known as the Chinon Parchment and records the papal trials showing that Pope Clement absolved the Templar's of all heresies in 1308.

  King Philippe applied pressure to Pope Clement, even threatening military action and Pope Clement finally disbanded the order in 1312 at the Council of Vienne with the papal bull Vox in excelsior and the papal bull Ad Providam which turned over the majority of the Orders assets to the Knight's Hospitallers.

  Jacques de Molay the Grand Master of the Order and Geoffrey de Charney the Preceptor of Normandy both retracted their statements and declared guilty of being relapsed heretics. 

  Both were burnt to death in Paris on 18th March 1314.

  Jacques de Molay is reported to have said that both Pope Clement an king Philippe would soon meet him before God. Pope Clement died a month later, and before the end of the year king Philippe died in a hunting accident.

  The remainder of the Templar's were either arrested and tried or absorbed into other military orders such as the Knight's Hospitaller, or allowed to live their lives out peacefully. Some fled to other countries, and in Portugal the Order changed their name to Knights of Christ.

  Many sites today are related to Templar sites such as Temple Bar in London, Cressing Temple in Essex, and Temple combe in Somerset. Some societies today such as some Freemasonry groups use symbols of the Order or claim links to the Order.

  Much controversy has been caused over the allegations of heresy, and links to the Holy Grail. The Turin shroud thought to be a fake made between 1260 and 1390 was first publicly displayed in 1357 by the grandson of Geoffrey de Charney 

  King Philippe IV of France also known as Philippe le Bel or Philippe the Fair was an extremely ambitious King.  He had grand ambitions for his country, and willing to destroy anyone who crossed his path. 

  He had kidnapped and murdered Pope Boniface VIII, and is widely believed to have poisoned Pope Benedict XI.  By 1305 he had installed his boyhood friend Pope Clement V on the throne of the church.

  In 1309 he moved the Papacy from Rome to Avignon France where it essentially became an arm of the Crown of France, and Pope Clement V a mere governor to the King.

  Over the next seventy years the church was in Turmoil, the Avignon Captivity, a scheme which produced Popes competing against one another, creating an atmosphere of unrest and divided the church until 1377.  With the Papacy in his pocket Philippe had all he needed to move against the Templar's.

  He had many motives for doing so, and a personal grudge against the temple. He had asked to be accepted into the order as Honorary Templar.  King Richard I had received this treatment from the Knights but King Philippe was rejected by the Temple. 

 Later in June 1306, Philippe was forced to ask the Temple for protection from a rioting mob and was given refuge in the Paris Temple. 

 While there he witnessed the monetary wealth and power of the Temple. And this frightened the King to no end.  He desperately needed money and the Templar Treasure was vast. 

 Greed, Humiliation from being rejected as an honorary Knight, and retaliation from the King with low self- esteem were a deadly combination for the Templar's. 

 To Philippe the Templar's posed a real threat to the stability of France. The Templar's were searching for land to call their own. After the fall of Acre,the Knights took up temporary quarters in Cyprus, while they searched for a more permanent home. 

  The area that made the most sense to them was the Languedoc, which then wasn't part of France, and contained a third of the nine thousand estates that were a part of the Temple’s assets. 

   Although the Languedoc was annexed from France, Philippe had claimed it anyhow, and a Templar Kingdom on his southern fringes was too much for him to bear!

  Philippe was meticulous in his preparations for destroying the Temple.  He had the church in his pocket, he had infiltrated the order with his spies, he had alleged confessions from a renegade Knight and with these allegations he was free to pursue charges against the Order.

                          To be continued...

Knights Templar Part II

  Yeves de Lessines was a Cistern monk and Abby of Cambrom, which was the farm for the Orval Monastery in what is now called Belgium, on the border of Normandy and the French house of Flanders.

  The Cistercian Order were frequently in conflict with the Disciples of the Dominican Monks or also known as the Domini-Caines or the “Dogs of the Lord.”

  The Dominicans were not confined to Monasteries but roamed the countryside like stray dogs. The preaching and imprecations of the Inquisitors have become known as the barking of big, ferocious, ugly, slavering and flea-bitten dogs!

  Yeves, the Abby of the Cambron Monastery in Orval and a brother of the (warrior monks), was approached by a brother Cisternian Monk who was a Flemish Knight, of the Warrior Monk Order of the Knights Templar.

  He conveyed a message from the Grand Master of the Order through the network of spies they had in both the Palace of King Philippe the Fair and the Vatican.

 They knew that they were going to be investigated, dismantled and reorganized by the Church of Rome, which was by now a puppet arm of the Kings Palace.

  They knew that the Dogs of the Lord would come knocking and the order needed to make preparations. The leadership of the Order felt that they would lie low during the investigation but they did not understand the full fury of the inquisition that was about to descend upon the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon.

 They felt that they would be absolved of all wrong doing and would continue with their financial empire at a later date.

  Eighty years prior to the demise of the order, Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Emperor of Germany,  who lived in the first half of the 13th Century, and was known to history as less a Prince than a Butcher.

 Frederick was engaged in turmoil with the Vatican. His Grandfather Frederick I had an “anti-pope” elected. The German clergy referred to the Roman Pope as the Anti-Christ from Rome!

 The Vatican’s Pope’s were primarily elected by the Mafia families of Italy, and the Pope usually managed to have Sicily attack the Empires of the Baltic Nations.

  Having an opportunity that presented itself, Frederick I arranged a Marriage of his son Henry to Constance of Sicily. With the marriage, the Kingdoms of the Vatican were surrounded by the Baltic countries to the north and Napoleons lands to the south.

  This put the Vatican in a very preposterous position, to add insult to injury, Queen Constance, decided to give birth in public, under a tent, in the public square of Jesi, near Ancona.

  Her reasoning was that she was married late in life, at the time of her delivery she was 40 years old and feared people wouldn't believe the child was hers. Her delivery was witnessed by several of the areas Noblemen.

  The Vatican put out the rumor that the Queen had lain with a butcher.  The Vatican went on to say that the “thing born at Jesi” was but a bastard of the Sicilian Queen, and had no rights to the Empire of Sicily.

  There wasn't any less prestigious job in the middle ages than that of a butcher.  Throughout his life Frederick II was known as the butcher’s son!

 

  In reality he was low, mean, unpleasant, and unscrupulous. He was attempting to pose as a distinguished gentleman but he wasn't.

  The men of the meat trade like to remind him he was the son of a butcher.  He had left on the 6th crusade and attacked the people he was supposed to protect.

  History shows that the local’s revolted against Frederick at that point. The people began to riot and to prevent the people from tearing him apart he took refuge in the fortress of St Jean D' Arc.

  He wanted to retreat to his starting point to escape by sea but could not find any soldiers to protect him.  Even his own troops abandoned him; he was under siege in the fortress where he remained for several months.

  He remained in the fortress until the Knights Templar finally came to his rescue.  The only route from the fortress to the seaport went through the village and right past the meat market where the butchers were waiting for him.

  They covered him with waste and excrement, foul smelling and furious he entered the safety of a Templar ship. Later back in Sicily he started a smear campaign against the Templar’s as a means of showing his gratitude!

  Eighty years later King Phillippe the fair, took up where Frederick the II, had failed. The Templar's had learned their lesson with King Frederick II, and held all kings in disdain.

  King Philippe IV (the Fair) of France was deeply in debt to the Templar's and on Friday 13th October 1307 accused them of heresy and had them arrested in France.

  Many were tortured to obtain confessions of heresy. This was a way to avoid paying back debts, and by confiscating further Templar assets, Philippe was able to make further money.

  

 Pope Clement under pressure from King Philippe then issued the bull Pastoralis Praeminentiae on November 22, 1307, instructing all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templar's and seize their assets.  (To be Continued)

The knight's Templar Part I

THE POOR KNIGHTS TEMPLAR-- WHERE DID ALL THE TEMPLAR'S AND THERE GREAT WEALTH GO?

THE BRETHREN, THE MASTERS OF THE TEMPLE, WHO WERE WELL STOCKED AND AMPLE WITH GOLD AND SILVER AND RICHES WHERE ARE THEY? HOW HAVE THEY DONE? 

THEY HAD SUCH POWER ONCE THAT NO ONE DARED TAKE FROM THEM, NONE WAS SO BOLD;

           FOREVER THEY  BOUGHT AND NEVER SOLD !

 In 1307 the Church of Rome and the country of Gaul (France) turned their Inquisition loose on the Knight Templar's, and their fleet of ships went missing!  Or did it?

The Knight Templar's were nine knights from the Champagne region of France called Gaul in medieval times, the nine knights were later joined by the Count of Champlain as the tenth knight.

Knights of the order wore white mantles, assigned to the Templar's in 1129 at the Council of Troyes and surcoats quartered by a red cross or “Rossy Cross”, a symbol of martyrdom, probably added at the start of the Second Crusade in 1147.

 These were heavily armored knights from the aristocracy with war horses. Knights had to wear their white mantles at all times, even when eating and drinking.

 Knights of the Order would never surrender unless the Templar flag had fallen, and even then they should try and regroup with other Christian orders.

 They had a solemn initiation ceremony that outsiders were discouraged from attending, that was to later cause mistrust of the order. 

 New members generally joined for life, and had to willingly hand over their wealth and goods to the order and took vows of poverty, chastity, piety and obedience. Married men could join if they had their wives permission, but they were not allowed to wear the white mantle, and occasionally knights were allowed to join for set periods of time.

 Below the knights were sergeants who wore a black surcoat with a red cross and a black or brown mantle, and there were lightly equipped cavalry.

 Chaplin's were ordained priests who looked after Templar spiritual requirements. Other members looked after its infrastructure which grew rapidly to large proportions, mainly through gifts of land from wealthy benefactors. They used their finances to build castles and fortifications throughout the Mediterranean and Holy Land, and to purchase further lands, farms, vineyards. They were involved in manufacturing, import and export and even had their own fleet of ships.

With this military strength, financial stability and their large wealth, the Templar's developed a banking system in 1150 A.D., to ensure the safe transfer of money, by using encoded documents to note deposits of wealth, the documents could be used to retrieve funds at the destination. This made the travelers less susceptible to robbery!

  The First Grand Master of the Knights Templar Hughes de Payen was married to Catherine Saint Clair and there has always been a strong connection between the Knights and the Saint Clair/Sinclair family, whose name has under gone a few changes in spelling over the years. 

 St. Clair being the French contingent of the family, Sinclair the Norman Scottish contingent.

The knights were a threat to the church and the King of France had a huge debt with them and wanted out from under the debt by destroying the knights. 

 The knights held a major piece of information which they were black mailing the church with.  Because of this the church put out a papal decree that permitted the knights to be able to operate without paying taxes among other privileges throughout Christendom.

At the time of their demise they were twenty thousand strong, with over nine thousand estates throughout Europe and the Middle East.

 The estates were Castles, real estate, dairies, farms, vineyards, distilleries, shops, architectural firms, all types of building guilds and shipping. 

 All of these entities were owned by the Knights Templar and not by individuals.

 All of the knights most of whom came from nobility and families of distinction, donated all of their wealth and assets to the knights and lived as monks in commune. Their actual name was the Poor Knights of The Temple of King Solomon.

 The knights were the special forces of their day. Just the appearance of them on the battlefield would send the enemy that outnumbered them six to one running. 

  They became extremely wealthy, both the countries of France and England banked with them. They invented international banking and the concept of checking accounts. 

 When their clients would travel usually under their protection, they would deposit money in a depository in one country and draw it out from a preceptory at their destination. 

 The purpose or perhaps better to say the cover story for the knights was to protect pilgrims en route to the Holly Land on pilgrimages.  They took up residence over the stables in Solomon’s Temple and spent nine years uncovering its secrets.

They are said to hold the temple treasure which is also thought to be in the possession of the Albigensian Cathar's and contains the ARK of the COVENANT, jewels, tons of Gold, documents, some say the archive left by Moses, containing knowledge from before the flood.  

  A secret so great that the Church of Rome permitted them to operate without paying taxes in the entire world that they operated in. The Mediterranean, Atlantic coasts of Spain, Portugal, France, England, Baltic coasts and its estuaries and rivers

The knights controlled the shipping in between all of these countries, the textiles, and minerals transporting of goods and peoples throughout Europe, tax free. They were exempt from tolls on roads, bridges and rivers.

The Templar's sole purpose was to protect Pilgrims and to fight Muslims in the Holly land since 1118 A D.  In 1291 the siege of Acre was the beginning of a losing streak for the Templar's.

 The Muslims took over Jerusalem and the Templar's moved to the Island of Cypress. The Templar's were not able to regain the support of European nations and their mission was to go through a reorganization they were still very strong financially.

 In the mid-12th Century the Muslims started to unite and the Christian factions had internal fighting which weakened their positions. 

 Two other Christian orders the Knights Hospitaller and Teutonic Knights were at times at odds with the Order. In 1185 the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Heraclius visited England and consecrated the Temple Church in London, it is thought that his aim was to gain support and unite the Christians. 

 In 1172 king Henry II had vowed to take the cross and go on a crusade. Henry II summoned a Great Council at Clerkenwell and gave Heraclius his answer: 

 'for the good of his realm and the salvation of his own soul' he declared that he must stay in England. He would provide money instead. Heraclius was unimpressed: 'We seek a man even without money - but not money without a man.' "Virum appetimus qui pecunia indigeat, non pecuniam quae viro."

Finally Jerusalem fell in 1187, was retaken in 1229 but fell again in 1244. The Templar's set up headquarters in Acre, but that fell also in 1291, their strongholds of Tortosa and Atlit fell later, and the Order set up their new headquarters at Liassol on Cyprus.

 The Order did manage to keep a foothold on the island of Arwad but this finally fell in around 1302 to 1303. When the holy land was lost, they maintained their European possessions, but their original purpose was lost.

Pope Clement V in 1305 wanted to discuss merging the Order of the Temple with the Hospitaller's, but neither the Templar Grand Master Jacques Molay or the Hospitaller Grand Master Fulk de Villaret wanted this to happen.
 However in 1306 the Pope summoned them both to discuss the idea. In 1307 charges of heresy raised by a Templar who left the Order in 1305 were discussed by Jacques de Molay and Pope Clement V and agreed to be unfounded, but Clement asked King Philip IV of France for help in investigating the charges.

Thr descendants of Earl Rognvald

  In 1095, Baron Henri de St. Clair was on the first Crusade in the Holy, Land with the brother of King Henry I of England, Robert Courte-Heuze, Hugh de Payen, the count of Champaign Hugh I, who was a blood relative of Hugh de Payen.

  Hugh de Payen was also married to Katherine St. Clair, AKA Elizabeth de Chappes, a sister of Barron Henri de St. Clair. Andre Montband a blood relative of the Duke of Burgundy and Uncle of Bernard of Clairvaux.  Godfri de Boulion head of the House of Flanders, a cousin of Baron St. Clair, was of the Rex Deus.

  Godfri de Boulion  was  offered the crown of  Jerusalem after its capture in 1099. But chose to rule as protector of the Holy Sepulcher.  Godfri died childless and was succeeded by his brother Baldwin, who became known as King Baldwin I of Jerusalem.  He was succeeded by Baldwin II who was King at the time of the formation of the Knights Templar.

  King Baldwin and this line of family is descendant of the Merovingian dynasty and are the Blood Line of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

 "One might therefore term Godfroi de Bouillon as a sort of ’king of kings’, or at least a maker of kings, since he founded the Order of Sion that could crown Kings of Jerusalem.

  "To the south of Jerusalem looms the ’high hill’ of Mount Sion." By 1099 an abbey had been built on the ruins of an old Byzantine basilica at the express command of Godfroi de Bouillon.

 "According to one chronicler, writing in 1172, it was extremely well fortified, with its own walls, towers and battlements. And this structure was called the Abbey of Notre Dame du Mont de Sion.

  Richard the III, the eldest son of Richard the II of Normandy, the fifth Duke, Robert the Devil, Mauger the Young, were the sons of Richard the II, Fourth Duke of Normandy.

   He had two daughters who also married right.  Alix became  the wife of the Count of Burgundy and Eleanor the wife of Bouillon, the Count of Flanders.

   Neither Richard nor Robert the Devil, had any legitimate children.  Most of the Norman barons would have preferred the succession to pass to the son of the duke’s younger brother Mauger.

  A party formed by the constable of Normandy, that supported the claims of William, the bastard son of Robert the Devil; this man became known to history as William the conqueror.

  Mauger had three sons;  Hamon, Walderne, and Hubert.   Hamon and Walderne were both killed at the battle of Val-des-Dunes, where the succession of William the Bastard was ensured.

   Two of Walderne children, Richard and Britel, became reconciled with William the Conquer and played a part in the conquest of England, and they were later given estates.

  The two remaining children Agnes and William were very young at the time of their father Maugers death. Agnes married Phillip Bruce, who was also of Norman origin, and an Ancestor of William the Bruce, who became King of Scotland, after the battle of Bannockburn in 1309.

  William became known to history as William the Seemly St. Clair, who escorted Princess Margaret to Scotland, where she was to marry Malcolm Canmore, King of the Scots.

  As a reward for his services he became the Baron of Roslyn.  He later commanded the Scots when they fought against William the conqueror, who was now King of England.  William the Seemly St. Clair, the first Lord of Roslyn was later killed in a battle with the English in Northumberland.

  The Sinclair’s of Scotland were Vikings.  They were descendants of Rognvald—the Earl of More, in Norway.  Earl Rognvald fought alongside King Harald Finehair, (Fairhair) who made him Earl of North More, South More and Romesdal all which lay in the vicinity of the modern town of Trondheim Norway.

The Earls son Ivor, accompanied King Harald Finehair, to conquer the Shetlands, Orkney and the Hebrides. and on the raid of the Isle of Man. Ivar was killed on the raid of the Isle of Man.  For his service King Harald gave Earl Rognvald the Earldom of Shetland and Orkney.

  The Earl passed his rule to his brother Sigurd. Sigurd and Thorstein the Red and Aud the Deep Minded conquered all of Caithness, Moray, Ross, and a large part of Argyle in Scotland.  After Sigurd's death his son ruled for one year and died  childless.

  Earl Rognvald younger son Einer, became the Earl of Orkney and ruled it well. He discovered the concept of digging turf, or peat as a fuel to be burnt instead of wood, thus becoming known to history as Turf Einer.

  Earl Rognvald son Hrolf, went to France in search of new lands and opportunities.  He went up the River Seine and settled in the fertile Seine Valley.

  After much conflict King Charles the Simple made his peace in the hope of using Hrolf to avoid further raids by Vikings. The treaty in 912 A.D. Awarded Hrolf the dukedom of the territories now called Normandy, and the treaty was signed in the Castle Saint Clair-sur-Epte.  Hrolf changed his name to the Latin name of Rollo.

  Duke Rollo was given the lands of Normandy conditioned on his marriage to Princess Gidele, King Charles daughter and his conversion of his entire entourage to Christianity.

  Duke Rollo was then baptized in the waters of the spring called Saint Clair, who was martyred there, in 884 A.D.  The use of the family name of Saint Clair can be traced to Richard II, the fourth Duke of Normandy.  When the names of the territories they were controlling were taken as the names of the rulers.

  Duke Rollo was childless with Duchess Gidele and remarried to Popee, the daughter of the Count of Bayeaux. They had a son known as William Long-Sword.

  William was succeeded by Richard I. Richard I daughter Emma married King Ethelred  the Unready of England.  Another of his daughters married Geoffery, the Count of Brittany, while a third daughter Mathild married Eudes, the Count of Chartres. 

 Duke Rollo's family married into the aristocratic families of Chaumont, Gisors, d'e Evereaux, and Blois, the family of the Count of Champagne. 

 They were also related to the Dukes house of Burgundy, the Royal house of France and also the House of Flanders and Godfri de Bouilion, the first Christian ruler of Jerusalem and an ancestor of the Hapsburgs.

  It is difficult to understand why such a prestigious family as the Royal House of France would have anything to do with the marauding, pirate, pillaging vagabounds as the Vikings. But one thing is certain, they married into the Rex Deus and the Holy Bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalen.

                               

                  

1st Crusade

 Thus began the first of seven wars known as the "Crusades" or "Wars of the Cross," waged to rescue the Holy Land from the Mohammedans. It is said that more than 100,000 men, women and children went on the first Crusade. Each wore on the right shoulder the emblem of the cross. Peter was in command of one portion of this great multitude.

 His followers began their journey with shouts of joy and praise. But they had no proper supply of provisions. So when passing through Hungary they plundered the towns and compelled the inhabitants to support them. This roused the anger of the Hungarians. They attacked the Crusaders and killed a great many of them.

  After long delays about seven thousand of those who had started on the Crusade reached Constantinople. They were still enthusiastic and sounded their war-cry, "God wills it!" with as much fervor as when they first joined Peter's standard. Leaving Constantinople, they went eastward into the land of the Turks. 

 A powerful army led by the sultan met them. The Crusaders fought heroically all day long but at length were badly beaten. Only a few escaped and found their way back to Constantinople. Peter the Hermit had left the Crusaders before the battle and returned to Constantinople.

 He afterwards joined the army of Godfrey de Bouillon. Godfrey's army was composed of six divisions, each commanded by a soldier of high rank and distinction. It was a well organized and disciplined force and numbered about half a million men. 

  It started only a few weeks after the irregular multitude which followed Peter the Hermit, and was really the first Crusading army, for Peter's undisciplined throng could hardly be called an army. 

  After a long march Godfrey reached Antioch and laid siege to it. It was believed that this Muslim stronghold could be taken in a short time; but the city resisted the attacks of the Christians for seven months. Then it surrendered. And now something happened that none of the Crusaders had dreamed of.

   An army of two hundred thousand Persians arrived to help the Muslims. They laid siege to Antioch and shut up the Crusaders within its walls for weeks. However, after a number of engagements in which there was great loss of life, the Turks and Persians were at last driven away.

 The way was now opened to Jerusalem. But out of the half million Crusaders who had marched from Europe, less than fifty thousand were left. They had won their way at a fearful cost. Still onward they pushed with brave hearts, until on a bright summer morning they caught the first glimpse of the Holy City in the distance.

  For two whole years they had toiled and suffered in the hope of reaching Jerusalem. Now it lay before them. But it had yet to be taken. For more than five weeks the Crusaders carried on the siege. Finally, on the 15th of July, 1099, the Turks surrendered. The Muslim flag was hauled down and the banner of the cross floated over the Holy City.

 A few days after the Christians had occupied Jerusalem Godfrey of Bouillon was chosen king of the Holy Land. "I will accept the office," he said, "but no crown must be put on my head and I must never be called king. I cannot wear a crown of gold where Christ wore one of thorns nor will I be called king in the land where once lived the King of Kings."

  Peter the Hermit is said to have preached an eloquent sermon on the Mount of Olives. He did not, however, remain long in Jerusalem, but after the capture of the city returned to Europe. He founded a monastery in France and within its walls passed the rest of his life.

 "The Order of Sion was founded in the 1090’s by Godfroi de Bouillon, one of the leaders of the First Crusade who had recaptured Jerusalem. They claim that it was this Order that lay behind Hugues of Champagne and the founding of the Templar's.

""The avowed and declared objective of the Prieure de Sion is the protection and restoration of the Merovingian dynasty and bloodline. to the throne not only of France, but to the thrones of other European nations as well.

 By dint of dynastic alliances and intermarriages, this line came to include Godfroi de Bouillion, who captured Jerusalem in 1099, and various other noble and royal families, past and present

."Godfroi was, by legend, a member of the Grail Family, and by lineage a Merovingian and apparently, rightful King of Jerusalem by his descent from King David.

  It is clear that he was aware of this. When he left for the first crusade, he sold all of his property. He intended to stay in Jerusalem.

 Godfroi  was close to de Payen and the count of Champagne, and Baldwin [his brother] was integral to the founding of the Templar's.