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

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  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