The Eastern Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem invested 64 new members at St Patrick's Cathedral, among them Bishop Timothy Senior of Harrisburg and five of his diocese. It is the Holy See's own order, today's order in the Templar Knight.
The Catholic Witness, 23 OctCaballeroOrden del Castillo de San Servando y la Casa del Temple de los Pobres Caballeros de Cristo
- Anointed
- 30 June 2025
- Conclave
- Toledo, Spain
- Patronage
- Saint George
Anno Domini
This month, 849 years ago: on 25 November 1177 the Templars and the leper king won the field of Montgisard, near Ramla. Saladin had marched out of Egypt with a great army and passed Ascalon, where Baldwin IV, sixteen years old and already disfigured by leprosy, was shut in with a few hundred knights. The Master, Odo de St Amand, brought eighty Templar knights up from Gaza and joined the king, and together they fell on Saladin's army while it was strung out and foraging. It broke and was pursued for twelve miles; Saladin escaped to Egypt with about a tenth of his men. It was the worst defeat of his life, and he did not forget the white mantles.
Kept by St John · I
Prayer of the Morning
A Minute with God
Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.2 Timothy 2:3 · KJV
Lord Jesus, You did not ask me to be comfortable; You asked me to be faithful. Saint Paul wrote these words from prison to a young man who was tired and afraid, and they are for me this morning. When the work is dull, keep me at my post. When the weather turns against me, keep me standing. When no one sees what I do, let me do it well for You. Give me the patience of a sentry who waits for the dawn without leaving the wall, and the obedience of a brother who goes where he is sent. I ask the same strength for those I love and for all who serve in hard places today. Not to us, Lord, but to Your name be the glory. Amen.
For a longer reflection: A Minute with God for Men, day 307.
Kept by St Andrew · II
The Oath
The keeper's vow, each morning
Before God, and under the banner of Saint George, I keep the vow I took at Toledo. I will hold my ground when the day is hard. I will speak the truth when it costs me. I will guard the weak and the pilgrim on the road. I will live plainly, obey with a willing heart, and keep myself clean. Non nobis, Domine, sed Nomini Tuo da gloriam.
Five chapters · new every morning
Today's edition
News and talk
News
Lead story · Italy
A Templar church in Chieri that will open with a phone
San Leonardo in Chieri, near Turin, a Templar house with a pilgrims' hospital from the twelfth century, is to open to visitors through an app; the opening has moved from 6 November to early next year.
Chieri, Turin · reported 3 November 2026 · Il TorineseThe church of San Leonardo stands on Via Roma in Chieri. It is first named in a papal bull of 1141, and it became the seat of the Knights Templar in the town, who kept a hospital there for pilgrims. A fire destroyed the first Romanesque church in 1285 and it was rebuilt. When the Order was suppressed in 1312 its property passed to the Hospitallers of Saint John.
Visitors will book a free visit between 9:00 and 18:00 in the "Cultura a porte aperte" app, scan a QR code at the door to open it, and hear an audio guide once inside. The opening was first planned for 6 November and has been put back to early next year. The church belongs to the Salesians and is part of the Santa Croce complex. Of the hospital only the façade on Via Roma survives, and Il Torinese notes that its crosses are linked to the Hospitallers rather than to the Templars.
The journalist Maurizio Bonanno presented L'ultima Notte. I Templari tra storia e leggenda in Calabria in the Torre Aragonese, at an evening of readings and music organised by the Lions Club Cirò Krimisa. The book is a novel built on historical references to the Order in Calabria.
ilCirotano, 2 Nov (Italian)The association Templari Oggi announced Eucharistic adoration and the Rosary in more than thirty Italian cities on the night of 31 October, as a Christian answer to Halloween. It is a private association, not an order recognised by the Church: its forerunner, the Templari Cattolici d'Italia, was dissolved by the Bishop of Verona in 2022, and in 2025 the Italian bishops' conference warned dioceses about the group, Silere non possum reported.
Telenord, 27 Oct (Italian)Speaking of the Order
Kept by St Bernard of Clairvaux · the honey-tongued
Talking about the Templars
How do you explain the Templars to a friend, to a grandparent, to a fellow Christian? Each day this section takes one theme and gives three ways into it, with the facts and dates to back them up.
Saint George, and why an order takes a patron
George was a soldier martyred at Lydda in about 303; the crusaders said he rode with them at Antioch in 1098, and orders and kingdoms took him as their patron.
YoungerStart with the soldier, not the dragon.
George was a Roman soldier who would not give up his faith and was put to death at Lydda, in Palestine, probably around 303 under the emperor Diocletian. The dragon came later, in medieval stories. A patron saint is a hero you choose to follow and ask for help, the way a team picks a captain. His feast is 23 April.
EldersStart with the crusaders.
The Gesta Francorum, written by a knight of the First Crusade, says that at the battle outside Antioch in 1098 the army saw a host on white horses with white banners, led by Saint George, Mercurius and Demetrius. The crusaders carried his cult home. England, Aragon and Portugal took him as patron, an Aragonese order of knights was founded in his name at Alfama in 1201, and Edward III put the Order of the Garter under him in 1348.
ChristiansStart with the communion of saints.
Taking a patron means asking a saint to pray for you and setting his life before you as a model. For a knight, George is the soldier who kept faith to the end. The Templars held a special devotion to Our Lady. The knight who keeps this site was received at the Conclave of Toledo on 30 June 2025, under the patronage of Saint George.
Common misconception
"The Templars fought only in the Holy Land"
The Templars held a frontier castle in Portugal from 1128 and fought in the Reconquista until the Order's end in 1312.
MythThe Templars were a crusading army of the East; in Europe they only farmed, banked and sent money to Jerusalem.
TruthOn 19 March 1128, a year before the Council of Troyes, Countess Teresa of Portugal gave the Order the frontier castle of Soure. In 1131 Alfonso I of Aragon left his kingdom to the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Holy Sepulchre. Templars fought at Santarém in 1147 and at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, and helped take Majorca in 1229 and Valencia in 1238; Gualdim Pais began the castle of Tomar in 1160. Spain and Portugal were a second front of the Order's war.
Games & Trivia
Test what you learnt today
Name the orders, complete the motto, put the Order's history in order and answer ten questions on today's edition.
Play the games →Orders of knighthood
The orders of knighthood
Kept by St Paul · the armour of God
Ten mantles, ten crosses
Today's order
The Order of the Holy Sepulchre, knights of the empty tomb
Born of the canons who kept Christ's tomb after 1099 and the pilgrims knighted there, it was refounded by Pius IX in 1847 and today supports the Christians of the Holy Land.
1099 canons at the tomb1121 Callixtus II1131 Alfonso I's will1335 pilgrims knighted1489 Innocent VIII1847 Pius IX2019 Cardinal Filoni
When the crusaders took Jerusalem on 15 July 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon set a chapter of canons to serve the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the church of Christ's tomb, and Pope Callixtus II formally established them in 1121. Tradition makes Godfrey the founder of knights of the Sepulchre as well, but no military order like the Temple grew there in the twelfth century: the knights of the Holy Sepulchre were men dubbed at the tomb, bound to it by devotion. The Sepulchre stood beside the Temple and the Hospital as a great house of the Latin East, and in 1131 Alfonso I of Aragon named all three as heirs to his kingdom.
After the crusader states fell, the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land knighted noble pilgrims at the tomb from 1335; Valdemar IV of Denmark received the accolade there in 1346. Innocent VIII suppressed the canons in 1489 and tried to join the knights to the Hospitallers, without success. In 1847 Pius IX restored the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and refounded the order under the Patriarch. Pius XII gave it the Palazzo della Rovere in Rome, and John Paul II gave it legal personality in the Vatican City State in 1996. Its Grand Master is Cardinal Fernando Filoni, since 8 December 2019, and its Grand Prior the Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa. Its knights wear a white cloak and its dames a black cape, both with the red Jerusalem cross for the five wounds of Christ, and its motto is the crusaders' cry, Deus lo vult.
How the orders differ · the selected order stays pinnedCompare
| Aspect | Templar | Hospitaller | Teutonic | Calatrava | Santiago | Alcántara | Montesa | Order of Christ | Saint Lazarus | Holy Sepulchre · today |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | c. 1119, Jerusalem | 1113, Jerusalem (papal bull) | c. 1190, Acre | 1158, Castile | 1170, Cáceres (León) | c. 1156, León | 1317, Valencia | 1319, Portugal | 1130s, Jerusalem (recognised 1142) | c. 1099, Jerusalem (refounded 1847) |
| Rule | Own Rule, Troyes 1129 | Augustinian | Templar rule in war, Hospitaller in care | Cistercian | Augustinian; married knights allowed | Cistercian, under Calatrava | Cistercian, under Calatrava | Cistercian | Augustinian | Augustinian canons; knights dubbed at the tomb |
| First task | Guard the pilgrim roads | Nurse the sick pilgrims | Nurse German crusaders at Acre | Hold Calatrava | Hold the frontier of León | Hold the León frontier | Hold Valencia and its Templar lands | Inherit and hold the Templar houses | Care for the lepers | Serve Christ's tomb |
| Mantle | White | Black; red surcoat in war | White | White | White | White | White | White | Not recorded; green cross | White; black for dames |
| Cross | Red pattée | White, eight points | Black | Red fleury | Red sword-cross | Green fleury | Black; red from 1400 | Red, with a white inner cross | Green | Red Jerusalem cross |
| Main front | Holy Land, Iberia | Holy Land, Rhodes, Malta | Prussia, Baltic | Castile | Castile, León, Portugal | León, Extremadura | Valencia | Portugal and overseas | Holy Land, then France and Savoy | Jerusalem; today the Holy Land's Christians |
| End | Suppressed 1312 | Continues as the Order of Malta | Continues, religious order in Vienna | Under the Crown from 1487 | Under the Crown from 1493; continues | Under the Crown from 1494 | Under the Crown from 1587 | Continues as a Portuguese order of merit | Joined to St Maurice 1572 and Mount Carmel 1608 | Continues, an order of the Holy See |
Wars and battles
Kept by St Matthew · III
The hierarchy of the Temple
The statutes added to the Rule set out the chain of command: a Master elected by thirteen brothers, bound by his chapter, with the Seneschal, the Marshal, the Commander of the Kingdom, the Draper and the Turcopolier beneath him.
1129 the Latin Rule1139 Omne datum optimum13 electors4 horses for the Master2 secretaries, Latin and Arabic
The Rule of 1129 spoke of a Master and his brothers. As the Order grew, statutes added to the French Rule, the hierarchical statutes or Retrais, laid down who did what. The Master commanded for life, but he could not sell or give away land, make a truce, or take money from the treasury without the consent of his chapter. He kept four horses, a chaplain, a clerk, a sergeant, a turcopole, a farrier, a cook, and a scribe for letters in Arabic. When a Master died, the brothers chose an electoral commander, who chose a companion, and so on until there were thirteen electors: eight knights, four sergeants and a chaplain, from different nations. Their choice was final.
Beneath the Master stood the Seneschal, his deputy. The Marshal commanded in war, kept the arms and horses, and carried the banner in the charge. The Commander of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was the Order's treasurer and kept its stores and ships; the Commander of the City of Jerusalem rode with ten knights to escort pilgrims to the Jordan and guarded the True Cross on campaign. The Draper kept the habits, and the Turcopolier led the light horse and the sergeants. Under them were the Under-Marshal, the Standard-bearer, the Commanders of Tripoli and Antioch, and in the West the masters of the provinces, France, England, Aragon, Portugal and the rest, each with his commanderies.
Kept by St Philip · IV
The Second Crusade preached, 1145–1147
Eugenius III called the crusade on 1 December 1145, and on 31 March 1146 Bernard of Clairvaux preached it at Vézelay, where Louis VII took the cross.
1 Dec 1145 Quantum praedecessores1 Mar 1146 reissued31 Mar 1146 VézelayChristmas 1146 SpeyerOct 1147 Lisbon
Edessa had fallen on Christmas Eve 1144. Pope Eugenius III answered with the bull Quantum praedecessores on 1 December 1145, promising the crusaders the remission of sins, and reissued it on 1 March 1146 once King Louis VII of France had shown he would go. He gave the preaching to the Cistercian Bernard of Clairvaux, the man who had written the Templars' praise. At Vézelay in Burgundy, on Palm Sunday, 31 March 1146, the crowd was too large for the abbey church, and a platform was built on the hillside. Louis, Queen Eleanor and their lords knelt to receive the cross, and the story goes that when the cloth crosses ran out Bernard tore up his own habit to make more.
Bernard then preached through France and the Rhineland. When a monk named Radulf stirred the crowds to massacre Jews in Mainz, Worms and Speyer, Bernard went to Mainz, silenced him and sent him back to his monastery. At Speyer at Christmas 1146 Bernard moved Conrad III of Germany and his nephew, the future Frederick Barbarossa, to take the cross. In the spring of 1147 the Pope let the crusade be fought in Spain as well as in the East, and the Germans of the north turned against the pagan Wends; on the way east, English and Flemish crusaders helped take Lisbon in October 1147.
Kept by St James the Greater · V
The al-Aqsa as the Temple of Solomon
From about 1120 the Templars lived in the al-Aqsa mosque, which the crusaders called the Temple of Solomon and from which the Order took its name; Saladin took it back on 2 October 1187.
15 Jul 1099 Jerusalem takenc. 1120 Baldwin II's gift1168–69 Nur ad-Din's minbar2 Oct 1187 Saladin entersNov 1187 minbar set up
After July 1099 the crusaders made the al-Aqsa mosque, at the south end of the Temple Mount, their royal palace, believing it to be the Temple or palace of Solomon; the Dome of the Rock nearby became a church, the Temple of the Lord, kept by Augustinian canons. King Baldwin II gave Hugues de Payens and his companions quarters in the palace, and from it they took their name, the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. When the kings moved out, the whole building became the Order's house. The Templars enlarged the northern porch, added an apse and a dividing wall, built vaulted halls on its west and east sides, and stabled their horses in the great vaults beneath the platform, still called Solomon's Stables.
To the Muslim powers the building was the Farthest Mosque of the Qur'an, the third holy place of Islam, and its loss was a wound. Nur ad-Din had a carved wooden pulpit made in Aleppo in 1168–69, to set up in al-Aqsa on the day Jerusalem was won. When Saladin entered the city on 2 October 1187, his men tore down the Templars' walls, cleared out the granaries and latrines they had built, laid carpets and washed the floors with rosewater, and in November Nur ad-Din's minbar was set beside the mihrab. An inscription above the mihrab still records Saladin's restoration.
Saints, arms and art
Kept by St Jude Thaddeus · VI
Saint Malachy · drawn for the day
Saint Malachy of Armagh
Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, brought the Cistercians to Ireland at Mellifont in 1142 and died at Clairvaux in the arms of Saint Bernard on 2 November 1148; his feast is 3 November.
1094 born at Armagh1119 priest1132 Archbishop of Armagh1139 Clairvaux and Rome1142 Mellifont2 Nov 1148 dies at Clairvaux1190 canonised
Máel Máedóc Ua Morgair was born at Armagh in 1094 and ordained priest in 1119. He was made abbot of Bangor and then, in 1124, bishop of Connor, and in 1132 Archbishop of Armagh, though it took him about two years to take possession against the family that had held the see for generations. His life's work was to bring the Irish Church into line with Rome, and in 1137 he gave up Armagh to do it.
In 1139 he set out for Rome and stopped at Clairvaux, where he met Bernard and the two became friends for life. Innocent II made him papal legate for Ireland. He left four companions at Clairvaux to be trained as monks, and in 1142 monks from Clairvaux founded Mellifont, the first Cistercian abbey in Ireland. In 1148 he set out again to meet Eugenius III, fell ill at Clairvaux, and died there on 2 November in Bernard's arms. Bernard wrote his life and preached at his funeral, and Pope Clement III canonised him, the first native-born Irish saint formally canonised. The "Prophecy of the Popes" printed under his name in 1595 is held by historians to be a sixteenth-century forgery. St Jude gives the day to the friend of Bernard, the Templars' great advocate.
Kept by St Simon the Zealot · VII
The lance and the charge
From the eleventh century the knight couched his lance under his arm, and the Templar Rule laid down how the brothers formed their squadrons and charged on the Marshal's word.
The older way was to thrust or throw the spear overarm; the Bayeux Tapestry, of the 1070s, shows both that and the new way. Held tight under the arm, the lance carried the weight of horse and rider into one point, and a line of knights charging knee to knee could break an army. The war lance had a shaft of ash or oak and an iron head. The Templars became famous for it: at Montgisard in 1177 eighty Templar knights helped rout Saladin's army.
The Rule turned the charge into a drill. The brothers rode in squadrons under their commanders, and the Marshal took the banner and gave the order to charge. No brother might break ranks or charge without leave, except to save a Christian in danger of death, and then he was to go back to his place quietly. Between five and ten brothers guarded the Beauséant, and no brother might leave the field while a banner of the Order still flew; if all were down, he rallied to the Hospitallers' banner or any Christian one.
- Ash or oak shaft
- Iron head
- Couched under the arm
- Squadrons in close order
- On the Marshal's word
Kept by St Thomas · VIII
The Templars and Rosslyn Chapel
Rosslyn Chapel was founded in 1446, 134 years after the Order was suppressed, and the stories tying it to the Templars begin only in the 1980s.
Legend
Templars who fled to Scotland after 1307 found a protector in the Sinclair family, who built Rosslyn as a Templar shrine to hide the Grail or the Order's treasure, and carved on its walls the maize that Templar sailors had brought back from America.
Record
William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, obtained a charter from Rome in 1446 for a collegiate church of Saint Matthew, and building began on 20 September 1456, so that Masses would be said for his family's souls. When the Templars were tried at Edinburgh in 1309, the St Clairs gave evidence against the Order. The Templar and Grail stories begin with The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail in 1982 and grew with The Da Vinci Code in 2003; medieval historians find no basis for them. The "maize" is judged a stylised plant pattern, and the "Apprentice Pillar" is called the Prince's Pillar in a document of 1778.
St Thomas keeps this card because he asked to see the evidence before he believed.
Kept by St Bartholomew · IX
Five plates for Vézelay, Jerusalem and Rosslyn
Each plate is drawn in the page after the original named beneath it. The link opens the original.
Words and the Sunday chapter
Kept by St James the Less · X
Chapter
Chapter: the meeting of the brothers of a house, held every week, where faults were confessed and penances given; and the general chapter that made the Order's laws.
Latin capitulum, "a little head", a chapter of the Rule · CHAP-ter · the brothers in council
In the monasteries the community met each morning to hear a chapter of the Rule read, and the meeting, and the room, took the name. Every Templar house held its chapter each week. The brothers confessed their faults before it, or were accused by others, and the brother presiding gave the penance the Rule laid down. Above the house chapters stood the provincial chapters and the general chapter, which made new statutes, and the Master needed his chapter's consent to sell land or make a truce. Chapters met behind closed doors, and in 1307 that privacy was turned against the Order, when its accusers claimed that the brothers met at night to do evil.
Kept by St Matthias · XI
The Templars of Castile
Next Sunday, chapter two: the Templars in Castile, from Toledo and San Servando to the council of Salamanca, which found the brothers of Castile, León and Portugal innocent in October 1310.
St Matthias was chosen to complete the Twelve, as a knight is chosen and received.
Kept by St Peter · XII
The week, tested
How many brothers elected a Master of the Temple?
Where did Bernard of Clairvaux preach the Second Crusade on 31 March 1146?
Which Irish archbishop died at Clairvaux in Saint Bernard's arms in 1148?
St Peter holds the keys, so he guards the week's knowledge. Answers on Sunday 8 November.
The Order
The Order in ten minutes
Card 1 of 7
Jerusalem, 1119Toledo, today
Kept by a Templar knight
I am Sir Knight Art, of the Orden del Castillo de San Servando y la Casa del Temple de los Pobres Caballeros de Cristo. I was received at the Conclave of Toledo on 30 June 2025, under the patronage of Saint George.
I keep this site and oversee every edition. Each card is researched from the sources linked beneath it, so you can check every date and every name for yourself. Where a story is a legend or still disputed, the card says so.
Questions, corrections and ideas are welcome: write to me with the buttons at the foot of the page.
- Received
- 30 June 2025
- Conclave
- Toledo, Spain
- Patronage
- Saint George
Games & Trivia
Five games, one rank
Five games. Every answer teaches something: the explanation shows whether you were right or not.
Your rank todaySquire0 points
Game 1 of 5
Name the order
Each knight stands in his order’s homeland. Which order is he?
Game 2 of 5
Complete the words
The motto, the Rule, the Psalms: choose the missing word.
Game 3 of 5
Today's quiz
Ten questions on today's edition.
Game 4 of 5
In order of time
Tap the events from the earliest to the latest.
Game 5 of 5
Myth or record
Seven claims about the Templars. Which are true?
The Templar bookshelf.
The books historians trust, chosen for accuracy rather than mystery: three to start with, the standard histories, the medieval sources in English, and arms and armour.
Shelf 1 of 4
Start here
Three books that tell the whole story well, for anyone new to the Templars.
The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors
Dan Jones · 2017
A fast, vivid narrative of the Order from the first knights in Jerusalem to the fire of 1314, written for the general reader and built on the sources.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Knights Templar: A New History
Helen Nicholson · 2001
How the brothers actually lived, in the East and in the commanderies of the West, by one of the leading historians of the military orders.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Templars: History and Myth
Michael Haag · 2008
The history first, then the legends that grew after 1312, from the Grail to Rosslyn: the best single book on where the myths came from.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Shelf 2 of 4
Go deeper
The standard histories, for the reader who wants the Order in full.
The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple
Malcolm Barber · Cambridge University Press, 1994
The reference history in English: the Rule, the hierarchy, the castles, the banking and the fall, all with the evidence.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Trial of the Templars
Malcolm Barber · 2nd edition, 2006
How the Order was destroyed between 1307 and 1314, told from the trial records themselves.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Last Templar: The Tragedy of Jacques de Molay
Alain Demurger · 2004
The life of the last Master, Jacques de Molay, by the French historian of the Order.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Crusades: A History
Jonathan Riley-Smith · 3rd edition, 2014
The crusades as one movement, from Clermont in 1095 to the last campaigns, the wider war the Templars fought in.
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Shelf 3 of 4
Read the sources
The Templars and their contemporaries in their own words, in English.
The Rule of the Templars
J. M. Upton-Ward (trans.) · Boydell, 1992
The French Rule in full: the hierarchy, the chapter, the penances, the march and the charge.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Templars: Selected Sources
Malcolm Barber and Keith Bate · Manchester University Press, 2002
Charters, papal bulls, chronicles and letters about the Order, translated and introduced.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)In Praise of the New Knighthood
Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. Conrad Greenia · Cistercian Publications
The short letter Bernard of Clairvaux wrote for Hugues de Payens and the first knights, the Order's manifesto.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Chronicles of the Crusades
Joinville and Villehardouin, trans. Caroline Smith · Penguin Classics, 2008
Two eyewitnesses of the crusades: Villehardouin on the Fourth Crusade and Joinville on Saint Louis in Egypt and Acre.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Shelf 4 of 4
Arms and armour
For collectors, re-enactors and anyone who wants to know what a brother carried.
The Sword in the Age of Chivalry
Ewart Oakeshott · 1964
The classic study that sorted medieval swords into types; collectors still describe blades by its numbers.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Knight Templar 1120–1312
David Nicolle · Osprey Warrior 91, 2004
A brother's equipment, horses, training and tactics, illustrated in colour.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)How these books were chosen
Each book here is written or edited by a historian of the crusades or the military orders, or is a translation of the medieval sources. Books that present legend as history are left out; the legends themselves are tested on the Myths page.
The links open a book search so you can choose your own shop. Some links on this site may in future be affiliate links, which pay the site a small commission; they are always labelled, and the choice of books does not depend on them. How this site is paid for.
Choose your sword well.
Which sword fits which century, how to tell a wall piece from a working blade, what weight to expect, what "Toledo steel" really means, and the law on buying a blade.
Step 1
Which sword for which century?
The Order lived from about 1119 to 1312. Collectors describe medieval swords by Ewart Oakeshott's types; these four cover a Templar's lifetime.
| Type | When | What it looks like | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| X | The first Templars, early 12th century | Broad blade with a wide fuller, rounded point, about 90 cm and 1.1 kg | The founders' generation, the First Crusade |
| XI | Through the 12th century | Longer and slimmer, narrow fuller, made for cutting from the saddle | The Second Crusade, Montgisard, Hattin |
| XII | Late 12th into the 14th century | Tapers to a sharper point, fuller about two-thirds of the blade, cuts and thrusts | The 13th-century Order, Acre, the Reconquista |
| XIII | 13th century | Broad war sword, parallel edges, rounded point, longer grip for a second hand | The mêlée of the 13th century |
Step 2
Wall piece or working blade?
Decide what the sword is for before you look at price.
For the wall
- Decorative steel, often stainless, is fine to hang but can snap if swung.
- Look for the right shape for the century: crossguard, pommel and blade length.
- A good display piece needs no sharp edge at all.
For use: practice, re-enactment, cutting
- High-carbon or spring steel, properly heat-treated.
- A full tang running through the grip, with the pommel peened or securely fixed, not a thin threaded rod.
- Blunt, rounded edges for re-enactment: ask your group's rules first.
Step 3
Weight and balance
A real knightly sword was light and lively: most single-handed swords of the period weigh between about 1 and 1.5 kg. A replica that feels like a crowbar is wrong for the period. Hold it out: the balance point should sit a hand's width or so down the blade from the crossguard, so that the point moves quickly.
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Beyond the sword
Helm, shield and mail
The helm
The conical nasal helm for the early Order; the flat-topped great helm, which enclosed the whole head, from the early 13th century to about 1340.
The shield
The long kite shield of the 12th century; the shorter, flat-topped heater shield of the 13th, the shape of heraldry.
The mail
The hauberk was the brother's main armour for the Order's whole life. Riveted rings are the historical kind; butted rings are cheaper and fine for display.
Toledo
Toledo steel: the true story
Toledo has been a centre of sword-making and metalwork since about the Roman period. Its fame peaked in the 15th and 16th centuries, when its blades were counted among the best in the world, and in 1761 King Charles III ordered a royal sword factory to be founded there. Today only a few artisan workshops still forge blades in the city, beside many shops selling replicas.
"Toledo" on a label is a place of origin, not a guarantee of quality: ask what steel it is, how it was heat-treated, and whether it is made to be used or to be displayed. The knight who keeps this site was received at the Conclave of Toledo, under the walls of San Servando.
The law
Buying a sword in the UK
In broad terms, an adult may own a straight sword in the UK, but it is an offence to sell one to anyone under 18, and carrying a bladed article in public without good reason is against the law. Curved swords with a blade of 50 cm or more are banned from sale with some exceptions. Since the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, sellers may not deliver bladed products to a home address without safeguards, so expect a collection point or an age check on delivery.
This is a summary, not legal advice. Laws differ in other countries; check the rules where you live and ask the seller before you buy.
Keeping it well
Care and display
Keep carbon steel lightly oiled and away from damp; wipe off fingerprints, which rust. Hang a sword on a wall mount away from radiators and out of children's reach, and store the scabbard separately if it holds moisture.
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Books for collectors
The Sword in the Age of Chivalry
Ewart Oakeshott · 1964
The book that sorted medieval swords into types X to XXII; the collector's starting point.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Knight Templar 1120–1312
David Nicolle · Osprey Warrior 91, 2004
The brother's kit, horse and tactics, with full-colour plates.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Rule of the Templars
J. M. Upton-Ward (trans.) · Boydell, 1992
The Rule lists what each brother received from the stores: hauberk, iron hose, helmet, sword, lance, shield, Turkish mace and dagger.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Legend or record?
The Grail, the Ark, the treasure, Friday the 13th, the curse, the Shroud and Rosslyn: every popular claim this site has tested, with the verdict and the source.
16 claims, tested
Legend or record?
Each claim was tested in a daily edition against the medieval sources and the work of historians. The verdict is in red; the link opens the evidence.
The Templars found the Holy Grail
The Grail first appears in a romance by Chrétien de Troyes around 1180, and no Templar document or trial record mentions it.
The source (opens in a new tab)The Templars found the Ark of the Covenant
The Ark leaves the record with the destruction of Solomon's Temple in 587 or 586 BC; the Templar link comes from modern books.
The source (opens in a new tab)The lost Templar treasure
The only trial testimony of treasure leaving Paris, in 1308, is hearsay; in 1312 the Order's property passed to the Hospitallers.
The source (opens in a new tab)Friday the 13th is unlucky because of the Templars
The arrests did fall on Friday 13 October 1307, but nobody calls Friday the 13th unlucky before the 19th century.
The source (opens in a new tab)De Molay cursed the king and the pope
The eyewitness Geoffrey of Paris has de Molay say only that God would avenge them; the summons came from later writers.
The source (opens in a new tab)The Templars kept the Shroud of Turin
The Shroud's history begins at Lirey around 1354–55, forty years after the Order's end; no document puts it in Templar hands.
The source (opens in a new tab)Rosslyn Chapel is a Templar shrine
Rosslyn was founded in 1446, 134 years after the suppression; the Templar stories begin in the 1980s.
The source (opens in a new tab)Nine knights for nine years
The story comes from William of Tyre, writing about 1170; earlier evidence shows recruits joining in the 1120s.
The source (opens in a new tab)The "Templar prayer" from the Vatican archives
The picture shared online is invented; the real Templar document in the archive is the Chinon Parchment of 1308.
The source (opens in a new tab)The knight's oath in Kingdom of Heaven
The words were written for the 2005 film and appear in no medieval source.
The source (opens in a new tab)The Templars became the Freemasons
The first grand lodge was founded in 1717, four centuries after 1312, and no document links the two.
The source (opens in a new tab)The Templars were heretics
The Pope's cardinals absolved the leaders at Chinon in August 1308, and in 1312 the Order was dissolved without a verdict of heresy.
The source (opens in a new tab)The Templars were a secret society
The Order's Rule was approved in public at the Council of Troyes in 1129, and popes set out its privileges in public bulls.
The source (opens in a new tab)All Templars were knights
Knights were a minority: most brothers were sergeants, and from 1139 the Order had its own chaplains.
The source (opens in a new tab)The Templars were rich knights
The Order grew rich, but a brother owned nothing of his own: his horse, arms and clothes belonged to the house.
The source (opens in a new tab)The Templars fought only in the Holy Land
They held Soure in Portugal from 1128 and fought in the Reconquista until 1312.
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The books that settle it
The Templars: History and Myth
Michael Haag · 2008
Half history, half the legends that followed, from the Grail to Rosslyn.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Trial of the Templars
Malcolm Barber · 2nd edition, 2006
How the Order was destroyed, 1307–1314, told from the trial records.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Templars: Selected Sources
Malcolm Barber and Keith Bate · Manchester University Press, 2002
The charters, chronicles and letters, translated: read the evidence yourself.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Walk where the Templars stood.
Eight castles, churches and commanderies you can visit today, from the Convent of Christ in Tomar to the Temple Church in London and San Servando above the Tagus.
8 places
Where to see the Templars today
Castles, churches and commanderies you can visit, from Portugal to London. Check opening times with each site before you travel.
Convent of Christ
Gualdim Pais, Master of the Templars in Portugal, began the castle on 1 March 1160; its round church, the Charola, is modelled on the churches of Jerusalem. After 1319 it became the seat of the Order of Christ. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.
About this site (opens in a new tab)Temple Church
The round church of the New Temple, consecrated in 1185 by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, with the effigies of knights on its floor. Still a working church between Fleet Street and the Thames.
About this site (opens in a new tab)Castillo de los Templarios
A great castle on the pilgrim road to Santiago. Alfonso IX gave the town to the Templars in 1211 and they held it until 1312. The town's Noche Templaria festival is held each summer.
About this site (opens in a new tab)Castell de Miravet
A fortress above the Ebro given to the Templars after the conquest; they began rebuilding it in 1153. After the arrests its brothers held out against James II of Aragon in a long siege, surrendering at the end of 1308.
About this site (opens in a new tab)Castillo de Peñíscola
James II of Aragon gave the site to the Templars in 1294, and they built the castle on its rock in the sea by 1307. The antipope Benedict XIII later made it his residence.
About this site (opens in a new tab)Castillo de San Servando
The castle on the hill across the Tagus from Toledo, held by the Templars under Alfonso VIII. It is used today as a youth hostel and opens for events.
About this site (opens in a new tab)Chinon Castle
Jacques de Molay and the Order's leaders were held here in 1308, when the Pope's cardinals absolved them; graffiti in the Tour du Coudray are attributed to the prisoners.
About this site (opens in a new tab)La Couvertoirade
A Templar commandery on the Larzac plateau from the 12th century, its walls built by the Hospitallers in the 15th; one of the best-kept fortified villages of the military orders.
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Gifts for a knight.
For the reader, the collector, the faithful and the traveller: gifts chosen for accuracy, with the books that historians trust.
Gift idea 1
For the reader
Start with a well-told history; add the Rule or the sources for the reader who has everything.
The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors
Dan Jones · 2017
The liveliest single-volume story of the Order, from Jerusalem to the fire.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Templars: History and Myth
Michael Haag · 2008
Half history, half the legends that followed, from the Grail to Rosslyn.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)The Rule of the Templars
J. M. Upton-Ward (trans.) · Boydell, 1992
The French Rule in English: the hierarchy, the chapter, the march and the charge.
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Gift idea 2
For the collector
A replica, helm or shield of the right century, and the book that explains it. Read the Armoury guide before you buy.
The Sword in the Age of Chivalry
Ewart Oakeshott · 1964
The book that sorted medieval swords into types X to XXII; the collector's starting point.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Knight Templar 1120–1312
David Nicolle · Osprey Warrior 91, 2004
The brother's kit, horse and tactics, with full-colour plates.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Gift idea 3
For the faithful
Bernard of Clairvaux's letter to the first Templars, and the eyewitness of Saint Louis on crusade.
In Praise of the New Knighthood
Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. Conrad Greenia · Cistercian Publications
The letter Bernard wrote for the first Templars, short and still striking.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Chronicles of the Crusades
Joinville and Villehardouin, trans. Caroline Smith · Penguin Classics, 2008
Two eyewitnesses: the Fourth Crusade, and Saint Louis in Egypt and Acre.
Find this book (opens in a new tab)Gift idea 4
A journey
A weekend at Tomar, Ponferrada or Toledo makes a gift that lasts. Eight Templar sites to choose from.
Kept by a Templar knight.
Who keeps this site, how every card is checked, how the site is paid for, and what happens to your data: plainly, in one page.
The keeper
Who keeps this site
This site is kept by Sir Knight Art, a Caballero of the Orden del Castillo de San Servando y la Casa del Temple de los Pobres Caballeros de Cristo, received at the Conclave of Toledo on 30 June 2025, under the patronage of Saint George. He oversees every edition.
Editorial standards
How we check
Every card is researched from sources linked beneath it: encyclopaedias, museums, academic and primary-source collections, and the work of historians. Dates and names are checked against at least one good source. Where a story is legend or still disputed, the card says so. News stories are real, dated reports with a working link, and the site says plainly when a body is Masonic, a private association, or an order recognised by the Church.
The drawings are made for the site in the manner of a medieval manuscript; the Gallery plates follow real artworks and places, named and linked beneath each one.
Disclosure
How this site is paid for
The site is free to read. It may carry display advertising and affiliate links, which pay a small commission when you buy through them at no extra cost to you. Affiliate links are labelled "Ad · affiliate link" and display advertising is labelled "Advertisement". Recommendations marked "Keeper's pick", "Book" or "Guide" are chosen on merit. There is no advertising in the prayer or the vow.
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