CASE 121 - The knights templar

Every aristocrat and clergyman in Europe was well aware of the power of “The Order”. Once trusted with the protection of the Holy Land, and the pilgrims who visited it, the Knights Templar had become a very powerful economic and political force in its time. Known as the Pope’s army, the monastic order’s influence crossed over national boundaries. They took orders from no monarch. Only the Pope himself exercised leadership over “The Order.” It was rumored that the Knights gained their wealth through an excavation of the site of the ancient temple at Jerusalem. In reality, the Knights Templar were masters at the art of international finance and war. They lent to both aristocrat and king. Cleric and Bishop. As a result of France’s conflict with England, King Philip the Fair was both desperate for wealth, and heavily indebted to “The Order”. It came as no surprise to anybody that in France, the Knights enjoyed their greatest influence. In 1099, the original Knights Templar established their Jerusalem headquarters in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. According to Holy Blood, Holy Grail, "The knights and monks who occupied the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also installed by Godfroi [de Bouillon], were formed into an official and duly constituted 'order' - the Order of the Holy Sepulchre." Two centuries later, by 1291, the Western crusaders were thrust out of the Holy Land by the Saracens and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was lost to the Roman Empire. The Templars, who had absorbed the esoteric Kabbalism of the Mideast and brought it to Europe, fell into disfavor with the Holy Roman Empire and, in 1309, Pope Clement V and King Philippe IV of France dissolved the Order. Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was executed in 1314 and the knights of the Order of the Temple were either executed or fled Europe for safety. In Scotland, a Templar refuge, Robert the Bruce made a vow to go to Jerusalem and reclaim that city from the Saracens. However "In 1329, Bruce died. . . Before his death, he had expressed the wish that his heart be removed, placed in a casket, taken to Jerusalem and buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre" the original Templar headquarters. Robert the Bruce's heart never reached Jerusalem and was returned to Scotland where it was buried in Melrose Abbey. The Templars kept alive his dream to reclaim the Holy Land and it is therefore conceivable that the heart of Alisdair Sinclair was a substitute for that of Robert the Bruce. Burial in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre would symbolize claim of the Sinclairs, as the head of the Merovingian dynasty (aka, the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ), to be the rightful heirs of the throne of Jerusalem.The abrupt disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends, which have kept the "Templar" name alive into the modern day later it was unified into the sovereign military order of Malta, now days its pretty obvious they can't ride around on horses on crusades, todays knights are many major corporation owners, land owners, billionairs are part of the order .