Helen J Nicholson - The Knights Templar on Trial: The Trial of the Templars in the British Isles 1308-1311

This book is based on my new edition of the trial proceedings against the Templars in the British Isles, which has been produced with the assistance of a British Academy/ Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship in 20034, and will be published in two volumes.

I have included here two appendices based on unpublished medieval records. The first is a list of all the Templars who were in the British Isles at the time of the arrests at the beginning of 1308. It is based on the information in the manuscripts of the trial proceedings, the records which the royal sheriffs made of the arrests, the accounts kept by the custodians of the Templars lands, and information recorded in the bishops registers. The second, based on the same sources, lists all the Templars properties in the British Isles that were mentioned during the course of the trial proceedings, giving their location and explaining what happened to these properties after the Templars were dissolved: whether they passed to the Hospitallers, as the pope had ordered, or fell into other hands. Because many of these sources have not yet been published, much of this information will be completely new to most readers. I have included full references, so that readers may check the information here to the original documents. Unless otherwise stated in the notes, all translations from Latin and Old French are my own, and should not be used by other writers without acknowledgement.

I have incurred many debts in the research and writing of this study. My greatest debts are to the staff of the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the British Library, London; the Archivio Segreto Vaticano (Vatican Secret Archives); and The National Archives: Public Record Office, London, for their assistance during my research. I am grateful to the following for permission to use unpublished material: Archivio Segreto Vaticano for permission to cite my transcription of MS Armarium XXXV 147; the librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, for permission to cite: The Memoranda Roll of the Irish Exchequer for 3 Edward II, 2 vols, ed. David Victor Craig, unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of Dublin, 1984, and Niav Gallagher, The mendicant orders and the wars of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, 12301415, unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of Dublin, 2005; Seymour Phillips of University College, Dublin, for allowing me to see Martin Messingers unpublished M.Phil. thesis, The Trial of the Knights Templar in Ireland, University College Dublin, 1988; Maeve B. Callan for allowing me to use her unpublished Ph.D thesis, No such art in this land: Heresy and Witchcraft in Ireland, 13101360, Northwestern University, Evanston IL (2002); Simon Phillips for allowing me to refer to his unpublished Ph.D thesis, The Role of the Prior of St John in Late Medieval England, c. 13001540, University College Winchester (2005) and Clive Porro for allowing me to cite his unpublished paper on the trial of the Templars in Portugal.

I am also very grateful to the following for their assistance (in alphabetical order): Richard Armitage, Malcolm Barber, Jochen Burgtorf, Richard Copsey O. Carm., Paul Crawford, Alain Demurger, Peter Edbury, Alan Forey, Robin Frame, Beth Hartland, Balzs Major, Elizabeth Matthew, Colmn Clabaigh OSB, Jos Mara Prez de las Heras, Denys Pringle, John Walker and Jack Wallace. Many others who have given assistance on specific points are mentioned in the notes at the appropriate place. I offer my heartfelt thanks to the staff of the museums, archives, libraries and other institutions which supplied many of the pictures for this book and/or gave permission for them to be used here; a full list can be found in the list of plates. In addition, I thank the individuals who have allowed me to use their photographs: Jochen Burgtorf, Paul Crawford, Gawain and Nigel Nicholson and Denys Pringle. Regretfully, recent changes at the publishing company led to a late change in contractual terms which has meant that I have not been able to use all the pictures I initially hoped to use. The maps were produced by Nigel Nicholson, based on my own sketches.

My thanks are due to everyone who has given support to my project on the trial of the Templars in the British Isles over the last eight years. In particular, I thank Nigel and Gawain for their patience in seeing this book to publication.

The trial of the Templars in France (130712) is notorious for cruel tortures which forced confessions, and the burning at the stake of those Templars who retracted their confessions. The Templars trial in the British Isles was a much smaller-scale affair. There were only 144 Templars in the whole of the British Isles at the time of the arrests in early 1308, and rather fewer by July 1311 when the Order in Britain was dissolved. The confessions were unimpressive only three Templars confessed to personal involvement in the most serious accusations: denial of Christ and spitting on the cross. No Templars were burned at the stake and there were no Templar curses. Several Templars went missing, most of whom later reappeared two returned from Ireland, where they had been living openly and collecting government pensions alongside the Irish Templars. In 1311 the Templars were sent to monasteries to perform their penance and live on a small pension.