Episode 13 - The Crushing of the Knights Templar

In view of the suspicion, infamy, loud insinuations and other things which have been brought against the order… and also the secret and clandestine reception of the brothers of this Order, and the danger to faith and souls, and the many horrible things which have been done by the many of the brothers of this Order, who have lapsed into the sin of wicked apostasy, the crime of detestable idolatry, and the execrable outrage of the Sodomites . . . it is not without bitterness and sadness of heart that we abolish the aforesaid Order of the Temple, and we subject it to perpetual prohibition, strictly forbidding anyone to presume to enter the said Order in the future, or to act as a Templar.

— Vox in excelso, Pope Clement V

The Iron King, Philip the Fourth, is well deserving of the title. As we see this episode, he let nothing get in the way of his ambitions. Italian merchants, Jewish moneylenders, even the Pope, all would be crippled by the French king for the crime of standing in his way.

This fate also awaited the Knights Templar; for political and financial gain, Philip seized on unsubstantiated rumours and strong-armed every authority in his grasp the ensure the complete and utter destruction of the military order.

This episode primarily makes use of the following texts:

Cohn, N. Europe’s Inner Demons (London, 1975)

Jochten Burgtof, Paul Crawford, Helen Nicholson (eds.) The Debate of the Trial of the Templars (1307-1314), 2013