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Templars. In 1307 Philip was in desperate need of cash and so hatched the plot top shut the Order down on reason of blasphemy and confiscate their vast fortune. On the morning of Friday 13th October almost every Templar in France was arrested, 500 in all. Their immunity granted by the puppet Pope who owed his position to Philip counted for nothing. The common people could not believe that these holy warriors were being treated like common criminals and Philip found little support amongst neighbouring monarchs and lords. With the issue of a papal decree supporting Philips actions, other kings had to fall, into line. Such was the amount of propaganda that Philip spread undermining them, as well as confession either falsified or taken under the strain of hideous torture, that the Order was finally abolished, the final act being the death of its two last leaders in 1314.

But the order was never totally forgotten and became a rallying cry for anti-monarchist or anti-Catholic revolutionaries through out history. The remains of the order scattered, many turning up in Scotland, at the time excommunicated and therefore outside the Popes control. It is even suggested that the Scots won the battle of Bannockburn with the arrival on the field of a Templar force. Other stories range from the Templar fleet escaping the arrests and sailing west to America with their vast wealth, ironically most of which King Philip never found. The most famous mysteries surround the fact that they may have found the Holy Grail and other artefacts during their stay on The Dome of the Rock.

The Templars are probably discussed less for the things that they actually did, but more for the conspiracies and mysterious that remain intangible and unproven and thus their legacy remains alive and popular today.

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