Helen J. Nicholson's Blog, page 6

The Templars in Scotland

The 1308 inventory of the Templars’ house at East Cowton in Yorkshire mentions ‘all the charters of the Temple of Scotland’. Photo by Nigel Nicholson

I have been blogging on my ‘Knights Templars’ estates’ page about the Templars’ charters from Scotland. See the post here.

Templars reading

It’s well known that the Templars were not as well educated as most monks. After all, their vocation was to protect Christendom through fighting and prayer, not to study. The inventories of the Templars’ property made after the Templars were arrested in 1307-8 include a lot of service books for the ‘prayer’ aspect of the Templars’ lives, but not many other books. From time to time, however, an impressive book appears which shows the Templars in one location in a different light.

The inventory of the church at New Temple, London, mentions a book whose title was variously spelt Cabeham or Chabeham and was obviously too well known to require further description ( The National Archives: E 358/18 rot. 7(2); E 358/20, rot. 3). As the modern spelling of Chabeham is Chobham, this was probably Thomas of Chobham’s very influential Summa de penitentia et officiis ecclesiae, written between 1215 and 1217. Trained at the University of Paris, Chobham was a theologian who served the bishops of Salisbury, taught at the University of Paris and composed works of theology and sermons. Described by Chobham’s modern biographer as a ‘handbook containing almost everything a thirteenth-century priest needed to know for the pastoral care of souls’, the Summa de penitentia was a widely-used book of practical theology which would have been very useful for the Templars’ clergy in their day-to-day work.

What happened to this copy of ‘Chobham’? It was probably sold. Perhaps it still exists!

How many Templars were there?

Four Templar knights on the tomb of Don Felipe in the former Templar church of Santa Maria la Blanca de Villasirga, at Villacazar de Sirga (Palencia, Castile, Spain). Photo: Juan Fuguet Sans.

This is one of those questions that people interested in the Templars often ask. But so far as we know the Templars did not keep membership lists; certainly none have survived. We don’t even know how many Templars there were at any one time. Working from figures given by Archbishop William of Tyre and by the Templar official Terricus (Thierry) after the Order’s heavy losses in the East in 1187, it appears that there were around 300 Templar knights in the kingdom of Jerusalem in the 1180s. Malcolm Barber has estimated that there were around 1,000 sergeant-brothers in addition to the 300 knight-brothers.

Is this a reasonable figure? As a comparison: there were reported to be eighty-three Templar knight-brothers and thirty-five sergeant-brothers on Cyprus just before the arrest of the Templars on Cyprus in May 1308. So from perhaps 1,300 Templars in the East in 1187 the number had fallen to 118 in 1308 — less than a tenth! The Templars had certainly suffered enormous losses when Acre fell to the Mamluks in 1291 and again when the Mamluks conquered the island of Ruad (Arwad) in 1302, but this decrease of over 90% suggests that the estimated figure of 1,300 Templars in the East in the 1180s is too large. Perhaps there were only 300 brothers in total, in the whole of the East; that would mean that numbers  more than halved between the 1180s and the early fourteenth century, but that would be reasonable after the losses of 1291-1302.

That is only the East: how many Templars were there overall?

In 1992 Malcolm Barber estimated that there were 7,000 Templars in total at the time of the brothers’ arrests in 1307-8. But Anne Gilmour-Bryson has gone through all the surviving testimonies and calculated that between 1307 and 1311 only around 935 Templars testified.

Some readers assume that this means that a lot of Templars escaped! But there’s a simpler explanation — that estimate of 7,000 is far too large. Malcolm assumed that every known Templar house had two or three brothers in it in 1307, but as scholars work through the inventories and the other records of the trial it now appears that many had no resident brothers at all.

So how many Templars were there in 1307? To judge from Britain and Ireland – where there were around 144 Templars at the time of the arrests but only 108 (that is, 75% of the total) testified – some 25% of Templars avoided interrogation because they were too ill, because they died, or because they evaded arrest. Roger Sève and Anne-Marie Chagny-Sève calculated that there were ninety-one Templars in the diocese of Clermont, in 1307, of whom sixty-five were interrogated; and ninety-seven Templars in the diocese of Limoges, of whom sixty-eight were interrogated — that is, around 30% were not interrogated. In Cyprus seventy-six Templars testified: 64% of the 118 in Cyprus in May 1308. If we apply the percentage of interrogations versus actual Templars in Britain and Ireland to Gilmour-Bryson’s figure for testimonies, we get a total of only 1,246 Templars in 1307. The percentage of interrogations to actual Templars in Clermont diocese would give us 1,309 Templars; ditto in Limoges diocese 1,334 Templars; the percentage for Cyprus would give us 1,452 Templars. At the time of writing I don’t have comparable figures for the other provinces, but so far this suggests that there were no more than 1,500 Templars in Europe and Cyprus in 1307.

Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (Cambridge: CUP, 1994), pp. 93-4; Barber, ‘Supplying the Crusader States: the role of the Templars’, in The Horns of Hattin. Proceedings of the 2nd Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East: Jerusalem and Haifa 2-6 July 1987, ed. Benjamin Z. Kedar (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1992), pp. 314-326: at p. 315.

‘Chronique d’Amadi’ in Chroniques d’Amadi et de Strambaldi, ed. René de Mas Latrie (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1891), vol. 1, p. 286; Nicholas Coureas and Peter Edbury, The Chronicle of Amadi translated from the Italian (Nicosia: Cyprus Research Centre, 2015), p. 268 [570].

Barber, ‘Supplying the Crusader States’ (1992), p. 319; Anne Gilmour-Bryson, The Trial of the Templars in Cyprus: A Complete Edition (Leiden: Brill, 1998), p. 9.

Helen Nicholson, Knights Templar on Trial (Stroud: History Press, 2009), p. 49; Proceedings Against the Templars in the British Isles, ed. and trans. Helen Nicholson (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011),  vol. 2, pp. xix, xxxix.

Roger Sève, and Anne-Marie Chagny-Sève, eds, Le Procès des Templiers d’Auvergne, 1309–1311: Edition de l’interrogatoire de juin 1309 (Paris: Editions du Comité des Travaux historiques et scientifiques, 1986), p. 31; p. 32.

Who owed the Templars?

The National Archives: E 142/119 mem. 12 dorse: the sheriffs respond to King Edward II’s inquiry into who owed the Templars what as of Christmas 1307 and after. Photo: gawainsmum.

 

I have yet to do the sums, but the quick answer is: not many people owned up to owing the Templars anything as of Christmas 1307. King Edward II’s attempts to bulk up the assets that were coming to him through the Templars failed: sheriff after sheriff reported that no one in his county owed anything to the Templars. Some replies are missing: there is nothing from the sheriffs of York or Lincoln. In any case, here is the complete (draft) transcription and English summary of the replies that do survive in The National Archives at E 142/119: TNA E 142 119 debts due to the Templars at Easter 1309

For anyone who wants to know why there are still gaps: here’s the sheriffs’ reply from London and Middlesex. Enjoy!

The further career of Thomas Totty

Fans of my Daily News page will remember that the Templar brother Thomas Totty or Thoraldby claimed to be an undercover agent for the Templars. Perhaps more reliably, the Cistercian who wrote Tintern Abbey’s continuation of the Flores historiarum wrote that Thomas had been commander of Garway commandery in Herefordshire; but he wasn’t holding this post when the Templars were arrested in January 1308. So where was he? He was initially interrogated at Lincoln, which suggests that he had been based in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Shropshire or Staffordshire; but nowhere in the proceedings against the Templars in England is there any indication of his location immediately before the arrests.

The National Archives, E 142/119 mem. 6: Inquest at Warwick. Photo by gawainsmum.

In March 1309 the sheriffs of England, following royal instructions, held investigations into what debts had been owed to the Templars just before their arrests. The jurors for Warwickshire declared that John atte Mersch of Schireburne had owed Brother Thomas Totto, commander of Balsall, sixteen shillings in mortuary dues for his brother William. So this was where Thomas Totty was in January 1308!

Debts due to the Templars

At the end of December 1308 King Edward II’s treasury launched an investigation into the debts due to the Templars. I’ve written a blog about this here, and put some transcriptions on to Wattpad, such as this one from Northumberland.

Maid in the kitchen at Temple Cressing

In the account for the important commandery of Temple Cressing in Essex in the first month after the Templars’ arrest, a maid (ancilla) was responsible for making the porridge for the farmworkers.

Detail of the account for ‘Barn: wheat’ at Temple Cressing, 9 January to 12 February 1308, showing a maid being paid an allowance of wheat as payment for making the porridge for the farmworkers. The National Archives, E 358/19 rot. 52 dorse. Photo: Philip Slavin.

As this was immediately after the Templars’ arrest and before the king’s officials began making changes to the administration of the estates, presumably she had been working at the manor during the Templars’ time there. There had been two Templars living at Cressing before the arrests, Roger le Norreis and John Cofyn (see my translation of the Proceedings against the Templars in the British Isles, vol. 2, p. 589).There were twenty-two workers on the ‘payroll’ at Cressing in January 1308, but only the maid’s work would have required her to work inside the house, in the kitchen. Her presence there may come as a surprise to readers who assume that because the Templars were an all-male order women would not have been allowed to work within a house where brothers lived — but clearly this was not the case. Of course we know nothing about this ‘maid’ other than her job description: she may have been an elderly widow and ‘maid’ was a job title rather than a personal description.

Roofing

As the February winds whistle around our houses, blow down fences, send roof tiles flying and rattle chimneys — spare a thought for the royal officials in charge of the Templars’ estates between 1308 and 1313. Every year their accounts included the costs of roofing the barns, cowshed, sheepfold, and other buildings of the manors that were their responsibility. It’s tempting to assume that the Templars had let their houses deteriorate and that’s why so much had to be spent on repairs in 1308 — but this doesn’t explain why it was an annual expense.

The Wheat Barn at Temple Cressing, Essex. Note the size of the roof! There were 180 quarters of wheat in the barn at Cressing on 9 January 1308 and that month the sheriff of Essex spent six shillings and a penny halfpenny on repairs to the roofs of the barns, cowshed and sheepfold of the manor (TNA E 358/19 rot. 52 dorse). Photo: Gawainsmum.

The Barley Barn at Temple Cressing — again, love that roof! On 9 January 1308 the sheriff did not find any barley at Cressing; but there were 140 quarters of oats, 6 quarters of beans and 20 quarters of peas ‘in the barn’. Photo: N2 Productions.

Were the officials claiming more than they should? What’s the life expectancy of a roof? Usually the accounts say nothing about the roofing materials used, but at Staughton in Bedfordshire (the National Archives, E 358/18 rot. 24 dorse) we learn that the roofs were stone or straw. According to the Thatch Advice Centre, the modern life expectancy of longstraw is 15 to 25 years, but life expectancy varies with the quality of the material, the skill of the thatcher, the pitch of the roof, and the weather — to mention but four factors.  The ridge of the roof will need re-thatching more frequently: every 1-15 years.

A ridge like those on the barns at Cressing in Essex would have needed considerable work! — but the Cressing barns are tiled. In the early fourteenth century they could have had clay tiles rather than thatch. But clay tiles may blow off, or break when animals or birds run about on them, so even clay tiles need to be replaced.

Rather than assuming that all the Templar buildings were dilapidated and ruinous in 1308, there may have been a rolling annual schedule of repair so that each roof was renewed every twenty years or so. This would have spread the massive expense of maintenance out over a long period, keeping the annual cost within affordable limits.

An environment agency

The coast near Sutton in Essex, where the Templars’ seawall needed repair in 1308. Photo: N2 Productions

Readers of my book The Knights Templar on Trial may remember that the Templars had been responsible for maintaining the seawall near their manor of Sutton in Essex (pp. 85-6). In 1308 the king’s officials who were now in charge at Sutton found that the seawall was in constant need of repair. In the first month (9 Jan to 12 Feb 1308) the sheriff had to spend 26 shillings to repair and improve the seawall to prevent damage from flooding (TNA E 358/19 rot. 52). In the next few months, until the end of September, the sheriff spent another 103 shillings on the seawalls; and in November King Edward II sent further instructions to repair the seawall because of the imminent danger of flooding.

As the climate became colder and wetter in the early fourteenth century, the danger of flooding increased. It was eminently sensible for the seawall to be in the Templars’ care, as they had the liquid capital to invest in its repair. But when the order was abolished there was no obvious institution to take over this responsibility. Similar problems must have occurred in England and Wales after the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s.

Pensioners at Dinsley

As the location of the English Templars’ annual provincial chapter meetings Dinsley (Herts.) was an important house. It was a house that people wanted to be associated with. So it’s not surprising that in 1308 the sheriff in charge of the Templars’ former manor at Dinsley after the Templars’ arrests  had some large expenses to meet (TNA: E 358/18 rot. 23).

He had to pay for the day-to-day support of the six Templars imprisoned in Hertford Castle – three from Hertfordshire and three from Essex. He also had to pay out the corrodies due to various people who had made donations to the Templars in return for a regulat income from the Order.

There were William fitz Henry of Sharnbrook and his wife Johanna, due to receive 4 d a day: that added up to 75 shillings over 7 months. Then there was Andrew of Bertholt, who was due to eat at the squires’ table, and receive a robe at Christmas and a summer robe at Easter, and 5 shillings a year for his other needs: this was commuted into cash and he was paid 38 s 4 d. Then Roger of Hunsingoure had to be paid 62 s 3 d to compensate him for no longer receiving his meals at the brothers’ table, a robe and 10 shillings a year; William of Wengrave expected a pension and food for himself and his ‘lad’ (servant) and money for a robe for himself and footwear for his servant (he was paid 106 shillings), Hugh of Aylesbury was entitled to eat at the brothers’ table, and have a robe and payment of one mark (two-thirds of a pound) each year (he received 52 s 3 d instead), and Richard of Biggleswade was paid 70 s 3 d instead of receiving his usual food and 20 shillings a year. Martin of Stokton, priest, also received his food and an annual payment cash, but in this case the payment was the equivalent of his salary.

New Temple in London could not meet its financial commitments in 1308: photo N2 Productions

In addition to all these, the sheriff of Hertfordshire was told to pay out for some corrodies that should have been paid from the income of the New Temple in London; but there wasn’t enough money left to pay them. John of Benstede, chaplain, was entitled to receive an annual pension of 100 shillings (five pounds, while William Lambert and his wife Caorsette were also due to receive an annual pension of 100 shillings, plus a robe.

So the Templars’ London house had run out of money and could not meet its obligations!

But Dinsley was a wealthy manor. Even with these additional expenses, the account was still in surplus at the end of the year.