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The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors
by
A faltering war in the middle east. A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity’s holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies.
Jerusalem 1119. A small group of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade decides to set up a new order. The ...more
Jerusalem 1119. A small group of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade decides to set up a new order. The ...more
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Hardcover, 448 pages
Published
September 19th 2017
by Viking
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Start your review of The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors

When you read non-fiction, you (hopefully) learn something about the world around you (if you don’t, you might want to consider finding better non-fiction to read, unless you’re Stephen Hawking reading a Physics for Dummies book).
Sometimes, though, you also learn something about yourself. That something might be the fact that you scream like a wolf whose leg just got severed by a steel trap when you get a paper cut trying to flip through those damn picture pages they stick in the middle of the b ...more
Sometimes, though, you also learn something about yourself. That something might be the fact that you scream like a wolf whose leg just got severed by a steel trap when you get a paper cut trying to flip through those damn picture pages they stick in the middle of the b ...more

”It was exactly a century since Hugh of Payns had established the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Those one hundred years had seen the Templars transformed from indigent shepherds of the pilgrim roads, dependent on the charity of fellow pilgrims for their food and clothes, into a borderless, self-sustaining paramilitary group funded by large-scale estate management.”
Hugh of Payns
HUGH OF PAYNS, doesn’t the name itself evoke some chainmail wrapped Conan ...more
Hugh of Payns
HUGH OF PAYNS, doesn’t the name itself evoke some chainmail wrapped Conan ...more

"Often the end fails to equal the beginning."
Medieval proverb
A proverb that perfectly chronicles the rise and fall of The Templars, a monastic order combined with the profession of the soldier. Divided into four parts, the reader follows the Templars from the beginning when they were just small group, seeking approval and rules, from the Pope, to the end when they were rich and powerful. Powerful and rich enough to become the object of a take down engineered by the French monarch, Phillip the ...more
Medieval proverb
A proverb that perfectly chronicles the rise and fall of The Templars, a monastic order combined with the profession of the soldier. Divided into four parts, the reader follows the Templars from the beginning when they were just small group, seeking approval and rules, from the Pope, to the end when they were rich and powerful. Powerful and rich enough to become the object of a take down engineered by the French monarch, Phillip the ...more

I knew very little about the Templars when I went into this book. One’s perception of a non-fiction book is influenced by what you know beforehand and one’s personal preferences.
I have found The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors to be informative, clear and well structured. It moves forward chronologically, starting with the origin of the Order of the Knights Templar--in 1119 the French knight Hugues de Payens spoke with King Baldwin II in Jerusalem about establishi ...more
I have found The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors to be informative, clear and well structured. It moves forward chronologically, starting with the origin of the Order of the Knights Templar--in 1119 the French knight Hugues de Payens spoke with King Baldwin II in Jerusalem about establishi ...more

Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam!
Not unto us, o Lord, not unto us, but unto your name grant glory!
The Knights Templars is perhaps the most well-known military order of the medieval era. The Templars traces their origins in the aftermath of the First Crusade to their rise to spectacular rise as a feared & respected elite military force in the Holy Lands & the royal courts across Europe and to their eventual disbanding & persecution almost 200 years later.
The Knights ...more
Not unto us, o Lord, not unto us, but unto your name grant glory!
The Knights Templars is perhaps the most well-known military order of the medieval era. The Templars traces their origins in the aftermath of the First Crusade to their rise to spectacular rise as a feared & respected elite military force in the Holy Lands & the royal courts across Europe and to their eventual disbanding & persecution almost 200 years later.
The Knights ...more

A great treatment of a truly spectacular legend/horrorshow.
The story of the Templar Knights is gloriously varied, complex, courageous, insane, praiseworthy, mysterious, and tragic. It's primarily a history about the five Crusades and chivalry, but it becomes a harrowing monstrosity by the time King Phillipe enacts his vendetta against the Order.
I simplify. There's two hundred years worth of fascinating and edge-of-the-seat crusader action going on here as well as a farce of a trial that cut the ...more
The story of the Templar Knights is gloriously varied, complex, courageous, insane, praiseworthy, mysterious, and tragic. It's primarily a history about the five Crusades and chivalry, but it becomes a harrowing monstrosity by the time King Phillipe enacts his vendetta against the Order.
I simplify. There's two hundred years worth of fascinating and edge-of-the-seat crusader action going on here as well as a farce of a trial that cut the ...more

Dan Jones is fast becoming one of my go-to authors on all things medieval. His previous books that I’ve read all cover British medieval history, from Henry I through the end of the Wars of the Roses. With “The Templars” he takes his pen and gives the reader a reasonably complete overview of the “Warrior Monks – The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, AKA the Templars. The narrative mainly unfolds chronologically with a few sidetracks. The author traces their history from
...more

The book covers the founding of the Templars from its spectacular fundraising to its tawdry end. In between you see how the Templar’s mission changed from protecting pilgrims in the Holy Land to warfare and then to banking and financial services. Assembly of all this material is to be saluted if only for the logistics of finding and reading its primary sources in so many languages.
Most of the book is about the Templar’s role in the Crusades and the many colorful participants on all sides. If you ...more
Most of the book is about the Templar’s role in the Crusades and the many colorful participants on all sides. If you ...more

Well, that was depressing. A tour of the atrocities of the 12th to 14th centuries, with religious fanaticism, wholesale murder, torture, 'holy war', greed, self-righteous lunacy and just a lot of bloody awful people.
It's a very solid history, well written, and I feel better informed, but the grind of colonisation, murder, treachery, war isn't really relieved by any grace in the tale. There's no great poetry or art or stories of things achieved or forward strides for humanity in any of it, it's ...more
It's a very solid history, well written, and I feel better informed, but the grind of colonisation, murder, treachery, war isn't really relieved by any grace in the tale. There's no great poetry or art or stories of things achieved or forward strides for humanity in any of it, it's ...more

May 09, 2018
Kevin
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-non-fiction
From their idealistic, religious, humble beginnings in Jerusalem after its capture during the First Crusade in 1119, for the initial task of protecting pilgrims on their journey to the Holy Land, to end up being dissolved by the jealousy of King Phillip IV of France (who needed money from his campaigns against the Jews), then this book contains probably the best, quasi-neutral account I have read of the Templars, or Knights of the Temple of Solomon as they were originally known as (due to holdin
...more

I think everyone has heard the name Templars at some point in their lives. Some people know more about them, some less, and some even know actual facts. Personally, I have been fascinated with this topic for a long time. One reason is the historical context of the Crusades, the struggle between two major religions (technically three). I love ancient history more but knights in general have a certain allure because it's interesting where the truth lies between them being portrayed as chivalrous s
...more

The Templar is the most famous chivalric order among those created around or in the wake of the Crusades, yet their fame has been due to more fiction than facts. With this book, historian Dan Jones provides perhaps the fullest account to separate facts from fiction and tell the stories of the Templar in a complete, straightforward, and engaging manner, from their creation at the Temple of Solomon, their days of glory and ordeal at the Holy Land, and their spectacular downfall at the hand of a gr
...more

Really loved this book, maybe not quite as much as other Dan Jones books I've read, but I definitely recommend him when it comes to history. He's very good at finding the storyline in order to make it an entertaining read for nonfiction.
...more

Well it was nice to read a nonfiction book after all the YA I have been reading lately, Also the Templars have always been an interesting topic to me. I associate them with the crusades and all the militaristic life that was such a big part of the 13th century both in Europe and the Middle East. This book also gave me some new insights into the order and its demise , For one I thought that after the ordeal they went through in France the order was done for , but no . The Order of the Temple cont
...more

This is a thorough history of the Medieval Order of the Knights Templar which lasted for nearly two centuries. Although this ecclesiastical order, for a time, wielded great economic, political and military power, it was its military campaigns in the Crusades for which it was best known. This book focused most of its attention on the bloody details of these battles. I am glad to have learned so much about this chivalric order which has taken on legendary status in popular culture.

(Note - I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley).
Dan Jones (author of recent greats such as "The War of the Roses" and "The Plantagenets") delivers yet again with another absolutely spectacular work, and possibly his best to date. From their humble origins to their great fall, from Jerusalem to burning pyres in France, Jones takes readers through a grand history of the Knights Templar. His is a chronicle that offers focuses not merely on the military exploits of these legenda ...more
Dan Jones (author of recent greats such as "The War of the Roses" and "The Plantagenets") delivers yet again with another absolutely spectacular work, and possibly his best to date. From their humble origins to their great fall, from Jerusalem to burning pyres in France, Jones takes readers through a grand history of the Knights Templar. His is a chronicle that offers focuses not merely on the military exploits of these legenda ...more

It's just too big of a topic for 400 pages. While Jones does a good job of giving a high level view there's really very little in the day to day of the Templar body especially in regards to the crusades in the east. It did give me a lot of ideas for follow up topics I want to read about and refreshed my memory on a lot of this history.
I do confess that every time the name Antioch was uttered in the back of my head.........the counting of the number shall be three, not four, not two unless then ...more
I do confess that every time the name Antioch was uttered in the back of my head.........the counting of the number shall be three, not four, not two unless then ...more

Should be titled The Templars, the Failed Crusades, and the Useless European Monarchs. A very readable history book and intro to these almost mythical knights yet it has very few of their point of views amongst all the political and military squabbles, and very little on how they lived their lives, how they trained, how they did their banking stuff exactly, and so on.
The last part was the best. It is frustrating to read about the Inquisition. Indeed, Erasmus was right when he said Christians hur ...more
The last part was the best. It is frustrating to read about the Inquisition. Indeed, Erasmus was right when he said Christians hur ...more

I wanted to read The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors for multiple reasons. In general I am interested in history but this is not limited to a certain period. I had heard from many of my bookish friends that Dan Jones is the man to go to for your shot of history. And secretly I have always been intrigued a little bit with the order that was destroyed in such a manner and still has some sort of cult status in popular culture (yes, they are the bad guys in Assassin's
...more

This is an excellent non-fiction research and historic study of the Templars. That class of oath / vow declared warrior men who were originally formed to ensure the safety of pilgrim participants (Christian) who traveled to see the physical locations in which Jesus was born, lived, and died.
This is a nearly perfect example of something I have noted within nearly all historic non-fiction. That the more focused the attention to one issue, one class, one battle, one document etc. that the better t ...more
This is a nearly perfect example of something I have noted within nearly all historic non-fiction. That the more focused the attention to one issue, one class, one battle, one document etc. that the better t ...more

This review can also be found on my blog!
Admittedly, the only reason I read this was because I love Dan Jones. Religious orders, along with the Crusades, aren’t really my area of interest. I love learning about medieval theology/Christianity, but this isn’t my huge area.
But, I liked it. I think it was a solid book and I was able to identify areas that really interested me.
I think the part that tried me was the way it never quite focused on the Templars themselves. They were there, always in the ...more
Admittedly, the only reason I read this was because I love Dan Jones. Religious orders, along with the Crusades, aren’t really my area of interest. I love learning about medieval theology/Christianity, but this isn’t my huge area.
But, I liked it. I think it was a solid book and I was able to identify areas that really interested me.
I think the part that tried me was the way it never quite focused on the Templars themselves. They were there, always in the ...more

Excellent book by historian Dan Jones on the Templars.
Written in an almost linnear progression, it was much easier to keep track of what happened than some other Templar books I have read.
I had only one small niggle: I disliked the Anglization of names. I'm sorry, James of Molay just annoyed me. History knows him as Jacques de Molay and that is what he should have remained. Same went for the unilateral usage of "of" instead of "de". Hugh of Payens didn't ring true the way Hugh de Payens does.
Sma ...more
Written in an almost linnear progression, it was much easier to keep track of what happened than some other Templar books I have read.
I had only one small niggle: I disliked the Anglization of names. I'm sorry, James of Molay just annoyed me. History knows him as Jacques de Molay and that is what he should have remained. Same went for the unilateral usage of "of" instead of "de". Hugh of Payens didn't ring true the way Hugh de Payens does.
Sma ...more

Nov 25, 2018
Colleen Browne
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
anyone with an interest in the history of that era.
Shelves:
history
A factual account of the Templars is a rarity in the world of Dan Brown books. Anyway, this is a well-written, fascinating account of the rise and fall of this group. The book provides a birds-eye-view into the politics of the age and the ultimate failure of the Christians to hold on to the Holy Land.

As more and more pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land in the Middle Ages, they found themselves easy prey for bandits and warlords residing along the routes from Europe. So, in 1120 the Knights of the Templar were founded. These knights would take a vow of poverty and chastity similar to other Christian orders; however, these knights would be able to murder pagans on behalf of the Christian cross. In addition to protecting the pilgrim routes, they were soon helping Christian kings on Crusades to r
...more

If one could summarize the history of human warfare, one could do it using three words : arrogant, stupid and selfish. Most likely when a side lost a battle or war, one of the major factors was one or more of its leaders was either selfishly arrogant, arrogantly stupid, or stupidly selfish.
In The Templars, Dan Jones set out to provide a rather concise narrative of who were the Templars and what factual activities were they involved in with respect to the Crusades. I’m not going to go into who’s ...more
In The Templars, Dan Jones set out to provide a rather concise narrative of who were the Templars and what factual activities were they involved in with respect to the Crusades. I’m not going to go into who’s ...more

Concise narrative history of the Templars without all the extraneaous myths surrounding the organization. For a group that only existed for a couple hundred years The Templars certainly have captured a corner of the public's imagination.
8/10 ...more
8/10 ...more

It was meticulously researched and well written, but for something i've been fascinated about for so long I found out the Templars just aren't all that interesting.
...more

Good read. Enjoyed the history of the Knights Templar. It reads like a novel but unfortunately this novel has a bad ending. Hard enough was their task fighting in the Holy Land but fighting a relentless enemy. Their first significant victory didn't come till 1191. Up against the likes of Saladin who inspired his men to crushing defeats over God's warriors. The Holy Land has been a controversial issued since.
Their downfall came at the hands of their benefactors the Pope. ...more
Their downfall came at the hands of their benefactors the Pope. ...more
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Non Fiction Book ...: The Templar: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors (Aug 15-Sep 14, 2019) | 70 | 52 | Sep 01, 2019 07:41AM | |
Goodreads Librari...: The Templars / Dan Jones | 2 | 19 | Mar 01, 2018 01:21AM |
Dan Jones is a historian, broadcaster and award-winning journalist. His books, including The Plantagenets, Magna Carta, The Templars and The Colour of Time, have sold more than one million copies worldwide. He has written and hosted dozens of TV shows including the acclaimed Netflix/Channel 5 series 'Secrets of Great British Castles'. For ten years Dan wrote a weekly column for the London Evening
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