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Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades
One of the most magnificent books... putting it down is almost impossible. ―Ocala Star-Banner
512 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
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965 people want to read
About the author
John J. Robinson
21 books35 followersJohn J. Robinson was an American author and historian, best known as the author of Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry, which was originally intended as a book about the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, but instead traced the fall of the Knights Templar, which he connected to the rise of Freemasonry. As a result of his research for this book, he became more interested in Freemasonry and subsequently wrote A Pilgrim's Path: Freemasonry and the Religious Right. He is also credited as being the "founding visionary" of the Masonic Information Center run by the Masonic Service Association of North America. He was a member of the Medieval Academy of America, The Organization of American Historians, and the Royal Over-Seas League of London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
February 13, 2016
Dungeon, Fire and Sword by John J. Robinson provides a chronological history of the Templars that is based for the most part on historical fact rather than fantasy, mystery, hysteria or conspiracy theories. Compared to most of the books out there which want to see Templars behind every bush and transform devout Christians into Jews, Atheists, secret Muslims, aliens from other planets, warlocks and whatnot, it’s not bad.
It is what the Germans would call “popular history,” which is a polite way of saying it’s been “dumbed down” a bit to make it an easy read. In this sense, it as a book that can serve as an introduction to the Templars for people only superficially interested the topic but nevertheless interested in facts rather than fantasy. It also has lists of the Templar Masters, Popes, Kings of Jerusalem, France and England, and the Holy Roman Emperors at the back of the book that is a very handy reference even for a serious scholar!
However, the very gossipy style that makes it such an easy read also makes it judgmental and superficial. Rather than exploring possible motives or balancing conflicting theories, it chooses one version and then blithely presents this as “the truth.”
Here's an example, the following quote from the book describes the aftermath of Conrad de Montferrat’s assassination (p. 191). “Henry of Champagne hurried back to Tyre when he got the news [of Conrad de Montferrat’s assassination]. To the local citizens, the handsome young count appeared to provide the ideal solution to the problem of finding a new husband for Isabella, a man who would then be eligible to reign as king of Jerusalem. Princess Isabella, a beautiful young woman twenty one years of age, had not had much success at marriage. She had been married first to the handsome but homosexual Humphrey of Toron, and then the stern, middle-aged Conrad de Montferrat, by whom she had an infant daughter. Perhaps a third marriage, with this dashing, wealthy, popular man, would be the answer. She agreed to the marriage.”
Now, first of all “the local citizens” did not select the husband and future king of Jerusalem -- the High Court of Jerusalem did that. Second, we have no idea what Henri de Champagne looked like, nor Isabella for that matter. She was not yet 21, either, nor had her daughter by Montferrat been born yet. I’ve never heard Conrad described as “stern” -- he had quite a reputation as a charmer and a seducer in the Byzantine court! Most important, however, as the daughter of a Byzantine Princess, Isabella wasn’t thinking of her own happiness; she was a queen concerned about the future of her kingdom. She agreed to the marriage because Henri of Champagne offered significant political advantages: he was the nephew of both the King of England and the King of France and so stood a chance of uniting the (then bitterly divided) crusaders behind him. All in all, the passage is light, gossipy, and fun, but it neither gives credit to the historical figures for rational action nor does it give the reader much insight into what is going on here.
More egregious, however, is the following passage (p. 154) describing the fall of Jerusalem. Having failed to mention that Ibelin defended Jerusalem with virtually no fighting men and 50 women and children to every man so well that the Sultan had to abandon his assaults after five days, Robinson writes: “By September 29 Saladin’s sappers had effected a breach in the wall. The Christians tried to fill and defend as best they could, although by now both sides knew that it was just a matter of time. The Greek Orthodox Christians in the city got word out to Saladin that they would open the gates to him, in exchange for his mercy. They had come to bitterly resent the arrogant Roman clergy who had forced them to attend church services alien to their traditions, conducted in a language they did not understand. They would welcome a return to the religious tolerance they had enjoyed under Muslim rule.”
This utter nonsense. The Greek Orthodox had NOT enjoyed “religious tolerance” under the Muslims. They had been taxed, disenfranchised and persecuted to the point where they had appealed to Constantinople for aid -- aid that came in the form of the First Crusade. Furthermore, they were NOT forced to attend Latin church services. They retained their priests and their language and their rites -- only the Bishops had been replaced by Latin Bishops (which offended the displaced bishops but affected the vast majority of Orthodox Christians not at all). Last but not least, people facing slavery and slaughter can be forgiven for searching for any way out of their situation; it implies absolutely nothing about overall attitudes of Orthodox residents toward the Crusader States.There is plenty of evidence that suggests the Greek Orthodox were very loyal to the Christian kingdom.
The description is facile, superficial and just bad history. This is nothing but a thoughtless regurgitation of something someone else said (but without attribution). Robinson has not adequately analyzed it nor provided supporting evidence. If you want a really good history of the Templars I recommend Malcolm Barber’s The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple.
It is what the Germans would call “popular history,” which is a polite way of saying it’s been “dumbed down” a bit to make it an easy read. In this sense, it as a book that can serve as an introduction to the Templars for people only superficially interested the topic but nevertheless interested in facts rather than fantasy. It also has lists of the Templar Masters, Popes, Kings of Jerusalem, France and England, and the Holy Roman Emperors at the back of the book that is a very handy reference even for a serious scholar!
However, the very gossipy style that makes it such an easy read also makes it judgmental and superficial. Rather than exploring possible motives or balancing conflicting theories, it chooses one version and then blithely presents this as “the truth.”
Here's an example, the following quote from the book describes the aftermath of Conrad de Montferrat’s assassination (p. 191). “Henry of Champagne hurried back to Tyre when he got the news [of Conrad de Montferrat’s assassination]. To the local citizens, the handsome young count appeared to provide the ideal solution to the problem of finding a new husband for Isabella, a man who would then be eligible to reign as king of Jerusalem. Princess Isabella, a beautiful young woman twenty one years of age, had not had much success at marriage. She had been married first to the handsome but homosexual Humphrey of Toron, and then the stern, middle-aged Conrad de Montferrat, by whom she had an infant daughter. Perhaps a third marriage, with this dashing, wealthy, popular man, would be the answer. She agreed to the marriage.”
Now, first of all “the local citizens” did not select the husband and future king of Jerusalem -- the High Court of Jerusalem did that. Second, we have no idea what Henri de Champagne looked like, nor Isabella for that matter. She was not yet 21, either, nor had her daughter by Montferrat been born yet. I’ve never heard Conrad described as “stern” -- he had quite a reputation as a charmer and a seducer in the Byzantine court! Most important, however, as the daughter of a Byzantine Princess, Isabella wasn’t thinking of her own happiness; she was a queen concerned about the future of her kingdom. She agreed to the marriage because Henri of Champagne offered significant political advantages: he was the nephew of both the King of England and the King of France and so stood a chance of uniting the (then bitterly divided) crusaders behind him. All in all, the passage is light, gossipy, and fun, but it neither gives credit to the historical figures for rational action nor does it give the reader much insight into what is going on here.
More egregious, however, is the following passage (p. 154) describing the fall of Jerusalem. Having failed to mention that Ibelin defended Jerusalem with virtually no fighting men and 50 women and children to every man so well that the Sultan had to abandon his assaults after five days, Robinson writes: “By September 29 Saladin’s sappers had effected a breach in the wall. The Christians tried to fill and defend as best they could, although by now both sides knew that it was just a matter of time. The Greek Orthodox Christians in the city got word out to Saladin that they would open the gates to him, in exchange for his mercy. They had come to bitterly resent the arrogant Roman clergy who had forced them to attend church services alien to their traditions, conducted in a language they did not understand. They would welcome a return to the religious tolerance they had enjoyed under Muslim rule.”
This utter nonsense. The Greek Orthodox had NOT enjoyed “religious tolerance” under the Muslims. They had been taxed, disenfranchised and persecuted to the point where they had appealed to Constantinople for aid -- aid that came in the form of the First Crusade. Furthermore, they were NOT forced to attend Latin church services. They retained their priests and their language and their rites -- only the Bishops had been replaced by Latin Bishops (which offended the displaced bishops but affected the vast majority of Orthodox Christians not at all). Last but not least, people facing slavery and slaughter can be forgiven for searching for any way out of their situation; it implies absolutely nothing about overall attitudes of Orthodox residents toward the Crusader States.There is plenty of evidence that suggests the Greek Orthodox were very loyal to the Christian kingdom.
The description is facile, superficial and just bad history. This is nothing but a thoughtless regurgitation of something someone else said (but without attribution). Robinson has not adequately analyzed it nor provided supporting evidence. If you want a really good history of the Templars I recommend Malcolm Barber’s The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple.
July 23, 2011
This was an excellent book. It does cover the Templars in some detail, but I think this seems more like a broad history of the whole Crusader era. The lives and politics of popes, kings, Templars and sultans is covered in some detail.
There are whole sections of the book that talk about everything but the Templars it seems, but these chapters are just as interesting and fit the wider scope of the book really well.
Robinson tells a pretty good story and the book doesn't read like a fact filled history book. Instead it has a good flow and keeps things interesting.
There are whole sections of the book that talk about everything but the Templars it seems, but these chapters are just as interesting and fit the wider scope of the book really well.
Robinson tells a pretty good story and the book doesn't read like a fact filled history book. Instead it has a good flow and keeps things interesting.
November 29, 2009
Well looks like its all been said already, this is a great book, it covers not only the Order of the Knights Templar but the Crusades as well, what more could you ask for? The narrative is rich with history, people and places and the author conveys the times well. This is a great story and leaves you wanting to know more about these people and the times in which they lived. A well presented and easy to read account, buy a copy and enjoy!
January 15, 2026
There are books I have cast aside because they were boring or badly written, but it has been a long time since I considered abandoning a well researched, well written book like this because of its content alone. I thought about it though, and at times it was a struggle to continue reading. From the announcement of the first Crusade in 1095 until the last city fell in 1291 it was a relentless tale of treachery, slaughter, greed, and incompetence.
Even the reasons for the Crusade were suspect. The Pope felt the Holy Land should belong to Christians by divine right, and that was reason enough. Pilgrims could already visit Muslim lands with few restrictions, since they brought money and trade to Jerusalem and its surroundings. Christian churches, both Roman Catholic and Orthodox, were permitted, and religious vocations had their own places. Much was made in Europe of the fact that Pilgrims had to pay a toll to enter Jerusalem, but not mentioned was that non-residents had to pay similar tolls to enter London or Paris. Another reason was primogeniture, where the eldest son inherited the titles, land, and wealth, and the others got nothing. Many turned to brigandage, including plundering churches, and the disruptions they caused became serious enough to affect social and economic stability, so sending the boys to the Holy Land where they might find land and loot seemed like just what king and church were looking for.
The Byzantines warily welcomed the crusaders, happy to have have allies to fight back against the constant encroachment of their enemies, but well aware that the Roman Catholics considered them as heretical as the Muslims, and indeed the Fourth Crusade would result in the sacking of Byzantium itself, Christians massacring Christians. When the crusaders of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem, there followed a six day orgy of murder and pillage, where every Muslim was killed, men, women, and children.
Several Christian kingdoms were then established, running from what is now southern Turkey to the border with Egypt, and inland to the mountains. Once Jerusalem had been captured, the crusaders had fulfilled their vows and many went home, leading to one of the major themes which would dominate the next two hundred years: there were never enough people, never enough soldiers. The Crusader kingdoms were small islands of Christianity surrounded by millions of Muslims across Persia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Only the deep divisions among the Muslim rulers had allowed the Christians to to take and hold the territory.
Deep divisions were another of the key points in understanding the the Crusades. The Catholics hated the Eastern Orthodox; the Shiites hated the Sunnis; the Templars and the Knights Hospitallers were bitter rivals; Venice and Genoa were openly at war over who would control the lucrative trade routes, and everyone was happy to do business with their enemies when there was profit to be made.
All of the Christian rulers were nominally under the authority of the King of Jerusalem, but those ties frayed when regents held power for child kings and multiple claimants to the crown disputed every accession. Even with all these divisions it would have made sense for the kingdoms to work together, pooling their manpower and resources against the vast Muslim armies they faced, but their greed and shortsightedness meant they often refused to help one another. There was a belief that the Muslim rulers would not attack them because the trading profits were too great to lose. They maintained this fiction right up to the time siege engines battered down the walls of their cities, the slaughter began, and the survivors were led off to slavery.
It is hard to even try to identify the lowest point of the Crusades. Perhaps it was the sixth, led by France’s Louis IX (later canonized as Saint Louis) in 1249, where arrogance and incompetence led to the destruction of the entire Christian army, with thousands dead and King Louis captured. Such was his high opinion of himself that he interpreted the entire disaster simply as a sign that god wanted to teach him some humility.
Once the Muslim forces united under Saladin it should have been clear that the days of the Christian kingdoms were numbered. He was the finest statesman and general of the times, and a far better, more honorable man than any of his Christian enemies. However, he had seventeen sons, and the empire he had spent decades building up collapsed within weeks of his death as those sons laid claim to lands and started fighting among themselves.
And the Knights Templars played a key role in all of this. They were a military order of monks, sworn to the same vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as other monks. At a time when knights fought individually, the Templars were trained to fight together as a disciplined, elite force. They acted as heavy cavalry, crashing into enemy lines on their great war horses, and frequently they were the deciding factor in battles. However, there were never enough of them, and their courage and faith could lead to suicidal attacks. Sending one hundred Templars against a thousand enemies simply led to the loss of one hundred Templars, and since their Order prohibited using its funds for ransom, if captured they were immediately killed.
The very fact that they were a military order of monks caused problems for the Church, since monks were prohibited from violence. However, an accommodation was soon found: “Theologians rarely come up with really new concepts, but display their talents best when called up justify actions already taken or decisions already made. Bernard of Clairvaux explained the anomaly to his own satisfaction by stating the killing a nonbeliever was not ‘homicide,’ the killing of a man, but ‘malecide,’ the killing of an Evil one."
The Templars themselves were disciplined and devout, but this devotion, when combined with the excesses of the medieval mind, led to some strange behaviors. They cut their hair short and grew their beards long, but in addition to that, “The Templar was never to allow another person to see his naked body, not even another Templar. That rule did not interfere with bathing, for the Templar was never to bathe his body. (Although it may not have been intentional, the rule never to remove his sheepskin drawers and not to bath for years on end in a blistering hot climate may have helped the Templar knight adhere to his vow of chastity, since the sweaty filth of his body and the resultant stench must have held sexual invitations to a minimum.)” Their smell alone must have been terrifying to enemies.
This book includes a number of asides regarding military, economic, and diplomatic history. One paragraph about weapons of the opposing Christian and Muslim armies is interesting enough that I want to quote it in full:
“While the knights used their swords mainly for hacking, much as though they were axes with three-foot blades, the Muslims used two types of swords with curved blades. One style had the sharp edge outside the curve, for slashing, while the other had its cutting edge on the inside of the curve to drag the blade along the opponent’s body while riding by, making a long, deep ‘draw cut.’ Both styles had sharp points for thrusting from horseback. If the European straight blade was driven into an enemy, the opposing actions of the falling body and the moving horse would tend to wrench the sword from the rider’s hand, while the curved blade of the Muslim would tend to free itself by arcing out of the body as the rider moved on. The advantages of the light cavalryman and his curved sword were not lost on the Christians, so that one day every European army would include light cavalry, and the curve would become the identifying feature of the cavalry saber.”
The Templars had a well deserved reputation for integrity, and soon were being used as proto-banks, where merchants and the nobility could deposit money knowing that it would be safe and could be retrieved at any time. A letter of funds signed in Europe could be cashed without question at a Templar castle in the Middle East. By using these deposits as collateral for loans, the Order grew rich, so rich that it eventually attracted the attention that would bring about its downfall.
Toward the end in the Middle East, everything was falling apart for the kingdoms. Castles and cities were lost, shrinking the Christian holdings to just a few miles along the coast. Crusades had lost their appeal in Europe and few new men arrived to fill the ranks, while those who did come were often adventurers interested only in plunder. Once the popes started calling crusades internal to Europe, such as against the Cathars in France, the pagans around the Baltic, and even against their local rivals in Italy, it became clear that the call to Crusade was just another means of asserting papal authority. Like excommunication, it had lost its ability to impress, much less sway, rulers.
In those final years in the Holy Land, it was every man for himself, and there was no oath a ruler could make, not to god nor man, that he would not break as soon as the chance for plunder appeared. For instance, “The struggle of Leo of Armenia to take control of Armenia had turned into a power game that made a mockery of morality. Leaders switched loyalties, switched religions, made alliance with traditional enemies, and readily resorted to murder. The rivalry of the Templars and the Hospitallers, who were politically and emotionally on opposite sides, grew intense enough to find their knights fighting each other in the streets, sometimes to the death.”
Once the final city fell in 1295 the Templars were an order without a mission, although they continued to plan for a new crusade to retake the Holy Land. They had amassed so much wealth that they could make loans to the king of France, Philip IV, for his wars against England. They thought this would ensure his gratitude, but it only inspired his greed. Why take out a loan when he could suppress the Order and take everything? Working with the cowardly and compliant French pope Clement V, the order went out to arrest all Templars across Europe on the same day. Charges of heresy, blasphemy, and homosexuality were trumped up, and the Templars were subject to ghastly tortures. The descriptions of what was done to them were so vile I had to put the book down for awhile. Anyone who gave in under torture and confessed was guilty, because confessions extracted by torture where always assumed to be unimpeachable evidence of guilt. Anyone attempting to withdraw a confession became a relapsed heretic and was burned at the stake. To their credit the kings of England, German, Spain, and Portugal refused to take part in what they rightly recognized as a monstrous crime by the French king and pope, and announced that they had investigated the charges and found the Templars entirely innocent. Only in Italy, Sicily, and lands controlled by the pope did the whole sordid affair of torture and murder play out.
There is a story that when the last Grand Master of the Templars was being burned at the stake, he cried out a curse, demanding that king and pope meet him before the throne of god within a year to answer for their crimes. Both were dead within seven months. The story is probably apocryphal, but it is almost enough to make you want to believe in divine judgment.
And finally, there is one more interesting aside to mention, a bit of historical trivia: after the Templar order was suppressed, their property was given to their rivals, the Hospitallers. However, in London “The Hospitallers already had a London headquarters at Clerkenwell, so they had no real need for the Templar base. They leased it for inns that provided rooms and offices for the trial lawyers who practiced law at the King’s Court, just a few yards away through the gate between London and the royal city of Westminster. Its location gave the gate the name Barrière du Temple, later anglicized to the Temple Bar. Those trial lawyers passing back and forth through the ‘Bar’ became known as ‘barristers.’”
Although the book often makes for grim reading as a chronicle of greed, stupidity, and slaughter, the Crusades were one of the defining events that helped shape modern Europe, and they deserve to be studied. This book was published in 1991, so there are newer histories to be found, but its depth and breadth of insights into these turbulent centuries make it an excellent, thorough retelling of the Crusades and the Templars’ place in them.
Even the reasons for the Crusade were suspect. The Pope felt the Holy Land should belong to Christians by divine right, and that was reason enough. Pilgrims could already visit Muslim lands with few restrictions, since they brought money and trade to Jerusalem and its surroundings. Christian churches, both Roman Catholic and Orthodox, were permitted, and religious vocations had their own places. Much was made in Europe of the fact that Pilgrims had to pay a toll to enter Jerusalem, but not mentioned was that non-residents had to pay similar tolls to enter London or Paris. Another reason was primogeniture, where the eldest son inherited the titles, land, and wealth, and the others got nothing. Many turned to brigandage, including plundering churches, and the disruptions they caused became serious enough to affect social and economic stability, so sending the boys to the Holy Land where they might find land and loot seemed like just what king and church were looking for.
The Byzantines warily welcomed the crusaders, happy to have have allies to fight back against the constant encroachment of their enemies, but well aware that the Roman Catholics considered them as heretical as the Muslims, and indeed the Fourth Crusade would result in the sacking of Byzantium itself, Christians massacring Christians. When the crusaders of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem, there followed a six day orgy of murder and pillage, where every Muslim was killed, men, women, and children.
Several Christian kingdoms were then established, running from what is now southern Turkey to the border with Egypt, and inland to the mountains. Once Jerusalem had been captured, the crusaders had fulfilled their vows and many went home, leading to one of the major themes which would dominate the next two hundred years: there were never enough people, never enough soldiers. The Crusader kingdoms were small islands of Christianity surrounded by millions of Muslims across Persia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Only the deep divisions among the Muslim rulers had allowed the Christians to to take and hold the territory.
Deep divisions were another of the key points in understanding the the Crusades. The Catholics hated the Eastern Orthodox; the Shiites hated the Sunnis; the Templars and the Knights Hospitallers were bitter rivals; Venice and Genoa were openly at war over who would control the lucrative trade routes, and everyone was happy to do business with their enemies when there was profit to be made.
All of the Christian rulers were nominally under the authority of the King of Jerusalem, but those ties frayed when regents held power for child kings and multiple claimants to the crown disputed every accession. Even with all these divisions it would have made sense for the kingdoms to work together, pooling their manpower and resources against the vast Muslim armies they faced, but their greed and shortsightedness meant they often refused to help one another. There was a belief that the Muslim rulers would not attack them because the trading profits were too great to lose. They maintained this fiction right up to the time siege engines battered down the walls of their cities, the slaughter began, and the survivors were led off to slavery.
It is hard to even try to identify the lowest point of the Crusades. Perhaps it was the sixth, led by France’s Louis IX (later canonized as Saint Louis) in 1249, where arrogance and incompetence led to the destruction of the entire Christian army, with thousands dead and King Louis captured. Such was his high opinion of himself that he interpreted the entire disaster simply as a sign that god wanted to teach him some humility.
Once the Muslim forces united under Saladin it should have been clear that the days of the Christian kingdoms were numbered. He was the finest statesman and general of the times, and a far better, more honorable man than any of his Christian enemies. However, he had seventeen sons, and the empire he had spent decades building up collapsed within weeks of his death as those sons laid claim to lands and started fighting among themselves.
And the Knights Templars played a key role in all of this. They were a military order of monks, sworn to the same vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as other monks. At a time when knights fought individually, the Templars were trained to fight together as a disciplined, elite force. They acted as heavy cavalry, crashing into enemy lines on their great war horses, and frequently they were the deciding factor in battles. However, there were never enough of them, and their courage and faith could lead to suicidal attacks. Sending one hundred Templars against a thousand enemies simply led to the loss of one hundred Templars, and since their Order prohibited using its funds for ransom, if captured they were immediately killed.
The very fact that they were a military order of monks caused problems for the Church, since monks were prohibited from violence. However, an accommodation was soon found: “Theologians rarely come up with really new concepts, but display their talents best when called up justify actions already taken or decisions already made. Bernard of Clairvaux explained the anomaly to his own satisfaction by stating the killing a nonbeliever was not ‘homicide,’ the killing of a man, but ‘malecide,’ the killing of an Evil one."
The Templars themselves were disciplined and devout, but this devotion, when combined with the excesses of the medieval mind, led to some strange behaviors. They cut their hair short and grew their beards long, but in addition to that, “The Templar was never to allow another person to see his naked body, not even another Templar. That rule did not interfere with bathing, for the Templar was never to bathe his body. (Although it may not have been intentional, the rule never to remove his sheepskin drawers and not to bath for years on end in a blistering hot climate may have helped the Templar knight adhere to his vow of chastity, since the sweaty filth of his body and the resultant stench must have held sexual invitations to a minimum.)” Their smell alone must have been terrifying to enemies.
This book includes a number of asides regarding military, economic, and diplomatic history. One paragraph about weapons of the opposing Christian and Muslim armies is interesting enough that I want to quote it in full:
“While the knights used their swords mainly for hacking, much as though they were axes with three-foot blades, the Muslims used two types of swords with curved blades. One style had the sharp edge outside the curve, for slashing, while the other had its cutting edge on the inside of the curve to drag the blade along the opponent’s body while riding by, making a long, deep ‘draw cut.’ Both styles had sharp points for thrusting from horseback. If the European straight blade was driven into an enemy, the opposing actions of the falling body and the moving horse would tend to wrench the sword from the rider’s hand, while the curved blade of the Muslim would tend to free itself by arcing out of the body as the rider moved on. The advantages of the light cavalryman and his curved sword were not lost on the Christians, so that one day every European army would include light cavalry, and the curve would become the identifying feature of the cavalry saber.”
The Templars had a well deserved reputation for integrity, and soon were being used as proto-banks, where merchants and the nobility could deposit money knowing that it would be safe and could be retrieved at any time. A letter of funds signed in Europe could be cashed without question at a Templar castle in the Middle East. By using these deposits as collateral for loans, the Order grew rich, so rich that it eventually attracted the attention that would bring about its downfall.
Toward the end in the Middle East, everything was falling apart for the kingdoms. Castles and cities were lost, shrinking the Christian holdings to just a few miles along the coast. Crusades had lost their appeal in Europe and few new men arrived to fill the ranks, while those who did come were often adventurers interested only in plunder. Once the popes started calling crusades internal to Europe, such as against the Cathars in France, the pagans around the Baltic, and even against their local rivals in Italy, it became clear that the call to Crusade was just another means of asserting papal authority. Like excommunication, it had lost its ability to impress, much less sway, rulers.
In those final years in the Holy Land, it was every man for himself, and there was no oath a ruler could make, not to god nor man, that he would not break as soon as the chance for plunder appeared. For instance, “The struggle of Leo of Armenia to take control of Armenia had turned into a power game that made a mockery of morality. Leaders switched loyalties, switched religions, made alliance with traditional enemies, and readily resorted to murder. The rivalry of the Templars and the Hospitallers, who were politically and emotionally on opposite sides, grew intense enough to find their knights fighting each other in the streets, sometimes to the death.”
Once the final city fell in 1295 the Templars were an order without a mission, although they continued to plan for a new crusade to retake the Holy Land. They had amassed so much wealth that they could make loans to the king of France, Philip IV, for his wars against England. They thought this would ensure his gratitude, but it only inspired his greed. Why take out a loan when he could suppress the Order and take everything? Working with the cowardly and compliant French pope Clement V, the order went out to arrest all Templars across Europe on the same day. Charges of heresy, blasphemy, and homosexuality were trumped up, and the Templars were subject to ghastly tortures. The descriptions of what was done to them were so vile I had to put the book down for awhile. Anyone who gave in under torture and confessed was guilty, because confessions extracted by torture where always assumed to be unimpeachable evidence of guilt. Anyone attempting to withdraw a confession became a relapsed heretic and was burned at the stake. To their credit the kings of England, German, Spain, and Portugal refused to take part in what they rightly recognized as a monstrous crime by the French king and pope, and announced that they had investigated the charges and found the Templars entirely innocent. Only in Italy, Sicily, and lands controlled by the pope did the whole sordid affair of torture and murder play out.
There is a story that when the last Grand Master of the Templars was being burned at the stake, he cried out a curse, demanding that king and pope meet him before the throne of god within a year to answer for their crimes. Both were dead within seven months. The story is probably apocryphal, but it is almost enough to make you want to believe in divine judgment.
And finally, there is one more interesting aside to mention, a bit of historical trivia: after the Templar order was suppressed, their property was given to their rivals, the Hospitallers. However, in London “The Hospitallers already had a London headquarters at Clerkenwell, so they had no real need for the Templar base. They leased it for inns that provided rooms and offices for the trial lawyers who practiced law at the King’s Court, just a few yards away through the gate between London and the royal city of Westminster. Its location gave the gate the name Barrière du Temple, later anglicized to the Temple Bar. Those trial lawyers passing back and forth through the ‘Bar’ became known as ‘barristers.’”
Although the book often makes for grim reading as a chronicle of greed, stupidity, and slaughter, the Crusades were one of the defining events that helped shape modern Europe, and they deserve to be studied. This book was published in 1991, so there are newer histories to be found, but its depth and breadth of insights into these turbulent centuries make it an excellent, thorough retelling of the Crusades and the Templars’ place in them.
August 6, 2016
Thorough, cogent, vast in scope. An oddly amateur manner of telling the story, but damn if he doesn't get the job done.
January 23, 2014
Reading Dungeon, Fire, and Sword is like watching a horrifying train wreck: you can't avert your eyes from the shocking reality of just how terribly bad the site really is. Not because Robinson's writing is poor; He writes a compelling story about the Knights Templar. It's just the subject matter! He not only relates the history well, but also the surrounding context of the Crusades, helping the reader see the events unfold with a clear perspective of all the intrigue, greed, and murder that accompanied the time period. For those who favor a romantic telling of Knights in shining armor, this historical account will replace such fanciful Hollywood versions of chivalry with a blood and guts reality that is gripping, often nauseatingly too real. The story filled me with feelings of desperate emotion, wishing history had dealt the Knights Templar a more favorable conclusion. But, not so. In all, the book provided me with moments that inspired, enlightened, and thrilled, but equally with events that plunged me into shuddering horror, revulsion, and dismay. If you want a tell-all view of how the Crusades really were with some gallant heroes, surrounded mostly by sordid villains, this book might be for you. I was engrossed by it. It gave me a deep appreciation for the difficulty so many people lived with in earlier times, and sincere gratitude that I live when I was born. Highly recommended!
January 17, 2009
Very dense, very informative historical gloss on the formation of the Templars, not to mention the political underpinings of the crusades for Christian and Muslim. I have to say that having read this purely factual account,based on medieval records, it's baffling that so many truly bizarre conspiracies have their roots in the Templars, whose grand masters were just as worldy and susceptible to temptation as anyone else. If they'd managed to carry off God's worldly treasures, they would have done something with them, and everyone would have known.
August 9, 2024
Historical accounts written in nearly a novel form, including plot twists, side stories and little bias (respect to many groups discussed). The author includes background and "meanwhile" type facts without breaking from placing the reader in a "you are there" mindset - something rarely approached or attained in non-fictional historical accounts.
June 25, 2023
Internecine politics in the Holy Land was one of the major reasons why the Crusades failed. The local barons often disagreed with the incoming Crusaders. The Templars were at odds with the Hospitallers, and the Venetians and the Genoese were always at each other's throats, be it at sea or on land. Add to that the need for personal glory and you have the perfect recipe for a disaster. It also didn't help that they were mostly led by autocratic monarchs who didn't have much experience on the battlefield and did not listen to good counsel by battle-hardened veterans either. The Muslims were sometimes just as disunited but they came together under the banner of a powerful king a lot more frequently than the Christians did. The Outremer kingdom started to fall apart after the death of Baldwin IV. He was the glue that held the military orders, the barons, and the clergy together. After his death, the Christians lost Jerusalem and although it was briefly regained by diplomacy much later, it was lost again. What was the point of the Albigensian Crusade? To establish papal supremacy, of course. I am impressed by how well the papacy sold the Holy War to unsuspecting knights, barons, and other members of the aristocracy. It was clever marketing, considering the fact that every Crusade, except the first and the third, resulted in the Christian army being routed completely by Turks, Mongols, or Saracens. The history of the Crusades is filled with colourful, larger-than-life figures such as Henry IV (the Holy Roman Emperor of Investiture Controversy, who avenged himself by exiling Pope Gregory VII), the ruthless Frederick II (another Holy Roman Emperor, who had an Islamic-style harem), the Kings of Jerusalem (namely, Baldwin I, II and IV), and Count Henry of Champagne (whose biggest mistake was to stand on a windowsill). History remembers King Richard I of England as Richard the Lionheart but he should really be called the Butcher of Ayyadieh.
August 22, 2023
"Dungeon, Fire, & Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades" is a fascinating book written by John J. Robinson that delves deep into the history of the Knights Templar during the Crusades. The book is an incredibly detailed account of one of the most mysterious and intriguing organizations in history.
In his work, Robinson offers a detailed analysis of the origins of the Knights Templar, as well as their ascent to power and ultimate decline. He delves into the organization's military accomplishments and their significant contribution to the events of the Crusades. Robinson's research is thorough and precise, providing a comprehensive examination of the impact of the organization on the Crusades.
Robinson's book stands out for its straightforward approach to separating fact and fiction surrounding the myths and legends of the Templars. He meticulously examines popular stories and legends that have grown up around the organization, such as their supposed involvement in the Holy Grail or their occult practices, and provides a realistic, evidence-based view of their activities, making for an exciting and informative read.
"Dungeon, Fire, & Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades" is a good read that will interest anyone who enjoys the history of the Crusades, the Knights Templar, or medieval history in general. Robinson skillfully weaves together a narrative that is both compelling and informative, making this book a valuable contribution to the study of this enigmatic organization.
In his work, Robinson offers a detailed analysis of the origins of the Knights Templar, as well as their ascent to power and ultimate decline. He delves into the organization's military accomplishments and their significant contribution to the events of the Crusades. Robinson's research is thorough and precise, providing a comprehensive examination of the impact of the organization on the Crusades.
Robinson's book stands out for its straightforward approach to separating fact and fiction surrounding the myths and legends of the Templars. He meticulously examines popular stories and legends that have grown up around the organization, such as their supposed involvement in the Holy Grail or their occult practices, and provides a realistic, evidence-based view of their activities, making for an exciting and informative read.
"Dungeon, Fire, & Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades" is a good read that will interest anyone who enjoys the history of the Crusades, the Knights Templar, or medieval history in general. Robinson skillfully weaves together a narrative that is both compelling and informative, making this book a valuable contribution to the study of this enigmatic organization.
December 29, 2018
It's an interesting enough book, and the amount of detail and research that went into certainly cannot be denied. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite what I was looking for. The text is dense and dry, and there is more information about The Crusades themselves than the Templars' role during that time. So, if you are looking for research material about The Crusades, it's a must have. But if you are looking for more direct and to the point information about the Templars, I might recommend trying elsewhere first.
February 1, 2019
A bit too much detail for me about the crusades themselves and the people involved, and not enough about the early development and subsequent evolvement of the Templars. While it is interesting to read about the individuals who influenced the crusades, and about their marriages and power struggles, there was often only passing mention of the Templars. There are also other books that better discuss the crusades and motivations.
January 14, 2020
Eminently readable from an author who both had a comprehensive understanding of the subjective and can communicate his enthusiasm. Things never change this book covers several centuries of conflict between Islam and Christianity, between Sunni and Shiite, between various factions of Christians.
At the root is avarice and power
At the root is avarice and power
July 17, 2023
Fantastic! The events described are Game of Thrones like in the level of intrigue, violence and twists of fate that play out over continents and centuries. Very well written, I felt like I learned a great deal but was entertained the whole time.
October 29, 2017
Was really more interested in reading this for the history of the crusades, rather than the Knights Templar.
And ye gods, what a shitshow of creed malevolence and incompetence the Crusades were.
And ye gods, what a shitshow of creed malevolence and incompetence the Crusades were.
August 26, 2019
Very interesting history
This book gives a look at the crusades that most never see. It shows how politics with greed destroys all.
This book gives a look at the crusades that most never see. It shows how politics with greed destroys all.
February 18, 2023
It’s a very interesting a readable book about the crusades and the insanity of it all.
March 15, 2025
Historically mesmerizing
March 19, 2017
This is an important addition to the personal library of anyone who wants to have a more clear understanding of the tension in the Levant and Middle East, let alone of what is emerging in Europe. While this book focuses on the history of the Knights Templar, the intrigue of political machinations between royalty, church, Mongols, Muslims along with the ebb and flow of open and closed arrangements to enhance power and position, should suggest to the modern reader that even more opportunity for nefarious dealings are possible today within the highest orders of society.
January 30, 2026
Hard to rank as it was very detail oriented and apparently very well researched.
Mostly consists of fighting, wars, plunder obstensibly to win back the holy land but in reality much of it was pure power play. The various Popes calling for Crusades, the Templars, another religious order, various other groups, including the Turks and the Muslims. Everyone slays each other in the name of faith. In the end the French King manages to plot against the Templars and they are subjected to horrendous torture to elicit their confessions.
Mostly consists of fighting, wars, plunder obstensibly to win back the holy land but in reality much of it was pure power play. The various Popes calling for Crusades, the Templars, another religious order, various other groups, including the Turks and the Muslims. Everyone slays each other in the name of faith. In the end the French King manages to plot against the Templars and they are subjected to horrendous torture to elicit their confessions.
September 5, 2021
Another good counter argument to Rene Guenon’s The Crisis of the Modern World or to anyone who thinks that rule by Church official or royalty is better than rule by elected officials.
The Crusades and the Inquisition were stupid wastes that, I am inclined to say, defy description; yet they are described in breathless pacing and occasionally bitter detail by the scholar in this book. Each step of the constant churn of selfishness and greed shown by all sorts of ‘nobles’ and Church officials who, I had thought, were taught fairly thoroughly by their own religion to know better, is set down in a matter-of-fact and riveting fashion.
On reflection, I guess teaching against selfishness and greed must not have been the core of Catholicism at that time (although I do recall Saint Augustine going on at some length about one of these), any more than it is the core of Christian teaching in today’s America. Nevertheless, there seems to me, at least, to be a lot of teaching against selfishness and greed in the New Testament, and I cannot understand why it was and is not followed by people otherwise confessing to be “Christian.” There is no explaining avarice, I guess.
The Crusades and the Inquisition were stupid wastes that, I am inclined to say, defy description; yet they are described in breathless pacing and occasionally bitter detail by the scholar in this book. Each step of the constant churn of selfishness and greed shown by all sorts of ‘nobles’ and Church officials who, I had thought, were taught fairly thoroughly by their own religion to know better, is set down in a matter-of-fact and riveting fashion.
On reflection, I guess teaching against selfishness and greed must not have been the core of Catholicism at that time (although I do recall Saint Augustine going on at some length about one of these), any more than it is the core of Christian teaching in today’s America. Nevertheless, there seems to me, at least, to be a lot of teaching against selfishness and greed in the New Testament, and I cannot understand why it was and is not followed by people otherwise confessing to be “Christian.” There is no explaining avarice, I guess.
March 11, 2008
Before all these lame ass Templar type books and books about the secret brotherhood shit craze came about because of the movie and book Da Vinci Code there was:
Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades
No glam or mystery.
No heroics.
No shout for freedom.
No speech to rally those on the brink of defeat.
No rescues of maidens.
No nothing of the kind.
Man at his worst.
This is not a history book about religion, politics, culture, or war. But a history book about the sin of men who hide their lust of power and greed in a mask of Righteousness to rule the ignorant.
History, teaches nothing.~Sting.
Another great and enlightening book.
Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades
No glam or mystery.
No heroics.
No shout for freedom.
No speech to rally those on the brink of defeat.
No rescues of maidens.
No nothing of the kind.
Man at his worst.
This is not a history book about religion, politics, culture, or war. But a history book about the sin of men who hide their lust of power and greed in a mask of Righteousness to rule the ignorant.
History, teaches nothing.~Sting.
Another great and enlightening book.
February 21, 2012
Fascinating topic; it is content like this that reminds me that greed, corruption and intolerance are not new societal concepts. The behaviors that existed then and still exist today - in the name of religion - are horrifying.
While the topic had a lot of interest for me and the author clearly is an expert on the subject, the book, at times, read like a history text book. There were portions that were incredibly challenging to follow given the very large number of individuals and places introduced in a small number of pages.
While the topic had a lot of interest for me and the author clearly is an expert on the subject, the book, at times, read like a history text book. There were portions that were incredibly challenging to follow given the very large number of individuals and places introduced in a small number of pages.
August 13, 2010
The best I have read on the Crusades and the Knights Templar. In this book one learns that the old cut-and-dried Crusaders vs. Moslems narrative is not completely accurate, with sometimes surprising alliances, and chivalrous behaviour amid the slaughter. The story of how the mysterious order of the Templars met their end in a brutal European power play is an eye-opener as well. Extremely well-written.
January 6, 2016
Fascinating book I picked up on a whim to read on some long plane rides. If you have either read or watched Game of Thrones and thought, "Wow, I'm sure glad people aren't this ruthless, duplicitous and cruel in real life." Read this book.
While it's timeline follows the Templars it's an excellent primer on the crusades overall and medieval history of the Middle East. Great context and perspective too given current events in that part of the world.
While it's timeline follows the Templars it's an excellent primer on the crusades overall and medieval history of the Middle East. Great context and perspective too given current events in that part of the world.
February 11, 2013
A really excellent history of the role of the Templars in the Crusades: to say it was significant is a mammoth understatement. It wasn't all Dan Brown hocus-pocus and piles of riches: Saladin had a number of Templars decapitated after a decisive battle -- these men fought bravely and to-the-death for a bizarre goal: to free an empty tomb from infidels.
March 9, 2016
Mr. Robinson is a great author, and not stuffy like so many history writers/professors, " I hate writers that write a sentence in French or Latin, then don't tell you whattit means." This book will fire you up, make you want to jump on a horse, grab your sword and go off and win back our lands occupied by the foreign imperialist Arabs and Turks!
August 23, 2007
Everything you wanted to know about the crusades! Really interesting. Well written.
I'm done reading it for now. I'm not through it, but I'm putting it on my "reference books" list instead of my "read-through-it-from-cover-to-cover" list.
I'm done reading it for now. I'm not through it, but I'm putting it on my "reference books" list instead of my "read-through-it-from-cover-to-cover" list.
August 3, 2007
This book is very well written, and is able to provide a lot of information in an accessible way. This is the story of the Knights Templar, and their role in the Crusades. This book is a must for anyone who is interested in this time period.
January 20, 2009
I read this book 5 yrs ago but never finished it, so I will do that as soon as I find it :)
It was slow reading--the author writes like a professor and filled it with so many facts that my mind became tired reading it.
It was slow reading--the author writes like a professor and filled it with so many facts that my mind became tired reading it.
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