Hello,
I have been reading about Templar Knights over the past few evenings.
I found the manner of their demise absolutely fascinating.
After winning incredible successes and honours and favours throughout their history since their founding in the 1130s to protect Christians making pilgrimages to Jerusalem, the Templar Order became incredibly wealthy. They were given several castles in Spain and Portugal as a reward for their successful campaigns against the Muslim Moors who occupied the southernmost part of the Spanish peninsula, a kingdom called Grenada.
As they became wealthier, they started lending money to princes and kings in Christian Europe; although there was a law against charging interest on loans (a practise known as usory), they managed to get around this by charging for 'expenses' on the loans, which were proportionate to the loan itself. (Talk about a loop hole!)
However this money lending ultimately brought about the demise of the order.
In 1308, Philip IV, King of France found himself so much in debt that he decided to bring a charge of heresy against the order, and confiscate their lands and castles, arresting them by the dozen, torturing them, and burning more than fifty alive for the crime in a field outside Paris.
Makes me look at the international debt crisis in a whole new light...
I have been reading about Templar Knights over the past few evenings.
I found the manner of their demise absolutely fascinating.
After winning incredible successes and honours and favours throughout their history since their founding in the 1130s to protect Christians making pilgrimages to Jerusalem, the Templar Order became incredibly wealthy. They were given several castles in Spain and Portugal as a reward for their successful campaigns against the Muslim Moors who occupied the southernmost part of the Spanish peninsula, a kingdom called Grenada.
As they became wealthier, they started lending money to princes and kings in Christian Europe; although there was a law against charging interest on loans (a practise known as usory), they managed to get around this by charging for 'expenses' on the loans, which were proportionate to the loan itself. (Talk about a loop hole!)
However this money lending ultimately brought about the demise of the order.
In 1308, Philip IV, King of France found himself so much in debt that he decided to bring a charge of heresy against the order, and confiscate their lands and castles, arresting them by the dozen, torturing them, and burning more than fifty alive for the crime in a field outside Paris.
Makes me look at the international debt crisis in a whole new light...
