The Templars

The Templars by Piers Paul Read is a work of popular fiction. That being said, the book read like a general overview of the Crusades, with occasional references to the Templars. I felt like the Templars got squeezed out of their own book.

The first section provided a good overview of the three Abrahamic faiths and the reason why the Temple was so important. Read is a novelist and the style of this book was like a novel; he's not an academic historian and it would not be fair to compare him to them. The book was readable and kept a pretty decent pace, but some of his statements seemed quite contradictory to things I've read in other books.

The factual overview that I gained from the book: The Templars were founded in 1119 to protect pilgrims and defend the Holy Land.  They were directly accountable to the Pope, and owed their allegiance to him, not to any secular leader.  A few Grand Masters were mentioned here and there.  The Templars took three vows: poverty, chastity and obedience.  They were strong fighters and were able to assist crusaders on several occasions.  Then in 1307 King Philip IV of France turned against them with allegations of horrible crimes.  Though initially condemning the move Pope Clement V finally supported the arrests in order to try and gain control of the proceedings.  King Edward II of England and King James II of Aragon both also outraged by the charges, but when they heard that the Grand Master and other high ranking Templars had confessed to the charges they began rounding up Templars.  In less than 200 years, the once prosperous, pious order was destroyed, not by Muslims but by Christians who were jealous of their power, influence, and wealth.  In April of 1312 Clement V abolished the Order.

Read showed the difficult political and religious waters that military orders had to navigate.  In the Levant they were willing to negotiate treaties with Muslims when it benefited them, and when crusaders arrived they tried to offer advice from their personal experiences, but were often ignored.  When the Latin Europeans lost the Levant the Templars were forced to carry much of the blame. 

In conclusion, this book provided a good overview of the religious backgrounds of the Crusades, and of the key events during the Crusades.  My main complaint is that it seemed rather lacking in details on the Templars themselves.