Being a mixture of struggle and religious devotion, the crusade movement opened the way for several orders of a monastic-military nature to emerge in the East. In the 12th century, a group of French knight monks was appointed to protect the city of Jerusalem, recently conquered by the Christians in the passage between the 11th and 12th centuries. Called the Knights Templar, they occupied a wing of the royal palace that would have been an integral part of the ancient Temple of Solomon.
Noticed by their white robes and the cross, these knights were becoming of great importance in the defense of the Christian States in the East, constantly attacked by Muslim troops. As they exercised a prominent military function, they accumulated land, castles and other goods that transformed this religious order into a powerful economic institution. Often they financed caravans that established the commercial link between the Holy Land and Western Europe.
Around the 13th and 14th centuries, a significant portion of the Templars was in French territory, holding similar economic and military prestige in the region. In the year 1307, the French King Felipe, El Belo, decided to promote the arrest of the Knights Templar on the grounds of committing different sins against Catholic doctrine. At the same time, Pope Clement V ordered the extinction of the religious order and the Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay was sentenced to death.
In the beginning of this great investigation against the Templars, several legends appeared about the inner workings of the order and the intentions of the French monarch. Amidst suspicion of secret rituals and other actions of a vividly autonomist nature, there ran the strong buzz that the Templars preserved a secret treasure. For some, given the political and financial ambition of King Philip, the Templars would have preserved a great treasure over the centuries.
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According to some theories, the Templars would keep an enormous treasure located in Spanish or Scottish lands. Others on the subject speculate that the Templar treasure would still have been preserved on land. in the French region of Normandy, or in Rennes-le-Château, a small village in the south of France. In fact, throughout the 20th century, we have noticed the existence of a whole literature that tries to feed the aura of this intriguing mystery.
According to recent historical research, the maintenance of this mystery disregards the French context in the Low Middle Ages. During this period, the formation of national monarchies and the expense of the crusades determined the creation of an enormous debt on the part of the French monarchs. Thus, before the persecution of the Templars, King Philip had sought various strategies to pay off the government's coffers. That's where the persecution against the Templar Order came about.
Historian Raymond Cazelles claims that Felipe, O Belo, carried out a very significant confiscation of property and property by persecuting the Templars. More than simply remedying his country's budget deficit for the time being, that hefty estate managed to ensure French economic stability for a few years. In this way, it is very difficult to believe that any other portion was kept secret or was discovered only a few centuries later.
By Rainer Sousa
Master in History
Brazil School Team
Curiosities - Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SOUSA, Rainer Gonçalves. "Does the Templars' Treasure Exist?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/curiosidades/o-tesouro-dos-templarios-existe.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
