Osprey - DARK 002 - Knights Templar - A Secret History.pdf

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THE KNIGHTS

TEMPLAR

A SECRET HISTORY

G R A E M E D AV I S

CONTENTS

Introduction

Origins and Growth

The Holy Grail

Downfall

The Templar Creed

The Grail’s Journey

The Secret War

The Templars Today

Conclusion

Timeline

Introduction

The death of Dr Émile Fouchet in the spring of 2012, in an automobile

accident outside Troyes, excited little comment. The police report concluded

that Dr Fouchet had been drinking but was not drunk, and that darkness and

rain contributed to the crash. The question of suicide, prompted by the recent

and unexpected loss of his teaching post at the University of Toulouse, was

raised and quickly dismissed.

I had met Dr Fouchet brieﬂy at the International Congress on Medieval

Studies in 2007. He gave a paper tracing the history of what he called the

“Plantard conspiracy”

which lay behind

The Da Vinci Code

– wildly popular

at that time – and the 1982 bestseller

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.

The topic seemed too lightweight for an academic conference, but Fouchet’s

presentation posed several intriguing questions. In particular, while dismissing

the books and ﬁlm as blatant ﬁction, he wondered who would spend so much

eﬀort to obfuscate historical facts, and why.

After his presentation I took the opportunity to request Dr Fouchet’s help for

one of my graduate students who was researching links between the Templars and

the Teutonic Knights. I also made some politely noncommittal remarks about

his choice of topic and his courage in broaching it before an academic audience.

He complimented me on my French and promised to read my student’s abstract.

Nothing in our conversation made me think Dr Fouchet would remember

me once he was out of the room. His letter in response to the abstract was

polite but distant. He listed some archives and the names of a few librarians,

but regretted that he was extremely busy with his own research.

Shortly after Fouchet’s death I received a package. Inside was a mass of

papers and a letter dated three days before the crash. Fouchet had apparently

kept up with my work and seemed impressed by my publication record,

for his letter begged me to have his research translated and published as

quickly as possible if anything should happen to him. He sounded very afraid

– almost paranoid – and hinted that his recent research had cost him his job

and somehow placed him in danger.

In 2006, construction work on a new Metro station in Toulouse uncovered

part of the ruined Château Narbonnaise. Also found, though not reported,

1. Although it dates back to the 1950s, the Plantard conspiracy came to worldwide prominence following

the publication of

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

in 1982. It is covered in more detail on pp. 61-62.

was a cache of documents

dating from the siege of the

castle in 1217-18 during

the Albigensian Crusade.

The documents were

mostly

religious

and

philosophical texts relating

to the Cathar heresy, and

Fouchet was an expert

on Cathar history. As he

studied the documents

he found some relating to

the Knights Templar, who

survived the Albigensian

Crusade but were disbanded

about a century later.

I spent the whole of

that night poring over

Fouchet’s notes. At ﬁrst

I suspected Fouchet had

fallen prey to the kind

of conspiracy theories that

have always dogged serious

Templar scholarship. To my

surprise I found Fouchet’s

facts unassailable, his

arguments sound, and his

tone manifestly sane. I

decided to do as he asked,

and you hold the ﬁrst

results of that process in

your hands. It is hoped

that deeper and more

detailed coverage of Fouchet’s research will appear over the next few years

in peer-reviewed journals.

One sentence in Fouchet’s letter still puzzles me. “You must publish,” he

said, “before they can cover the old ﬁction with a new one.” If “they” are

the Templars, or some group claiming the inheritance of their legacy, then it

seems the “Plantard conspiracy” – and other Templar myths – were deliberate

and well-constructed ﬁctions.

For now, readers must come to their own conclusions and hope, as I do,

that someone with the necessary expertise and resources will take up the

research that Émile Fouchet can no longer ﬁnish.

Jacques de Molay, last official

Grand Master of the Knights

Templar. In the absence of

convincing contemporary

likenesses, this later image

has become the most influential

depiction. (Mary Evans Picture

Library / Alamy)

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