The Knights Templar in Somerset E-Book

Juliet Faith

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 176

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

This fascinating new book explores what life was like during the Templars' stay in Somerset during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It reveals the struggles over land ownership in the county, and introduces the reader to little known historical characters including William de Marisco, revealing his struggle with the Templars, and claim to the throne of England. The final chapter explores the controversy surrounding a carved wooden man's head discovered in a Somerset church. The author has found compelling evidence to suggest the church was not only built on Templar land, but had a connection with the Grand Master of the Order himself. Richly illustrated and compiled using original research, this book is sure to appeal to everyone interested in medieval history.

Leseprobe

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN SOMERSET

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN SOMERSET

JULIET FAITH

This book is dedicated to my sons Tristan and Tobias, and to the enduring memory of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon

First published 2009

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

All rights reserved © Juliet Faith, 2011

The right of Juliet Faith, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 6981 2

MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 6982 9

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Glossary

1

A Brief History of the Templars

Historical background and records • Medieval life • Markets and fairs • Lament for the Templars

2

Bristol

Bishopsworth • Archaeology • The weaving industry in Bristol • Shipping • Disputes • Administration in the South West • Gazetteer

3

Templecombe

Abbas Combe • Temple Combe • Arrest and loss • Bruton Priory • The Preceptory • Documentary evidence • Temple Combe Manor House and modern Manor Farm • A badge • The panel painting • The ‘outhouse’ • Gazetteer

4

Temple Newbury

Historical background • Cloth making at Temple Newbury • Fulling mills • Coal workings • An unusual manor • Page House • Gazetteer

5

Cameley and Temple Cloud

Historical background 1066–1202 • The de Mariscos – The Pirates of Lundy • The de Sancto Mauros (St Maur) • Richard Engayne • Cameley Church • Gazetteer

6

Two Templar Estates at Hydon on the Mendip Hills

Temple Hydon Estate, West Harptree (granted c.1154–72) • The Temple Hydon Estate, Blagdon (granted c.1154–9) • References

7

Smaller Templar Holdings in Somerset

Lopen • Long Load • Worle • Doulting • Lullington • Crewkerne

8

The Idol of the Templars

The visible image portrays an invisible truth • A miraculous image • The Mandylion at Constantinople • Two heads in Somerset • The Templecombe Panel • The Knights of Christ

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for their help and inspiration with the writing of this book: The Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, particularly Donnie Hauser, Bruce Williams and Les Good; Dr Clare Ryder; Joe Silmon-Monerri, for his help in tracing the history of the St Maur family; Dr Richard Haddlesey; Anna Kemp; Barry Lane, Barry Watson, Geoff Wilson and Alan Royce. Many thanks also to Clive Wilkins for his help with the research and heroic translations of primary source documents from Latin.

My special thanks go to Mike Flower and Robert (Bob) Williams from Temple Cloud, for their continual help and support over the past three years, and particularly to Bob for his dedicated research, and writing of the chapter about Temple Hydon and Mendip; and not forgetting his wife Barbara, who provided many cups of tea and lunches, whilst listening to non-stop discussion about the Templars!

The photographs in the book have been taken by various friends; these are Alex Meadows; Bob Williams; Mike Flower, and my son Tristan.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the many people over the years with whom I have discussed the Templars, and who have enlightened me or given me inspiration in one way or another. You know who you are! Thank you.

INTRODUCTION

The Knights Templar first captured my imagination many years ago, when, at the age of fifteen, I visited Somerset with my parents. Whilst there, we visited the Church of St Mary at Templecombe. Inside the church was an unusual and haunting image in the form of a panel painting secured to the church wall. This painting portrays the disembodied head of a bearded man, and is believed by some to be one of four Templar ‘icons’ reputedly brought to England for safekeeping by Provincial Master of the Templars, William de la More, after the Templars’ suppression in France in 1307. Whatever the history behind this strange image, I was left with a sense of mystery and wonder.

Some years later, I became aware of the controversial Turin Shroud, and suggestions by some that the Templecombe panel painting may in fact have been a copy of the face on the Shroud. During the following years the mysterious history of the Knights Templar continued to fascinate me and I became determined to discover more about the Crusades, and in particular the Templars – a remarkable and misunderstood order of warrior monks.

My quest to find traces of the Templar presence in Somerset has led me to some wonderful and beautiful places, magical landscapes and ancient churches, each of which seemed imbued with the very essence of the Templar spirit. It has also allowed me to meet many generous, kind (and sometimes eccentric) people.

Each chapter contains an overview or ‘picture’ of the Templars’ role and activities at each location, as well as a ‘gazetteer’ of the sources and documentary evidence that have been drawn upon to create this picture.

I have also included many place names, plans, maps and photographs in this book, my hope being that the reader will feel encouraged to find and explore some of these sites, and perhaps undertake their own quest!

Juliet Faith, 2009

GLOSSARY

Assize of Novel Disseisin – Action to recover land of which the plaintiff had recently been dispossessed.

Assize of Mort D’Ancestor – Action to recover lands/property where plaintiff claimed the defendant had entered on a freehold belonging to him upon the death of one of his relatives.

Assize of Warranty of Charter – Action taken by a grantee of land or property, to request the grantor of the land to defend him in his possession of the said land.

Attaint of Jury – Action taken to discover if a jury had given a false verdict at trial.

Carucate – An area of land that a team of eight oxen could plough in one season.

Curia Regis Rolls – Common law records of pleas before the King or his justices.

Enfeoffed – To place in possession of land in exchange for services.

Escheat – A land law to prevent property being left without an owner if upon the owner’s death no will was left. An escheator was a royal official who managed this.

Final Concord – The settlement of a legal case, frequently concerning land ownership.

Judged to be in Mercy – To be found guilty.

Messuage – A house, including outbuildings, garden and orchard.

Oblate Rolls – A type of Fine Roll.

Pannage – Medieval legal term for turning out pigs into a forest to feed.

Pertinencie – An attachment or part of a preceptory or manor but in another area.

Petty Assizes – Civil courts established by Henry II in 1156.

Pipe Rolls – Financial records held by the English treasury from the twelfth century.

Preceptory – An administrative centre or commandery held by the Knights Templar.

Vill – A settlement.

Virgate – A medieval term for an area of land that two oxen could plough in a season.

1

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TEMPLARS

It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. These are often as highly structured and selective as myths. Images and symbolic constructs of the past are imprinted, almost in the manner of genetic information on our sensibility. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past.

(George Steiner, In Bluebeard’s Castle, 1971)

Historical background and records

How much is actually known about the Templar holdings in Somerset? In Evelyn Lord’s book The Knights Templar in Britain, the only Templar properties shown in Somerset are the Preceptory of Templecombe, Lamyatt and Crewkerne. There are, in addition, references to holdings at ‘Wileton’ and Temple Hydon. There were, however, other Templar possessions in Somerset not accounted for in Evelyn Lord’s book, and this book is an attempt to fill in the gaps in what is known about the lands and possessions of the Knights Templar in this historic county.

In England much documentary evidence about the Templars has been accidentally or deliberately destroyed or lost. According to T.W. Parker’s book The Knights Templar in England, there were full records in existence at New Temple in London at the time of the suppression. It appears that they may have been destroyed at some point during the Peasants’ Revolt. The task of putting together the history of the Knights Templar in Somerset has, therefore, been rather like putting together an incomplete jigsaw puzzle. It has been a mixture of searching the Somerset Records Office, the Public Records Office, various libraries and archives; and enlisting the help of other interested and knowledgeable people, not to mention a certain amount of intuition!

A map of Templar holdings in Somerset.

The 1185 Inquest, which documents all the land in England held by the Templars at that time, included relatively few land and property holdings in Somerset. During the following decades however, the Templars received large grants of both land and property, increasing their holdings in the county considerably. Not only were the land holdings increased, it also appears that the Templars held mills and manors, and were involved in sheep farming on the Mendips at Temple Hydon.

The map shown above illustrates the extent of the Templar land holdings in Somerset.

The documents that record the properties held by the Order in Somerset until their suppression (and afterwards by the Knights Hospitaller until the dissolution of the monasteries) are held in the Muniment Room at Winchester College. The two manors of Templecombe and Temple Newbury owned between them all the Templar holdings east of the River Parrett, and, according to Evelyn Lord, the preceptory at Bristol ‘administered an inland estate that stretched as far as Cornwall’.

The first land in England that was granted to the Templars was that given by King Stephen’s wife, Matilda, in 1137. When the Templars were gifted lands and manors, they also inherited all the people that lived and worked on the land.

By 1187, the Templars in Somerset held lands at Temple Fee (Bristol) Portishead, Bishopsworth, Lamyatt, Puriton, Drayton, Templecombe, Merriot, and Crewkerne. In 1201, King John re-affirmed an earlier gift to the Order of Cameley and Temple Cloud. At this time Templecombe was a key preceptory in the South West. Templecombe is situated between the two ports of Bristol and Poole, which would have provided important trade links with Europe.

In the decades that followed, the Templars were granted further lands across Somerset; these appear to lie in clusters along Roman roads or near waterways, giving easier access to scattered villages which would have enabled them to efficiently oversee the running of their estates.

Medieval life

The Templars have something to do with everything.

(Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum)

The accomplishments of the Knights Templar within the secular life of Britain during the Middle Ages should not be underestimated. A minor industrial revolution was occurring in England during this period and the Templars’ contribution towards this was very substantial, primarily due to them being superbly efficient managers of both land and revenue and because they had important trade links with Europe due to their shipping and banking enterprises. It can be shown from surviving records that the lands that they owned and managed were developed to maximum effect, and time and again they substantially increased the value of their assets. The Templars also established the first banking system in Europe, which meant that the medieval traveller or pilgrim could deposit money with the Knights at one preceptory and withdraw it at another, enabling him to travel freely without the fear of being robbed. (A preceptory served as a combination of hostelry, bank, and church and, in the countryside, also as a farm.)

The Knights Templar rapidly established themselves as entrepreneurs in England; developing all the available resources of the English countryside, managing farms and mills, creating markets, and importing and exporting goods across Europe. It has been suggested that the Templars may have acquired special skills in the Holy Land, such as skills in architecture, navigation and medicine (it is believed that they may also have used some crude form of antibiotic). Some believe that the Templars were the inspiration and funding behind the Gothic cathedrals that flowered across Europe during the Middle Ages, which were inspired by Middle Eastern architecture (as can be seen at Garway Church, Herefordshire, and by the concept of sacred geometry). As bankers they would have been able to supply the necessary funds required for the execution of these splendid buildings.

The Knights Templar were granted special status by the English kings which allowed them exemption from export and import duties and also from tax at all bridges and highways as well as markets and fairs across Britain. Unfortunately, this sometimes led to jealousy and resentment amongst others in the locality, which frequently resulted in disputes of one kind or another.

The guidelines for the procedures of running Templar preceptories and manors would have been established at their main headquarters at New Temple in London, and afterwards adopted throughout England, although with the passing of time this structure became a lot less rigid.

A preceptory was an administrative unit generally found in the countryside. As Paul Newman notes in his book Somerset Villages, most preceptories were based on monastic models, which would consist of a manor house, refectory, a chapel, and stabling for horses all set around a central courtyard. More usually however, they were modelled upon secular manors, making them more difficult for archaeologists to define in the landscape than other religious houses.

As the Templars spread across England, acquiring further lands and manors, they emerged as feudal overlords, who managed their estates meticulously, allowing them to raise large amounts of revenue to support the Crusades in the Holy Land.

Many Templar lands and industries would have been worked by laymen and women, but were ultimately overseen by the knights themselves. According to Parker’s book The Knights Templar in England, the group of manual workers (known as ‘les fréres des metiers’) comprising of labourers, servants, craftsmen and artisans, would have thought of themselves as Templars, and would have had a Templar cross on the doors of their dwellings, denoting that they were exempt from tithes. This would also serve to show that they were the Templars’ subjects, and fell under their rule. It has been suggested that the Templars often preferred to run their own mills, rather than rely upon outside labour. It is believed that they introduced fulling mills to this country. There were two such mills and a corn mill in the Newbury Temple area.

Each medieval manor consisted of several parts: arable land, meadowland, a common and the village itself, which was always situated near a water supply. A typical manor had an area of wasteland, and would probably have been surrounded by woodland. The entire population of England at this time was under 3 million, and a great deal of the countryside had been undisturbed by man; wild boar, wolves and the King’s deer would have roamed the wood land. It was indeed a pastoral, but not an idyllic, existence and would have provided only a very basic level of subsistence for many people.

The cottage homes of the village folk would certainly have been very primitive, usually made of wattle and daub, with a mud floor covered in straw and a roof of thatch with a hole in it so the smoke from the fire could escape. Life for the medieval peasant was often a very precarious existence; apart from ever-present poverty and threat of disease, there was the worry of a bad harvest and continual struggle with the elements and the land; nature was both friend and foe. It is easy to see why the veneration of nature persisted long in medieval society, despite the coming of Christianity. The ‘Green Man’, for example, is a common image in many early churches, the head disgorging or sprouting foliage as a symbol of fertility and the continuation of life; the ‘old gods’ were merely incorporated into the new religion.

During this period the inside of churches were painted with brightly coloured pictures that had a meaning and told stories to a congregation, who were largely illiterate. Churches with important patrons would also have contained large amounts of beautiful carved woodwork, which would have been painted and sometimes gilded; sadly this was nearly all destroyed during the Reformation when the beautiful paintings were white washed and carved images destroyed. Templar churches are often carved with ‘green men’ and other strange (and often pagan) images which were typical of Romanesque art and architecture. Garway Church and Kilpeck in Herefordshire and New Temple in London provide good examples of this style.

Markets and fairs

A medieval village was virtually self-sufficient, with a blacksmith, a carpenter, sometimes a mill and the people growing their own crops, raising their own animals, and preparing their clothing from wool, linen or leather. As was mentioned earlier though, the Templars imported other goods from the continent and the Middle East; some of these were available at markets and fairs in Somerset and throughout England.

Markets in Somerset would have been held weekly, and fairs on particular holy days (which were much more numerous than they are today) and could last up to three days or more; they provided a good source of revenue for the landowner. The English merchants would have traded grain, wool, and the woollen fabric prepared at the local fulling mills, as well as livestock at the fairs, while the European traders would have supplied silks, precious metals, wines, spices and exotic fare.

It was the role of the King to grant the privilege to hold fairs and markets. As the Templars’ wealth and power grew, they were granted further rights to hold an increasing number of markets and fairs across the county. By 1185, markets were held at Lamyatt, Puriton, Portishead, Merriot, Crewkerne and Williton. After this date, as more lands were acquired, markets were held in other Somerset towns and villages, allowing for greater exchange of goods and information within the county.

Sadly, despite stunning success in their business, banking and shipping enterprises, once the Holy Land was lost, the situation changed drastically for the Knights Templar.

Lament for the Templars

The trial [of the Templars] was one of the greatest crimes of the Middle Ages.

(W.G. Addison)

One of the aims in writing this book is to highlight the achievements of the Knights Templar in Somerset. It is, however, impossible to write on this subject without speaking of their tragic downfall. Many books have been written on this matter and it will only be dealt with briefly here. It appears that the Knights Templar were treated much more leniently in England than on the continent, especially than in their country of origin, France.

In October 1307 King Philip IV of France issued sealed orders throughout France that were not to be opened until the evening of 12 October. These stated that on the morning of 13 October, every Templar in France, including their Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was to be arrested.

King Philip was an avaricious man, who had long harboured resentment towards the Templars. He was envious of their wealth and power and he also owed them a great deal of money. It has also been suggested that at one time he had wanted to join the Order, but had been rejected. King Philip had no real authority to arrest the Templars as they were only answerable to the Pope, but although the Pope was reluctant at first, he eventually agreed to support the King. Pope Clement V was both a weak and ailing leader, and as such was willing to go along with the King’s plans both for his own benefit and that of the Vatican. The Templars’ recent loss of the Holy Land seemed the ideal excuse to strike … for Philip the timing was perfect.