The Knights Templar in Yorkshire E-Book

Diane Holloway

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

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Where can you see an effigy of a Templar? What prompted King John to hand England over to an Italian? Who worked for the Templars in Yorkshire? The Knights Templar in Yorkshire answers all these questions and many more. This new book explores what medieval life was like during the Templars' stay in Yorkshire. Not only was it the biggest county in Britain, but in Templar terms it was also the richest. They owned more land, property and people in Yorkshire than in any other county in England. This fascinating volume takes the reader on an intimate tour of the ten major Templar sites established in Yorkshire, and reveals what life was like for their inhabitants - how the land was farmed, what the population ate, how they were taxed and local legends. Illustrated with an intriguing collection of photographs and specially commissioned maps, this book is sure to appeal to anyone interested in medieval history.

Leseprobe

THE

KNIGHTS

TEMPLAR

IN

YORKSHIRE

THE

KNIGHTS

TEMPLAR

IN

YORKSHIRE

DIANE HOLLOWAY & TRISH COLTON

First published 2008

Reprinted 2008, 2009, 2010

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2012

All rights reserved

© Diane Holloway and Trish Colton, 2008, 2012

The right of Diane Holloway and Trish Colton, 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 7360 4

MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 7359 8

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword by Dr Evelyn Lord

1 A Brief History of Templar Origins

Creation of the Knights Templar • Activities of the Order

2 Temple Cowton (near Northallerton, c. 1142)

The preceptory • Battle of the Standard • Military training, weapons & armour • A Templar effigy • Templar tenants

3 Penhill (near Leyburn, c. 1142)

The preceptory • The chapel • Agricultural technology & horses • Pilgrimage & religious donations • Education • Templar tenants • Children’s games & toys • A local legend

4 Temple Hirst (near Selby, c. 1152)

The preceptory • Crime & punishment • Death: beliefs & rituals • The Church & science

5 Temple Newsam (near Leeds, c. 1154)

The preceptory • The nobility & land grants • Templar tenants • Templar farming • Fulling procedures • Village hierarchy • Templar rules • Whitkirk • Colton • Skelton • Halton • Templars in central Leeds

6 Foulbridge (near Malton, c. 1177)

The preceptory • Medieval forest law • The clergy & church life • Drinking occasions & ale • Music & musical instruments • Templar tenants • Crusader imports

7 Faxfleet (near Hull, c. 1185)

The preceptory • Land reclamation & flood defences • Importance of Faxfleet • Templar tenants • Markets & fairs • Birds • Two knights’ effigies • Sea travel & ships • North Ferriby • Blacktoft • Broomfleet • The demise of Faxfleet

8 Westerdale (near Whitby, c. 1203)

Ralf’s cross • The preceptory • Iron smelting • Blacksmiths • The wool economy • The grain economy • Monasteries Templar tenants

9 Ribston with Wetherby (near and in Wetherby, c. 1217)

The preceptory • Spofforth • Gifts to the Order • Wetherby • Ribston’s Templar chapel • An argument • Art & architecture • Wetherby market • Tithes & taxes • Fruit

10 Whitley (near Knottingly, c. 1248)

The preceptory • Magna Carta • Local travel

11 Copmanthorpe (near York, c. 1258)

The preceptory • The Order’s holdings • Castle Mills • Jewellery, fine goods & trade • Town criers • Guilds • Miracle & mystery plays • Women’s position in society

12 The End of an Era

The French connection • Action in England • The Yorkshire Templars • The Council of Vienne & the Pope • Yorkshire Templar property

Appendix I: Famous Popes, Kings & People

Appendix II: Templar & Medieval Miscellany

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We owe particular thanks to the following people and organisations: Dr Evelyn Lord; West Yorkshire Archaeological Services; Humber Archaeology Partnership; Nick Boldrini, Historic Environment Record Officer, Heritage and Environment Section, NorthYorkshire County Council; Dr John Walker, University of Hull; the Patchett family; John Lee; the Nutt family; John and Jean Taylor; John Rushton; Irene Szymanski; and Jonathan Young.

We have also benefited enormously from the fruits of other people’s labours in the form of published research carried out over centuries, as our bibliography shows.

Unless otherwise indicated, all pictures are our own. However, we should like to acknowledge the courtesy extended to us by the following, who allowed us to their pictures and illustrations: Simon Brighton, I. Szymanski, Wetherby Historical Trust, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, and Jonathan Young.

Finally, thank you to our mother, Dorothy Taylor, for her confidence in us and her financial support for our research and to our children, for almost managing to stifle their yawns when we ranted on about what we were doing, but reading our chapters for us anyway.

FOREWORD

The year 2007 marked the 700th anniversary of the arrest of the Knights Templar in France. The arrests of the British Templars followed in January 1308, so it is fitting that a new book on the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ of the Temple of Solomon in England should be published this year – the British 700th anniversary. Although the Knights Templars’ role was primarily to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land, they soon became part of a mission to keep the Holy Land, and especially Jerusalem, in Christian hands. In order to do this they needed manpower and money, and to this end they came West to seek recognition of their Order and resources to fund it. Kings, nobles and churchmen responded by giving them estates, and the Templars quickly became significant landowners in France, Iberia and England.

An important part of their land in England lay in Yorkshire, and in this book Diane Holloway and Trish Colton have presented an in-depth study of the Knights Templars in that county, life in their preceptories and the society that lay outside them. They have identified ten preceptories and visited the sites of all of them. Their descriptions of the topography in which the preceptories are set place the Templars into the landscape in a way that only someone with an intimate knowledge of a county can do. Archaeological and documentary evidence is drawn together so that the preceptory buildings rise from the ruins and the Templars themselves inhabit them.

The lives of the Templars are described in detail. As appropriate for a military religious order, warfare and weaponry are discussed in detail, as is the Church and pilgrimage, demonstrating the Order’s less war-like role. The background to their role as farmers and landlords appears, and the reader learns about medieval agriculture, mills, forests, and land law. Education, crime and punishment, medicine, architecture and trade in the Templars’ time are also described. Although the Templars were an exclusively male order, they had many women tenants on their land in Yorkshire, so it is fitting that the role of women in medieval society is included. There are biographies of the main players in the Templars’ drama so that the reader can easily identify them and their part in the rise and fall of the Order.

The end of the Templars in Yorkshire came in 1312. After trials for heresy and other sins, the Order was suppressed by the Pope, and the Templars who admitted their errors were absolved and sent to repent in monasteries. Their story is held within these pages for modern readers to enjoy, along with information that will enable them to follow their footsteps through England’s largest county.

Dr Evelyn Lord

University of Cambridge

Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College

The Yorkshire Templars Organisation Chart

The Grand Master

The supreme head of the Knights Templar, answerable only to the Pope.

He was based in Paris.

Master

There were eight Provincial Masters including one in England based in London.

The others were in Aragon, Apulia, France, Hungary, Poitiers, Portugal and Scotland.

Preceptors

Areas owned by the Templars were administered from local preceptories (sometimes called commanderies). Preceptors headed up the preceptories.

The Preceptory of Yorkshire

The Templars’ holdings in Yorkshire were so important that a ‘chief’ preceptor was appointed to oversee all the other preceptories in the county, each of which had its own preceptor.

The post holders of Preceptor of the Preceptory of Yorkshire were:

Walter Brito, c. 1220

Roger de Scamelesbi, c. 1240

William de Merden, c. 1270

Robert de Haleghton, or Halton, occurs 1290, 1293

Thomas de Thoulouse, c. 1301

William de Grafton, c. 1304

1

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TEMPLAR ORIGINS

‘The purpose of all war is peace’

Saint Augustine

‘The Order of the Poor Knights of Christ of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem’ was the full title of the enigma that became known simply as the Knights Templar. The first group of nine knights was offered part of the sacred Temple on the Mount to set up their quarters. This was a generous gesture on the part of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, since it was within the walls of his own palace. The title ‘Templar’ was simply derived from the fact that their quarters were situated within the Temple at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

In time, the Knights Templar became superb builders, their castles and preceptories extended throughout the Holy Land. They had a hand in the rise of Gothic cathedrals in France and the round church became their trademark. The Order had knowledge of sacred geometry and intricate symbolism. The Templars touched almost every part of life: they were astute bankers, scribes, diplomats, administrators, negotiators, ship owners, war commanders, agricultural specialists; the list is endless. The legacy they left infiltrates all walks of our working life today. For instance, the credit card in its simplest form came about because the Templars introduced a promissory note, safeguarding huge sums of money both for pilgrims and kings.

The organisation of the Order followed a rigid formation, with the Grand Master at the head of the Order and regional Masters in various European countries; then the preceptor at the preceptories and their staff, which usually included chaplains and sergeants. In Yorkshire, all the preceptories came under the direction of York, though clearly the individual preceptors had a great deal of autonomy. A preceptory was a cross between a monastery and a manor. The Templars saw their main function as fulfilling their duty to God and spent time at prayer, just as any other religious order would have done. But they were also, essentially, lords of the manor and had to run that side of things effectively too. In order to run an efficient administration, they often employed people to carry out everyday functions for them.

Creation of the Knights Templar

There were three main Military Orders to begin with, each springing from passive origins. The Knights Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights founded hospitals in the Middle East for pilgrims travelling from Europe to the holy city of Jerusalem. Until roughly the end of the eleventh century, the prevailing Muslims were happy to allow Christians to travel through the Middle East without duress to visit their holy place. However, in about 1095, Muslims from Turkey overran the Holy Land and from then pilgrims were no longer able to have safe passage. Many pilgrims were killed by the Muslims in their effort to visit Jerusalem. One very gruesome episode occurred at Eastertide in 1119 when a large number of pilgrims rested at an oasis and were set upon and killed by Muslim soldiers – not many lived to tell the tale. Now the journeys were not only arduous, but very dangerous as well. It was this event that led to the concept of the Knights Templar Order with their pledge to give safe passage to pilgrims. Hospitals became much in demand. In 1113, the Hospital of St John was recognised through a papal bull issued by Pope Paschal II to tend to the sick and weary pilgrim travellers.

In around 1127, the German hospital of St Mary in Jerusalem was founded and with it the embryonic beginning of the Teutonic Knights. Interestingly, in 1143, Pope Celestine II ordered the Knights Hospitallers to take over the management of the German hospital in Jerusalem, although he specified that it should maintain German roots and German speaking Brothers as German pilgrims did not speak French or understand Latin very well. After the loss of Jerusalem in 1187, another German hospital was founded around 1190 during the siege of Acre. This was the foundation of the Teutonic Order proper with Pope Celestine III recognising it in 1192 by granting the friars Augustine Rule.

The Templar Knights began in earnest with nine knights around 1119 in Jerusalem with a petition to King Baldwin of Jerusalem to offer protection to pilgrim travellers. The petition was granted and given the king’s blessing; thus the potential for the Order had begun. In truth, the exact beginning of the possibilities for such an order took place much earlier in France; the origins of the idea of the Templar Knights can be traced back to about 1099.

There are a number of valid claims for this earlier date. The Knights Templar were the creative proposal of St Bernard of Clairvaux. He had the initiative and vision of combining a fighting force with spiritual devotion, thereby melding spiritual ethics and monastic principles into a disciplined army to establish a religious fighting force. Thus he created an order which had the seal of approval from Christ to fight for Christendom. This followed on from an edict by the charismatic Pope Urban II urging a crusade against the infidels on ‘Christian’ soil. At the Council of Clermont in 1095, Robert the Monk recorded Pope Urban’s speech. Part of it demonstrates the emotive language used to persuade men to take arms, a translation reads:

. . . that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race wholly alienated from God . . . violently invaded the lands of those Christians. But if you are hindered by love of children, parents, or of a wife, remember what the Lord says in the Gospel, ‘He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me’

Another of those present at the Council of Clermont, Fulcher of Chartres, reported this part of Urban’s speech:

Let those who have formerly been accustomed to contend wickedly in private warfare against the faithful fight against the infidel, and bring to a victorious end the war which ought already to have been begun. Let those who have hitherto been robbers now become soldiers. Let those who have formerly contended against their brothers and relatives now fight against the barbarians as they ought. Let those who have formerly been mercenaries at low wages now gain eternal rewards. Let those who have been exhausting themselves to the detriment both of body and soul now strive for a twofold reward.

From this, it is easy to imagine the pressure brought to bear on men from all levels of society. Emotional blackmail was frequently used and as time went on, ever more calculated and cunning rhetoric was used to extort men to swell the ranks of the crusaders. Priests were the primary recruiters, resorting to parading celebrity knights and the singing of patriotic Christian hymns while encouraging men to join the Holy War. Thomas Aquinus trumpeted the justification of the crusades, declaring that performance equalled penance. In those days it was truly believed that people could be threatened by Divine judgement if they did not join a crusade. They believed they were engaged in acts of self-sanctification by joining them. It was stressed that they carried Christ’s cloth on their shoulder and that they had Divine approval.

Apart from knights drawn from the upper echelons of society, lower ranks could become sergeants. Whether working in the stables or on the training field, all had hope of eternal redemption by joining the crusades and travelling to the Holy Land.

There were, however, pacifists and pessimists even in those days. There were also those who couldn’t see the practicalities of a crusade and felt that war was not the way forward. Others were more concerned about the taxes which would have to be levied to pay for it all.

St Bernard was not only to bring his idea of a holy fighting force to fruition in the shape of the Knights Templar, but he also helped elevate their status to hitherto unprecedented heights. They became answerable only to the Pope above their sovereign king. They were the vassals of the Pope, carrying out many delicate negotiations, standing in his stead and gaining many privileges, much to the chagrin of various kings and chancellors.

Activities of the Order

Though the Knights Templar are commonly termed ‘warrior monks’, they were not a monastic order in the true sense. They did not live in a closed house, they did not have prayer times across twenty-four hours and their sole purpose was not the salvation of the soul of others, nor did they have an abbot at their head.

What they did do was take a vow of chastity, poverty and obedience. They assumed a rigorous lifestyle, giving up temptations of the flesh and giving personal property and wealth to the Knights Templar Order. They followed a conscientious order of prayer throughout the day beginning at 4 a.m. with Matins through to Vespers at 6 p.m. Compline would be said some time after the evening meal. Their food, though plain, was filling, with three meals a day.

Originally, the Order followed the Rule of St Augustine but this changed around 1130 through the authority of Bernard of Clairvaux. He was a Cistercian, and the Cistercians had formed from the Benedictines. There are marked resemblances between the two monastic orders. The rules were strict and retribution was exacted when rules were broken. Severe penalties included the confiscation of the mantle they wore under their cloaks, prison, or even expulsion from the Order.

The movement came to England and Scotland in the year 1128 when Hugues de Payens crossed the Channel, having solicited permission from Henry I to call men to arms to take the vows. This would lead to the formation of English and Scottish arms of the Order. De Payens also required financial assistance. It would be fair to say that he found England the more successful in swelling the ranks and coffers for the crusades’ cause. By this time, the French Knights Templar had been actively supporting Alfonso I, King of Aragon (also known as the ‘Battler’) for some time. Alfonso won his greatest victories when he expelled the Moors from Zaragoza in 1118; he died during the siege of Fraga in 1134.

The first Temple round church was built about this time in Holborn, London, and the movement spread into Yorkshire roughly fourteen years later, with the first preceptory being founded somewhere between 1142 and 1185, probably at Cowton in North Yorkshire.

London became the administrative centre, but it was Yorkshire that possessed the broadest swath of English property. The London Temple focused on financial aims, while the Yorkshire preceptories were fixed on agricultural activities. The English arm of the Knights Templar gathered wealth for the Order through agricultural and financial industry and labour. It seems that the English Templar Order spent less time fighting in the East than their European counterparts, but raised riches in capital wealth for the Order as a whole.

Though the knights were from the cream of society, they wore plain unadorned garments; a white mantle with a red shoulder cross and a cloak also with a red shoulder cross. The Knights Templar became the cream of the fighting militia for Christ and the faith with a discipline second to none. They even earned the respect of the Saracens, the sworn enemies of Christians.

Pope Callistus II issued a bull in 1122 whereby the Templars became a ‘lay religious community’ and in time they were able to ordain their own priests, build their own churches and even have a hand in designing some of Europe’s greatest cathedrals.

Despite the motivation behind the Knights Templar inception – to provide safe passage for travellers, particularly pilgrims journeying through the Holy Land – it was not the main reason for their continued existence. As a disciplined fighting force, their military might overtook their original protective origins. The Templar Knights were to become efficient and fearsome soldiers, landowners with vast amounts of property, practiced farmers, skilled sailors, learned men and eventually, accomplished bankers. This last endeavour was largely to bring about their downfall.

Many legends have sprung up around the Knights Templar, and as Karen Ralls writes in her foreword to the book The Templar Papers by Oddvar Olsen: ‘even during the time of the Knights Templar 1119–1312 “history” and “myths” were already entwined.’

2

TEMPLE COWTON

(near Northallerton, c. 1142)

Around AD 80, the Romans built a road, known as Dere Street. It was 180 miles long and stretched from York to the Firth of Forth in Scotland. Parts of it still exist, with both the A1(M) and the A68 overlaying it in places. The Templars would have found it just as useful as the Romans did all those centuries before and for the same reason: it gave them easy access to their possessions in Scotland. This probably explains why, in 1142, they built a preceptory near Dere Street in the vicinity of the village of East Cowton.

This area now consists of quiet, winding country lanes, high hedges and mile upon mile of arable farmland. In the far distance, hills can be seen where the remains of the distant Penhill Preceptory chapel lie quietly among the grazing cows. There’s nothing which can be seen of the modern East Cowton’s Templar preceptory now; in fact, nobody is quite sure exactly where it stood. However, an association remains with the name of Temple House Farm near the village itself. The name ‘Cowton’ is Anglo-Saxon in origin and dairy farms in the area still reflect that early meaning of ‘cow farm’. Nearby North Cowton goes a step further, with several houses having ‘byre’, meaning cowshed, in their names.

The preceptory

Founded in 1142, Temple Cowton was probably the first preceptory to be established in Yorkshire and was certainly very important to the Order. This is underlined by the fact that at the time of their suppression, when all the Order’s possessions were being scrutinised, a chest was found at Temple Cowton which contained all the charters which related to their estates in Yorkshire; documents concerning their various estates in the rest of England and Scotland were also discovered. It seems that these chests, along with one found at Faxfleet, disappeared on their way from Yorkshire to London at the time of the Order’s suppression.

The preceptory’s importance is further demonstrated by the fact that Edward I stayed there in 1300 on one of his many journeys to Scotland. William Wallace had started a rebellion in Scotland in 1297 and was a thorn in the English king’s side until his capture on 5 August 1305. Temple Cowton proved a useful staging post at which to leave provisions for Edward’s frequent sorties north of the border.

Temple Cowton, like Penhill, benefited from the generosity of a benefactor, Roger de Mowbray, who, around 1142, granted them timber from his forests at Nidderdale, Masham and Malzeard. By the time of the Order’s suppression in 1308, it is reported that the buildings included a hall, chamber, chapel, kitchen, brewhouse and smithy. Sadly, none of them remain to be seen.

Battle of the Standard

Four years before any of this was built, the Battle of the Standard (also known as the Battle of Northallerton), was fought nearby, just two miles north of Northallerton near the village of Brompton. Although this battle is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Cowton Moor, we know from a contemporary account that it actually took place some eight miles from there. The confusion may have arisen due to additions made to a contemporary text a considerable time after it had been written.

The Battle of the Standard was so called because some members of the English Army had brought a frame along with them, in the middle of which they stood a very tall ship’s mast which they called the Standard. It had nothing at all to do with flags, although the banners of St Wilfred and St John were displayed at the battle.

While on the subject of banners, Edward I paid one of the monks from Beverley 8 pennies a day for carrying his banner of St John while he was with the King’s Army. He was also paid a penny a day to take it back to the monastery.

The background to the Battle of the Standard is that in July 1138, King David I of Scotland made his third incursion into England that year. He came on the pretext of acting in the interests of his niece, Matilda, who was contesting the right to the English throne with King Stephen. It is thought that his real intention was to take possession of Northumberland. Whichever it was, David chose his moment carefully, taking advantage of the fact that Stephen was down near Bristol trying to deal with his barons’ revolt.

Archbishop Thurston of York, the King’s Lieutenant in the north, successfully raised an army and presented the mission of repelling the Scots as akin to a Holy Crusade. His army marched from York to Thirsk from where two barons went on to negotiate with David, but were unsuccessful. The Scottish Army crossed into Yorkshire on 21 August and began ravaging the county. The English moved to intercept them.

It is directly due to Archbishop Thurston’s successful recruitment drive that we know so much about the Battle of the Standard. Because there was such an important person within the Church involved, contemporary ecclesiastical chroniclers fell over themselves to record events.

Where there is now agricultural land, the two armies faced each other – the Scots on a hill to the north, the English on a hill 600yds south of them, blocking their advance. The fight took place on what both Richard of Hexham and Ailred of Rievaulx described as a ‘plain’. This is understood at that time to have meant an expanse of uncultivated moorland. The area had suffered under William the Conqueror’s ‘harrying of the north’, so it is likely that this land had not yet been returned to cultivation.

The Scots had superiority in terms of numbers, although the exact size of both armies is uncertain. The Scottish attack was led by unarmoured infantry – at their insistence – ahead of knights clad in protective armour. English bowmen unleashed their arrows and cut the enemy’s infantry to pieces. Those Scots who did manage to make it through to the English lines were slaughtered in hand to hand fighting against the well-armed local army. It didn’t all go England’s way, but after two hours, they forced the Scottish army into a retreat which turned into a rout. For some reason, the English did not follow to carry out mopping up operations.

Military training, weapons & armour

Nearly 150 years later, the whole business of training an English army became much more organised. During the reign of King Edward I, the Statute of Winchester of 1285 came into being. The statute made it compulsory for every male over the age of fifteen to own a weapon. The weapon would vary according to status. The least in status and, by definition, the most prolific, was the bow and arrow. Good archers could earn many special privileges and practice was thoroughly encouraged. Henry I went as far as to grant that, should an archer practising his craft accidentally kill another, then it should not be held against him as a crime.

Later, King Edward III, a highly successful military leader, complained that the people followed useless and dishonest games like stone throwing and cock fighting. Thus, he ordered the population to practise with their bows and arrows on feast days, as well as at other allocated times. Indeed, the Statute of Cambridge ordered all young men to give up the playing of dice, quoits, skittles and the like and to take part in archery practice instead!

Every town and village had to set up ‘butts’ which were for target practice. Practice was usually led by an old soldier, a bowman who was paid a small fee for the job. Medieval archers were one of the most efficient fighting forces of their time. For hundreds of years, they were, if correctly deployed, seen as the ‘make or break’ in the outcome of a battle. They had quick-fire ability and could bring a battle to a winning conclusion, even when the odds were against them. English bowmen were particularly good in the field with the rapid fire technique as they preferred the longbow to the crossbow. Until about the end of the twelfth century, the longbow was an uncomplicated affair, with the arrow head normally barbed.

As battles became more protracted, and when sieges became quite prolonged and protection in the Holy Land often meant defence of strongholds and narrow defiles, the bowmen became an ever more important arm of the overall defence and attack weapon of medieval battles. The best English bows were made from the yew tree. The pale sapwood resisted stretching and the darker heartwood resisted compression, thereby giving it a natural spring action. Though yew was the best wood for the bow, it did not have enough strength to withstand the ‘string’ cutting into the wood; therefore, horn tips or nocks were inserted into the ends of the bow for protection.

Equally respected were the bow makers. A skilled bow maker would be in high demand, as his selection of the wood and his skill in producing the bow were of paramount importance. An arrow when loosed from the bow does not travel in a straight line, it arcs in flight. Thus, the archer needed to be able to judge distances and have an understanding of angles as well being reliant on the bow maker to have produced a true bow.

There were, of course, crossbowmen, but these tended to be more popular on the Continent than in England. Widely used in Norman Europe, the crossbow was a truly brutal weapon and in 1139 the Church banned its use. However, this did not prevent the champions of the weapon using it and it appears that the decree was quietly forgotten.

Crossbowmen were sometimes mounted; a measure of affluence was necessary in order to own a horse. During battles, mounted crossbowmen clearly had an advantage over mounted soldiers carrying a spear or lance.

The ingredient of victory for the English was quite simply the rapid fire of the longbow over the crossbow, as can be attested in the history of the fourteenth century. The worst thing for an English bowman was to be caught and have his two ‘bow fingers’ cut off. This is where the habit of putting up two fingers is supposed to have originated.

The Bayeux Tapestry shows that the javelin was widely used both by the French and English, but it seems that by the twelfth century, it had all but been abandoned except by the Spanish who seem to have retained it as a favourite weapon.

Boys of nobility had swords and would most probably have had the use of a sword long before the age of fifteen. Alfonso, the third son of Edward I, is known to have had a little castle with siege weapons with which to practise, as did his younger brother, later to become Edward II.

The knights were at their most powerful as a fighting force in the medieval period. Their weapons were a sword, lance and sometimes a mace. In close battles, some knights preferred a mace to a sword. It is easy to understand why – all the weight was focused in the head of the mace, the head being made from flanges welded to a hollow shaft. Therefore, when the mace was hefted onto the foe, the resultant blow was devastating.

In the hands of the formidable and disciplined Templars, these weapons were put to terrifying use. However, the sword was the weapon the knights greatly preferred; a straight double-edged blade with a wicked flat point. The sword handle was often decorated, sometimes with precious stones, though the Templars’ swords would not have been so decorated. Their swords were often finely etched, as many swords were. The shield part of the sword was almost always flat at this time; indeed as far back as the time of the Norman invasion, the Bayeux Tapestry shows soldiers balancing their cups and plates on the flat shield of their swords. Later in the twelfth century, triangular shaped shields became popular.

By the thirteenth century, the sword underwent an adjustment which allowed the sword to penetrate the knights’ armour, as the development was towards a more acute point to allow for a thrusting, rather than a cutting movement.

Having hefted a sword from the fourteenth century, I was amazed at how light it was – about 5lbs. I felt that with practice, even I could have used it. (I can also now accept that Joan of Arc would have been able to use a sword with great ability!) The earlier, broader shaped sword would only have been a little heavier, so a grown man or knight would certainly have been lethal using his sword.

Spurs, or to be more accurate, pick spurs were a must for a knight. Developed during the time of the Romans, spurs were worn on the heels. Unhappily, they were used to provoke the horses forward during battle. They were used throughout the medieval period and were often decorated with silver and gold foil. They became symbols of knighthood and a new knight was said to have ‘won his spurs’ when he became a soldier of Christ.