FROM THE PUBLISHER

The age of the crusades - complex, battle-torn and fiercely pious - encompassed the rise and fall of a singular Order of fighting men, equally devoted to God, war and the defense of Palestine. Here is a meticulously researched and completely absorbing history of that order.

The Knights Templar joined together in 1118, shortly after the first Crusades had swept through the Holy Land and won Jerusalem from Islam. In the strict hierarchy of the feudal world, where every man owed loyalty and allegiance to his overlord, the Templar obeyed no one except the Pope. Acquiring land and castles by gift, conquest and purchase in every part of Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, they became a church within the Church, a state within the State. They were bankers, merchants, diplomats and tax gatherers, and though they themselves were poor, the wealth of heir Order was legendary.