From the USA Today bestselling author of The Aztec Heresy A mystery that spans the past A conspiracy that lives on in the heart of an ancient order... Army Ranger Lt. Col. John Holliday had resigned himself to ending his career teaching at West Point. When his uncle passes away, Holliday discovers a medieval sword-wrapped in Adolf Hitler's personal battle standard. But when someone burns down his uncle's house in an attempt to retrieve the sword, Holliday realizes that he's being drawn into a war that has been fought for centuries-a war in which he may be the next casualty.
The discovery of a tombstone built by his ancestors set Andrew Sinclair on a trail that was to lead to major re-assessments, not only of our understanding of the discovery of America, but also of the origins of the freemasons and their role in world history. Based on stunning new archaeological evidence, both in the UK and the USA, The Sword and the Grail details the part played by the Order of the Knights of the Temple - here proved to be the true antecedents of the Freemasons - in the discovery of America.
The first thrilling novel in Raymond Khoury’s New York Times bestselling Templar series. In 1291, a young Templar knight flees the fallen holy land in a hail of fire and flashing sword, setting out to sea with a mysterious chest entrusted to him by the Order's dying grand master. The ship vanishes without a trace. In present day Manhattan, four masked horsemen dressed as Templar Knights stage a bloody raid on the Metropolitan Museum of Art during an exhibit of Vatican treasures. Emerging with a strange geared device, they disappear into the night. The investigation that follows draws archaeologist Tess Chaykin and FBI agent Sean Reilly into the dark, hidden history of the crusading knights—and into a deadly game of cat and mouse with ruthless killers—as they race across three continents to recover the lost secret of the Templars.
In 1191, fifteen-year-old Tristan, a youth of unknown origin raised in an English abbey, becomes a Templar Knight's squire during the Third Crusade and soon finds himself on a mission to bring the Holy Grail to safety.
An instant New York Times bestseller, from the author of Crusaders, that finally tells the real story of the Knights Templar—“Seldom does one find serious scholarship so easy to read.” (The Times, Book of the Year) A faltering war in the middle east. A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity's holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies... In 1119, a small band of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade set up a new religious order in Jerusalem, which was now in Christian hands. These were the first Knights Templar, elite warriors who swore vows of poverty and chastity and promised to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next 200 years, the Templars would become the most powerful network of the medieval world, speerheading the crusades, pionerring new forms of finance and warfare and deciding the fate of kings. Then, on October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured and the order was disbanded among lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources to bring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, to life in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.
This book sets out to tell the story of a unique discovery, relics of the Knights Templar which came to light in 1960 in their fortress town of Tomar in Portugal. This chance discovery of highly important pieces dating from the time of the crusades includes ritual vessels, chalices, agate inlaid with gold, alters and stonework with encoded grail symbology. Some pieces originate in the Holy Land removed in 1291 following the fall of Acre, other items may well have been taken from Constantinople in 1204 during the 4th Crusade. This profusely illustrated book contains a wealth of full -page photographs of these relics together with the background story of their discovery and how the owner has worked in secret for almost 10 years before breaking the story, researching and conserving these wonderful items. This book has been put together as an introduction to the hoard written not as an academic tome but as a means of bringing the hoard into the public domain in an easy to digest form. As part of the project the author and his friend Carl Cookson made the hit TV show "Lost Relics of the Knights Templar" shown in USA by Discovery and in Europe by The History Channel. This group of artefacts represents the only legitimate find of Templar items and with further study should enable researchers to add hard facts to what in many cases are misconceptions about the Order. The mysterious Order of the Temple vanished more than 700 years ago, they have been the subject of rumours, grail legends and theories on what treasures the once owned. Since carts left their Paris headquarters in October 1307 none of their treasure has ever been found until Hamilton White began his journey into the world of the Templars.
A man in search of the truth-against an ancient brotherhood that uses secrecy as the ultimate weapon. In the 14th century, Templar knight Jean de St. Clair was tasked with piloting the order's treasure-laden fleets off the coast of France. To this end, he used the Jacob's Staff-a nautical instrument supposedly developed in his own time. But retired Army Ranger Lt. Col. John Holliday possesses a Staff he found in the hands of a 4,000 year-old Egyptian mummy. Holliday suspects that St. Clair may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of the ruthless, enigmatic Templars. But there are those who believe that some questions should remain unanswered. And that the answers Holliday seeks should go with him to the grave...
The monk and the knight -- the two quintessentially medieval European heroes -- were combined in the Knights Templar and in the other military orders founded in the era of the Crusades. With characteristic eloquence, Bernard of Clairvaux voices the cleric's view of knights, warfare, and the conquest of the Holy Land in five chapters on the knights' vocation. Then the cistercian abbot who never visited Palestine and discouraged monks who proposed doing so, in another eight chapters, provides a spiritual tour of the pilgrimage sites guarded by this 'new kind of knighthood and one unknown to ages gone by.'
A butterfly flaps its wings, and on the other side of the world a hurricane is formed. If only Rohan Frith could be certain of the choices before him—anything that could help him understand more about the mysterious organization that has turned his world to chaos. Rohan is a disillusioned young print presser whose curiosity has drawn him into the world of the occult. A series of strange events leads him to delve into a shadowy order, and medieval fantasy now intermingles with his modern life in secretive and inexplicable ways—mysterious sightings of monks, a poster request at work for a deserter, and the appearance of ancient parchments. Through these connections to ancient conquered holy lands, he finds himself on an unimaginable adventure, thereby gaining unexpected insight into the world around him. A tale of mystery, action, and misadventure, this novel moves between the modern and the medieval as it tells the story of a young man’s journey toward mystical truths.
