| The
Knights Templar and the The Cressing Conference May 2007 |
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The Templars were founded in 1119 to protect pilgrims en route to the Holy Land. They were warrior monks who lived by a rule, but whose duties were primarily military. They played a crucial role in the establishment and eventual fall of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. Profits from their extensive landed property in Europe funded their operations in the Middle East, including the building of remarkable churches and castles.
Accused of various malpractices and envied for their wealth, they were arrested in 1307 and suppressed in 1312. Their property passed to the other great crusading order, the Knights Hospitaller. Speculation that the Templars survived as a secret organisation has figured prominently in a number of recent books.
This conference will address the question of why the Templars were arrested 700 years ago. It will also investigate how the Templars and Hospitallers managed their estates and their impact on the historic landscape, and will look at their architectural heritage in England and the Holy Land. Finally it will examine the historical veracity of books such as the Da Vinci Code.
Price is £45:00 each and includes lunch.
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The Speakers
Jonathan Riley Smith is emeritus Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge and an authority on the Crusades, about which he has written numerous books.
Malcolm Barber is emeritus Professor of Medieval European History at Reading University, with a specialism in the Crusades and the Templars. He has published The Trial of the Templars and The New Knighthood.
Dr Evelyn Lord is tutor in local history at Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education, and author of The Knights Templar in Britain.
Dr Greg O' Malley is an authority on the English Hospitallers, and author of Knights Hospitaller of the English Langue 1460-1565.
Denys Pringle is Research Professor in Archaeology at the University of Cardiff, and a specialist in the archaeology of the Crusader settlements in Syria and the Holy Land.
Dave Stenning is a former Historic Buildings and Conservation Manager with Essex County Council, and an expert on timber-framed buildings.
Previous Cressing conferences have been published as: Cressing Temple. A Templar & Hospitaller manor in Essex (1993); Regional variation in timber-framed building in England (1998); and The Essex landscape. In search of its history (1999).
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