An entertaining historical guide to a legendary and mysterious order of medieval warrior knights. The templars have been associated with everything from freemasonry to the Holy Grail, and the Shroud of Turin. Their powerful military-religious status and equally dramatic fall in the 1300s have fascinated and intrigued historians and popular myth-makers alike. The historical backdrop of the Crusades gives background to this brotherhood of knights, with detailed information on their activities and base in London in the early 1160s until the French King Philip IV turned on them in 1307. This authoritative guide includes the medieval legends of the templars in romantic and epic literature, their doomed Crusades and dominance in Christendom, their fall from grace and disbandment by the Pope, while also reporting on this surviving sect's secretive and unusual activities today. Look out for more Pitkin guides on the best in history, royalty, tradition and travel.