In The Warriors and the Bankers, the research and writing team of Alan Butler and Stephen Dafoe bring their combined experiences to bear on the question asked for hundreds of years, What became of the Knights Templar? Arrested in 1307, dissolved in 1312 and executed by 1314, the Templars have been the subject of many theories concerning their possible survival. This book examines these theories against new evidence and information. Additionally the authors put forth, for the first time, a completely NEW theory that has caught the ears, eyes and attention of many readers. The ultimate conclusion is that the Templars did survive virtually intact and that, in a very direct sense, they may still be one of the most potent forces at work in the world at the start of the new Millennium.

The Warriors and Bankers

“Dan Jones is an entertainer, but also a bona fide historian. Seldom does one find serious scholarship so easy to read.” – The Times, Book of the Year A New York Times bestseller, this major new history of the knights Templar is “a fresh, muscular and compelling history of the ultimate military-religious crusading order, combining sensible scholarship with narrative swagger" – Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem 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. Jerusalem 1119. A small group of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade decides to set up a new order. These are the first Knights Templar, a band of elite warriors prepared to give their lives to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next two hundred years, the Templars would become the most powerful religious order of the medieval world. Their legend has inspired fervent speculation ever since. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Dan Jones tells the true story of the Templars for the first time in a generation, drawing on extensive original sources to build a gripping account of these Christian holy warriors whose heroism and alleged depravity have been shrouded in myth. The Templars were protected by the pope and sworn to strict vows of celibacy. They fought the forces of Islam in hand-to-hand combat on the sun-baked hills where Jesus lived and died, finding their nemesis in Saladin, who vowed to drive all Christians from the lands of Islam. Experts at channeling money across borders, they established the medieval world’s largest and most innovative banking network and waged private wars against anyone who threatened their interests. Then, as they faced setbacks at the hands of the ruthless Mamluk sultan Baybars and were forced to retreat to their stronghold in Cyprus, a vindictive and cash-strapped King of France set his sights on their fortune. His administrators quietly mounted a damning case against the Templars, built on deliberate lies and false testimony. On Friday October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured, and the order was disbanded amid lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. They were tried by the Pope in secret proceedings and their last master was brutally tortured and burned at the stake. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources tobring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, to life in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.

The Templars

This volume examines the evolution of credit in the western world and its relationship to power. Spanning several centuries of human endeavour, it focuses on western Europe and the United States and also considers how the western system became the global credit system.

A History of Credit and Power in the Western World

“If you’re interested in the revolutionary transformation of the meaning and use of money, this is the book to read!”—Charles R. Schwab Cultural anthropologist Jack Weatherford traces our relationship with money, from primitive man’s cowrie shells to the electronic cash card, from the markets of Timbuktu to the New York Stock Exchange. The History of Money explores how money and the myriad forms of exchange have affected humanity, and how they will continue to shape all aspects of our lives—economic, political, and personal. “A fascinating book about the force that makes the world go round—the dollars, pounds, francs, marks, bahts, ringits, kwansas, levs, biplwelles, yuans, quetzales, pa’angas, ngultrums, ouguiyas, and other 200-odd brand names that collectively make up the mysterious thing we call money.”—Los Angeles Times

The History of Money

The Warriors and the Bankers

Today the Knights Templar are known through a swirl of history and conspiracy. The Order of the Temple grew far beyond its original purpose, to reclaim the Holy Land and to protect pilgrims, becoming a banking, financial, and trade giant. The Knights Templars built innovative financial systems, along with a network of monasteries and churches, not only to support the crusades in the Holy Land, but to build, expand, and maintain their empire through the re-working of traditional European art forms to create a particular image of power and piety for both their patrons and enemies.

The Knights Templar's Economic Empire and the Images that Supported it

The Knights Templar, a medieval Christian military order founded in 1119, developed one of the earliest forms of banking for pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. Their system allowed pilgrims to deposit funds at one Templar house and withdraw the equivalent amount at another location along their journey, effectively safeguarding their wealth from the dangers of theft. This was achieved through an innovative use of letters of credit, an early precursor to modern banking practices. As the Templars' wealth and land holdings grew, so did their banking operations, which extended loans to monarchs and nobles and facilitated large financial transactions across Europe. The Templar banking system was a significant element of their power, ultimately contributing to their mysterious end, as their wealth and influence provoked envy and distrust, leading to their dissolution by King Philip IV of France in 1307.

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Banking System of the Knights Templar

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