Did Templar Knights really fight in the Battle of Lewes?
The notion isn’t as daft as it first appears.
Perhaps the most colourful knights of the Medieval age, the Templars were contemporaries of two other famous groups of fighting men, The Hospitallers and The Teutonic Knights.
The funny thing is that the Templars weren’t simply a military organisation, they were bankers. Started in 1119 by just nine knights, the order grew to be the most incredibly wealthy organisation in mediaeval times.
Much is written of these three groups but suffice it to say that the Templars did have a fearsome, elite fighting force, who were not only combatants in the Crusades, but guarded a pilgrim and trade route between Europe and The Holy Land.
It was along this safe road the Templars made some of their fortune by cleverly introducing a form of banker’s draft.
They took cash in Europe in exchange for a promissory note, redeemable in Jerusalem. A sort of early Travellers Cheque, the first of its kind.
Along with the first ever safety deposit boxes and ‘commercial’ loans the order became filthy rich and powerful to boot.
The Templars built churches, banks and headquarters all over Europe.
They were fewer in numbers, but no less important in England.
Today the quiet but scenic village of Saddlescombe, eight miles from Lewes, is a tourist attraction.
In the Middle Ages it was the southern headquarters of The Templars, Sussex being a county heavily populated with Templars..
Saddlescombe was partly funded by the Earl Warrene, descended from the very first Norman family to govern Lewes.
When King Henry III was attacked by Simon de Montfort in 1264, he had been feasting in Lewes Priory, built by the de Warrenes in 1079.
The de Warrenes had fought side by side with King William at Hastings and were close to King Richard the Lionheart and his Crusades.
It was not unexpected then that the Earl, by all accounts a brave and fearless soldier, in 1264 was on the King’s side in Lewes when Henry III faced Simon de Montfort on the outskirts of the town.
Henry had amassed an army of 15000 men, made up of the armed retainers of the nobility.
Warrene had funded the Saddlescombe Templar base, so it’s not too farfetched to assume he called on the knights there to fight on behalf of the King.
Flimsy evidence for supposing Templars took part in the Battle?
I suppose. But a strange and not widely reported incident took place on the eve of the battle. While de Montfort was covertly gathering his troops to mount an attack on the King, he took some royal knights hostage.
He had these captives tied to a stake and then dressed them in the long outer dress that identified Templars, then had the extended black cross which was the Templars’ military insignia, painted on the front. Why? Contemporary accounts suggested it was to frighten the enemy, just as Count Dracula had done in Transylvania, putting the heads of captive soldiers on pikes.
Why bother?
Surely it was to say to the King, you might have the finest elite soldiers of the age on your side, but we don’t give a fig. See what we can do to them?
The other reason I suppose could have been a defiant thumbing of the nose at the King who had ordered his supporters to wear a white cross to make them easily identifiable.
Although on the losing side, Warrene’s men fought bravely, passionately defending the castle as a last ditch defence. It was only the headstrong Prince Edward who lost the day by breaking ranks and chasing the enemy.
One other factor that could point to the Templars is that the King had a large overseas force among his troops, and he had used Templars for diplomatic missions in the past. The Templars had a fleet and were far more numerous in France than in England. Strangely, the Battle of Lewes is mentioned in some later Templar texts, indicating they did have knowledge of the conflict and its resulting consequences.
So, did Templars fight in the battle of Lewes? They are one of the most romantic orders of all history and if they were in the fighting at Lewes it would only add to their magical aura as the elite force of their age, win or lose.
Half a century later, the Templars fell afoul of one of the greatest betrayals of History.
France’s King Philip IV, who owed the order huge amounts of money, lusted after the Templar treasure and on a night of long knives in 1307, on Friday October 13th a date considered from thereon as a day of bad luck, took the order by surprise, with the complicity of the Pope. Their fearless leader
Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1314 and thousands of knights were arrested and imprisoned, and the order disbanded. England’s King Edward II thought the charges of heresy were phoney (one charge was that novitiates had to kiss a man’s bottom) and although he eventually bowed to the Pope’s demands, he did so halfheartedly, and huge numbers of Templars simply disappeared from sight.
Apart from banking and military expertise, the Templars were also a monastic order.
They made vows of chastity and rarely changed clothes. Perhaps it was just as well they were chaste. Their clothes must have smelled to high heaven. Not particularly romantic. They never took off their gloves except to administer the sacrament and were extraordinarily disciplined in their spartan lifestyle.
But thousands of Templars were not rounded up, seemingly just disappearing into the ether. Did local Templar’s end up in Lewes Priory? Certainly, there appears to be a strong link between the Priory and the Warrene family and the Warrenes and the Templars.
The Hospitallers weren’t affected by the pogrom. Indeed, the Templar treasure was to be made over to them. Disciplined monks were always in short supply, so fleeing soldiers would have fitted in well.
This article is pure speculation from start to finish. But there is enough historical fact to set a challenge for the romantic soul to gather them together and develop a convincing argument.
The bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code is based on the Templars and the secret of their treasure and especially the most sought-after item, the Holy Grail. Author Dan Brown’s thesis is that the treasure and the Grail ended up in Scotland.
Legend had it that the large Templar fleet disappeared with the end of the order.
Now Lewes, Seaford and Newhaven were important ports. So, my gut feeling is that the treasure ended up here and is concealed somewhere in plain sight!
Perhaps under the statue of the medieval knight’s helmet in Priory Park.
But I’m not about to go down there to try digging it up.
No, no, no. I’m going to write a novel about all this called The Lewes Helmet.
It will sell a million, Tom Hanks will star in the movie and I’ll make tons of brass. Then I won’t give a damn where the Templar treasure really is.
A strange and not widely reported incident took place on the eve of the battle