The Knights Templar did not write about themselves, or keep diaries, so you would be forgiven for thinking there would not be much to know about their everyday lives. However, the records of the Templars’ estates tell us how they lived–from the buildings they lived in and their furnishings, to the books and ornaments in their chapels, and their clothes and crockery. These early fourteenth-century records tell us about the men and women who worked for the Templars on their lands and in their houses, their tenants, and the people who owed them money. We can see what animals they kept, from fine warhorses to hard-working plough animals, alongside cattle, pigs, and vast flocks of sheep. Drawing on these records, along with archaeological evidence and the Templars’ own regulations, Helen Nicholson sets out to reconstruct how the Templars lived from day to day, in both the Middle East and Western Europe. The result is a fascinating insight into the everyday lives of these pious men, who were not powerful nobles or churchmen, yet held great influence in medieval Europe.
