The author tells of the extraordinary organization of warrior-monks who came to power during the Crusades: their wealth and power, the reasons for their downfall, and their passage into myth and legend.

The greatest secret in the history of mankind is a secret worth killing for... During the Middle Ages a rumor was born about a mysterious and sacred Ancient Egyptian text. Known as the Emerald Tablet, it was said to contain the secret of creation. But the greatest secret of all is who wrote it...

The Order of the Knights Templar, founded in the aftermath of the First Crusade, was one of the most powerful organizations in history. Only after European rulers lost much of their resolve to keep Palestine under Christian control the Order suffered a dramatic downfall initiated by King Philip IV of France. In every region of the world where the piebald flag of the Knights Templar was once proudly flown above castles and houses there are myths and curious accounts of those ancient times. England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Egypt, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic—all these lands have their own stories to tell. The new book by A. A. Grishin combines the most fascinating stories ranging from mainstream historic narratives to local folklore, highlighting the Templars' valor and influence, as well as popular beliefs in their mystic knowledge, cruelty and macabre transgressions. Many of these legends have never been published in English.

Traces the movement of the Templars’ secret treasure across North America to where it still resides, protected by a sacred lineage of guardians • Explains how the Templars found refuge with Native American tribes, intermarrying with the Natives to continue the Holy Bloodline and further the lineage of guardians needed to protect their treasure and secrets • Reveals new evidence for the existence of Templar settlements and monuments across North America and how these reactivate the continent’s sacred rose lines • Pinpoints the exact location of the Templar/Holy Bloodline treasure Many have searched for the lost treasure of the Knights Templar, most famously at Oak Island. But what if the treasure wasn’t lost? What if this treasure--necessary to sanctify the Temple of Solomon and create a New Jerusalem--was moved through the centuries and protected by a sacred lineage of guardians, descendants of Prince Henry Sinclair and the Native American tribes who helped him? Drawing on his access as Grand Archivist of the Knights Templar of Canada and his own role as a descendant of both Sinclair and the Anishinabe/Algonquin tribe, William Mann examines new evidence of the Knights Templar in the New World long before Columbus and their mission to protect the Holy Bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. He reveals the secret settlements they built as they moved westward across the vast wilderness of North America, evading the European Church and Royal Houses. He explains how the Templars found refuge in the Sacred Medicine Lodges of the Algonquins, whose ceremonies and rituals bear striking resemblance to the initiations of Freemasonry. He reveals the strategic intermarriages that took place between the Natives and the Templars, furthering the Holy Bloodline and continuing the lineage of blood-guardians. The author explores how Sinclair’s journey from Nova Scotia across America also served to reactivate the sacred rose lines of North America through the building of “rose castles” and monuments, including the Newport Tower and the Kensington Rune Stone. Pinpointing the exact location of the Templar treasure still hidden in North America, the author also reveals the search for Templar sanctuaries to be the chief motivation behind the Lewis and Clark expedition and the murder of Meriwether Lewis.

“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.