Where Have All The Templars Gone?

By Ronald J. Leach

About 20 years ago I was a cruise lecturer assisting a local guide on a shore excursion from the port of Monaco to nearby Nice and Eze.  In Eze, I saw a street sign referencing a Templar castle that was destroyed in 1706.  We were on a steep hill some 2,000 feet above the port of Monaco.  I wondered why the castle was so high, far too high to protect tiny Monaco below.  I wondered how Monaco could have avoided major destruction or annexation by the surrounding country of France.  After many years, I discovered that the solution to this mystery requires expanding the investigation.

 

Many mysteries and legends of what happened to the Templars and their wealth continue to fascinate modern readers.  Where Have All The Templars Gone? focuses on what happened to their huge wealth after the massive coordinated raids ordered by the king of France.  We use techniques of money tracing, modern communications systems, geopolitical analysis, interactive maps, and some of the techniques of "big history" to discover connections to many hitherto unsuspected places where some of that missing wealth had been taken.   Underlying themes include the difficulties that small countries have when surrounded by powerful enemies, and the tendency of conquerors to remove all signs, especially religious ones, of the countries they conquered.  Unlike many books and articles about the Templars, we show the details of the methods and analyses used to support our conclusions, so that the careful reader can verify them.

The surprising conclusions about the hiding places for Templar wealth include some of the smallest or richest places in Europe.  We also present new information on how some of this wealth was moved to the famous French town of Rennes-le-Chateaux.

 

Where Have All The Templars Gone? contains 57 maps and images.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ronald J. Leach
• Release date: Sep 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223277118

Ronald J. Leach

About the Author I recently retired from being a professor of computer science at Howard University for over 25 years, with 9 of those years as a department chair.  (I was a math professor for 16 years before that.)  While I was department chair, we sent more students to work at Microsoft in the 2004-5 academic year than any other college or university in the United States.  We also established a graduate certificate program in computer security, which became the largest certificate program at the university.  I had major responsibility for working with technical personnel to keep our department’s hundreds of computers functional and virus-free, while providing email service to several hundred users.  We had to withstand constant hacker attacks and we learned how to reduce the vulnerability of our computer systems. As a scholar/researcher, I studied complex computer systems and their behavior when attacked or faced with heavy, unexpected loads.  I wrote five books on computing, from particular programming languages, to the internal structure of sophisticated operating systems, to the development and efficient creation of highly complex applications.  My long-term experience with computers (I had my first computer programming course in 1964) has helped me understand the nature of many of the computer attacks by potential identity thieves and, I hope, be able to explain them and how to defend against them, to a general audience of non-specialists.  More than 5,000 people have attended my lectures on identity theft; many others have seen them on closed-circuit television. I have written more than twenty books, and more than 120 technical articles, most of which are in technical areas. My interests in data storage and access meshed well with my genealogical interests when I wrote the Genealogy Technology column of the Maryland Genealogical Society Journal for several years.   I was the editor or co-editor of that society’s journal for many years.

Book preview

Introduction

I first visited Monaco about twenty years ago as a lecturer on a cruise ship, assisting the local guide on a shore excursion to Nice and Eze in nearby France.  It always seemed odd to me that the tiny Principality of Monaco could survive, nestled as it was within the large country of France.  Like much of the world at that time, I had been fascinated by the magical 1956 wedding of the movie actress Grace Kelly to an actual prince.  Her star power continues even to this day.  PBS showed a documentary entitled Her Name Was Grace Kelly that aired on August 22, 2023.

Monaco was surrounded on all sides by Nice, a large, important French city.  How did this tiny place survive?  The historical story of small, weak countries surrounded by one or more large, powerful countries is rarely a happy one.

The view from the Chateau Eze, towering nearly 2,00 feet over the Mediterranean Sea, was lovely.  I learned the history of this resort town and that Eze was the summer home of Friedrich Nietzsche.  The way back to our tour bus was blocked by some street repairs and we walked along the steep path of the detour.  I saw something I never expected  to see - a small sign on the side of a building.  The sign said Rue des Templars or, perhaps, Rue de Templars.  The local guide explained to me that there had been an actual Templar castle near that sign, but that the castle had been torn down in 1706.  Unfortunately, I cannot locate that street on either Apple Maps or Google Maps and my ancient knees could no longer explore that site even if I went back there.  (Do an internet search for Templar Castle Eze for more information on the Templar castle that had existed in Eze.)

I asked the local guide why a castle had been built there.  It was obviously there for protection from Mediterranean pirates.  But Monaco itself was clearly unprotected.  And wealthy.  Why wasn’t it protected?  How did it survive?  As mentioned before, there is a pattern throughout history that weak countries surrounded by wealthy and powerful countries did not often survive.  The guide didn’t know the answer, so I got no additional information.  Anyhow, we had to concentrate on making our way down the treacherous path as we walked to our bus, my question unanswered.

It took twelve years of research before I understood why the answer to my original question of just how this Templar imprint on such an isolated and undefended place as Monaco could survive needed to be considered from in a much larger context than just from a historical perspective.  In the chapter on microstates, we will discuss an amazing battle that destroyed Nice, removed the fortified walls of Eze, but did not affect Monaco at all!  This book will describe what I believe are the most logical explanations for how the Templars were formed, how they became rich, why they were attacked and their order was disbanded by the king of France and the pope, and where any remaining wealth not confiscated is likely to be hidden.

I have organized this book in a manner similar to the way a television show portrays a police criminal investigation: motive, opportunity, method, where, when, how, why, and surveillance. It is easiest to explain if we recognize that there were two crimes.

The first crime we consider is the attack on the Templars in France and Italy.  The motivation is great debt incurred by the greedy king of France - the Templars had the money.  The opportunity was the acquiescence of the person who was the current pope after the convenient death of the two prior popes.  The method is a coordinated attack on all known Templar castles and military camps in France and Italy.  The where is France and Italy.  The when is the first raid in 1307, followed by similar raids in other countries throughout much of western Europe.  The how is the coordinated raid in France and Italy, which included what we would call a disinformation campaign, accusing Templars of blasphemy and heresy.  The how also reflects the reality that not all of the king’s raiding soldiers and other agents would have been completely honest - there might have been some slippage in the amount of found treasure being turned in to the king of France or the pope, so some of the treasury would have been lost forever.  The why is greed.  The surveillance is the gathering and analyzing information about the Templars that has gone on for more than 700 years!

The second crime was only a crime in the eyes of the first criminals - the king of France, the pope, and their agents who carried out the raids.  The Templars fought back, using planning and guile instead of violence.  Following the motive, opportunity, method, where, when, how, surveillance paradigm we have the following.  The motivation was retaining as much of the Templar’s treasure as possible.  The opportunity is the natural time lag that occurred because the Templar’s spy network knew about the upcoming raids and had at least some time to prepare and put plans in motion before the raid started.  The method was to move treasure both to well-hidden places and to places that were thought to be relatively safe from their nemeses.  The when was as quickly as possible, both before October 1307 and after.  The how is for the Templars to use their knowledge of countries and allies beyond the reach of France.  The why is the desire of the individual Templars to survive.  The surveillance is the gathering and analyzing information  about the Templars that has gone on for more than 700 years.  But this time, we have the work of many historians, the CIA World Factbook for accurate information as well as both the Internet and excellent interactive maps to assist us!  I wonder if the Templars could have anticipated some one from the future using Apple Maps to help solve the mystery of the legend of what was buried at Renne-le-Chateau seven centuries after their ordeal!  While only physical evidence such as actual treasure would prove the existence of Templar treasure in any particular location, our approach helped determine where any such treasure could have come from, and how it might have gotten to this tiny town.

Why should you read this book when there are so many depictions of the Templars in both fiction and nonfiction literature and in the media?  You’ve probably seen hour-long shows on the History Channel.  All are fun to read or watch, even if you are not convinced of their accuracy.  As surprising as it seems, there does not appear to be any Templar book that takes under consideration all of these issues: the status of the economy and the chaotic political organization of Europe, the dangers from the Islamic world, even greater dangers from the Mongols threatening Europe, and the lessons learned from long-extant trade routes across multiple countries.  Add to this the advantages that the Templars had in terms of geographical separation and their advantages in moving money and resources around.

Just a warning,  If you are hoping to find a trove of riches hidden by the Templars, this book is not for you.  What you will gain is a deeper understanding of the Templars, how they  made their fortune, how it was taken from them by greedy monarchs who were deeply in debt.  You won’t find a hidden treasure map, but you will find out some places that the Templars might have stored their treasure, and where the monarchs who stole their treasure might have hidden them, or put them to other use that could only happen if there was a sudden influx of resources that were not from the usual heavily taxed enterprises.  A common phrase of modern day police, district attorneys, and forensic accountants who were investigating perceived criminals with multiple enterprises, shell companies, and relationships with both criminals in their country and overseas is Follow the Money.  We’ll do that several times in this book.

Here’s another warning.  Many people form opinions by simply reading what others say on social media and say they are doing research.  They are not!  The validity of their opinions might be improved by reading contrary opinions and comparing the logic behind them.  Ideally, any research that uses the Internet heavily will attempt to look for collaborating information from reliable sources if possible.  If no such information is available, the conclusions might be interesting, or even fun, but may be totally wrong.  Not every influencer is generally accurate.

Here’s an example of what not to do.  One of my earliest ancestors to reach the Americas was Robert Clark, who was the first surveyor of Maryland, a very important position in the business of selling farmland.  I have found more than seven postings that he was born in England to a father also named Robert Clark.  The seven postings list seven widely scatted birthplaces for the elder Robert Clark.  Even if several people post the same relationship on a genealogy website, no such thing is possible.  A father can have seven sons, but a son cannot have seven fathers.  Only definitive information, showing a birth of a person who is named Robert Clark, together with other information, specifically definitive information (perhaps apprenticing him to a surveyor or coming from a family of surveyors, or even a local record of a ship’s passage to Maryland being paid) can resolve this ambiguity.

The only websites we quote in this book are from reliable sources, sources such as Wikipedia, Brittanica, the CIA World Factbook that are constantly edited, scholarly sources, and the occasional source where a conclusion can be supported by consistency with all known facts and appropriate logic.

Let’s look at history and geography first.  What’s newly presented here is a world historical perspective  of the Templars, rather than just focusing on France, Germany, and the Holy Land.  Instead, an understanding of the Templars requires expanding our historical and geographical perspective to Asia and Africa, and even to the Americas to some degree.  In particular, the Templars almost certainly knew about global upheavals that had an effect on their view of their European world.

We have to consider the great danger that travel, and, indeed, everyday life in the Middle Ages involved.  There were dangers for peasants traveling alone, for armies of well-armed knights, and for almost every size group in between.  Roads were limited and dangerous, and rivers were often no better if you had to cross them.  Bodies of water such as the Mediterranean were very dangerous to cross, even with the use of the lateen sail, whose triangular sail allowed some degree of tacking into the wind.  Adding to this complexity was the constant turmoil in the Holy Land itself, with shifting alliances, treachery, and constant battles and skirmishes.

Trade was world-wide, withe goods reaching Europe from China and central Africa and vice-versa.  Trade required some mechanism for payment, and anything with a universally valued item such as gold would have been very heavy to carry enormous distances.  A pilgrim to a far away land would have to travel with a trusted, well-armed group, and would great difficulty carrying even a small amount of gold.

As an example of just how widespread trade was in ancient times, consider the fact that Chinese silk had arrived in ancient Rome by the third century BCE.  Centuries later, Seneca the Elder, who was a tutor of the Roman Emperor Nero nearly two thousand years ago, wrote in his famous work Declamations: I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes... Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body.

Additionally, we must consider that communications over any even moderate distances were extremely difficult due to the aforementioned travel problems, and, of course, also to the general lack of common languages.  As we will see, the Templars had great advantages over many of the enemies they encountered in the Holy Land, in Europe, and elsewhere.

There are several orders of knights that were created for somewhat similar purposes or in similar places during the relatively brief period in which the Templars were prominent.  Some of these orders were created in Jerusalem or by the authority of popes.  Among the most important of these other orders are the Teutonic Knights and the Hospitallers.  They will appear prominently in this book.  Other, smaller orders of knights are listed later in the next chapter.

Unfortunately, there is some confusion about which each order of knights actually did what.  For example, stone Scandinavian churches that are round may be described by some authors as being built by Templars, but may have been built by the Teutonic Knights instead.  We’ll use the best available information to keep such things straight.

History, geography, political climate, travel, communications, all of them affect the story of the Templars.  Add greed and the lust for power to the importance of Jerusalem in the world and you have a fascinating subject.  Enjoy!

Here are some recurring themes in this book:

Small, weak states are always at the mercy of nearby stronger states.  Their safety can be improved by carefully arranged marriages or by diplomacy, especially if the diplomacy is augmented by hidden sources of wealth.  (Spoiler alert:  A Wikipedia search for Richest Royal Families shows that 3 of the 15 richest royals listed were from European microstates.  Three out of fifteen!  (A different search of msn.com/en_us shows a list of royal families, with Liechtenstein having the tenth wealthiest royal family.)  Microstates can be rich!

Following the well-known adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend is an excellent strategy for survival of a small nation.

Treaties can be abrogated overnight.

A good spy network is essential.

Both political and historical knowledge are essential.  Understanding of the underlying reasons for changes in your enemies’ leadership or of their financial situation is essential.

When adherents of one religious group conquer adherents of another religious group, the existing places of worship are destroyed, to show that my god (or gods) is greater than your god (or gods.)

Alliances between countries can change overnight.

Some of your enemies believe that greed is good.  Consider your enemies’, and sometimes your friends’ motivations.

Always have an escape route planned.

Here we present some of the logical pitfalls that we watch out for in our reasoning in this book.  Some of these principles are similar to the techniques of hermeneutics that are sometime used to interpret the Bible.

If Event A occurs before Event B, it cannot be assumed