The Templars at Garway
The Templars never lose their capacity to surprise.
Beautiful, remote countryside. Woodlands and streams. Well-stocked fishponds. Acres of peaceful fields and meadows. Monks tilling the fields, before returning to their church for the rituals of prayer, and the spiritual refreshment of quiet reflection.?
And yet….
As so often with the crusades, little is what it seems.
Garway, the Templar commandery is a case in point. It is far from what we now think of as a frontier or a war zone. Nonetheless, it also has the undeniable atmosphere of a border fort – the austerity of monasticism is contrasted with the visible discipline and architecture of a military outpost.
This impression is not just a function of our modern, febrile imaginations. There may have been monastic vows, but these were tough men, with equally tough patrons.
King Henry II took a particular interest in the order’s preceptory in Garway because of its frontier location on the Welsh borders – landlords on the marches tended to be hard and aggressive, and with good reason. He gave the Templars a particularly wide-reaching right to?assart?some 2,000 acres of woodland around the order’s new commandery – that is, to convert woods into more productive arable land.?
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To ensure that the plantation included more than just plants, he also donated an estate, a house and a chapel there. Over time, the Templars became an ever more important force on the Welsh marches.?
We may assume that this military presence was designed to pacify the borders and deter raiders. In fact, although Garway is now in England, in Templar times it was in Wales. The brothers faced complaints from their Welsh-speaking parishioners that they could not understand the sermons or services. Showing typical Templar sensitivity and compromise, the brothers carried on speaking French, English or Latin – all the languages their flock could not understand.
But it was not just the Welsh who came up against the tough side of the Templar Order. Given their proven loyalty to the crown, the order was probably acting just as much as a check to the often wayward ambitions of the Anglo-Norman frontier lords who were their neighbours. Everyone needed to be wary of the church militant.
Find out more about the British Templars https://stevetibble.com/blog
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1 年Interesting, thanks. I would be interested to know more about the Templars from Cressing on Robert FitzWalter's Little Dunmow estate. Seems like Magna Carta was most likely planned from there along with Knights from the de Quincy and de Bohun estates. de Bohun is especially interesting, being married into the blue blood Templar de Lusignans from Cyprus. Also Eleanor de Louvaine (buried at Little Dunmow) is interesting, being one of the nobles to help bridge the Templar spirit (via the Douglas Black Knights) from Magna Carta to Arbroath. Could she even have been "Maid Marion" since Douglas would have been a supporter of the auld alliance started around the time of the "Lionheart", William "the Lion" King of Scots and Thomas Becket. Both lions are key characters in von Eschenbach's Parzifal, while Becket is the analogue for Freemasonry's Hiram Abiff...
Emerita Professor at Cardiff University
1 年I know that in the late 14th century the Hospitallers faced complaints that the parishioners did not understand their English-speaking priest; did you find an example of complaints from the Templars' period too? In 1307 the chaplain had a Welsh name (David of Llanddewi) and so presumably spoke Welsh.
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1 年Fascinating Steve. Lovely photos.
M.Phil. FRSA. I help organisations become more successful through better communications
1 年Beautifully written insight, as always Steve.