The Knights Templars

Addison, C. G. (Charles Greenstreet), -1866Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 662K words
Chapters: 67

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Knights Templars by C. G. AddisonAuthor: Addison, C. G. (Charles Greenstreet), -1866,Language: English, Class: CR: History: Heraldry, Release Date: Dec 6, 2013

Editor's review

The Knights Templars is a monograph on the Knights Templar by the nineteenth-century English legal writer Charles Greenstreet Addison. It narrates the rise, organization, accumulation of wealth, and final destruction of this medieval military order, along with the historical background of the Crusades and related legends. Written early, the book bears the typical style of Victorian historical writing: detailed in its marshaling of sources, with much attention to the order's institutions and figures, and inevitably tinged with later anecdotes and moral judgments. For today's readers its value lies first in the orderly arrangement of sources, and second in what it reveals about how nineteenth-century Englishmen understood and imagined a medieval order. It should be read as an old work marked by its era, not as the latest scholarship; readers wholly new to the Templars would do well to start with a modern general history before returning to appreciate this book's narrative appeal and limitations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

History readers interested in the Crusades and medieval military orders
Scholars studying the historiography of the Templars and modern historical writing
Readers who enjoy the narrative style of nineteenth-century English histories
Creators gathering medieval order material for fiction or games

Not a good fit for

Specialists seeking the latest scholarly conclusions and archaeological findings
Readers wholly unfamiliar with medieval religion and warfare who need an introductory guide
Those who prefer brisk popular narrative over long stretches of historical detail

Reading tips

Start with a modern general history of the Templars, then read this book to discern its period perspective.
Note the author's causal explanations of the order's rise and fall, and compare them with contemporary scholarship.
Read in three stages—founding, heyday, destruction—taking brief notes on each.
Treat the legends and anecdotes cited in the book with caution, flagging doubtful points for separate verification.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Are this book's sources and views still reliable today?

The book dates from the nineteenth century and is an early monograph; its organization of material remains useful, but some views and reports have since been revised or refuted. Read it as a document in the history of scholarship, rely on current academic works for key facts, and the comparison will actually show how methods have evolved.

Can I read it without any background in Crusade history?

You can, but it will be demanding. The book assumes some knowledge of the Crusades, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and medieval church institutions, and its background explanations are not systematic. If your foundation is weak, start with a concise general history to grasp the timeline and main figures before tackling this book.

Does the book discuss the mysterious legends of the Templars?

As a nineteenth-century work, it inevitably touches on then-popular rumors and moralizing interpretations when narrating the order's fall. Readers should distinguish documentary record from later embellishment and be wary of claims about the Holy Grail or secret rites, which should not be cited as fact straight from this book.

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About the author

Addison, C. G. (Charles Greenstreet), -1866 Author · English

C. G. Addison (Charles Greenstreet Addison, died 1866) was an English lawyer and writer who practised law while devoting himself to historical writing. His better-known works include Damascus and Palmyra and studies of the history of the Knights Templars, among which the titles held in this collection, The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the Temple and The Knights Templars, belong to the latter group. His subjects are the medieval religious military orders and the ancient cities of the East, treated with careful attention to sources and institutional development in the sober style of a nineteenth-century English lawyer-historian. Public information about him is limited, and details of his early education and personal life cannot be reliably established; his surviving works nonetheless show a legal-historical approach to the rise and fall of the Templars, offering readable accounts that remain consulted by historians and enthusiasts of the subject.