Templars: The Dramatic History of the Knights Templar, the Most Powerful Military Order of the Crusades

In 1099, the city of Jerusalem, a possession of the Islamic caliphate for over four hundred years, fell to an army of Christian knights intent on liberating the city from Islamic rule. From the ranks of these holy warriors emerged an order of monks trained in both scripture and the military arts: the Knights of the Temple of Solomon, called the Templars.

In this engrossing chronicle, spanning three centuries, Piers Paul Read tells the bloody story of the Templars' rise to political and …