The Templars have been accused of everything. When the fantastically wealthy knightly Masonic order was forcibly disbanded in 1307, they were charged with heresy, sodomy and blasphemy. In recent centuries it’s been said that the Templars live on in secret—even that they rule the world. They have found their way into movies, television and video games and—by some accounts—the thoughts of Steve Bannon. British historian Dan Jones illuminates the subject with lively prose; he has no truck with “alternative history” but sticks to the known story: French King Philip IV triggered the assault on the Templars to seize their vast assets. Jones’ description of the fulminating Philip, “cruel and willfully antagonistic toward any individual or group from whom he perceived the smallest slight,” could bring Donald Trump to mind.
