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KNIGHTS OF THE BLACK AND WHITE
Book One of the Templar Trilogy
Jack Whyte
… fresh fields and pastures new …
To my wife, Beverley, as always,and to the other two women in my life, Jeanne and Holly
It has served us well, this myth of Christ.
—Pope Benedict VI
No other problem of our time is rooted so deeply in the past.
—Report of the Royal Palestine
Commission of Inquiry, 1937
It is difficult to distinguish fact from legend … I have found no consensus on what is fact; it depends on the viewpoint. Interestingly enough, legend— which is by definition distorted—gives a far more acceptable view of events. Everyone agrees on legend, but nobody agrees on facts.
—Michael Coney, The Celestial Steam Locomotive
Contents
Title Page Dedication Epigraph Author's Note Beginnings Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Awakenings Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Monks Of the Mount Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three The Temptress Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Confessions Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Commitment Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Complicities Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Epilogue Standard Of Honour Chapter One About the Author Also by Jack Whyte Copyright About the Publisher
No other organization in history has captured the attention and curiosity of modern readers as completely and intriguingly as the medieval order of monks known as the Knights Templar. The beginnings of that popular fascination sprang from the 1982 publication of Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. I know that my own interest in the Order of the Temple was kindled by reading that book, because although I had always been fascinated by the mystery and mysticism surrounding the Templars, it was only after reading Holy Blood, Holy Grail that I thought, There has to be a truly great story hidden in there somewhere, if a guy could just strip away all the layers of obfuscation and find a way to really look at who these people were and what made them tick. I had always believed that the Knights Templar were real, very human people, despite the fact that, back when I was a boy, the only pictures we had of them were stylized stone figures carved on medieval tombs, and the only reports we ever read of them told us they were a villainous and evil breed, condemned and excommunicated by the Church as heretics and apostates.
The grasping Norman knights in Ivanhoe were all Templars, as were the lowering, black-visaged villains in several other tales I read in boyhood, and one seldom heard, or read, anything good about the Knights Templar. They were always evil, threatening stereotypes. And yet a quiet, logic-bound area of my awareness recognized other, seldom listed and infrequently mentioned aspects of Templar history: they existed as an order for less than two hundred years, and for most of that time they were the legitimate standing army of the Catholic Church; they invented and perfected the first sophisticated, credit-and-gold-bullion–based international banking system, and they financed all the kings and kingdoms of Christendom. They also amassed the largest and most impressive portfolio of real estate holdings known to history, and to protect their enormous trading fleet they developed the largest navy in the world. Their black and white naval ensign, a white skull and