Requiem

Requiem is the final volume in Robyn Young's Templar trilogy and a very fitting conclusion it is. Acre, the Order's last foothold in Palestine has been captured by the Saracens leaving the surviving knights with no obvious reason to continue. The Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, tries to plan a new Crusade but without the backing of Europes Princes he stands no chance. The two obvious contenders for the role of leader of a new Crusade are Edward of England and Phillipe of France but both are too concerned with events in their own territories to wish to commit themselves to adventures in the Middle East. However, though robbed of their primary role of protecting pilgrims traveling to the Christian shrines in Jerusalem, the Order is still a force to be reckoned with. The knights are among the most formidable in the world and over the two hundred years of their existance the Order has gained immense wealth. In addition to this they are answerable only to the Pope and outside the jurisdiction of the states in which they reside. As long as they were the warriors of Christ fighting for the Holy Land everyone tolerated their priviledged status but with the defeat at Acre this changed. The French King Phillipe, devout to the point of fanaticism, is manipulated by his chief advisor Guillaume de Nogaret and bullied by his confessor Guillaume de Paris both of whom hate the Templars. Desparate for money Phillipe first expels the Jews and confiscates their assets but this can only be a short term solution what he needs is the much greater wealth of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon. How the Knights are brought to destruction and the valiant attempts made by some members to defend their Order is related with great verve by Miss Young who has created a wonderful cast of fictional characters to supplement the remarkable people whose true story this is. Though they can be read as individual novels taken together this trilogy makes a magnificent historical epic story. One hopes that Miss Young will now turn her eyes on other historical episodes.