The Templars by Dan Jones
Review By Elleanore Vance In Great Britain school children are taught about the Plantagenets, (Henry II to Richard III), and no story involving those British kings would be complete without mention of the Templars. I was not one of these children, so I had to learn about these 'holy' warriors from renowned historian Dan Jones. As an American student, my knowledge of the Knights Templars and the crusades could be summed up in two sentences: 1) The Templars were a group of warrior monks across Europe, sanctioned by the Pope and later the Holy Roman Emperor. 2) The Crusades were a series of Holy Wars urged on by several different Popes (over the years) to secure Jerusalem for Christians. As I found out, that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Author Dan Jones details wave after wave of those bloody and horrendous battles, as well as the kings and Popes who lead them. This falls into an area of history that should make you feel...