Temple Church: Home Of The Knights Templar

[Music] nestled in the heart of london not far from saint paul's cathedral is an area known as temple it's a maze of cobble paths narrow arches and quirky courtyards it's so distinctly quiet compared to the bustle of fleet street that charles dickens observed who enters here leaves noise behind and it's lucky it's so quiet for this is london's legal quarter and behind these elegant facades are some of the biggest brains in the country there are barristers poring over texts scribbling down notes and making jokes about latin declensions there are two of the four of london's inns of courts here the middle temple and the inner temple it might be an oasis of hush tones today but it wasn't always quite so tranquil geoffrey chaucer who mentioned one of the clerks of the inner temple in the prologue of canterbury tales was probably a student here and he was recorded for fighting with a franciscan friar in fleet street and in the peasants revolt of 1381 the mob poured through these lanes into the houses of the temple lawyers they carried off everything they could find valuable books deeds and rules of remembrance and burnt them to cinders but in the center of this maze is a building far older and far more intriguing than the antics of jeffrey chaucer or what's tyler's revolting peasants here is a building drenched in almost nine centuries of turbulent history of crusading nights secret packs hidden cells and blazing firestorms this is a history so enthralling it provided the inspiration for dan brown's da vinci code today i'll take you behind its closed doors these are the secrets of temple church [Music] in 1118 a holy order of crusading knights was formed they took the traditional vows of poverty chastity and obedience as well as a fourth vow to protect pilgrims in the holy land as they traveled to and from jerusalem these nights were given headquarters in jerusalem near temple mount believed to be the temple of solomon and so they became known as the fellow soldiers of christ and of the temple of solomon in jerusalem or templars for short in 1162 these templar knights built this round church as their base in london and the area became known as temple over the years they became incredibly powerful working as bankers and diplomatic brokers to kings so this area of temple grew to become the center of england's religious political and economic life here on the west door are some clues to the church's crusading past each of these columns are surmounted by four busts these ones on the north side are wearing caps or turbines whereas those on the south side are bare headed and once more if you look really closely some of them wear tight-fitting buttoned clothing before the 14th century buttons were considered to be oriental and so some of the figures here may represent the muslims who the templars were called upon to fight when you come into the church today you'll notice the two parts the chancel and the round this circular design was inspired by the church of the holy sepulchre in jerusalem which they believed to be the site of jesus's crucifixion and resurrection so the templars commissioned a circular design for their london church too which was lucky as it turns out it has a wonderful acoustic for singing in the middle ages this would have looked quite different there were brightly painted lozenge shapes on the walls the carved heads were bursting with color metallic plating was on the ceiling to reflect the candle light and there were even banners hanging down from the columns and although most of this doesn't survive there are still some hints to a bygone medieval past on the ground and nine male figures weathered and bashed by the ravages of time and packed full of symbolism and hidden meaning they are all depicted in their early 30s the age at which christ died now you might be thinking that these nights look quite relaxed lying down some of them with their legs crossed as if they're lazing around on the beach well actually these cross legs come from the way that people were depicted in manuscripts and stained glass at the time it was meant to show action to show the knight walking towards the viewer with one leg in front of the other although i'm not quite sure how well that sense of action translates to these effigies another theory is that the cross legs are a symbol of those who had gone on crusades let me introduce you to the most important of our effigies a man known as the best knight that ever lived this is william marshall the first earl of pembroke he was a soldier and statesman who served four english kings and perhaps most famously he was one of the chief mediators in the years leading up to the magna carta actually in the countdown to runnymede lots of the negotiations around magna carta happen here in temple church and some of them were quite dramatic in january 1215 when the king was in the temple in charge a group of barons armed and ready to fight they confronted the king and demanded his submission to a charter william marshall was in the center of all of this and in 1219 he was buried here in the round when they excavated under this floor in 1842 they found rows of medieval coffins and the enormous bones of the tall handsome william marshall beside the effigy of william marshall the first earl is his son william marshall the second earl and don't forget that these sculptures would have been blazing with coloured paint analysis from the 1840s tells us that there would have once been a delicate flesh colour on the face the moldings had some light green there were traces of gilding on the ring male and the buccal spurs and even this little squirrel hiding in underneath the shield had been built the circuit that's the tunic worn over the armor was coloured in crimson and the inner lining was light blue and below them is the male effigy of gilbert marshall the third son of the famous william marshall he is in a chain hood drawing a sword with his left foot resting on a winged dragon gilbert's life was tragically cut short he was just setting off the crusades when he was killed by a fall from his horse in a tournament like all the four sons of william marshall he died without issue and the family line came to an abrupt end the rumors soon began to spread that the earl of pembroke had been cursed the knights templars management of the roots in and out of the middle east soon brought them great wealth with which came great power with which came great enemies rumors started by rivals in other religious orders and the nobility began to spread of their nefarious conduct sacrilegious initiation ceremonies and worship of idols now one particularly notorious story was in regards to walter bachelor who refused to follow the order's rules he was locked away for eight weeks and starved to death and in a final insult he was even refused a proper burial behind this door is a space four and a half feet long and two feet nine inches wide the story goes this is the penitentiary cell where walter bachelor spent his final miserable days it was just one of the terrible rumors which blackened the name of the templars and in 1307 at the instigation of philip iv the king of france who also happened to owe them quite a lot of money the order was abolished by the pope king edward ii took control of this church and gave it to the order of saint john the following centuries were full of drama including the great theological debate in the 1580s known as the battle of the pulpits the church was rented out to a bunch of lawyers the inner temple and middle temple who shared the use of the church and still do to this day it was during these years that richard martin was around now i know at first glance this might appear to be a somber sober rule abiding lawyer but i'm afraid that's not quite the truth richard martin was described as a very handsome man a graceful speaker facetious and well-loved and once more he made it his business to organize riotous parties for middle temple lawyers he was so notorious for this debauchery it took him 15 years to qualify as a barrister time well spent i'd say there have been all sorts of refurbishments here too and although the church miraculously survived the great fire of london in 1666 christopher wren still added a few classical features then there were more alterations in a medieval style during the gothic revival of the victorian period now not much of the victorian work is visible apart from up here in the cleristry lots of people never notice this because it's hidden away up here in the gallery but this is a remarkable display of encaustic tiles now in were originally produced by the cistercian monks in the 12th century and were found in abbeys monasteries and royal palaces all across britain during the medieval period they went out of fashion abruptly in the 1540s during the reformation but were rescued by the victorians who fell in love with all things medieval so as the palace of westminster was being rebuilt in all its gothic splendor temple church was being decked out in encaustic tiles so these were all created by the victorians and the design here is very simple and striking they have a solid red body and laid with white and glazed with yellow and some of them feature a knight on horseback just like the medieval originals from temple church and if you look really closely and perhaps even run your hands over the surface you'll notice they even have a pitted surface made to imitate that of a medieval tyre it's a subtle romantic knot to the bygone days of the night's templar the most testing moment of the church's history came during the night of the 10th of may 1941. this was the most devastating raid of the blitz german bombers sent down 711 tons of explosives and around 1 400 people were killed over 2 000 injured and 14 hospitals damaged there were fires the whole length of london and by morning 700 acres of the city were destroyed about double that of the great fire of london temple church was at the heart of these attacks around midnight fire watchers saw an incendiary land on this roof the fire caught hold and spread down to the body of the church itself the blaze was so fierce it split the chancel's columns melted the lead and the wooden roof of the round caved in on the night's effigies below at two o'clock in the morning remember the senior warden it was as light as day charred papers and embers were flying through the air bombs and shrapnel were all around it was an awe-inspiring sight the fire brigade were powerless to stop the blaze the attack had been timed so that the thames was at low tide making it impossible to use the water temple church was lucky not to have been completely annihilated the destruction was immense although not totally unwelcome for some of those who considered the victorian restoration work as outright vandalism for my own part wrote the treasurer of the inner temple seeing how dreadfully the church had been despoiled by its pretended friends a century before i do not grieve so very acutely for the havoc now wrought by its avowed enemies to have got rid of their awful stained glass windows their ghastly pulpit their hideous encaustic tiles their abominable pews and seats on which they alone spent over ten thousand pounds will be almost a blessing in disguise it was 17 years before the church was fully repaired and fully repaired it was indeed the cracked columns were all replaced with new stone from the beds of purbeck marble quarried in the middle ages and if you look really carefully you'll notice they aren't quite straight well the original columns had been famous for tilting outwards and so they rebuild them at the same wonky angle and i would say this is 2.1 degrees off perhaps hmm certainly not plumb the organ 2 is a post-war edition since the original was destroyed in the blitz this organ began its life in the wild hills of aberdeenshire it was built in 1927 for the ballroom of the glen tanner house where its inaugural reception had been given by the great composer marcel dupre but the acoustic in that scottish ballroom which is quite a squat space covered in hundreds of antlers was described as dead as it well could be and very disappointing and so this organ wasn't used much and so lord glentana gifted the organ to the church and it came whizzing down to london by rail in 1953. since then lord glen tanner's organ has greatly impressed many a musician including none other than the film composer han zimmer who described this as one of the most magnificent organs in the world [Music] after spending two years writing the score for interstellar zimmer chose this organ to record the film score performed by the organist here roger sayer once more the sound and tonal potential of this organ was so remarkable that the score for interstellar was actually shaped and created around the possibilities of this incredible instrument well done organ i hope they gave you a credit and you can piece together the story of temple church from the clues in this stained glass window at the bottom we have the story of the medieval knights here is a grant of money being made to the night's temper and on the other side we have two knights on horses then three figures which symbolize the vows of the templars the knight templars standing at visual for obedience there's the veiled nobleman in the center representing chastity and on the right is saint francis blessing the birds for poverty then they're scenes of the temple church as it was before the war when it had a pointed roof and then the fires from the blitz raging around saint paul's cathedral we have the cross of the templars in the cross of jerusalem and then the biblical figures solomon ezekiel david and at the very center at the top christ himself so there it is the story of temple church it's a history peppered with thrills terror and even riotous parties so perhaps it's no surprise that this was also the inspiration for one of william shakespeare's most famous scenes i've got just one more delight to show you just a stone's throw away this is the inner temple garden it might look like a pleasant place to have lunch in the center of the city but this is one of the most important locations in literature for this is the setting of one of shakespeare's most famous scenes it was here in temple garden where shakespeare's characters declared their loyalties to the york and lancastrian factions by plucking a red rose or a white rose and thus beginning the epic drama the wars of the roses so here we have it king henry vi part 1 act 2 scene 4. and these are shakespeare's words set in the temple garden although this is slightly an abridged version it begins great lords and ladies what means this silence dare no man answer in the case of truth led him that is a true born gentleman and stands upon the honor of his birth if he suppose that i have pleaded truth from off this briar pluck a white rose with me let him that is no coward nor no flatterer but dare maintain the party of the truth pluck a red rose from this thorn with me this sprawl today grown to this faction in the temple garden shall send between the red rose and the white a thousand souls to death and deadly night hope you enjoyed the video for more tours like this one and much more besides please subscribe to the history hit youtube channel check out the history hit youtube where you can get great exclusive videos and a sneak peek at what's available on the world's best history channel history hit tv it's growing really fast we're thrilled to have you all aboard

Channel: History Hit

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Keywords: knights templar, london history, temple church london, temple church organ, temple church organ interstellar, temple church history, knights templar documentary, knights templar history, william marshall knight, william marshall, william marshal, order of the temple, order of the templars, crusades, crusaders, inner temple, middle temple london, hidden history, secret history, secrets of the temple, secrets of temple church, alice loxton history hit, alice loxton history

Id: l02FsnSpIJk

Length: 17min 23sec (1043 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 25 2022