Today marks the anniversary of the initial widespread arrest of the Knights Templar in France, an event that took place on October 13, 1307. On trumped up charges including heresy, the knights were arrested and tortured into confessing a long litany of crimes. The attack upon the Templars was an attempt by the French king, Philip IV, to avoid his huge debts to the order.
Although the Templars would be be found innocent of heresy, as a political concession the Order was dissolved in 1312, its properties turned over to the Knights Hospitaller.
Philip's moniker is "the Fair"; who says history does not have a sense of irony.
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