Templar Wales
The Knights Templar · 1145–1312

Sources

Sources & further reading

The Templar Wales project draws on published editions of medieval charters and on the standard secondary literature on the military orders in Britain. Everything below is a good starting point for going deeper.

Primary sources

  • The Record of Caernarvon (H. Ellis, ed., 1838) — royal surveys touching on former Templar and Hospitaller estates in Wales.
  • Larking, L.B. (ed.), The Knights Hospitallers in England: being the Report of Prior Philip de Thame to the Grand Master Elyan de Villanova for A.D. 1338 (Camden Society, 1857) — includes the Welsh commanderies after the Templar suppression.
  • Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, and the various Calendar of Charter Rolls and Patent Rolls entries referring to Templar houses in Pembroke and Carmarthen.

Key secondary works

  • Rees, William. A History of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in Wales and on the Welsh Border (Cardiff, 1947) — still the standard work covering the Templar predecessors in Wales.
  • Nicholson, Helen J. The Knights Templar: A New History (Sutton, 2001).
  • Barber, Malcolm. The Trial of the Templars (2nd edn., Cambridge, 2006).
  • Cowley, F.G. The Monastic Order in South Wales, 1066–1349 (Cardiff, 1977).
  • Rees, William. An Historical Atlas of Wales (Faber, 1959) — invaluable for locating medieval estates.

Images & illustrations

  • Hero, illustrated map and site landscape images: original illustrations generated for this project and released for reuse.
  • Templar cross emblem: original artwork for this project.
  • Photographs of the actual medieval sites are being commissioned and will replace the illustrated versions as the project develops.

If you spot an error or have a source to suggest, please get in touch via the About page — corrections are very welcome.