Chronology

Timeline: the military orders in south Wales

How and when the Knights Templar — and, after 1312, the Knights Hospitaller — moved into south Wales, and the estates they can be documented as holding. Everything below is drawn from published charters, surveys and standard secondary works; sources are listed with each entry and gathered in full on the Sources page.

A note on certainty: the surviving records for the Templar period in Wales are thin. Precise foundation dates for Slebech and its granges cannot be fixed to a single year — the approximate dates below reflect the range accepted by Rees (1947), Cowley (1977) and later specialists. The 1338 Hospitaller return is the first comprehensive snapshot of what was actually held on the ground.

1. 1119

   Founding of the Knights Templar in Jerusalem

   Hugh de Payens and a small group of knights found the Order of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon to protect pilgrim roads in the Holy Land. The Order is confirmed at the Council of Troyes in 1129 with a rule drafted with the help of Bernard of Clairvaux.

   Source: Barber, The New Knighthood (1994); Nicholson, The Knights Templar: A New History (2001).

2. c. 1128–1135

   Templars arrive in England

   Hugh de Payens visits England in 1128, receives grants from Henry I and establishes the first English house at Holborn in London. From this base the Order begins to accept endowments from Anglo-Norman lords with lands on the Welsh frontier.

   Source: Lord, The Knights Templar in Britain (2002); Nicholson (2001).

3. c. 1145–1150 · Slebech, Pembrokeshire

   Slebech granted to the Templars

   Wizo the Fleming's family — Anglo-Norman lords of Daugleddau — grant the church of St John at Slebech and its estate on the Eastern Cleddau to the Order. The house grows into the mother preceptory of the Templars in Wales, controlling the ferry crossing on the pilgrim road to St Davids.

   Source: Rees, A History of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in Wales (1947); Cowley, The Monastic Order in South Wales 1066–1349 (1977).

4. c. 1150–1200 · Templeton, Rosemarket, Freystrop

   Slebech's estate grows across south Pembrokeshire

   Successive grants extend the preceptory's landholding across the Daugleddau. Templeton — recorded later as Villa Templi — is laid out as an estate village of long burgage plots; Rosemarket and Freystrop are added as arable and mill granges with landings on the tidal Cleddau.

   Source: Rees (1947); Charles, The Place-Names of Pembrokeshire (1992) for Villa Templi.

5. c. 1180 · Garway, Herefordshire (Welsh March)

   Henry II grants Garway to the Templars

   Henry II confirms the manor of Garway (Lagademar) on the Monnow to the Templars. They raise a round-nave church modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — the westernmost of only a handful of Templar round churches in Britain — serving estates that reach across the border into Gwent.

   Source: Victoria County History of Herefordshire; RCAHMW/RCHME Herefordshire volumes; Lord (2002).

6. 13th century · Amroth, Maenclochog and coastal Pembrokeshire

   Consolidation of Slebech's outlying members

   Amroth on Carmarthen Bay gives the house a beach, fishing rights and driftwood salvage. Maenclochog under the Preseli hills supplies wool and upland grazing. These outliers do not appear as new foundations but as members of Slebech in later surveys.

   Source: Larking (ed.), The Knights Hospitallers in England… A.D. 1338 (Camden Society, 1857); Rees (1947).

7. 1307–1308

   Arrests of the Templars

   13 October 1307: Philip IV of France arrests the French Templars. In January 1308 Edward II reluctantly orders the arrest of Templars in England and Wales. The brethren at Slebech and Garway are taken into custody; their estates are placed under royal keepers.

   Source: Barber, The Trial of the Templars (2nd edn, 2006); Nicholson (2001).

8. 1312

   The Order suppressed at the Council of Vienne

   Pope Clement V dissolves the Templars by the bull Vox in excelso and, by Ad providam, orders their property transferred to the Knights Hospitaller. Implementation in Britain is slow and contested by lay claimants.

   Source: Barber (2006); Nicholson (2001).

9. 1313–1338 · Slebech and its members

   Transfer to the Hospitallers

   The Slebech estate passes to the Knights of St John, who reorganise it as a commandery of their English tongue. Templeton, Rosemarket, Freystrop, Amroth and Maenclochog continue as members of Slebech under new management.

   Source: Larking (1857) — Report of Prior Philip de Thame, 1338; Rees (1947).

10. 1338 · Slebech + Llanmadoc & Llanddewi (Gower)

    The Hospitallers' great survey

    Prior Philip de Thame's return to the Grand Master lists every English and Welsh commandery with its members and income. Slebech is valued at roughly £160 a year — one of the wealthier houses in the English tongue — and the paired Gower manors of Llanmadoc and Llanddewi are entered as a dependency. This is the single clearest document for what the Order actually held in Wales.

    Source: Larking (ed.), Report of Prior Philip de Thame (Camden Society, 1857).

11. 14th–15th centuries

    The Hospitallers as landlords

    Slebech operates as an estate office rather than a fighting garrison. Rents, wool, hides and pilgrim tolls on the Cleddau crossing flow through the commandery. The Gower manors are worked for sheep and coastal salvage. Garway becomes an important border commandery, its 1326 dovecote still standing today.

    Source: Rees (1947); Cowley (1977).

12. 1540

    Dissolution

    Henry VIII dissolves the Knights Hospitaller in England and Wales. Slebech, Garway, the Gower manors and all their members pass to the Crown and are sold on to lay owners. The Barlow family acquires Slebech and builds a mansion beside the medieval church, whose shell still stands.

    Source: Rees (1947); Knowles & Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales (1971).