© Copyrighted Material Chapter 23 The Trial of the Templars in the County of Flanders (1307–12)1 Filip Hooghe The aim of this study is to examine the circumstances before, during and after the arrest and dissolution of the Templars in the county of Flanders in the period of 1307–14. It focuses on the Templars in one of the order’s major settlements in Flanders, the commandery of Ypres, with occasional reference to other Flemish towns, although my research on these other locations is still at an early stage. The fate of the Templars in the county of Flanders cannot be separated from the events of the preceding years. The Franco-Flemish War (1297–1304) was one of the most constant preoccupations of King Philip IV of France. It is noted elsewhere in this volume that a possible motivation for the Templars’ arrest was the need to relieve King Philip IV’s acute financial problems; one cause of these problems was the king’s attempt to extend his power over Flanders.2 One of the conditions the king set for his support of the nomination of Cardinal Bertrand de Got as pope was that he should be allowed to collect the tithes in France for five years to continue the war in Flanders. Shortly after the new pope’s coronation, Philip IV asked Clement V for a discussion about the situation in the Holy Land and about peace betweenashgate.com France, England ashgate.com and ashgate.com les Flandres ashgate.com.3 At the beginning of May 1307, Philip IV arrived in Poitiers where the pope was already; in his entourage was Robert of Béthune, count of Flanders.4 Negotiations between ashgate.com 1 Special thanks to Dr Helen Nicholson, Jan Hosten, Gilbert Jansseune and Bernard Schotte. Abbreviations: ADNL = Archives départementales du Nord, Lille; AG = Annals of Ghent, ed. Hilda Johnstone (Oxford, 1985); AGN = Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 15 vols, ed. Dirk Peter Blok et al. (Haarlem, 1977–83); CDI = Corpus documentorum inquisitionis haereticae pravitatis Neerlandicae, ed. Paul Frédéricq, 5 vols (Ghent, 1889–1906); PT = Jules Michelet, Procès des Templiers, 2 vols (Paris, 1841–51); OGVFS = Oorkonden van de graven van Vlaanderen, Fonds de St-Genois; SAG = The State Archive of Ghent. 2 Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 42– 5. 3 ashgate.com Karl Josef ashgate.com von Hefele et al., Histoire des conciles d’après les documents originaux, 11 vols (Paris, 1907–52), vol. 6, pp. 502–5. 4 Von Hefele, Histoire des conciles, vol. 6, part 1, p. 505. © Copyrighted Material 286 The Debate on the Trial of the Templars (1307–1314) © Copyrighted Material Count Robert of Béthune and the French king at Poitiers in May and June 1307 resulted in a peace treaty.5 The Templars in Flanders Although there seems to be a general consensus among modern historians that the Templars were not guilty as charged,6 the accusation of abuse of power and corruption in defence of their rights and privileges seems to have had some basis in Flanders.7 In 1284, two sisters (sereurs) were murdered on a Templar estate at Izenberge, near Veurne.8 There is no certainty whether they were religious women or not but, as it was the Templars’ estate, the obvious inference is that they were associated with the order of the Temple. The presence of women as lay religious or associate members in the order of the Temple in Flanders was not unusual: for example, one Adelisa was also living in the order’s house at Ghent.9 Two suspects were captured: one was dragged to the city of Veurne and hanged instantly, while the other, Staessin le Heistere, was thrown into prison. Since he was a tenant of the Templars of Izenberge, he appealed to Brother Pieter uten Sacke, master of the Temple in Flanders,10 who at that time was residing at the court of the count of Flanders, Guy of Dampierre. The count, who referred to the master as his bon ami 5 Frantz Funck-Brentano, Les origines de la Guerre de cent ans: Philippe le Bel en Flandre (Paris, 1897), pp. 514–16; Isidore L.A. Diegerick, Inventaire analytique et chronologique des chartes et documents appartenant aux archives de la ville d’Ypres, 1 (Bruges, 1853), pp. 204–5, no. 252; Maurice Vandermaesen, ‘Vlaanderen en Henegouwen onder het Huis van Dampierre 1244–1384’, in AGN, vol. 2 (Haarlem, 1982), p. 415. 6 Malcolm Barber, ‘The Trial ofashgate.com the Templars ashgate.com Revisited’, ashgate.com in MO, 2, pp. ashgate.com 329–31, 342. 7 Michel Nuyttens, Krijgers voor God: De orde van de tempeliers in de Lage Landen (1120 – 1312) (Leuven, 2007), p. 189. 8 SAG, OGVFS, no. 1399. 9 Alan Forey, ‘Womenashgate.com and the Military Orders in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’, in Hospitaller Women in the Middle Ages, ed. Anthony Luttrell and Helen Nicholson (Aldershot, 2006), pp. 45–6; Francesco Tommasi, ‘Men and Women of the Hospitaller, Templar and Teutonic Orders: Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries’, in ibid., pp. 80–81; Helen Nicholson, The Knights Templar: A New History (Stroud, 2001), pp. 130–32; For Adelisa, see ‘Documents relatifs aux croisades’, in Le Chevalier au Cygne et Godefroid de Bouillon, ed. Baron Frédéric A. F. T. de Reiffenberg, 3 vols (Brussels, 1846–1854), vol. 1, p. 429, no. 9. 10 The commander of the Temple in Flanders is called preceptor Flandria, magister Templi in Flandria, commandeur or even custos beneficia Templariorum in Flandria. He was under the supervision of the preceptor in Francia. Cf. Paul Rogghé, De Orde van de Tempelriddersashgate.com en ashgate.com haar geschiedenis in het oude graafschap Vlaanderen (Ghent, 1973), pp. 91–5. To distinguish him from the rest of the commanders of the several commanderies of Flanders, we will call him ‘master of the Temple in Flanders’. © Copyrighted Material Filip Hooghe 287 © Copyrighted Material Pieron dou Sac,11 pardoned the murderer and allowed his release.12 Since 1157, a Templar, usually the Flemish master himself, had resided permanently at the comital court, not only as collector of feudal dues, but also as personal advisor and moneylender to the Flemish count.13 In 1322, Henri, son of Staes, of Izenberge testified in an inquiry into a dispute over the Hospitallers’ jurisdiction at Izenberge. He related that one Brother Gilles, son of Marote, had been the victim of a theft in the parish of Izenberge. His brother by blood, Jaquemes, went to see the commander of the Temple and lodged a complaint against a certain Clai Willem who was mannant in le singnorie dou temple de Rerof, an otherwise unknown Flemish house of the Templars at Izenberge. The commander of the Temple wanted to prosecute, but his jurisdiction conflicted with that of William, lord of Leisele, who wanted Clai Willem to be released. However, when the commander returned from a meeting with Lord William, he gave judgment against this lord’s wishes and condemned the suspect. Lord William protested and was himself sentenced to a fine of 60solidi .14 Another example of the Templars’ exploitation of their privileges in Flanders was given in 1322 by Lammin, son of Hanessen, of Izenberge, who related that the Templars had had the right to pass judgment over their hostes. He had seen with his own eyes how four persons were charged with trespass (Dutch: huissoekinghe) and were summoned several times but, as they came under the jurisdiction of the commander of the Temple, no judgment resulted.15 The run-up to the arrest of the Templars at Ypres In the late thirteenth and at the beginning of the fourteenth century, several serious conflicts arose between the city councilashgate.com of Ypres ashgate.com and the Templars. ashgate.com In ashgate.com1280, the weavers and fullers living in the Templar quarter of the city joined the Cockerulle, a revolt of artisans of the cloth industry against the patricians of Ypres.16 On 11 11 Jan Hosten, De tempeliers:ashgate.com De tempelorde tijdens de kruistochten en in de Lage Landen (Amsterdam, 2006), p. 250. 12 SAG, OGVFS, no. 1399. 13 Mina Martens, L’administration du domaine ducal en Brabant au Moyen Âge (1250–1406) (Brussels, 1954), p. 62, note 3; Rik Opsommer, ‘Omme dat leengoed es thoochste dinc van der weerelt’: Het leenrecht in Vlaanderen in de 14de en 15de eeuw (Brussels, 1995), vol. 2, p. 615; Myriam Vander Stichele, ‘De Hospitaalbroeders van St.- Jan van Jeruzalem in de balije en commanderij Vlaanderen tot 1550: Een prosopografische benadering’, unpublished dissertation, Catholic University of Leuven (1982), p. 213. 14 SAG, OGVFS, no. 1399. 15 Ibid. 16 ashgate.com Marc Boone, ashgate.com ‘Social Conflicts in the Cloth Industry of Ypres (Late 13th–Early 14th Centuries): The Cockerulle Reconsidered’, in Ypres and the Medieval Cloth Industry in Flanders: Archaeological and Historical Contributions, Papers of the International © Copyrighted Material 288 The Debate on the Trial of the Templars (1307–1314) © Copyrighted Material October 1281, a new dispute arose, because the Templars’ hospites had to pay for the damages caused by the Cockerulle.17 The aldermen of Ypres taxed the Templars’ lands to pay the royal taxes, which ran counter to the Templars’ privileges. In December 1296, Philip IV reassured the Templars that he would respect all their privileges and liberties.18 Nevertheless, at the end of 1302, Ypres forced the Templars’ hospites to contribute towards the costs of the construction of new fortifications, but the residents of the Temple protested against this, and they asked the count of Namur to issue an edict without prejudice so that this payment would not create a precedent.19 In 1304, Ypres had to pay the commander of the Temple of Ypres a heritable annuity of 46 solidi for property expropriated for the new fortifications on the east side of theVerde rue.20 The nouvelles fourtreches had divided the Upstal where the commandery of the Temple was situated.21 ashgate.com ashgate.com ashgate.com ashgate.com Symposium ‘A good Yarn! Archaeological and Historical Research into the Medieval Cloth Industry of Flanders’, Ypres 29–30.11.1996, ed.