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Knightfall - A Review

by Fr. Russel Erwood

I write this as September comes to a close. The leaves on the trees are changing colour, children are collecting the first of this year’s conker harvest, and I think back to the phenomenal summer we’ve had this year. Long hot days, festivals, and for me a run of shows that started at Easter and ended this month where I got to entertain a mix of holiday makers, day trippers and locals (plus one ambassador, a stand-up comedian and a member of Goldie Looking Chain). I love my job and I feel lucky to be able to do it.

But the summer has to end and with it comes autumn. Darker nights, stew, big coats and the time to settle down and watch some telly.

But what to watch?

As a Brother of the Autonomous Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem Grand Priory of England and Wales (aka the Knights Templar of England and Wales) A&E’s Knightfall was an obvious choice. Originally broadcast by History (home of Black Sails) back in December 2017 in the US and only broadcast on the UK version of the channel in July 2018!

Not having Sky I discovered it via Amazon Prime Video just this week... And I’m so glad I did.

Currently in its 1st season; Knightfall’s 10 episodes tell the story of The Knights Templar, the Holy Grail and Landry du Lauzon (played by Downton Abbey’s Tom Cullen). And it doesn’t disappoint.

Swords, secret organisations, and conspiracies all combine to create a thrill-ride of a show. In fact I devoured the entire 10 episodes in just 48-hours!

As a caveat, I feel I should mention that this is a dramatisation. History does a great job of mixing historical figures with fictional characters, and then blending them together to create an exciting piece of television.

If you don’t have Amazon Prime Video, Apple iTunes or another video download service you can also get the entire season on DVD for about £15 and I think it’s well worth the money.

Season 2 is currently in the pipeline with an unofficial US release date of December 5th 2018.

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How to use the archive...

The archive contains every article that has been written and submitted to The Beauceant Magazine and is the best place to go if you are looking for a specific article.

The archive is found by going to the menu at the top of the page and clicking ‘Archive’. You can also access it by clicking here.

The archive is sorted in to months and years starting with the most recent and going back in time as you scroll down the page.

At the top of the archive page you’ll also find two dropdown menus that allow you to further sort the articles within it. The first menu allows you to select the month of the year you want to look at. The second menu allows you to show posts of a particular type.

So if you know you’re looking for photographs from an event that took place in October of 2017 you can select October 2017 from the first menu and photo from the second. You’ll then be presented with only those articles of the type photo from October 2017.

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How to use tags...

Tags are really useful and you’ll find them at the bottom of every article posted to The Beauceant Magazine. Tags help you find articles relating to a specific subject, they also link together articles that are about related subjects or articles that have been written by the same author.

For example; if you click on the tag that says ‘how to’ at the bottom of this article you’ll be taken to a page that contains all the other articles that also have that tag. Likewise, if you click on the ‘russel erwood’ tag you’ll be taken to all the articles written by me.

Over time these tags will help you navigate your way around what will hopefully become a large database of all the articles that have been written by and for members of this Order.

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How to submit an article on Tumblr...

Submitting your article, image or video to The Beauceant Magazine is super easy with the new blog format.

Here’s how:

First go to https://thebeauceantmagazine.tumblr.com/ the homepage will look something like the image below. Then click ‘MENU’ at the top of the page.

The menu will open. Click on ‘Submit an article’.

The page should automatically scroll down and look like the image below. If it doesn’t do that then simply use the scroll bar on the right to move the page. 

Then click the drop down menu to select text, photo or video. If you want to include text alongside your photos and / or videos use the text option. The photo and video options are just for photos and videos.

Now write your article (if you’ve written it in Word or other word processing software just copy and paste it into the box). There are buttons on the toolbar at the top that allow you to edit your article (bold, underline etc..) and also add extra features like photos and videos.

Once you’ve written your article you will need to accept Tumblr’s terms and conditions by clicking in the little check box before clicking on the blue ‘Submit’ button.

Once you have submitted your article you will be taken to a ‘Thank you’ page.

It usually takes 48-hours for submissions to be reviewed and posted. Any content deemed inappropriate will not be published.

If you have any questions regarding this tutorial please leave a comment or send an email to thebeauceantmagazine@gmail.com.

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Female Templars

by Fr. Russel Erwood

When we think of the Knights Templar most of us will imagine medieval sword wielding soldiers on horseback dressed in white with a bright red cross emblazoned across the chest protecting pilgrims in the Holy Land. Some might picture a secret organisation tasked with keeping the Holy Grail and other religious artifacts safe; whilst others may prefer the idea that the Templars were the epitome of chivalry, a fellowship of brothers who gallantly stood side-by-side against all odds.

The Knights Templar conjure up an almost infinite number of different images and appear in an equally vast number of stories. But how many of those stories focus on female Templars? Until recently I would’ve said none. That was until I stumbled across  Simon Turney’s book Daughter of War, which tells a tale of greed, lust, God and blood that is based around two real-life Templar sisters.

In an interview with HistoriaMag.com Turney says: “It will surprise many to know that there were women in the Order of the Temple. After all, they were the Knights Templar. Their remit was to be a sword-arm of the Church to protect pilgrims from heathen raiders. What place then did women have in the Order? The answer is officially none. Indeed the Order’s Rule, laid down by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, specifically forbade women, and went so far as to set rules that kept the members of the Order as far from the temptation of women as possible. There could be no female Templars.

“And yet at Mühlen in Austria we find a Templar nunnery, and officially labelled as such.”

He goes on to say that in the cartularies of the Templar houses there are many, many records of female members of the order, at least at the associate level of Consoror or Donat (lay sisters or women tied to the order through donations).

“This in itself is interesting enough to consider as the heart of a novel, but in further investigation into the role of women in the military orders, I found my two figures, and their existence simply flabbergasted me.”, said Turney.

Whilst digging through endless archives Turney discovered Ermengarda of Oluja. Who, along with her husband Gombau donated their land to the Templars when they both joined the Order.

Gomdau vanishes from the records after only a few years, but it turns out that Ermengarda is a very unique and interesting case.

Turney says: “She is noted in documents as a Sister of the Order. Not a lay sister, consoror or donat, but as a sister... Equivalent of a full brother.”

This alone would’ve been astonishing enough as it goes against everything we know when it comes to the Templars. But the historical records had even more to reveal.

Turney said: “Ermengarda is referred to as a preceptrix (female commander), commanding the house of Rourell in Catalunya. So not only do we have a female Templar which is forbidden in the rule, but she is no peripheral figure. She is a mover and shaker in the Order of that region and even commands a small Templar monastery.”

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The Fascination of Steam Railways

by Fr.++ John Purcell

Since early childhood steam trains have enthralled me. I spent many hours sitting on railway platforms with my Ian Allan ABC British Railway Books (which I still have), eagerly looking out for a particular engine. Sometimes I was lucky. Other times not.

Children in those days were tolerated on the platform if they behaved and it seems a great pity to me that today's children are not allowed this experience.

In 2002 I joined the East Lancashire Railway, based at Bury and trained as a Guard and met like-minded people who became good friends. On meeting Margaret that same year I persuaded her to join as she was also interested in Steam as her family were for many years involved in the building of Steam Engines. Margaret worked in the cafe on Rawtenstall Station and even had a visit from our Grand Prior Leslie; he did of course get a free cup of tea!

Following a second heart attack in 2006 I decided to work as station staff as guarding involved some quite heavy work and later, in 2008 on retiring, both Margaret and I decided to give up the early morning Saturday commute, which had become quite expensive.

I was a frequent visitor to a nearby garden centre which runs a miniature steam and diesel railway and I was fortunate enough to be asked to join the team. What could be better than to have a paid part-time job, within walking distance doing something one enjoys! At weekends and in school holidays I am usually on duty and especially at Christmas time get to see the fun the railway brings to families, yes, parents included!

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My AGA

A Postulant's View by Ffion Pugh

It's dark where we're sat, in our little corner of the church. would say it's quiet too. but that would be a lie; Adrian's attempts at making terrible jokes and Nikki's quiet scolding whenever he tells an inappropriate one are easily heard. She reminds him that he's sat in front of a vicar who, unseen by everyone, is silently chuckling away to himself. Several people come up to me and tell me that it's fine and that everyone else in the church has gone through this, it doesn't really help calm the nerves but the sentiment is appreciated.

Sylvain, the other novice, goes up to read his oath. He does a solid job of it too. But now it's my turn. Conscious of everyone's eyes on me, I make my way over to the spot at the front of everyone. I'm asked if I am ready to take the oath, "yeah" is the reply and I inwardly slap myself; first words out of my mouth and it's a mistake. There is an immense wave of relief after I finish stammering my way through the oath: a feeling of pride too as I watch my friends be given their mantels and titles. A feeling that is quickly stomped out by the knowledge that I. and the others, have to go up to the front again to read another oath to join the newly formed Templar Guard.

The service is coming to an end, just time for a couple of prayers and hymns which I mime along to as I left my order of service booklet on one of the chairs at the other end of the church. The service ends with all Templars in attendance, both national and international, trying to chant the motto in a semiprofessional way. We all pile out of the church and after dodging as many photos as possible I join the others in heading over to the hotel for the meal. We come across a couple of Stormtroopers on the way and jokingly knight them: I don't know who was the most surprised: us, seeing two guys in costume, or then, seeing a large group of people in cloaks with swords.

Someone asks if speaking in front of everyone was as bad as I thought it would be, they're shocked when I say that it was worse. There's a moment of panic when it's realised that I need to borrow a mantel to look the part of a guard, the first one found is big enough to be a double bed sheet and I can barely walk a step without tripping over. The second one is a better fit. After going upstairs to check on our international guests and making sure that the staircase is deserted I swish down the stairs and briefly fulfill my dreams of being an evil Disney queen. Feeling very pleased with myself, I join the others in lining up and preparing to do our thing. We're given the nod and in we go, swords held high. Those of the top table come in through our arch of steel and take their places, after saluting them we head out to ditch the ceremonial gear.

As the food is brought out, there seems to be a battle going on between our sound system and that of a wedding reception upstairs; the chandeliers are shaking from the bass of their pop music. The food is decent and a good time is had by all as more and more alcohol is consumed. I'm starting to doze off when I'm told that I need to go up and collect my certificate, letting out a quiet "oh no", I nearly trip over my bag as I get up and am bright red as I pose for a photo, certificate in hand and a fake smile on my face. Retreating back to my seat I find an envelope and a package at my place. It's a shot glass with my coat of arms on and a sort of membership card.

After relaying all this to my student friends, they are most impressed with the shot glass.

Everyone thanked, it's time to go and sleep off the food.

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The Ancient and Knightly Order of Verderers & the Church by Mark Olly

Adapted from the book Revealing The Green Man: The restoration of the oldest religion on planet earth.

"l cannot find anything better in man than that he know, and nothing worse than that he be ignorant," Saxon King Alfred 'The Great' (849 AD to 899 AD).

Initially blamed for the actual image of a carved face peering through leaves appearing in Europe rests predominantly with the Vikings and their stone-building descendants the Normans. This does not, however, rule out the influence of the Celts, Saxons, Danes, Picts, Welsh, Irish, and other occupants of Britain and Europe who must certainly have retained a strong memory of the myth behind the Green Man, but it is in the stone carvings of the Norman invasion period that we find our first surviving true 'Green Man' Church carvings here in Britain.

Some of the best survivals can be found in the churches of the 'Romanesque' period which pre-dates Gothic and approximately straddles the end of the Saxon period and the start of the Viking. It was the Saxons who probably supplied the local masons who carved them and, in the first part of the Norman period, the Norman and Viking noble society that commissioned and paid for them. Fine examples in the UK can be found at Kilpeck in Herefordshire and Leominster in Shropshire, but there are thousands more right across the British Isles and Europe.

"And then there is also a need that each should understand where he came from and what he is - and what Will become of him." Wulfstan, Saxon Archbishop Of York (1002 AD to 1023 AD).

In one statement Wulfstan, the 11th century Saxon Archbishop of York, captures perfectly the purpose of the Green Man appearing in church architecture. For thousands of years the British Isles were covered with a thick canopy of trees, so much so that it was said you could release a squirrel on the south coast and that it could reach the northernmost islands of Scotland without ever having touched the ground. So it remained throughout the early, middle, and late medieval period before deforestation of these islands.

The first part of the human race to attempt to 'impose its will' upon the forest on a large scale was undoubtedly the Romans who perceived the close proximity of woodland as a threat to their safety — and for very good reasons already outlined. They even had a set distance enshrined into their regulations of clearance either side of main roads they constructed in order to prevent ambush. But a huge woodland useful to humankind does not manage itself.

At some point around the time the Romans withdrew from the British Isles a new category of 'woodland carers' carne into being known to history as the 'Foresters'. It is thought that these uniquely skilled and competent 'farmers of the forest' first became confederated into an official 'career path' during the upheavals of the Saxon period when it would have been a dangerous oversight on the part of regional rulers to allow the vast resources the forests on offer to go to waste. It is said that King Athelstan (924 AD to 940 AD) was the Saxon king responsible for establishing the first 'guilds' and the Foresters would undoubtedly have been one of these. Instead of individuals working small parts of the forests piecemeal, large sections became a working industry managed by the 'Foresters Guild' certainly by the 10th century AD.

These men were known as Verderers.

Verdigers, the 'Men of Vert', ('Vert' being the Norman-French word for 'Green'), the men of Verdigris. which is the bright blue-green substance produced by oxidized copper, or in English 'Creen Men', quite literally as the production of the green cloth their clothing was made from involved dying material using ascetic acid (human pee) and copper to produce a permanent verdigris based green dye. They quite literally wore a 'skin of green Considering all that has passed in this book to this point it will come as no surprise that the entire mythology of the Green Man should eventually pass into the care and use of Foresters.

By Norman times the guild symbol of the Foresters had clearly become the T-oliate Head' and, as such, they had the right for it to appear in their places of meeting and worship - taverns and churches. Other Guilds did the same resulting in images of boots and shoes, various tools, animals, plants and fish, depictions of occupations and pastimes, and a whole collection of other weird symbolism finding its way into churches.

Forest Chapels all over the country began to develop containing lots of Green Men and the pubs and hostelries frequented by the 'Men of the Woods' started to be named The Green Man, Foresters Arms, Royal Oak, etc. patterns which can still be identified in church buildings and old taverns positioned to take account of the huge royal hunting forests of the Medieval period.

If such forests had their own unique laws which they did - then why not their own unique and appropriate forms of myth, ceremony and religion?

It is these Foresters and Forest Guilds that are ultimately responsible for the material we find associated with Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, Robin Hood, Jack In The Green, Herne The Hunter, and The Old Man Of The Woods so favoured by later writers. In essence this is the birth of a unique branch of folklore known as 'wood-lore'

But many of these 'forest nobles' were not content with simply being Woodsmen. Many, like Robin Hood, aspired to rise up the social ladder and become knights. Whereas the Knights Hospitaller specialized in all things medicinal, it was the famous and renowned Knights Templar who were to become the undisputed custodians of all things mysterious, mystical, and religiously ancient.

There is absolutely no doubt that the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller were a product of their times. They developed directly out of the ages which had passed before them, warrior monks like the post-Roman 'Culdees', holy men and Druidic Celtic Christians, who traveled the roads of Britain and the continent spreading their own particular brand of Druidic-Christian spirituality, wearing long woolen cloaks, traveling in threes, carrying swords, and adopting the strongest trends of expedient religious belief widely accepted at the time. These were ancient yet fervent exponents of the Celtic Church. The result is that we also find the 'cult of the head' widely accepted from prehistory right into the Viking Age, absorbed into their religious beliefs and surviving iconography.

From the Old Testament beheading of Goliath by the future King David (C. 1040 BC to 970 BC). to the New Testament beheading of John The Baptist by Herod Antipas the Tetrarch (C .20 BC to 40 AD) at the wish of Salome, his wife Herodias' daughter, we see the ancient belief that the sum total of the hut-nan being (the 'soul') resides in the head, seat of the senses, intellect, reason, and through which we see, hear, and communicate with the world around us. This is the true mystery of the famous Celtic stone heads and only in very recent times do we point to the heart when referring to our 'soul'. The ancients saw the heart merely as the seat of the emotions. It appears that if you had the head of your enemy then you quite literally 'owned them' and they could not pass on to the underworld and the after-life.

This is the last of four pieces by Mark Olly that were specially commissioned specifically for the Beauceant Magazine.

This particular piece was adapted from the book: 'Revealing The Green Man' by Mark Olly, Moon Books (An imprint of John Hunt Publishing) 2075: ISBN 978-7-78099-336-2. I hope you've enjoyed this, and the other three articles, as much as I have.

And if you are interested in reading the full title or indeed would like to look at any of Mark's other books you can find them on Amazon.

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A Christmas Greeting

Hello to everyone. Postulants, Novices, fellow Knights and Dames, and members of the new and splendid Templar Guard.

This year's ACA is over, and what a great event it was. This was our first time in Shrewsbury, and what a good choice it turned out to be. An innovation this year was that we were honoured by the visitation of dignitaries from several European Orders of the Knights Templar, who were in Shrewsbury as part of their efforts to set up a worldwide confederation of Knights Templar organisations, in which Lesley. our own Grand Prior is playing a major part. All in all with accommodation in an excellent, if old fashioned, or do we say 'historic', hotel and a fine church for our Ceremonial, I think a good time was had by all, and even the weather was kind!

The countdown to Christmas is in full swing, and as I write the supermarkets are shuffling all their shelves round to make room for evermore 'Chistmassy' goods, and I have to hunt to find many of the items that I regularly buy because they've seemingly been hidden in some unlikely corner.

Christmas is of course a major celebration, and don't we need to relax just as did our ancestors at this time of year in the darkest of days when daylight is at it's shortest and weather uncertain at best.

How are you spending Christmas this year — is it a big family event involving 3 or more generations? Or a more modest affair with just the immediate family? Or perhaps just you alone in front of the telly. As time goes on, and families get more and more scattered, Christmas celebrations seem to contract year on year. Hilary & I will be having a quiet Christmas at home, which suits us. A highlight is the midnight service on Christmas eve at the charming 13th cent. St Benedict's Church in Gyffin, Conwy. Our quiet Christmas doesn't stop us having a good time of course, and it's undoubtedly less stress, especially for the hostess.

How ever we're spending Christmas though, we as Templars won't forget that it's Christ's birth we are celebrating, and that we're rejoicing in the wonder of His presence on Earth and the great gifts He has brought us. Christ IS the reason for the season!

As Templars, too, you won't forget there are many worse off than ourselves, and although you as well as I am tired of the incessant charity appeals dropping through the letter box at this time of year, nonetheless many of them represent real need, and are evidence of the sorry state of many in our sad world. So, please do give a little something to help the disadvantaged, to whatever charity that most appeals to you, whether it's for the homeless at home or abroad: the sick & wounded in hospitals. homes and hospices; refugees from Syria, Myanmar, Pakistan and Afghanistan; the deprived & helpless just about anywhere. There's plenty to choose from. For the homeless in particular there is Crisis; Shelter; the Salvation Army; Centre Point and not the least of them The St Martin's in the Fields Christmas Appeal. You know best the ones which you feel the most needy. Just give a little something extra to show you care.

And don't forget to have a wonderful time yourselves.

Best Wishes, and a Merry-CHRIST-mas from your Chaplain, Dennis

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Some photos from the 2017 AGA.