Publisher's Synopsis
This study is principally intended to discover the causes of the changes in the public image of the military orders in the 12th and 13th centuries, and to establish how serious was the criticism that the orders attracted. In order to do this, Nicholson has examined the activities of the orders and compared their actions, particularly on crusades, to the fictional and factual accounts of the period. Hence the book is a synthesis of recent work on medieval propaganda, politics and warfare. It offers a new theory as to the causes of the famous trial of the Templars.
