Michael JECKS - A Moorland Hanging

In England and Scotland there was never much faith in the accusations against the Templars. The English King, Edward II, trusted them, for they had helped his father in battles against the Scots and their Master had died in the war against William Wallace. When Edward received a papal communication ordering him to arrest his old friends, he dithered for some weeks. He was a weak man (who was later to be ousted by his wife and her lover), and he already had too many enemies to want to lose the Templars and their support. By the time he made a move the majority of the Templars had disappeared – as had their treasure.

Most of the Templars were never found; some almost certainly made their way to Scotland. In that miserable event for Edward II, the Battle of Bannockburn, it was said that the Templars’ standard was seen. The Scottish King, Robert I (“the Bruce”), had no fear of upsetting the Pope – he was already excommunicated and his country under Papal Anathema: no holy rites could be performed by the priesthood.

In 1315 and 1316, the whole of Europe suffered from a devastating famine. Fragile economies were disrupted, especially those of England and France, and hundreds of thousands died. Floods destroyed crops and entire flocks of sheep. Bands of outlaws took to the roads, robbing and killing to try to survive, and there were rumors of cannibalism.

This was a bleak and brutal time, when warlords bickered and fought. King Edward was ineffectual and considered a fool. Arguments between him and the French were soon to flare, which led a few years later to the Hundred Years War. Theologians battled among themselves, disputing such fine points of Christianity as whether humor was blasphemous. Yet at the same time, men like Bacon were inventing spectacles and gunpowder, classical learning was being taught in the new universities, and trade was booming. Only some seventy years later, Chaucer would write his Canterbury Tales and Froissart his Chronicles. Gradually, English Common Law was developing, and litigation made lawyers wealthy – and objects of disgust!

In the midst of the hardship, some areas were still relatively calm and ordered. While the coastal towns were raided by pirates, and English possessions on the Continent were taken over by the French King, and while the border regions were overrun by Scottish reivers, and Ireland was invaded, the West Country stayed peaceful.

This was the time of Sir Baldwin Furnshill, who had been a Knight Templar, and his friend, the Bailiff of Lydford Castle, Simon Puttock.