Why the King of France Destroyed the Knights Templar

Why were the Knights Templar arrested on Friday the 13th, 1307 — and burned? We test the four main theories: heresy, the king's money, an order that had outlived its purpose, and the war between King Philip IV and the pope. The official charge was heresy. But ten months earlier, a Paris mob had chased King Philip the Fair through the streets — and he hid inside the Templars' own fortress. In this documentary we follow the money and the evidence: the Templar banking system, the king's war debts, the 1306 currency crisis, the confessions extracted under torture, the Council of Vienne (1312), and where the Templars' wealth actually went. CHAPTERS 0:00 Friday the 13th, 1307 1:02 How the Templars became bankers 2:35 Were the Templars heretics? 4:27 Philip IV's money problem 7:24 Were the Templars obsolete? 8:19 The war with the pope 9:58 Where did the Templar treasure go? 11:19 The answer 12:43 Jacques de Molay's death SOURCES Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars (2nd ed., Cambridge UP) Ignacio de la Torre, in The Debate on the Trial of the Templars (1307–1314), Ashgate 2010 Joseph R. Strayer, The Reign of Philip the Fair (Princeton UP, 1980) Julien Théry, "A Heresy of State" (Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures, 2013) Alain Demurger, The Persecution of the Templars (2019) Magdalena Satora, Saeculum Christianum 32:2 (2025) Archives nationales (France): the Paris interrogation roll, 1307 Joinville, Life of Saint Louis #KnightsTemplar #MedievalHistory #History