Fourpenny Retirement: the Yorkshire Templars in the Fourteenth Century

Extract

It is now generally accepted that the Order of Templars was destroyed not because of its heresy but because of its wealth. Having outlived its usefulness in the Holy Land, it fell a victim to the forces of financial, jealousy, not entirely unprovoked. Although in England the Order did not hold such an influential position as it did in France, it was nevertheless wealthy and very highly privileged. Edward I, himself a crusader, had in 1290 renewed and amplified a charter of Henry III which exempted the Templars from almost every kind of secular taxation, in addition to guaranteeing such valuable rights and immunities as they already held by authority of the Pope. On their English lands they enjoyed the rights of sac and soc, with all the appurtenances of a private court, and in addition they were quit of scot and geld, feudal aids, tallage and lastage and carucage, and of all tolls, charges, and payments connected with fairs throughout the land. They paid no tax on the export of wool, which their northern estates produced in abundance; in 1390 it was claimed that this privilege, in the counties of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire alone, accounted for more than half the income of the London Temple. They were free of demands for watch and ward, castle-guard, and requisitions for building the King’s works. They were exempt too from forest law, and could create assarts at pleasure; nor need they cut the claws of their dogs. Moreover, they could claim the forfeits, fines, and chattels of all felons taken upon their lands, even when these had been judged in the King’s court.