Philip IV had the Knights Templar arrested across France
On this day · 13 October 1307
At dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, the French king sprang a meticulously planned trap on the powerful crusading order.
At dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, agents of King Philip IV of France arrested the Knights Templar in a single coordinated sweep. Sealed orders had gone out to his bailiffs a full month earlier, not to be opened until that morning, so the strike landed almost everywhere at once.
The Templars had grown rich and powerful as warrior-monks and bankers during the Crusades. Philip, deep in debt to the order, accused them of heresy, blasphemy, and corruption, charges most historians regard as a pretext to seize their wealth.
Among those seized was the Grand Master, Jacques de Molay.
Under torture, many knights confessed to lurid crimes, then later recanted. Pope Clement V dissolved the order in 1312, and de Molay was burned at the stake in 1314. The dramatic date has long been linked, dubiously, to the superstition around Friday the 13th.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
