The History of the Knights Templars, the Temple Church, and the Temple

by C. G. Addison

During the recent repairs it became necessary to make an extensive excavation in the Round, and beneath these monumental effigies were found two enormous stone coffins, together with five leaden coffins curiously and beautifully ornamented with a device resembling the one observable on the old tesselated pavement of the church; and an arched vault, which had been formed in the inner circular foundation, supporting the clustered columns and the round tower. The leaden coffins had been inclosed in small vaults, the walls of which had perished. The skeletons within them were entire and undisturbed; they were enveloped in coarse sackcloth, which crumbled to dust on being touched. One of these skeletons measured six feet four inches in length, and another six feet two inches! The large stone coffins were of immense thickness and weight; they had long previously been broken open and turned into charnel-houses. In the one nearest the south window were found three skulls, and a variety of bones, amongst which were those of some young person. Upon the lid, which was composed of Purbeck marble, was a large and elegantly-shaped cross, beautifully sculptured, and in an excellent state of preservation. The vault constructed in the solid foundations of the pillars of the round tower, on the north side of the church, contained the remains of a skeleton wrapped in sackcloth; the skull and the upper part of it were in a good state of preservation, but the lower extremities had crumbled to dust.

Neither the number nor the position of the coffins below corresponded with the figures above, and it is quite clear that these last have been removed from their original position.

In Camden’s Britannia, the first edition of which was published in the 38th of Eliz., A. D. 1586, we are informed that many noblemen lie buried in the Temple Church, whose effigies are to be seen cross-legged, among whom were William the father, and William and Gilbert his sons, earls of Pembroke and marshals of England.[480] Stow, in his Survey of London, the first edition of which was published A. D. 1598, speaks of them as follows:

“In the round walk (which is the west part without the quire) there remain monuments of noblemen there buried, to the number of eleven. Eight of them are images of armed knights; five lying cross-legged, as men vowed to the Holy Land against the infidels and unbelieving Jews, the other three straight-legged. The rest are coped stones, all of gray marble.”[481] A manuscript history of the Temple in the Inner Temple library, written at the commencement of the reign of Charles the First, tells us that “the crossed-legged images or portraitures remain in carved stone in the middle of the round walke, environed with barres of iron.”[482] And Dugdale, in his Origines Juridiciales, published 1666, thus describes them: “Within a spacious grate of iron in the midst of the round walk under the steeple, do lye eight statues in military habits, each of them having large and deep shields on their left armes, of which five are cross-legged. There are also three other gravestones lying about five inches above the level of the ground, on one of which is a large escocheon, with a lion rampant graven thereon.”[483] Such is the ancient account of these monuments; now, however, six instead of five cross-legged statues are to be seen, making nine armed knights, whilst only one coped gravestone remains. The effigies are no longer inclosed “within a spacious grate of iron,” but are divided into two groups environed by iron railings, and are placed on either side of the entrance to the oblong portion of the church.

Whatever change was made in their original position appears to have been effected at the time that the church was so shamefully disfigured by the Protestant lawyers, either in the year 1682, when it was “thoroughly repaired,” or in 1695, when “the ornamental screen was set up in it;” inasmuch, as we are informed by a newspaper, called the Flying Post, of the date of the 2nd of January, 1696, that Roger Gillingham, Esq., treasurer of the Middle Temple, who died on the 29th of December, 1695, æt. seventy, had the credit of facing the Temple Church with New Portland stone, and of “marshalling the Knights Templars in uniform order.”[484] Stow tells us that “the first of the crossed-legged was William Marshall, the elder, earl of Pembroke,” but the effigy of that nobleman now stands the second; the additional figure appears to have been placed the first, and seems to have been brought from the western doorway and laid by the side of the others.

During the recent restoration of the church, it was necessary to excavate the earth in every part of the Round, and just beneath the pavement of the external circular aisle or portico environing the tower, was found a broken sarcophagus of Purbeck marble, containing a skull and some bones apparently of very great antiquity; the upper surface of the sarcophagus was on a level with the ancient pavement; it had no mark or inscription upon it, and seemed originally to have been decorated with a monumental effigy.

From two ancient manuscript accounts of the foundation of Walden Abbey, written by the monks of that great religious house, we learn that Geoffrey de Magnaville, earl of Essex, the founder of it, being slain by an arrow, in the year 1144, was taken by the Knights Templars to the Old Temple, that he was afterwards removed to the cemetery of the New Temple, and that his body was buried in the portico before the western door of the church.[485] The sarcophagus lately found in that position is of Purbeck marble; so also is the first figure on the south side of the Round, whilst nearly all the others are of common stone. The tablet whereon it rests had been grooved round the edges and polished; three sides were perfect, but the fourth had decayed away to the extent of six or seven inches. The sides of the marble sarcophagus had also been carefully smoothed and polished. The same thing was not observable amongst the other sarcophagi and figures. It must, moreover, be mentioned, that the first figure on the south side had no coffin of any description under it. We may, therefore, reasonably conclude, that this figure is the monumental effigy of Geoffrey de Magnaville, earl of Essex. It represents an armed knight with his legs crossed,[486] in token that he had assumed the cross, and taken a vow to fight in defence of the christian faith. His body is cased in chain mail, over which is worn a loose flowing garment confined to the waist by a girdle, his right arm is placed on his breast, and his left supports a long shield charged with rays on a diamond ground. On his right side hangs a ponderous sword of immense length, and his head, which rests on a stone cushion, is covered with an elegantly-shaped helmet.

Geoffrey de Magnaville, earl of Essex, to whose memory the above monument appears to have been erected, was one of the most violent of those “barons bold” who desolated England so fearfully during the reign of king Stephen. He was the son of that famous soldier, Geoffrey de Magnaville, who fought so valiantly at the battle of Hastings, and was endowed by the conqueror with one hundred and eighteen lordships in England. From his father William de Magnaville, and his mother Magaret, daughter and heiress of the great Eudo Dapifer, Sir Geoffrey inherited an immense estate in England and in Normandy. On the accession of king Stephen to the throne, he was made constable of the Tower, and created earl of Essex, and was sent by the king to the Isle of Ely to put down a rebellion which had been excited there by Baldwin de Rivers, and Nigel bishop of Ely.[487]

In A. D. 1136, he founded the great abbey of Walden in Essex, which was consecrated by the bishops of London, Ely, and Norwich, in the presence of Sir Geoffrey, the lady Roisia his wife, and all his principal tenants.[488] For some time after the commencement of the war between Stephen and the empress Matilda for the succession to the throne, he remained faithful to the former, but after the fatal result of the bloody battle of Lincoln, in which king Stephen was taken prisoner, he, in common with most of the other barons, adhered to the party of Matilda; and that princess, fully sensible of his great power and commanding influence, left no means untried to attach him permanently to her interests. She confirmed him in his post of constable of the Tower; granted him the hereditary shrievalties of several counties, together with large estates and possessions both in England and in Normandy, and invested him with numerous and important privileges.[489] On the flight of the empress, however, and the discomfiture of her party, king Stephen was released from prison, and an apparent reconciliation took place between him and his powerful vassal the earl of Essex, but shortly afterward the king ventured upon the bold step of seizing and imprisoning the earl and his father-in-law, Aubrey de Vere, whilst they were unsuspectingly attending the court at Saint Alban’s.

The earl of Essex was compelled to surrender the Tower of London, and several of his strong castles, as the price of his freedom;[490] but he was no sooner at liberty, than he collected together his vassals and adherents, and raised the standard of rebellion. He was joined by crowds of freebooters and needy adventurers, and soon found himself at the head of a powerful army. He laid waste the royal domains, pillaged the king’s servants, and subsisted his followers upon plunder. He took and sacked the town of Cambridge, laid waste the surrounding country, and stormed several royal castles. He was afterwards compelled to retreat for a brief period into the fens before a superior force led against him by king Stephen in person.