Customer Reviews

Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Although I have always been an avid reader of both fictional and non-fictional works, there has always been an easily discernable difference in the writing approach. This difference is especially evident in historical works. Fictional works are usually more apt to place the reader into a "you are there" state of mind. Reading a non-fictional historical account is most often "drier" reading, and the reader is constantly reminded of the chasm of time that stands between he and the time-frame of the subject.(sometimes, inadvertantly, by such things as footnotes). John J. Robinson's book on the crusades is no such work. Mr. Robinson made the decision to not include any footnotes. This lets one enjoy the work witout having his eys torn from one portion of a page and diverted to another. (Any further scholarly interest can be served by the endnotes and appendix.) Read the book as a novel, because it is a good read. Knights, champions, treachery, good and evil. All aspects of the period are covered. One of the best books I've ever read.

Dungeon, Fire & Sword is one of the best Christmas gifts I have ever received. Reading it was pure joy. I became interested in the Knights Templar after one of my visits to the South of France and to the castle fortress of Carcasonne. John J. Robinson paints a spell-binding, comprehensive picture of the middle ages and its impact on today. Mr. Robinson takes us through the origin, the exploits and the ultimate demise of the Knights Templar - OR did the Knights Templar simply disperse and go underground? This is but one of the mysteries addressed in the book.
Mr. Robinson ties in the "holy" alliance in the formation of the crusades with the medieval catholic church hierarchy and the politics and royalty of Europe. He draws in famous figures and their role during this time period including St. Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas and Marco Polo. As if this were insufficient, Mr. Robinson provides a parallel history of the Middle East, Asia Minor and even Asia with Genghis Kahn. The result is a neatly wrapped history of the known world during the reign of the Knights Templar.
There are many side stories including the meaning of words. I found myself writing notes in the page margins. For example the word "slaves" was an outgrowth of the word "slavs" who upon defeat were cast into bondage. There are a number of church and state issues which I somehow missed while attending parochial school as a youth. Priests were married until a papal decree in the year 1000. King John of Magna Carta fame imposed a "sin" tax on priests who still maintained mistresses during the 1200s. The underlying strategy and politics occasionally delayed papal elections for years.
This book is very even-handed in its approach to the events (and the corresponding personalities) which took place while the Knights Templar were in vogue. Mr. Robinson does not favor, detract from or otherwise reveal a bias that I could detect toward any one group, religion or political entity. Dungeon, Fire & Sword is simply a well written and interesting history of a lesser known time period. The battles for Europe, Byzantium, the Middle East and the merchant trade alliances are intertwined with the economies of war over the Holy Land. It is a book worth reading a second time and indispensable for any family library.
Lane J. Biviano
Rutherford, NJ

John Robinson does a very good job in complining information about the Templar and presenting it in an interesting and readable fashion. I thoroughly enjoyed reading more about the Templar (and Robinson does include many details not found in the other Templar books I have read, contrary to those reviewers who claim it is all old material).

What I liked best about this book was its emphasis on context. Robinson does not just give an account of the Templar's doings; he provides an account of all the things which are happening around the Templars as well, which is essential for understanding the Templar.

I also liked Robinson's clear writing style. Some history book get you bogged down with dates and names, but Robinson does an excellent job of tying them together and helping you remember them so that events further into the book will make much more sense.

There are also two complaints I have about this book:

1. There are a number of small, careless mistakes which really should not have been there (i.e. slightly misquoting people, slightly incorrect dates, etc.) and which are rather annoying. As far as I can tell, none of his information is majorly wrong; he just does things like writing that events happened several weeks after another event when it was actually many months, so I guess it's not really a big deal.

2. He seemed rather biased against the Catholic Church. I myself am not Catholic, but even I do not think some of the things that they did were quite as bad as Robinson makes them out to be. For example, his comments to the effect that the charges of homosexuality against the Knights were very probably true because they had vows of chastity are simply underestimating the effect of religion upon people's lives and are just plain stupid. If the Templars couldn't take being chaste anymore, it is not very likely that they would choose to become homosexuals violating the ordinances of the Church rather than simply violating the laws of the Templar.

In conclusion, this was a very good book, but I think that there are better books on the subject out there. I would recommend Stephen Howarth's The Knights Templar. His book is slightly shorter (and thus has a little less detail), but it is also more accurate and is much more fun to read.

Overall grade: B+

I really really like this book and have recommended it to a couple of other friends who also read about history. It gives a good background to the Knights Templar and to the time period during which they existed. It is organized chronologically, starting with the First Crusade and ending after the disbanding of the order in the 1300's. Professional historians or people who have made studying the Templars or the Crusades their life's work will probably find things to criticize. But as an amateur history buff, I thought the book was great.

In order to explain what went on around the Templars and the effects of their actions, Robinson spends a lot of time explaining why the world was the way it was during that time period, so there is a LOT of discussion of politics. Politics within the Catholic church, between the Catholic church and the Orthodox church, between European monarchs, between European monarchs and the Christian churches, between Italian states, between the European leaders and Moslem leaders, between different Moslem leaders, between different Moslem factions, and even political differences between militant religious orders (the Templars and the Hospitallers and later including the Teutonic order) all play a part in this book, which should give the reader of this review some idea of just how complicated the story can get. So if you are looking for a book that is ONLY about the Templars and goes into great great detail about JUST the Templars, this is not the book.

Grandmasters are mentioned by name and by history/character/actions when appropriate, but other members are not dwelled upon unless they directly had an effect on the order or the crusading kingdoms.

Also, conspiracy theories about the Templars secretly ruling the world and theories about Biblical wonders excavated by the Templars under the Temple of Solomon are not discussed in this book.

Finally, be warned that this part of history is pretty bloody and no one comes off looking very good, so anyone who won't tolerate hearing unpleasant things about historical figures or institutions shouldn't read this book.

I originally picked up this book because I knew a person who talked up the Templars a lot and I wanted to get a little more background. After reading the book, I have come the conclusion that the Templars may have done some great things (they were one of the first knightly organizations that had anything resembling battlefield discipline, they developed what was essentially a banking system that was used by powerful people who had to trade a lot of cash but didn't want to risk packing bags and bags of gold and silver, and because they had to deal with Moslems so much they set aside places in their buildings for a Muslim to say the daily prayers to Mecca, all of these were radical innovations for their time), they also had a history of backing the biggest blowhard or jerk in any argument time after time.

As a whole, knights of that period come off as a bunch of adolescent idiots who would attack a group ten times their number, try to ride through a blazing desert without water, or compromise a whole battle plan rather than have anyone call them a coward or risk the possibility that someone might get more glory than them.

The Catholic church does not come off well at all, the clerics in individual churches were probably well-intentioned but the higher tiers were corrupt, greedy and influential to an extent that is almost unimaginable today (as a sidenote, I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoyed David Eddings' Elenium trilogy).

Finally, after reading about the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople, I have no wish to ever visit Venice.

Robinson does not footnote his work, which is sometimes frustrating. This and the occasional slowness because of all the detail are the only reasons I give the book four stars and not five.

I have never read a more enlightening history than this one. In one medium sized book I have had a whole lot of conceptions and assumptions destroyed, and many questions and uncertainty have replaced them. This is simply the result of a very well written and informative book.

I had always heard clues and hints about the "Knights Templar" but never understood the import of this military order. I had also never understood the plight of the crusader states, nor the politics of the era or the region in question until reading this book. The author's entertaining and comprehensive yet not overly detailed history has changed that shortcoming in a profound and I hope.....lasting fashion.

Mistakes are documented as well as triumphs. Victories as well as defeats are recorded in detail. I have been in turn, inspired, disgusted, chagrined, and dismayed at events, tellingly portrayed by the author. I do fault the author in one area, poor (aka nonexistent) documentation of original sources. More maps would have been nice as well, however the history is still easy to follow along with a general knowledge of regional topography of the "Holy Lands". While there are maps included, none are regional, and they are only provided for a few battles.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this book as an introduction to the history of the Templars, the crusades in the Holy Land, and the Crusader states (and their downfall) as well.

John Robinson does an excellent job of clearly documenting the Templar world. When he uses conjecture, he notes it. When he has the facts, he presents them in a very easy to read and well-informed manner. History has never been such a pleasure to read!

This book was well recommended by the other readers in this column. It is the saga of the Knights Templar, and their role in the crusades to restore christianity in the Holy Land. Ripe with facts that gets brutal at times, yet enlightening. This book shows the treachery of popes and nobles, to the gallant knights who vowed to give their lives to the order. All in all, a fascinating journey back in time to a place where honor reigned supreme among most men. And, Kings, clergy, and layman would fight to the end for their beliefs.

Several readers have trashed this book, one saying 'Same old song in a new cover'. That reviewer then goes on to recommend two books written 10 years later.. That's probably why he thought that this was 'old'. While I can't compare this book to anything by Runciman or Tuchman, I will say that this is a pretty good book.

Before you buy this book, please pay attention to the title.. It is called 'Dungeon, Fire, & Sword The Knights Templar IN THE CRUSADES' In order to understand the impact of the KT in the crusades you have to understand the crusades themselves, and in order to understand the crusades, you need to understand the 'players', culture geography etc... The Crusades didn't revolve around the KT, they only played a part, albeit an integral one, in the crusades.

Yes this book is more than just the KT, and no it's not an in depth history of each of the crusades, but it's not supposed to be.. The reader should use this book as a building block about the KT, the crusades and even the Papal State.

What is interesting is that the more one reads about the KT the more you realize that there really is a lot of uncertainty and disagreement surrounding them. In his book, Howarth writes that the master of the Templars was never called the Grand Master, yet that is how Robinson refers to them. There were a few other descrepencies between the two books but nothing major.

The maps (all 3 of them) were ok. The tables of the 'players' in the back of the book were helpful.

I recommend this book.. Could you do better? Maybe, but with all of the junk that they are publishing about the KT these days you could do a heck of a lot worse.

Anyone who thinks the world is a crazy and dangerous place now please read this and thank your lucky stars to be alive today. This stuff is better than any soap opera, mystery movie, heck it's even more entertaining than the "Old Testament". The plots, sub-plots, overthrows, racism, slaughter,& warfare are endless. At least endless till they burn the leaders of the Knights Templer at the stake. OUCH! I haven't even mentioned the wealth, pious monks trained to kill, fratricide, blood flowing through the streets like a river. Jerusalem is the most conquered city in history yet all wish to control it. Even to this day.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It provides a detailed history of all the Crusades as well as the Templar's part in each of them. What I found most interesting in the book were all the political details. It becomes apparent at many points that if the Christian invaders of the Middle East had been organized together rather than engaging in constant infighting they would have been able to hold onto their teritory much longer.

Another nice feature of the book is the amount of time spent on the original inhabitants of the Middle East and later in the book on the Mongol invaders. The author does not evince any sort of bias and treat each group equally in his assessment, pointing out both their honorable and despicable deeds.

I would reccomend this book to anyone who is interested in history, warfare, or secret societies, although the secret society aspect it downplayed here.