Customer Reviews

The Knights Templar Chronology: Tracking History's Most Intriguing Monks

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I have spent years studying the Knights Templar and have read countless books, both fact and fiction, about the group. This book is a good primer for anyone that is looking for a timeline of the Templars.
If you are a beginner looking for information on the Templars, this book will serve as a starting point which leads you to more in depth works depending on what sparks your interest, piques your curiosity.
Mr. Smart has produced a concise timeline of the years leading up to the creation of the Templars, the years of the Templars existence, and their ultimate fall at the hands of the French monarchy and the catholic church.

A good starting point for anyone interested in learning more about the mysterious order of warrior monks.

***One caveat, this timeline does make reference to information from "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" which, at the time of publication of this book was considered researched truth. The requisite release of "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown and the movie brought about a new study which proved a hoax involving the "Priory of Sion". The Priory of Sion did not exist as stated in "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". It was a well planned, well laid out hoax. All of this information came out after the publishing of "The Knights Templar Chronology" by George Smart. Although Mr. Smart cannot be blamed for sighting what was, at the time of publication, assumed to be fact, the fact that this is no longer valid information should be noted now.***

(+++ On a side note: I have recently had the pleasure of corresponding with Mr. Smart and have found that he is sincere in his studies and his dedication to the work he produced. He is a very gracious, kind gentleman. +++)

Amid the hype and mythology resulting from the DaVinci Code, George Smart provides a factual foundation for the quest to answer critical questions about the historical Jesus, his relationships, and the evolution of the Christian Church. Smart is too wise to purport to answer these questions, but he does provide a strong historical basis to justify them as legitimate queries. One pass through this chronology will convince you that not only are the questions real, but it will leave you wondering who does not want them answered.

I agree with Henry Tucci's review -he hit the nail on the head. I don't know where all these glowing assessments for this light weight book came from, but I was also disappointed. I saw the author on the History Channel & pursued the purchase of the book based on that appearance. The "book" ,if you can call it that,looks like it was slated to to be an addendum to a major volume, to be found at the end of the main body of work-really not worthy of being peddled as a history book. There was a segment re: the Newport (RI) Tower and the possible builders which has no attribution whatsoever. There is little text regarding major events. I have to rate this as the worst book on the subject of the Knights Templar I have read.

To those critical of Mr. Smart's book as not being scholarly enough, etc., I find his book to be exactly what he says it is . . . a Chronology. He does not state or imply that it is a "history" book. Read it for what it is, and maybe learn something while at the same time enjoying the search.The Knights Templar Chronology: Tracking History's Most Intriguing Monks

As any Historian, I have varied approaches to understanding history, and I for one appreciate a well written chronology of events. This book, "The Knights Templar: Tracking History's most Intriguing Monks" was just such a book. Very well put together, with good documentation, and, drawing a very distinctive line through history's accounting of the Templar's activities, from their beginnings as a humble order of only a handful of knights, all the way up to their apparent "reign" - via the authority of the church, and practically every Lord and Noble reaching from Jerusulam to Scotland - over all things economic and military, from 1065, and in some respects, reaching right up to the present day. For anyone interested in Templar history, I think this should be their starting point. From here, you can reach out to anywhere to decide what was true, and what was legend...

This is really a labor of love and repays the reader's close attention. George Smart brings the Middle ages alive with many extremely interesting entries. You get a real feel for the rough and tumble world of Europe and the Mideast during the time of the Crusades. It is hard to believe that Smart was able to unearth and record so many amazing facts about the age that most of us know only through Robin Hood and Ivanhoe. This is the real story.

The Da Vinci Code made me curious about the Knights Templar and George Smart's book provides a huge amount of information about a fascinating historical period. The bibliography will be invaluable for further reading.

You read the reviews and you think you are getting a scholarly study of the history of the Templars ... boy are you going to be surprised!! What you get is a slim book with one or two sentences concisely summing up the history of a given year and then it starts to confuse fact and fiction by discussing Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the DaVinci Code and conspiracy theories.

This book is not worth a single penny ... it is the worst purchase I have ever made and thank heavens the author has a real job because it is obvious he is neither a writer nor a historian!!!