Spanning thirty-five years of scholarly research, the articles in this collection represent key research findings from Helen Nicholson’s studies of the military religious orders and the crusades. Ranging across subjects as diverse as the Templars’ religious practices, Arthurian romance inspired by the events of the Third Crusade, medieval European Christians’ views of Muslims, and a heresy investigation in Ireland, these articles reflect Nicholson’s research into the Templars and Hospitallers as religious institutions, medieval European fictional literature as an historical source, and the trial of the Templars. Aimed at university students, scholars, and enthusiasts on the military orders, this volume makes this research available again to a new generation of readers.

Table of Contents:
Part 1: The Military Orders as Religious Orders 1. Evidence of the Templars’ religious practice from the records of the Templars’ estates in Britain and Ireland in 1308. Communicating the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of Sophia Menache, ed. Iris Shagrir, Benjamin Z. Kedar and Michel Balard, Crusades Subsidia 11 (2018), pp. 50–63. 2. Charity and Hospitality in Military Orders (Templars and Hospitallers). As Ordens Militares, Freires, Guerreiros, Cavaleiros. Actas do VI Encontro sobre Ordens Militares, ed. Isabel Cristina Ferreira Fernandes (2012), vol. 1, pp. 193–206. 3. Relations between Houses of the Order of the Temple in Britain and their local communities, as indicated during the trial of the Templars, 1307–12. Knighthoods of Christ: Essays on the History of the Crusades and the Knights Templar presented to Malcolm Barber, ed. Norman Housley (2007), pp. 195–207. 4. How secret was the Templar admission ceremony? Evidence from the proceedings in Britain and Ireland. Commilitones Christi: Miscellanea di studi per il Centro Italiano di Documentazione sull’Ordine del Tempio, MMXI–MMXVI, ed. Sergio Sammarco (2016), pp. 85–98. 5. ‘Martyrum collegio sociandus haberet’: Depictions of the Military Orders’ Martyrs in the Holy Land, 1187–1291. Crusading and Warfare in the Middle Ages: Realities and Representations. Essays in Honour of John France, ed. Simon John and Nicholas Morton. Crusades Subsidia 7 (2014), pp. 101–118. 6. Saints venerated in the Military Orders. Selbstbild und Selbstverständnis der geistlichen Ritterorden, ed. Roman Czaja and Jürgen Sarnowsky, Ordines Militares: Colloquia Torunensia Historica XIII (2005), pp. 91–113. 7. The Head of St Euphemia: Templar devotion to female saints. Gendering the Crusades, ed. Susan Edgington and Sarah Lambert (2002), pp. 108–120. 8. St Ursula and the Military Religious Orders. The Cult of St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins, ed. Jane Cartwright (2016), pp. 41–59. 9. Memory and the Military Orders: an Overview. Entre Deus e o Rei: O Mundo das Ordens Militares. Coleção Ordens Militares 8, ed. Isabel Cristina Ferreira Fernandes (2018), vol. 1, pp. 17–28. Part 2: Questioning the Primary Sources 10. Before William of Tyre: European Reports on the Military Orders’ Deeds in the East, 1150–1185. The Military Orders, vol. 2: Welfare and Warfare, ed. Helen J. Nicholson (1998), pp. 111–118. 11. Steamy Syrian Scandals: Matthew Paris on the Templars and Hospitallers. Medieval History, 2.2 (1992), pp. 68–85. 12. Knights and Lovers: The Military Orders in the Romantic Literature of the Thirteenth Century. The Military Orders: Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick, ed. Malcolm Barber (1994), pp. 340–345. 13. Following the Path of the Lionheart: the De ortu Walwanii and the Itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta regis Ricardi. Medium Ævum, 69 (2000), pp. 21–33. 14. Love in a Hot Climate: Gender Relations in Florent et Octavien. Languages of Love and Hate: Conflict, Communication, and Identity in the Medieval Mediterranean, ed. Sarah Lambert and Helen Nicholson (2012), pp. 21–36. 15. Echoes of Past and Present Crusades in Les Prophecies de Merlin. Romania, 122 (2004), pp. 320–340. 16. The Hero Meets His Match: Cultural Encounters in Narratives of Wars against Muslims. Cultural Encounters during the Crusades, ed. Kurt Villads Jensen, Kirsi Salonen and Helle Vogt (2013), pp. 105–118. 17. Jacquemart Giélée’s Renart le Nouvel: The Image of the Military Orders on the Eve of the Loss of Acre (1291). Monastic Studies 1: the Continuity of Tradition, ed. Judith Loades (1990), pp. 182–189. Part 3: The Trial of the Templars 18. Myths and Reality: the Crusades and the Latin East as presented during the Trial of the Templars in the British Isles, 1308–1311’. On the Margins of Crusading – The Military Orders, the Papacy and the Christian World, ed. Helen J. Nicholson, Crusades Subsidia 4 (2011), pp. 89–99. 19. The Testimony of Brother Henry Danet and the Trial of the Templars in Ireland. In Laudem Hierosolymitani: Studies in Crusades and Medieval Culture in Honour of Benjamin Z. Kedar, ed. Iris Shagrir, Ronnie Ellenblum and Jonathan Riley-Smith, Crusades Subsidia 1 (2008), pp. 411–423. 20. The Trial of the Templars in Ireland. The Debate on the Trial of the Templars (1307–1314), ed. Jochen Burgtorf, Paul F. Crawford and Helen J. Nicholson (2010), pp. 225–235.