The Power of Love in the Darkest Hour - an Editorial Review of "The Tale of the English Templar"

Book Blurb:

"If you read only one book this year, let it be this one. The story will captivate and inspire you in ways you never anticipated. " -- The Coffee Pot Book Club

The young knight had been tortured and hoped only to die. His rescuers had other ideas. They formed a Resistance movement. But can they defy a tyrant — and win?

An English Templar travelling to Cyprus is one of thousands arrested on Friday 13 October 1307. Victims of Philip IV's greed for the Order's legendary riches, they are cruelly tortured. The English knight becomes the first non-French Templar to confess to the trumped-up charges. Then he disappears. Soon, other imprisoned Templars also go missing from the French King's dungeons. Rumours begin to circulate of a band of free Templars. 

Based on historical events, not fantasy, The Tale of the English Templar tells the story of the destruction of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century. In doing so, it explores the struggle between good and evil in human hearts — and of the power of love even in our darkest hour.

Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/dafBW

Author Bio:

Award-Winning and Best-Selling Historical Novelist

Author of 26 Historical Fiction and Non-Fiction Titles, Winner of numerous literary accolades

“Helena Schrader’s in-depth stories, fantastic characters, and ability to write an unforgettable tale make her one of the best authors out there!” Feathered Quill

For readers tired of clichés and cartoons, award-winning novelist Helena P. Schrader offers nuanced insight into historical events and figures based on sound research and an understanding of human nature. Her complex and engaging characters bring history back to life as a means to better understand ourselves. Her motto is: Understanding ourselves by Understandig the Past. Helena’s chief areas of expertise are Aviation, the Second World War, Ancient Sparta, and the Crusader States.

Helena's current project is the three-part "The Bridge to Tomorrow Series," which shows how the West stopped Russian aggression without war during the Berlin Crisis of 1948/1949. The series goes beyond the political chess game and logistical achievements of the Berlin Airlift to explore the social and psychological impact of this pivotal historical event. The characters -- women and men, British, American, German and Ukrainian -- enable the reader to see the unfolding events through different perspectives. As the reader gets drawn into their lives, the historical tensions rise, and the trilogy accelerates the pace to that of a thriller. "The Bridge to Tomorrow Series" is about winning a war with milk, coal and candy bars.

The first book in the series, "Cold Peace," won six literary accolades including GOLD for Military Fiction in the Historical Fiction Company's 2023 Book Awards, Gold in the 2024 Feathered Quill Awards, runner-up for the Historical Fiction Company's prestigious BOOK OF THE YEAR award in 2023, an Indie BRAG medallion and a Maincrest Media Award. For an overview of all Helena's awards please visit her website.

Helena holds a PhD in history from the University of Hamburg, which she earned with a ground-breaking biography of a leader of the German Resistance to Hitler, and served as an American diplomat in Europe and Africa. She grew up sailing the Maine coast, was a passionate horsewoman, and is now retired and living with her husband and two dogs.

Editorial Review:

In the 'Tale of the English Templar', the accomplished and prolific author Helena P. Schrader directs her always fertile imagination and skill to the story of the suppression of the mighty Order of the Temple, instigated by both the then monarch of France, Philip IV, and the subservient Pope Clement V in the year 1307 and deploying her pen with customary flair and elegance of phrase to the incredible story of the suppression of the Order. She sets out her paints and deploys her story with her typical and eminently readable style and creates a remarkable account based on excellently marshaled historical facts, a virtuosity that is very much a trademark of her style.

For dyed in the wool fans of Templar conspiracy tales and seekers of hidden cosmic truths 'The Tale of the English Templar' may well come as something of a disappointment, but, as Helena P. Schrader more than amply demonstrates, truth is often stranger than fiction. It is very clear that an immense amount of hard work and painstaking research has gone into the writing of this novel and the depiction of true events and the whole work positively resounds with historical verisimilitude in its every detail. Here, then, is the account of just one Templar out of the many caught up in the machinery of the plot to destroy the power and the very existence of the Order of the Temple. It is the story of the Englishman, Sir Percy de Lacy, knight of the Commandery of Limassol in Cyprus. It is a tale to quicken the senses and to stir the heart.

For those readers to whom the true extent of the wealth, influence and power of the Order of the Templars might be new and who wish to learn more there does exist a veritable plethora of written material available. A bit of background reading to 'The Tale of the English Templar' is certainly recommended and this reviewer suggests 'The Templars' by Dan Jones as a good place to start in order to obtain a good grasp of the basic facts and an understanding of the motives of both the King of France and the Pope in seeking the destruction of the Order.

Helena P. Schrader assembles the basic components of the story with an enviable ease and in so doing creates an epic adventure story worthy of a Hollywood epic with elements of both romance and mystery. This is not, it must be stressed, merely a story of Sir Percy de Lacy, but also of the many separate lives that co-align with his; in particular, the altogether remarkable Felice of Najac, the 'maiden of de Preuthune', an admirable and courageous figure possessing great intelligence and a fiery independence of spirit. A whole host of memorable characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, their imperfections and beliefs, have their own part to play in the story; displaying their own set of virtues and vices. There is, for example, the truly repulsive and grotesque figure of Father Elion, who will stoop to any action necessary to secure confessions and convictions of those Templars whose misfortune it is to fall into his clutches. There is also young Umberto da Silva, a young Sicilian and deep admirer of Felice, an attractive youth with a glittering career ahead of him and who is persuaded to join the Order of the Dominicans, an organisation deeply committed to the ultimate destruction of ''The Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon'' - to afford them their full title. In this respect the book is also very much a medieval pageant and containing the necessary 'grotesqueries'. In all, there is a sense of stark realism and the smack of truth.

On Friday 13th October in the year 1307 the young English Templar, Percy de Lacy is resting for the night at the poor and crumbling possession of St Pierre du Temple, by no means a glittering jewel in the Templar Crown. He is on his way to Marseilles, hopefully to take ship to Cyprus, and is frustrated that he still hasn't received fresh orders from the Grand Master. It is here that his terrible ordeal begins. The establishment is raided in the night by royal officers and Percy and all others within St Pierre du Temple are physically assaulted and conveyed to the gaol in the city of Albi, a gaol that is already packed with Templar prisoners; this is clearly a widespread and well organised purge organised by King Philip IV of France in collusion with the Pope Clement V and with the very happy collaboration of the powers of Inquisition of the Order of the Dominicans. One by one, the Templars are taken for interrogation and terrible torture to secure their confession. What is eminently clear now centuries later and indeed was also apparent to many at the time was that this was extortion and plain robbery on the part of a greedy and near bankrupt King only too happy to use accusations of sorcery and satanism for his own purposes. This becomes very clear to Percy de Lacy when he too is taken for interrogation and the charges are read to him:

'' By the second day, it was clear what charges had been levelled against them. The Templars were accused of nothing less than abusing the sacraments, denying Christ, worshipping idols and engaging in institutionalised sodomy. They were accused of conducting initiation ceremonies which included forcing the initiate to deny Christ three times and spit upon the cross. They were, furthermore, accused of having forced initiates to kiss the official in charge of their acceptance on the base of the spine, the navel and the lips. Sodomy was allegedly not only encouraged but routinely practiced, even against the will of new brothers. And in place of worshipping Christ, they were supposed to worship some other 'idol' - although none of the arrested Templars could fully comprehend what this was supposed to be.''

This is, of course, a pretty comprehensive and impressive charge sheet. The Templars, starving and chained to the walls, are taken out and subjected to extreme torture to force their written confessions. And now it is the turn of Percy de Lacy, engaged in a battle of wills with the truly demonic Father Elion, with a repulsed and fascinated young Umberto in attendance. In the course of his interrogation, three of his teeth are pulled out, he is beaten, burned and branded with the Templar cross and both his legs are broken. At last, the triumphant Father Elion obtains a written signature to a confession and the grievously injured de Lacy is loaded with seven others on a cart to take them to the city of Poitiers. It is at this point that the paths of Percy de Lacy and the young girl Felice converge!

Helena P. Schrader's excellent and well paced narrative continues to crackle and grip! Not for nothing did the eminent American historian, Barbara W. Tuchman entitle her seminal book 'A Distant Mirror', 'The Calamitous fourteenth Century''! A book, incidentally, that this reviewer can heartily recommend for its insights into the horrors of that especially blighted century of famine, war and plague!

It is one of the many strengths of the humanity of 'The Tale of the Last English Templar' that so many characters, from the most humble to the most exalted, are permitted to give voice to their own deep concerns and fears time and time again. We hear, for example, the voice of a humble laundress upon the estate of the proud and truly courageous old Sir Geoffrey de Preutheune, one of the shining heroes of this book and beloved grandfather of Felice, railing against the injustices and repressions of the established Catholic Church. We hear the old and bitter voice of the head of that very Church itself, Pope Clement V, bitterly complaining of the iron rule of King Philip IV! Helena P. Schrader also more than adequately proves that she can swash a buckle with the best of them, with a long tale of great excitement and action interspersed with moments that reveal that she can also turn her hand to great heights of romance in the fine old tradition. Here, for example, is the description of Felice's first view of Sir Percy after his ordeal and recovery.

''Her eyes were taking in his silk surcoat of blue and purple over the gleam of quality chain-mail, his blue suede boots fitted over his knee and his spurs were gold. She smiled up at him, for the first time in a position to register that he was exceptionally tall, still lean, but not skeletal as once he had been. His hair was short, but he wore neither a tonsure nor beard. His broad brow, straight but insistent nose and high cheekbones dominated the structure of his face, but it was his blue eyes which attracted her fascination. My God, she thought gazing at him in wonder; how could anyone want to destroy this man?''

'The Tale of The English Templar' is a long and complex work that reveals extraordinary powers of observation and compassion underlying an exciting and compelling story that is deeply steeped in historical accuracy expressed in breathtaking detail and with clarity and, above all else a deep compassion and understanding of the emotions felt by all of the major characters. A great deal has to occur before we can arrive at any form of settlement for the impressively assembled cast of heroes and villains. It is by no means the purpose of the writer of this review to do the reader's job for him or her; neither is it the intention of taking the reader by the hand through a blow by blow account of all the many happenings and occurrences so vividly described within this book. No, that distinct pleasure is for the reader alone, and it is clear that this book has a great many more twists and turns before any resolution is arrived at. There is a great deal more in the book that is worthy of note and eminently quotable; but a great deal of deep and sensitive portrayal occurs concerning the nature and personality of all the major protagonists. It remains only to be said that 'The Tale of the English Templar' by Helena P. Schrader is truly a fine book indeed!

******

Five Stars and the "Highly Recommended" award of excellence from The Historical Fiction Company

Award:

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