Two historians reveal the secrets, stories, sites, and lasting legacy of London's most powerful military religious orders
Doors: 7pm.
The Knights Templar have an enduring reputation – but not one they would recognise. Established in the twelfth century to protect pilgrims, the Order is remembered today for heresy, looting, fanaticism, and even satanism. DR. STEVE TIBBLE sets out to correct the record. The Templars, famous for their battles on Christendom’s eastern front, were in fact dedicated peace-mongers at home. They influenced royal strategy and policy, created financial structures, and brokered international peace treaties – primarily to ensure that men, money, and material could be transferred more readily to the east.
Steve argues these medieval knights were essential to the emergence of an early English state. Revealing their true legacy, he shows how such a small group helped shape medieval Britain while simultaneously fighting in the name of the Christian Middle East.
Dr. RORY McLELLAN will uncover the fascinating history of the Knights Hospitallers, London's Medical Military Order. For four centuries, Clerkenwell was home to the English headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller, an order of soldier-monks who fought to defend the Holy Land. A sort of medieval NATO and Red Cross combined, the Hospitallers used their lands in Europe to raise men and money for the crusades but were soon drawn into local politics and war.
They were a key part of London's history for four centuries, with processions of armoured knights riding across London Bridge en route to Palestine, and Clerkenwell Priory hosting kings, emperors, and secret meetings plotting rebellion and assassination
Dr. STEVE TIBBLE is one of the foremost academics working in the field of the crusades and medieval warfare. He has been widely published, in many languages, by Yale, Oxford and Cambridge University Press. His latest book, Crusader Criminals - The Knights Who Went Rogue in the Holy Land, a wry look at the criminal underbelly of the crusades, was the front cover and lead article in BBC History Magazine as well as featuring in a number of high profile medieval podcasts.
Steve's other recent books include: Templars - The Knights Who Made Britain; The Crusader Armies and The Crusader Strategy. He is one of the major contributors to the forthcoming Cambridge History of the Crusades and the Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades. In September 2025 Yale University Press will be publishing his next book, Assassins and Templars - A Battle in Myth and Blood, a groundbreaking account of the relationship between two of history’s most legendary groups.
Dr. RORY McLELLAN completed his PhD in Medieval History at the University of St Andrews in 2019 for a thesis on the Knights Hospitaller in Britain and has since worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Tower of London and now as a Cataloguer and Manuscript Researcher at The British Library. His upcoming book on the Hospitallers, Warrior Monks: Politics and Power in Medieval Britain, will be published by The History Press in September.
