Regardless of the treasure existing or not, the fact that their
ships all left La Rochelle shortly before hand hints that someone may have
tipped the whole thing off. Further a large amount of Templar holdings
were in the form of land rights. Several kings, most notably Dinius the
Farmer of Portugal, managed to cheat the Pope and the Knights Hospitler by
claiming that the Templars had been holding the lands in trust from the King,
and then secularized the order.



Interesting note: I do believe that the Templars fleet went first to Ireland, to the
harbor of what is now Schull. Given the relatively short time span
involved, and the fact the fleet did not appear at any other location within a
few days sail would indicate that they moved to a safe port off continent. Mostly likely would be Schull, which was a heavily fortified harbor and in the hands of
the Mahoney clan, who were known to have ties to the Templars.



Where they might have gone from there is beyond the scope of my information.

Interesting theory - I'd like to believe that at least some of the Templars escaped, and Ireland certainly would be a logical location.

Eh, supposedly the all the Templar ships in France took off the day before the hammer came down on Jacques de Molay. And escape was actually probably not that uncommon. Several nations found them not guilty, if there were trials at all, including the few who were tried in Ireland, as I recall. Others simply folded Templar personel and holdings into secular and other religious orders - The Teutonic Knights, The Order of Christ, The Order of Montessa, The Knights of Malta, the Hospitilars, etc.

In reality, as I recall, only three of the Templars were actually found guilty of heresyby the Papal Inquirery, being the Grand Master and his two subordinates. They were required to publicly renounce thier heresy, however, they refuted thier guilt and were exicuted as relapsed heretics. What ever treasure they did have either fled with the fleet (which is what everyone talks about) or was seized by the Church and turned over to other Orders. Phillip The Fair actually managed to seize very little of thier property, and died within the year, anyway.

Conjecture: If the treasure did exist, and was with the fleet, what was it? Relics? Gold? According to archeologists, when examining the copper scroll, which lists the treasures of the Temple of Solomon, some digging was done at the sites mentioned. No gold was found, but many of them contained artefacts of the templars. This would suggest that the big mystery of what was found benieth the temple was not, in and of itself, gold, but rather knowlege, perhaps the 'silver scroll' mentioned in the copper scroll as being the other copy of this information. Even if they did infact, find nothing, the fact that they had been searching for it and had such a valuable guide might in and of itself attracted wealth to them, as kings and clergy wished to show thier piety by contributing to this endevor.

Several known relics are known to have at one point or other been in the care of the Knights, supposedly including the Shroud of Turin and the veil of Veronica.

As far as the treasures disposition afterward: I suggest that you turn your eyes to the Earl of Desmonds Rebellion in Ireland. If you look closely, you might observe serveral rather unusual events in southern Munster, particularly on the part of those same Mahoney's who controlled Schull at the time of the Templar's dissolution. I belive that the key lies not in a vault in Rosslyn, but at the bottom of the sea off the Munster coast, thanks in part to the English navy.

Again, you need to do some basic research. There's no evidence that the copper scroll is even anything to do with the Temple.

Plus, there have been very few excavations over time. Some limited exploration was undertaken by Charles Warren in the mid 1860s, but nothing of note was found.

Also, it is highly unlikely that anything like the DSS would be found in Jerusalem as the climate is far too humid compared to the area around the Jordanian border/Dead Sea and the parchment wouldn't last several thousand years. Also current theories indicate that the DSS were written by residents of the Dead Sea area, so why would scrolls be taken to Jerusalem?

As for the Turin Shroud, just because the grandson of a codefendant of a Grand Master produces it in evidence, does not mean it was in the posession of the Templars, merely a friend of a friend. Incidentally I've been unable to find any evidence of this. I do seem to recall reading that the Templar link has been speculation from some 'historians' and primarily based on surname links, dubious in itself.

I dunno, McCarter's work states that it contains references to the House of Hakkoz, who, if I remember my bible correctly were the Treasurers of the Second Temple, would strongly link it to the Temple.

As far as something like the Dead Sea scrolls lasting until now in that area, probably not, but shave off the thousand years between us and Hugh De Payne and it's more likely, particularly if the jars seals remained intact.

Geoffroi de Charny (who was a fairly famous French knight of the Hundred Years War) and Geoffroy de Charnay (The preceptor of Normandy for the Templars) being Grandfather and Grandson wouldn't seem that far fetched to me. Actually Occam's razor would suggest that two famous knights with the same name from the same region within a short span of time might be related.