The Surveys and Accounts of the Templars’ Estates in England and Wales (1308-13)

Although the Templars are most famous for their military activity in the defence of Christendom, they also held extensive estates in western Europe whose purpose was to raise resources to maintain their military commitments.This paper sets out some of the initial findings from my own research on the unpublished records in the National Archives of the UK at Kew, which record the inventories of the Templar houses taken when the Templars were arrested early in January 1308, and the accounts produced by the royal custodians while their estates were in the King’s hands, 1308-13. As this research is at an early stage, the analysis and conclusions are tentative, but they indicate that the Templars’ agricultural production made a substantial contribution to local economies.