Today in Hidden Histories, we sit down with Malcolm Barber, a noted English medieval historian best known for his work on the Knights Templar. Prof. Barber is famous among those interested in the Templars for his groundbreaking study of the trial of the Order, The Trial of the Templars, and his general history, The New Knighthood:

IFP: Tell us about your academic career. Where did you go to school?

MB: Education: Walpole Grammar School, Ealing, London, 1954-61. University of Nottingham, UK, 1961-5. British School at Rome, 1965-6.

Posts: Lecturer and later Professor, University of Reading, 1966-2005. Senior Fellow at the National Humanities Center, North Carolina, 1998-9. Whichard Visiting Professor at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, 1999-2000.

Present: Emeritus Professor, University of Reading.

IFP: What areas of medieval history have you concentrated on? Why?

MB: Mainly the High Middle Ages, especially the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Areas of research within this include the Order of the Temple, the crusades, and the Cathar heresy. As is often the case, my interest in the crusades was stimulated by one of my teachers at Nottingham, Professor Bernard Hamilton, who was an inspirational teacher. I had not studied this period before going to university.

IFP: What works have you published on the Order of the Temple? Which one was your favourite?

MB: Three books: The Trial of the Templars (Cambridge University Press, 1978, second ed., 2006); The New Knighthood. A History of the Order of the Temple (CUP, 1994); with my colleague, Keith Bate, The Templars. Selected Sources (Manchester University Press, 2002). In addition, a range of articles. Favourite is probably The Trial, because it has a central narrative and a dramatic story to tell

IFP: How did you become interested in the Templars?

MB: I needed a subject for a PhD and, in the middle sixties, there was little interest in the Templars, so work needed to be done. The main reason for the lack of recent work at that time was the loss of the central archive of the Order (probably in the sixteenth century), which made the subject quite diffuse and left many gaps which remain difficult to fill. Moreover, there were few people working on the crusades then, although there has been a huge expansion in the subject since the 1970s. Once I began work in depth, I realised that the subject had great potential. My PhD was on the Grand Masters of the Temple, which gave me a good grounding in the history of the Order, but was not publishable in itself, since what is now known as prosopography was not fashionable at a time dominated by interest in the approaches adopted by the Annales school.

IFP: Why do you think people are still fascinated by the Knights Templar after nearly 700 years?

MB: The fascination initially stems from their dramatic suppression in the early fourteenth century. This opens the field to all kinds of speculation as what they were really doing and whether or not they lived on in some secret form. By definition, almost any theory can be grafted onto ’secret’ activities. There may well be a need in modern society for explanations of the complicated world in which we live, and there is a theory that conspiracy theories flourish at times of rapid change (for example in the early nineteenth century).

IFP: There are a lot of negative myths and images out there about the Templars. If you could pick one, which of these do you think is the most pernicious and why?

MB: I would pick a genre of writing rather than a specific myth. The worst examples are pseudo-histories, which purport to offer the true story, often backed by an apparatus of footnotes to make them look scholarly, but which, on investigation, prove to be irrelevant to the text. The Da Vinci Code is a novel and, as such, the author is entitled to present whatever story he wants, but a serious historian has an obligation to try to find out what happened as far as he or she is able.

IFP: You have written a book about the Templar Trial and its aftermath. What do you think of the guilt or innocence of the medieval Templar order?

MB: The central fact is that under torture, any of us can be made to say anything, and therefore unsupported confessions are not sound evidence of guilt. All the other circumstances point to their innocence, although that does not exclude the possibility that Philip the Fair really believed they were guilty.

IFP: What do you think of all the controversy over The Da Vinci Code?

MB: The Templars occupy only a very few pages of the novel, although they do form an important link in the chain created by the author. As I said above, a novel is made up, so any material can be used and manipulated as the author wishes. It is therefore quite legitimate for the novelist to take ideas and facts from published history books, and many have done so. The case against the author and publisher in the High Court struck me as frivolous.

IFP: What is your favourite nonfiction book about the Templars?

MB: For those with no background in medieval history, I would suggest Sharan Newman’s The Real History Behind the Templars (Berkley Books, New York, 2007). Look especially at her section headed “How to Tell if You Are Reading Pseudohistory”.

IFP: What is your favourite fiction book about the Templars?

MB: I don’t usually read historical novels about my own period, especially if they are well-researched, as over time, I am likely to confuse what I read in them with what I have found in the sources.

IFP: Who is your favourite Templar-related author or historian?

MB: The Templar historian I most admire is Heinrich Finke, who published two volumes on the trial (one interpretive and one of documents he had discovered). He was one of a great generation of historians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They had little decent secondary literature to go on and often needed to build from scratch. I realise, though, they do not make light bedtime reading.

IFP: What academic or artistic accomplishment are you the most proud of in your career so far?

MB: I am pleased to have published The Two Cities. Medieval Europe, 1050-1320 (Routledge, London, 1992, second ed., 2004). This kind of large-scale coverage of a long period and a wide geographical area takes specialists outside their comfort zone, and makes different demands on any historian who tries it. However, it was intended as a synthesis of much of what I had taught during my career and, in some ways, is most representative of what I was doing on a day-to-day basis.

IFP: What kind of advice would you give to someone just starting out in the field, either studying the Templars or medieval history in general?

MB: Take a good one-year taught MA course, where you can learn the skills needed. There were none available in my time, but there are many good examples now.

IFP: Please tell us about your upcoming projects.

MB: I am working on a book on The Crusader States in the Twelfth Century (Yale University Press), which is intended to be an integrated history, covering not only political and military affairs, but also cultural and social activities as well.

IFP: What is your dream project?

MB: About a decade ago, I planned a project which would be a history of material life in the High Middle Ages, covering the physical environment, the contemporary world view, and the social attitudes and mores of the period. I doubt if I will ever tackle this now, as it is probably too ambitious and long term, but it was a nice idea at the time.

Bio: Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, University of Reading, UK. Born 1943. Grew up in Hanwell, West London. Education at Walpole Grammar School, Ealing, University of Nottingham, British School at Rome. Began university teaching in 1966 and retired in 2005. Among books: The Trial of the Templars (1978, 2006), The Two Cities. Medieval Europe, 1050-1320 (1992, 2004), The New Knighthood. A History of the Order of the Temple (1994), The Cathars (2000). At present working on a history of the Crusader States in the Twelfth Century.

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