Modern Value: Untold Billions. The treasure of the Knights Templar is worth more than every other huge number in this article added together. The sheer number of relics, artefacts, wealth and treasure they possessed as a religious military order is astounding. Not only were they the richest military order ever created, but they were also declared a charity, and were that not enough, they invented a very early form of banking. This practice of lending and investing money made them hugely wealthy and powerful, but unpopular among those who owed them money. After 179 years of power, wealth and military might, they were finally forced out of the Middle East and those who owed them money, including Philip VI of France, and the Pope found they were not inclined to pay back what they owed. On Friday the 13th of October 1307, Philip VI arrested the leaders of the Order who were based in France and tortured them into confessing to heresy and devil worship. He seized their lands, their castles, their holdings and treasuries. However, when he opened the treasuries, they were almost empty. So where had the treasure gone? As the order was not tied to a single country, their castles and holdings covered much of Europe, and well into the Middle East. Knights across Europe quickly hid their portable treasure, and those with foresight left their landed holdings. A month later Pope Clement II gave an order of Pastoralis praeeminentiae, which instructed the heads of every catholic state to arrest all Templars they could find and to capture every possession they had. Their possessions were to be given to another religious order, more in control of the Pope, the Knights Hospitaller. Only some heads of state complied with the Pope, as he wasn't well liked or powerful enough to enforce the rule, mostly relying on Philip VI of France. Those who did reported that the vast majority of the treasure that should have been in the castles and garrisons of the Knights Templar was missing. Across Europe the story was the same. The latest evidence appears to show that the Templars had spies in every echelon of the church, and were well aware that their time was up. In fact, the large majority of Knights were never seen nor heard from again, very few were actually arrested. Several thousand noblemen, as well as several large fleets of ships simply disappeared, at the same time, across much of the world, apparently without any form of communication. A fleet of 18 ships stationed at La Rochelle in France simply sailed out of the port on the night of 12th October 1307, before any move had been made against the Templars and were never heard from again. In 2002, a document was discovered in the archives of the Vatican that shows that Pope Clement II quietly absolved the Templars in 1308, indicating that he had private dealings with Templars well after he had declared the order excommunicated. The question remains, where did the vast wealth and treasures of the Knights Templar go? Where did their fleets of ships sail for? Some say Scotland, as Templar insignia has been found in castles there, built well after the order was supposedly disbanded, others say elsewhere. What is certain however, is that gold, silver, large amounts of coin, jewels, jewellery, gold and silver plate, land deeds, religious relics, weapons, armour, horses, ships, documents, historical records, Saracen trophies, Christian artefacts, Muslim artefacts, curiosities and royal regalia all disappeared and not so much as a single scrap of paper has been recovered. Untold billions, wealth beyond imagining, richness beyond Bill Gates and Croesus await whoever can solve the riddle of where the Templars went in 1307. To find such a treasure might well catapult someone to being (almost) the richest person on earth. Any treasure we've missed? Do you have one corner of a treasure map and you'd like to find the other corners? Are you a Knights Templar, being hounded by young men in white hoods and you want to talk? Comment below and let us know exactly where we should be looking for the next big find! We'll share with you, honest...
