Knights of the Black and White (Templar Trilogy, Book 1) - Softcover

Whyte, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143017365 ISBN 13: 9780143017363

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 2007

Synopsis

From the author of Uther and The Eagle comes Knights of the Black and White—the first in a dramatic historical trilogy about the rise and fall of the Knights Templar

It is 1088. While many French nobles continue their occupation of a violently hostile England, one young knight, Hugh de Payens, is inducted into a powerful secret society in his father’s castle in Anjou. The Order of Rebirth in Sion draws its membership from the ranks of some of France’s most powerful families, with only one son from each generation eligible to be selected, and its members’ loyalty to the ancient brotherhood transcends loyalty to both Church and state. When the new Pope calls for knights to join his Crusade to redeem the Holy Land, Hugh is commanded by the Order to go along and finds himself in hellish battle in Jerusalem.

Sickened by the slaughter of innocents and civilians and appalled by the savagery of his fellow Christians, Hugh appeals to the Order to allow him and a few of the brotherhood to follow a different path. Determined to remain true to their own beliefs, they become the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ, a unique order of fighting monks, and use the skills honed in battle to defend and protect pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. But the Order has a different plan, and soon the brethren are charged with an outlandish and dangerous task—a seemingly impossible mission to uncover a treasure hidden in the very center of Jerusalem, a treasure that might not only destroy the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem but also threaten the fabric of the Church itself.

About this title

About the Author:

Jack Whyte was born and raised in Scotland and has lived in Canada since 1967. He has been an actor, orator, singer, poet, and businessman at various stages of his life, and he holds an honorary doctorate of letters for his contribution to Canadian popular fiction. A resident of Kelowna, British Columbia, he is the author of the internationally bestselling Dream of Eagles series and the Templar Trilogy. The Renegade is the second instalment in the Guardians series, set during the Scottish Wars of Independence.

From Publishers Weekly:

Veteran of eight Arthurian novels (The Lance Thrower, etc.), Whyte turns to the Crusades with this tedious first volume of a Knights Templar trilogy. In 1088, young knight Hugh de Payens is initiated into the secret Order of the Rebirth of Sion, who believe the Christian Church to be "an invalid creation... built upon a myth." Founded by Jewish families fleeing the Romans, the Order believes that the truth about Jesus and the founding of Christianity lie buried beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. When Pope Urban calls for a Holy Crusade to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims, the Order"given to interminable monologues"sees an opportunity to perhaps retrieve those ancient documents and sends Sir Hugh and others to join the Crusaders, yakking the whole way. After the bloody fall of Jerusalem, Sir Hugh establishes a new order of warrior monks as a cover for the excavation of the Temple Mount, and the race is on to find the hidden treasure, if it exists, before their activities are discovered. This tepid Templar foray will be crowded out at the gates. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Canada
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0143017365
• ISBN 13: 9780143017363
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 768