The Inquest of 1185 commissioned by Geoffrey Fitz Stephen was the first survey of property belonging to the Knights Templar in England and so is a natural starting place for a book which traces the fate of Templar estates in Lincolnshire over a period of almost four hundred years. The changing fortunes of Templar lands in Lincolnshire cannot be fully considered without establishing their place within the context of contemporary social trends and national and international events. Both the Military Orders with which we will be primarily concerned, the Templars and subsequently the Hospitallers, were multinational corporations; their Lincolnshire, and indeed their English, estates were only part of their property portfolios in western Christendom. Much has been written about the military exploits of the Military Orders in the Holy Land, and there are several general histories. However, it is only in recent years that scholarly effort has begun to concentrate upon the Templar estates in England. The aim of this book is to analyse the changing nature and organisation of the Templar estates in one English county, Lincolnshire, until the suppression of the Order in 1312, and then to pursue their fate until the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I. In twenty-first-century Lincolnshire, all that remains of the once extensive Templar estates is a single church tower at the isolated farm of Temple Bruer on the Lincolnshire Heath.

This book depends upon research conducted almost entirely among primary sources. While the overarching subject is the fate of the Templar lands in Lincolnshire, particular emphasis is placed on the estate accounts of 1308–13, which allow a detailed analysis of the organisation, agricultural practice and personnel on the estates in the early years of the fourteenth century. This opportunity is exploited to the full so that Templar estate management can be assessed in the context of what is known of medieval and indeed Templar agriculture.

The Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon: the Knights Templar

On 15 July 1099 the besieged city of Jerusalem fell to Christian forces. This concluded the First Crusade. The victor of Jerusalem, Godfrey de Bouillon, steadfastly refused to be crowned king, but after his death on 18 July 1100, his succession was in dispute.