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Question: How do I find out if one of my relatives was a Knights Templar!?
My 5th great uncle, Sir William de Tracy, was one of the four Knights who murdered Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170 at the order of King Henry II!. Legend has it that he was ordered by the Pope to repent by traveling to Jerusalem and to spend the rest of his days praying as a hermit!. When he died he was supposedly burried along with the other three knights under the portico in front of the Aqsa mosque, which was the refectory of the Knights Templars!. My thought is that why would someone be buried at such a holy place involving the Knights Templar unless he was one!. I have searched and cannot find any direct reference to Sir William de Tracy and the Knights Templar!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
The church itself was a Knights Templar church!.
Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church around 1129, there really wasn't a lot of "love" between the Templars and the Church really!.

It also was NOT confirm that these knightswere buried under the portico in front of the Aqsa mosque, which was the refectory of the Knights Templars!. There is also another tradition that says William de Tracy was buried somewhere else all together in Mortehoe Church, near Ilfracombe in Devon which carries an inscription to Sir William de Tracey!.

The four knights were Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Moreville, William de Tracy, and Richard le Breton!.

Sir William de Tracy, Knt!.,was Lord of the Manor of Toddington, Gloucestershire, feudal Baron of Bradninch, near Exeter, and Lord of Moretonhampstead, Devon!.
Yes, he had a French ancestory but WAS British!. He was a man of "means" but he didn't give up his holdings to the Church OR the Knighthood to become a "Poor Knight of the Templars"!.

Tracy was one of the four knights who, at the behest of King Henry II murdered Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury and who afterwards invaded the Archibishop's Palace plundering Papal Bulls and Charters, gold, silver, vestments, books, and utensils employed for the services of the church!.

Any plundering the Templars did was on the "down low"!. This plundering of the Archibishop's Palace was well known!.

There was never anyhting said of William de Tracy being a Templar!. And he was a fairly well known person!. His history was pretty well documented for the time period else where when the Templars were all in the Holy Land!.

also he was well thought of, with a good reputation before the murder!. The Templars didn't have that good of a reputation, especially with the Church!. William de Tracy has associations with churchs but NOT Templars churches!. And his history has him everywhere!.!.!.!.Oxford, Rome, Gagingwell!. etc!. Yes, the Pope declared they should be exiled and fight for a number of years "in knightly arms in The Temple for 14 years" in Jerusalem BUT the Pope didn't order ANY Templars, only Templars ordered Templars!. There is some record that the Pope banished the knights to Black Mountain near Antioch!.

I'd say Sir William de Tracy probably knew a Templar or two, but wasn't one himself!. There is a lot of documentation of Templar Knights names and one as famous as William de Tracy would have been known!.




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