THE SCOTTISH CRUSADERS
The village of Temple. Apart from a pleasant row of cottages and a lovely walk by the river, there is not much to see. But take the clock back to the 12th century and you would have seen the church and base for the Scottish Knights Templars: today, all you can see are a few ruins. Immediately we hear their name we think of the Crusades, a period of warfare, which lasted mainly between 1095 and 1291, but dragged on after that.
On 27th November 1095, Pope Urban II was in full swing. His charismatic call for military action stirred the archbishops and clergy present at the Council of Clermont in France. ‘God wills it!’ he cried out. For over four centuries the church and medieval world had suffered at the hands of marauding Muslim armies bent on global conquest. Islamic forces had been held back at Tours in France by Charles Martel in 732, but by the 9th century Pope Leo IV started to copy the Islamic jihad, promising forgiveness of sin to anyone who fought against infidels. It was a totally unbiblical and unchristian ideology, but it became established as a false doctrine for centuries, leading to later atrocities in the ‘name of Christ’.
The trigger for the Crusades was the butchering of about 7,000 Christian pilgrims by Arab Muslims, whilst on their way to Jerusalem in 1064-5. This was followed by the constant harassing and murdering of pilgrims by Muslim bands. Voices were calling for armed protection of the pilgrims and for the liberation of the Holy Land from the Muslims. The kings of Europe were bitterly divided against one another, so a neutral charismatic leader had to be raised up to call for a united European response – the Pope was just the figure to do this.
The medieval writer of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that in 1096 ‘there was a very great stir throughout all this nation [England] and in many other nations too, because of Urban who was called Pope’. In 1099 the crusaders took Jerusalem amidst the slaughter of both Muslims and Jews.
Although there were Scottish crusaders involved in every war, their influence and numbers were not notable, largely because of their concern that the English kings would siphon off Scottish taxes for the crusades for their own purposes, and because they were often at war with the English later on.
Despite this, nobility like Lagmann, King of Mann and the Western Isles, and Robert de Quincy, led enthusiastic Scottish followers into the fray: other leaders like Patrick, the Earl of Dunbar, the Earls of Carrick and Atholl, the Balliols, Bruces, Mowbrays, Alexander de Seton, Adam de Gordon, and others, played their part.
Patrick Dunbar was King William I ( The Lion), Carruthers ancestor, good friend. Patrick and King William lost sons in Syria. Hugh de Burgh would lead another group of Carruthers into the Crusades.
(Torpichen)
Even King David I was so keen to lead a Scottish army to liberate the Holy Land that he had to be dissuaded by his nobles and people. Instead he made sure the Knights Templar, the protectors of the pilgrims, were granted land and properties at Balantrodoch, today’s Temple (1128), Kirkliston and Maryculter. He also gave land at Torpichen (1150) to the Knights Hospitallers, where part of the original Preceptory still exists today,
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