ABSTRACT
Christopher Tyerman has shown that there was still considerable interest in crusading in England in the first decades of the fourteenth century, and some individuals set out for the East. The evidence from the trial of the Templars in the British Isles reinforces this to some extent, showing that even in distant Ireland there were individuals with personal knowledge of Cyprus and the East. The guardian of the Franciscan house at Bury St Edmunds echoed Thomas Totty's accusation that the Templars were unenthusiastic about fighting the Muslims, stating that the Templars always warned the sultan of Christian attacks. Roger of Howden in the late twelfth century and Matthew Paris in the mid thirteenth recorded stories of a Templar, or Templars and Hospitallers, who had gone over to the Muslims and fought for them, or who had betrayed a Christian leader to the Muslims.
