Iacobus Burgundis Molensis
Happy Betrayal Day! 699 years ago today -- on another Friday the 13th, as it happens -- Jacque de Molay, last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was arrested along with most of his Order on trumped-up charges. King Philip of France and Pope Clement were after the Templar wealth (and wanted to eliminate a growing rival for power in Europe). They achieved this goal, but in the process they also provided fuel for seven centuries of rumor, speculation, occult rivalries, and general skullduggery. As Umberto Eco so memorably put it in Foucault's Pendulum, every good conspiracy theory must lead back to the Knights Templar.
My favorite legend concerning Molay is that he laid a curse on the Kings of France with his dying words. Almost five centuries later, when Louis XVI was beheaded during the French Revolution, a man leapt from the crowd, plunged his hand into the king's blood, and cried "Jacques de Molay, thou art avenged!"
It may not be true, but it's most assuredly True.
My favorite legend concerning Molay is that he laid a curse on the Kings of France with his dying words. Almost five centuries later, when Louis XVI was beheaded during the French Revolution, a man leapt from the crowd, plunged his hand into the king's blood, and cried "Jacques de Molay, thou art avenged!"
It may not be true, but it's most assuredly True.