The Devil's Moon (19 page)

Watts nodded. ‘The Sutton Hoo helmet,' he said.

Perkins looked pleased. ‘Precisely. Well, there was a period in history when our ancestors built megaliths across Britain – stone circles. They occur on Downland all over the country, particularly in Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury, of course. No reason they shouldn't have existed on the South Downs, therefore. But no one has ever found evidence of a stone circle here.

‘Does that mean they didn't exist or just that we haven't found the evidence? Did they exist but there are simply no traces left because farmers cleared their fields for ploughing or – good building material being hard to come by round here – took the stones for building?'

‘I get that there are limits to knowledge,' Watts said. ‘But what do or don't we know about Saddlescombe Manor?'

‘What we know is mostly speculation before the Domesday book. There is no evidence the Druids were ever there – or anywhere on the South Downs – the Goldstone notwithstanding.'

The only Goldstone Watts knew about was the former Brighton and Hove football ground.

‘Not one single artefact or image has been unearthed anywhere in Europe that can definitely be connected to the Druids, even though much archaeological evidence for the religious practices of Iron Age people has been uncovered.'

Watts looked from one man to the other. ‘The Druids made human sacrifices, didn't they?'

‘Only according to their conqueror, Julius Caesar,' Perkins said. ‘And you know victors write history?' Perkins smiled. ‘Though in light of recent events in Brighton you might be interested to know that, according to Caesar, the Druids made these sacrifices by burning people alive in giant men made of wicker.'

Watts frowned. ‘So what about Saddlescombe and the Knights Templar?'

‘Ah, our most famous medieval searchers for the Holy Grail of secret wisdom,' Perkins said. He saw the look on Watts' face. ‘You're sceptical,' he said. ‘What do you know about the Knights Templar?'

‘Grown men who should know better are fascinated by them,' Watts said.

‘Women too,' Slattery said mildly.

‘All that Dan Brown secret Templar stuff is nonsense,' Watts said. ‘No offence.'

‘Maybe,' Slattery said. ‘But just because it's not true doesn't mean people don't believe it.'

Watts looked at Perkins. ‘Do you believe it?'

‘There are some curious features of the Templar story in England. You know they were Monks of War – a fighting religious order?'

‘I do,' Watts said. ‘The Order started out with nine men defending pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land during the Crusades. They ended up as international financiers, bankrolling kings and merchants.'

‘That's right,' Perkins said. ‘They were powerful – they even had their own fleet. But things began to go wrong for them at the end of the thirteenth century when they lost their power base in the Holy Land
.
Then, in 1307, King Philip the Fair of France concocted a scheme to take advantage of the Order's weakened state and get at its wealth.'

Slattery interrupted. ‘He was into them for so much money and he needed so much more money that he decided to destroy them. Not just to cancel his debt but to steal their wealth.'

‘So far, so Dan Brown,' Watts said.

‘So far, so historical fact,' Perkins said. ‘On one famous Friday the thirteenth in 1307, King Philip the Fair ordered all the Templars in France to be arrested on the grounds of heresy. This heresy was supposed to have begun in Agen, in Provence. The main charges against the Templars were that during their admission ceremonies they denied that Jesus was divine, spat on the cross, demanded sinful kisses from the initiates – kissing people's arses, basically – and that they committed sodomy.'

‘And they worshipped a head called Baphomet,' Slattery said. ‘That was either a bearded or a three-faced man. Crowley used that as one of many names for himself.'

‘But these charges were all trumped-up, weren't they?' Watts said.

‘Probably. Philip had used similar accusations against a hostile pope earlier. It was a smear campaign.' Perkins tilted his head. ‘But these accusations against the Templars led to all sorts of wild imaginings. Most of them rubbish.'

‘Most of them?'

Perkins grinned. ‘There are no absolutes.'

‘How did this affect the Templars in Saddlescombe?' Watts said.

‘The Templars were granted Saddlescombe sometime in the mid-twelfth century. They made it a receptory – a main headquarters – and from it they ran a pretty big estate stretching from Hurstpierpoint and Hassocks to Newtimber and the sea at Shoreham, where they had a farmhouse, chapel and saltpan.'

Watts pictured Shoreham, with its big muddy river estuary exposed at low tide.

‘A saltpan?'

‘Collecting salt from the sea was crucial for preserving fish and meat. The Shoreham property was intriguing.'

‘How so?'

‘It keeps popping back up in the Templars-in-Sussex story.'

Watts caught the gleam in Perkins' eye.

‘What is the Templars-in-Sussex story?'

Perkins looked at Slattery and both men burst out laughing.

‘Y
ou find the Templars amusing?' Watts said to Slattery and Perkins.

Perkins raised his hand in apology. ‘There are opportunities for much speculation about what went on with them in England and specifically in Saddlescombe,' he said. ‘From the scant records we have, Saddlescombe had some unusually important visitors during the one hundred or so years the Templars owned it: Grand Masters of the Temple in England, kings and princes. We need to ask why they came.'

‘Is it so surprising Grand Masters visited?' Watts said.

‘No, except that it seems they came to deal with what at first sight appears to be quite a trivial matter: the transfer of the tenancy of that farm and saltpan in Shoreham.

‘At Easter in 1253 Grand Master Roncelin de Fosse assigned them to a William Bishop and his wife from nearby Steyning, for the duration of their lives. Almost forty years later, in 1292, Grand Master Guido de Foresta came to Saddlescombe to grant that same property to a John and Matilda Lot. A year later Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the entire European Templar Order, came from France to England in a Templar ship. He docked at Shoreham and came up to Saddlescombe from there.'

‘So you're saying the farm in Shoreham is important, not Saddlescombe itself,' Watts said.

‘I'm saying it's possible. But, again, there's no archaeology. There's nothing of the Shoreham property left – we don't even know precisely where it was. But there was clearly something important about the place for it to attract the attention of such powerful men.'

Watts nodded, looking absently at a display cabinet behind Perkins' head. ‘You mentioned kings and princes coming to Saddlescombe as well.'

‘Henry III, you probably know, had to deal with a baron's revolt, led by Simon de Montfort, his former friend and godfather of his son, Prince Edward. In 1264 they fought a battle outside Lewes.'

‘I've seen the plaque up by the bowling green here about the battle,' Watts said. ‘Simon de Montfort won.'

‘He did. For a few months he ruled England. But Prince Edward defeated him at the battle of Evesham and ordered de Montfort's body to be hacked to pieces.'

Perkins tugged on his beard again. ‘What the plaque doesn't say is that the night before the battle of Lewes the king and his son stayed at Saddlescombe.'

‘Why?'

‘How can we know?' Perkins said. ‘Prince Edward became King Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks. He fought beside the Templars on two brief crusades in the Holy Land. One of the Templars he went into battle with was Jacques de Molay. They corresponded through the English Grand Master William de la More as late as 1304. Longshanks came again to Saddlescombe in 1305, two years before his death.'

‘He's the king in
Braveheart
who threw his gay son's lover out of the window?' Watts said. ‘I thought he was busy hammering Mel Gibson and the Scots. Why did he come to Sussex?'

Perkins shrugged. ‘We don't know. That gay son in the movie was actually bisexual in reality. He became King Edward II in July 1307 on the death of his father.'

‘The year the Templars in France were accused of heresy,' Slattery reminded Watts.

‘And here's the strangest thing,' Perkins said, tugging on his beard. ‘Edward II did everything he could to protect the English Templars even though it made no political or financial sense. He was expected to follow the French example, if not for religious reasons then for political. He was in negotiations to marry Isabelle, the daughter of the king of France, so wasn't supposed to piss the king of France off. Plus, like his father, he was campaigning against the Scots so could have used the Templar's dosh to finance that.'

‘And?'

‘Edward said he didn't believe the charges against the Templars. He demanded proof. A month later the Pope ordered him to arrest the Templars and confiscate their properties in the name of the Church. Edward again asked for proof. Why would he stick his neck out like that? A Christian king doesn't lightly disobey a Pope.

‘When the Pope insisted, Edward went through the motions. He arrested some Templars, including the Grand Master William de la More, but they suffered no real hardship. He left others on their properties or receiving allowances.'

‘And the Saddlescombe Templars?'

‘Were left untouched. In January 1308, Edward II married Isabelle. In France, the Templars, including Jacques de Molay, were being brutally tortured. They all confessed to the heresy charges but it's assumed that was more to do with the torture than the truth of the charges.

‘In August the Pope let this be known and by November 1308 Edward had been pressured by him into arresting or re-arresting all the Templars in the country. And still he resisted. Records show that he arrested less than half of them: one hundred and eight out of two hundred and fifty. Before you ask, the Saddlescombe Templars were not among those imprisoned.'

‘What happened then?' Watts said.

‘Over the next couple of years Edward had domestic political problems to deal with because of his relationship with his favourite, Piers Gaveston, who was his adviser and possibly his lover. His barons forced him to send Gaveston into exile and Edward needed the help of the Pope and King Philip to get him back. He bribed the Pope with jewellery and bequests of towns and castles to the Pope's nephews and he reluctantly did as he'd been commanded with the Templars.'

‘Piers Gaveston – the man in the Christopher Marlowe play?'

Watts recalled Edward had come to a painful end in the play – a red-hot poker had been involved.

‘Even so,' Perkins continued, ‘King Edward continued to do his best to protect the Templars. He assessed the holdings of the Templars in England, as ordered, but didn't hurry to put any of them on trial.'

‘But the ones he did arrest – did they confess when they were tortured?'

‘They weren't tortured. Despite what people think about medieval barbarity, there was no torture in the judicial process in England. The Pope wanted to set the church's inquisitors on them but the king resisted. But in France, by 1310, King Philip was impatient with those Templars who still wouldn't confess. He burned fifty-four of them to encourage the others. It worked.

‘In England and Scotland, though, after three years in custody, not a single Templar had been tortured and not a single one had admitted heresy. Then, extraordinarily, in July 1311, they were allowed to do a kind of plea bargain. As best we can gather, without admitting guilt, they abjured all heresy and threw themselves on the mercy of the church. They were forgiven and sent to monasteries to do penance. The Grand Master was one of only two who didn't feel able to do that so he remained in the Tower. He died the following year.'

‘And Saddlescombe?' Watts said.

Perkins and Slattery exchanged glances again. Perkins continued, ‘At the end of that same July, Edward finally gave in to pressure from the Pope to allow the church's inquisitors to do things their way. Either under torture or just the threat of it three Templars in England confessed to heresy.'

‘Were any of them from Saddlescombe?' Watts said.

Slattery gave a little smile. ‘All three were from Saddlescombe.'

David Rutherford, the vicar of St Michael's, answered his phone on the first ring.

‘DI Gilchrist. Lovely to hear from you. Are you building your boat?'

‘Excuse me?' she said.

‘Noah? There was probably this same amount of rain in his day, but Noah – well, there was a man who took precautions. The first risk assessment man.'

‘Two of everything,' Gilchrist said. ‘But where are you going to get two unicorns in this day and age?'

‘In Brighton? Just walk down Church Street.'

Gilchrist laughed. ‘Your roof holding out under the deluge, is it?'

‘Until the next lot of chancers get the rest of the lead,' Rutherford said. ‘How can I help you, Detective Inspector?'

‘It's about your colleague, Andrew Callaghan.'

‘I fear I've been flippant at the wrong moment. A fault of mine.'

‘Not at all. I went round to his flat yesterday and there were disturbing signs.'

She only just heard his response. ‘As I feared.'

‘Who were the three men who confessed their guilt?' Watts said.

Perkins gestured to Slattery.

‘Stephen of Stapelbrigg, Thomas Totti and John of Stoke all said much the same thing: that there was an Inner Temple within the Templars in England,' Slattery said. ‘And that's where the heresy came in. Stapelbrigg said admission to that was through a ceremony “contrary to the Faith”, in which you had to deny Mary, deny Jesus was God and spit on the cross.'