What happened to the great Knights Templer fleets based at La Rochelle and Marseille, following their arrest?

Question

Some say that some escaped to Scotland, others to the Caribean and became pirates who adopted the Templer skull and crossbones and some to Annaba (MaBone) North Africa. Anyone know any facts?.

Answer 1

Reactions to the suppression of the Templars varied from country to country. German knights of the Order either joined the Hospitallers or the Teutonic Knights. One leading Scottish Templar, William St. Clair of Roslin, who was the great-great-grandfather of the founder of Rosslyn Chapel, was killed in Lithuania fighting for the Teutonic Knights. In Portugal the Templars were not suppressed at all, they simply changed their name to the Knights of Christ and carried on under royal patronage.38 Many years later Vasco de Gama the explorer, became a member and Prince Henry the Navigator was a Grand Master of the re-named Order. The Archbishop of Compostela made a vain plea for clemency for the brave knights by writing to the pope begging that the Templars be spared as they were needed for the Reconquista the fight against the Moors to recapture Spain for the Catholic monarchy.

This pressing need for military skills, discipline and dedication to the Christian re-conquest of Spain was fulfilled in a simple way. Ex-Templars were encouraged to join similar military Orders which differed only in that they owed their allegiance to the Spanish crown rather than the pope. One Order, that of St. James of the Swordor the Knights of Santiago, was actually affiliated to the Knights Hospitaller to ensure its survival. They too became immensely powerful and controlled more than 200 commandaries throughout Spain by the end of the fifteenth century. Thus Templar influence continued in mainland Europe. In France and England some Templars joined the Knights Hospitallers, but most simply seemed to vanish.

People condemned for heresy in medieval Europe shared a similar fate to the alleged dissidents condemned in Soviet Russia during the Stalinist era. The victims became 'non-persons', their records were destroyed and all traces of them and their beliefs were completely erased. The only records remaining intact are those of the persecutor, Holy Mother the Church, hardly the most even-handed or dispassionate of sources. Thus getting to grips with the reality that lies behind the romantic myths and legends surrounding the warrior knights is extremely difficult. The French local archives disclose many details of their land dealings while other documents disclosing some of their history do surface from time to time.

Answer 2

Based on what I have read, they were almost all executed in France and fled to Scotland, assimilated into the Scotish rite freemasons and became the illuminati you hear so much about today.

Answer 3

I'm not certain about the Knights, but I do believe the da Vinci code is all bull dust and fiction.