Here is some 'about me' stuff, mostly from the history side of my old website (plus a horrible photo):
I am something of a historian, with a particular interest in the Military Orders of the Crusades, and generally in the culture and history of the Middle Ages. I am the author of 'The Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar' (published by Spellmount in 2003), and of the pending publication 'The Templar A-Z' (2007). I have also written several articles on related subjects for Templar History Magazine.
I was born in Aberdeen in 1979, and presently live in Buckinghamshire (UK). I graduated from the University of Worcester in 2001, with a joint BA honours degree in History and Art. At Worcester, I wrote my history dissertation on the suppression of the Templars. More recently (2006-7), I completed a MA in Crusader Studies. The course was split between Queen Mary's University of London, where I studied under Dr Thomas Asbridge, and Royal Holloway, University of London, where I studied under Prof. Jonathan Phillips. This time the title of my Independent Study was 'The Cult of St Mary Magdalene and the World of the Crusades.' Other major elements of the course were the Latin East where I wrote on the career of the Muslim warlord Zenghi, and Louis IX, Mongols and Mameluks, for which I submitted essays on the Emperor Frederick II's impact on the Crusading Movement, and on the comparable fiascoes of the Fifth and Seventh Crusades. I also studied Latin. Teribilis est hoc lingua!
If you wish to leave any feedback on (this blog) and its content, I would be grateful to receive them by email or via comments.
I think that's enough about me. What do you think about me? :)
Could you expand upon your thoughts as they apply to all things Fulk V of Anjou and his Life and Times with the early Templars? Information is very limited as how Fulk V and the first 9 Templars interacted. I know that documentary evidence is sparse, but it would be nice to have an authority, such as yourself, to step outside the box and give circumstantial points of views as how Fulk and the Early Templar's carried out their early meeting and day by day interactions. Speculation makes one uncomfortable, but all of the education and experience would make an authority suitable for personal reflection on such a subject. It was not to long ago that Crusaders were considered as nothing more than Blood Thirsty Rapist and Murderers that set out to the Holy Land for nothing more than Wealth and Personal Gain. More modern research has proven that Salvation and Forgiveness of Sin by God and the Church in exchange for their Fighting Prowess to remove the Infidel from the Holy Land was truly he motivation for most Crusaders. I hope that you and your colleagues may be able, through Academic accomplishments, flesh out Fulk V's probable Life and Times with the Templar's before and after he became King of Jerusalem. I believe this is a subject worthy of more thought and development. Thank you, William C. Fitts
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