Knights Templar Books in Order

The Knights Templar books imagine a hidden history in which the warrior monks of the Temple were not only bankers and crusaders, but also custodians of sacred magic and dangerous relics. Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris use that idea to thread fantasy through real medieval events.

The two main novels, The Temple and the Stone and The Temple and the Crown, follow Templar knights Arnault de Saint Clair and Torquil Lennox at the end of the thirteenth century. As the last heirs of the Scottish royal house die and Edward I of England pursues control of Scotland, the Templars are quietly working their own agenda. Visions, prophecies, and mystical artifacts point towards Scotland as a refuge for both their treasure and their rule.

In these stories, the familiar struggle for Scottish independence is only part of the picture. Behind the thrones stand rival occult forces. The knights discover that some powerful nobles have turned to ancient Pictish gods, while a sinister order called the Knights of the Black Swan serves a more explicitly demonic master. Church politics in Rome and Paris, the ambitions of Philip IV of France, and the fate of the Temple itself are all caught up in that unseen conflict.

Kurtz and Harris are careful with the scaffolding. They draw on genuine Templar history, Scottish succession crises, and battles like Bannockburn, then ask how things might look if the legends about hidden grails and secret rites were literally true. The result feels like a cross between a serious historical novel and an occult thriller, complete with ritual magic, visions, and prophetic dreams.

Alongside the novels sit the themed anthologies Kurtz edited about the Order, where she and other writers explore Templar legends from the age of the Crusades through to more modern times. Those shorter pieces range from battle stories and relic hunts to quieter tales of faith and doubt, all circling the same question of what it means to swear vows that run deeper than any one kingdom.

Taken together, the Knights Templar line offers a self contained path through Kurtz’s “crypto history”. You get recognisable figures like Robert the Bruce and William Wallace, but you also see how a secret magical war could be hiding in the margins of the chronicles. If you like your fantasy rooted firmly in real places and dates, this is one of the best entry points.