Templar Silks

by Elizabeth Chadwick Book 6 in the William Marshal series.

Amazon

4.5(2,076)

In 1219, the dying William Marshal asks for the silk shrouds he brought home from the Holy Land so that he can fulfil his vow to enter the Templar order in death. Waiting for their arrival, he remembers the journey he made with his brother Ancel in 1183 to carry their young lord’s cloak to Jerusalem.

The brothers enter a kingdom divided by faction and threatened by Saladin, where religious duty is inseparable from court intrigue. William’s involvement with the unpredictable Paschia de Riveri and the politics surrounding Baldwin IV places both brothers in danger, forcing them to confront desire, loyalty and the meaning of the vows represented by the silks.

Marshal’s memories give the novel a retrospective structure shaped by approaching death. The silks become objects through which he measures youthful service in the Holy Land against the long political career that followed. His wish for Templar burial also shows how crusading identity could remain spiritually important to a man whose later fame was made chiefly through English politics and warfare.