Mixing history and fantasy: ANGEL HEART and the Knights Templar
by Marie Laval
I am not the first author to be fascinated by the history of the legendary Knights Templar and to find inspiration in their troubled, secretive and dramatic past which to this day has been the source of many tales and myths.
In ANGEL HEART my heroin Marie-Ange must recover a sacred relic hidden by the Knights Templar - the ‘Cross of Life’ – which is rumored to give eternal life. With the help of cuirassier captain Hugo Saintclair, she unravels an old family mystery linked to the legendary Count Saint Germain, a man reputed immortal, and returns the cross to its original hiding place in the crypt of the chateau of Arginy in Saône-et-Loire, to the North of Lyon, my home town.
The Knights Templar, also know as the Poor Fellow-soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, was a monastic order founded in 1118 to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land, defend the Saint-Sepulcher and fight in the Crusades. The Order grew rapidly in power and wealth and the Knights Templar, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. They managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, acquired vast estates, became the French King’s bankers and built fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land .
The Templars' existence was tied closely to the Crusades and when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded, and rumours that they indulged in heresy and devil-worshiping grew rife. In 1307, as he found himself deeply indebted to the Order, Philipe IV of France – also known as Philipe le Bel – decided to have most of their members in France
One of them stems from the curse issued by the last Great Master, Jacques de Molay, against the Pope and the French King. As he was being burned at the stake, he predicted that the Pope would die within forty days, foretold the French King’s imminent death and cursed all his descendents for the next thirteen generations. The Pope died three weeks later, Philippe le Bel eight months later. Some claim that the execution of King Louis XVI in 1792 put an end to the Templar malediction on the royal family, since Louis was the 13th generation of the Capet line.
King Philipe’s actions against the Templars did not make him a wealthy man since only a fraction of the Templar treasure was ever recovered. Many believe that, forewarned of their imminent demise, the Templar Knights arranged for their treasure to be shipped away - to Scotland or Cyprus - or transported to a secret location, like the chateau of Arginy in the Beaujolais or Gisors in Normandy
The Knights Hospitaller – or Knights of Saint John – who were founded at around the same time as the Knights Templar to care for sick and injured pilgrims, still exist today. They are now a charitable organization based in Rome
Angel Heart
Blurb
A mysterious Templar relic.
A web of intrigue and lies.
A woman about to lose her heart.
Marie-Ange, the young widow of an English officer, accepts an inheritance in France
Marie-Ange finds herself trapped in a dangerous web of lies, political intrigue and mystical possession, and the only person to whom she can turn for help is Captain Hugo Saintclair. Yet the enigmatic Hugo represents a danger of a different kind …
‘Angel Heart’ is a lavish mix of romance, adventure and a hint of the supernatural, largely set in France against the turbulent background of Napoleon’s return from Elba and his ultimate defeat at Waterloo
Author Bio
Marie Laval
Originally from Lyon in
ANGEL HEART is Marie Laval’s first novel. It is published by Muse it Up Publishing.
Her second historical romance THE LION’S EMBRACE is also published by MuseitUp Publishing.
You can meet Marie here:
You can buy Angel Heart at:
http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Heart-ebook/dp/B009YJT194
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Angel-Heart-ebook/dp/B009YJT194
Wow! I had no idea about the Knights of Templar. I had heard a thing here and there, but this was great to know.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting, Suzanne. I am glad you found the post interesting!
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ReplyDeleteWhat an intriguing piece of history. Angel Heart, sure promises to be a very interesting read.
ReplyDeleteHello Ria, and thank you very much for visiting and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy 'Angel Heart'.
DeleteThank you very much Victoria for hosting me on your great blog. It's a pleasure to be here!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you to host you on my site. I hope you'll visit us again!
DeleteHi Marie,
ReplyDeleteThis seems utterly fascinating. How did you research such a complicated subject as the Knights Templar? Their history spans so many centuries and so many countries, how were you able to tie it all down?
Thank you Sophie for visiting. I love reading and researching,but you are right. There are so many books and papers on the subject of the Knights Templar - some very serious and academic, others less so - that I couldn't possibly pretend to have read them all. I think it was a matter of picking some bits out, and let my imagination do the rest. There is quite a lot I did invent for the sake of the plot!
ReplyDeleteA difficult topic, indeed! It is so hard to get the history right along with writing a good story!
ReplyDeleteHello Michele. It is a difficult balancing act indeed to get the facts right but still be able to 'fill the gaps' with our story, or bend the truth just a little to accommodate the plot and the characters. Thank you for visiting!
ReplyDeleteYou chose a great historical backdrop to write about. With so rich a history, there's plenty of grist for your literary mill.
ReplyDelete"A mysterious Templar relic.
A web of intrigue and lies.
A woman about to lose her heart."
I especially like this brief blurb. There's an art to reducing tens of thousands of words to so short and intriguing an entry, and you've mastered it.
Well, thank you very much Mark. What a lovely comment. I really enjoyed researching both the Knights Templar and the early nineteenth century, especially the Napoleonic period, for the novel. Merci beaucoup!
DeleteVous êtes les bienvenus, Marie (hope Google translate had its coffee, this morning [g]). Many authors seem to view research as drudgery, but I agree with you -- it can be a learning experience and a real pleasure. The imagination takes fact-powered wing.
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes, it can be too much of a pleasure, one fact leading to another and another. I love research a little too much, I suspect. I love finding out about historical figures and events, I love quirky facts too!
ReplyDeleteI am addicted to airplanes/flying, so related research often goes off on a tangent, just as you describe. I do tons of research, only to have to curb my desire to write endlessly about it -- a little goes a long way, in historical fiction. But even when you don't use much of what you've researched, the expertise you gain is an advantage. When you write from a base of thorough knowledge, it's evident to readers. At least, that's what I tell myself when I'm going down that long fact trail.
DeleteIt is true. There is nothing worse than being out of your depth, and realising too late that you have important things wrong. Do you write historical fiction, Mark?
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DeleteYes -- I have only one book published, thus far. DAYS OF SMOKE looks at war and Holocaust through the eyes of Hans Udet, a German flyer who progresses from naïve fighter pilot to ace of increasing rank and responsibility. But after saving a young Jewish woman from brutal assault, Hans becomes torn between his loyalty to Germany and mounting disdain for its Nazi leadership. The book is available on Amazon.com.
DeleteI'm halfway through IN THE WEEDS, a darkly humorous novel set partly in Vietnam. Slats Kisov serves as a Forward Air Controller, returning to the US a changed man, one determined to “live a life of harmless banditry from the cockpit of an airplane.” Using the exceptional low-and-slow flying skills he's honed in battle, Slats begins to smuggle marijuana into Florida from the Bahamas.
It is a BLAST to write humor -- I plan to do a lot more.
Good luck with your writing, Mark! It's great that you can write in different styles, from serious to humorous. I hope both novels do well for you.
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