Templars escape to North America?

[GameBawesome]

(I know this sounds ASB, and implausible, but it just entertaining)

With a POD, 1300s, escaping persecution, the remnants of the Knight Templar's take their fleet and treasure from France, and sails to North America, landing in Modern day Newport Rhode Island (because Newport Tower) and create a settlement called New Jerusalem.

How would the Templars interact with the Natives?
Would they try to expand?
Would the settlement die out?
Where could the Templar treasure hide?

 

[Heldenhammer]

Unlike Jamestown, the Templars didn't have many farmers or fishers among their ranks. Sure, they were competent warriors, but that won't save you against starvation in an alien land. The Templars may attempt peaceful interaction, but as winter set in and food supplies dwindled, they'd be forced to attack natives and would probably die out as a result of starvation and native raids.

As for the treasure, it'd probably be hidden somewhere near the settlement and be found by English colonists a few centuries later. The Templars wouldn't want to hide their loot so far away from their base.

 

[Gabingston]

There's an EU4 Mod about this (I think it's called Crusade In America).

 

[alexmilman]

(I know this sounds ASB, and implausible, but it just entertaining)

With a POD, 1300s, escaping persecution, the remnants of the Knight Templar's take their fleet and treasure from France, and sails to North America, landing in Modern day Newport Rhode Island (because Newport Tower) and create a settlement called New Jerusalem.

How would the Templars interact with the Natives?
Would they try to expand?
Would the settlement die out?
Where could the Templar treasure hide?

The Templars had been famous for being the least compromising out of all military orders so their contact with the heathens probably would be “interesting”.
The Templars had bases in Europe outside France and in most of these places they were not persecuted (either got pensions or jo8ned other orders) so there was absolutely no reason to flee in not yet discovered America
The Templars had been males only order (formally, they were monks) so how exactly they would survive not to mention expand in their American settlement? See “King and I” for the similar proposal regarding sending the male elephants to the US for breeding.
The Templars were bankers and the bankers are making money by putting capital to work, not by hoarding the treasure: this idea was quite novel for Phillip the Fair and his henchmen so they kept looking for something that did not exist.

BTW, Newport Tower is most probably a windmill built in the XVII century.

 

[GameBawesome]

BTW, Newport Tower is most probably a windmill built in the XVII century.

Oh I know that Newport tower is probably just a windmill, and that Templars fleeing to America is highly unlikely, and there are many conspiracies of the Templar that are not true..

But still, I asked the question because its entertaining and it makes for a great fictional story

 

[GameBawesome]

I wanted to return to this. If the Templars made it to Rhode Island, how would they interact with the Natives (I think it was the Pequots)? Is it possibly that the Templars brought diseases with them, or that they break their oaths and start having wives and children to become knights? Maybe even try to introduce Christianity to the natives ?

 

[Lusitania]

The Templar’s did escape, the Portuguese Templar’s were put under Portuguese crown protection and became the Order of Christ. They were extensively involved in exploration of Portuguese India.

Could a some of the other Templars in other countries of been able to escape to Portugal? Could they if become much more powerful there helping the country reconquista in North Africa?

 

[dartingfog]

I think they would sail up the coast to Nova Scotia and land on a small island in Mahone Bay. They would proceed to dig a 200 foot deep hole for their treasure (gotta bury it real deep). Then, they would construct an elaborate system of "flood tunnels" beneath the island that would protect the treasure from looters but somehow not destroy it.

 

[Mad Bad Rabbit]

I think they would sail up the coast to Nova Scotia and land on a small island in Mahone Bay. They would proceed to dig a 200 foot deep hole for their treasure (gotta bury it real deep). Then, they would construct an elaborate system of "flood tunnels" beneath the island that would protect the treasure from looters but somehow not destroy it.

Narrator: "Did ancient aliens guide the Templars to Oak Island, more than five centuries ago? And could the Ark of the Covenant be an extraterrestrial communications device that they buried there?"

 

[Juumanistra]

Narrator: "Did ancient aliens guide the Templars to Oak Island, more than five centuries ago? And could the Ark of the Covenant be an extraterrestrial communications device that they buried there?"

I'm down for Indiana Jones and the Money Pit. Can't possibly be worse than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

 

[GameBawesome]

A

I'm down for Indiana Jones and the Money Pit. Can't possibly be worse than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Wait, wouldn’t both end with aliens though?

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Warrior monks sworn to a life of Poverty, CHASTITY and Obedience, with no source of new recruits? This settlement has a very limited lifespan.

 

[bpbruce]

Okay, the Templars were bankers. North America had no great need of bankers. But Aztecs, Mayans, Incans? Just sitting there, waiting for double entry book keeping to help their capital grow.

 

[GameBawesome]

Warrior monks sworn to a life of Poverty, CHASTITY and Obedience, with no source of new recruits? This settlement has a very limited lifespan.

Unless they decide to break that oath, after escaping the church they swore to protect, because they made enemies with a French King

Or they convert the natives into their own order, and create a new society