The Knights Templar Chapel and Tombs in Laon

Three tombs are still visible. Two of them belonged to Hospitallers of the Order of Saint-John of Jerusalem. The most recent one (XVIth century)  shows an erased inscribing, the other one is that of Jacques de Haute-Vesnes who died in 1335. The Knight Templar tomb is the one of chaplain Grégoire, dead on the day of Saint-Martin, in 1268. The chapel of Laon seems to have been preserved. When Gauthier de Léancourt, Commander of  Laon and Rheims for the Order was arrested with his companions in 1307, he was neither interrogated nor tortured but was present when Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master, made his first confessions after having been tortured during ten days. The Inquisitors and diocesan courts whose atrocities are described everywhere probably hoped they could overcome Gauthier’s resistance. They now publically exhibited Jacques de Molay requiring he reiterated his statements. If the greatest Dignitary himself condemned the Order, that was the end and such were the thoughts of the unfortunate Commander of Laon. Soon before the arrest, Gervais de Beauvais was preceptor of Laon. He would have admitted the Order held secret rules. These were testimonies King Philippe IV certainly was happy to hear in his unspeakable haste to destroy the Order.

The estates of the Knights Templar were confiscated and donated to the vidame of Amiens until the Hospitallers took possession of them. There were also commanderies in Serancourt, Merlan and Boult-au-Bois in this region of North-East of France.  Nothing remains today.

Inside the Knights Templar Chapel in Laon.

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Apse of the chapel. The cathedral Notre Dame de Laon is in the background on the right.

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