Legend of the La Rochelle Treasure Fleet

The Legend of the Templar Fleet of La Rochelle

In the autumn of 1307, the Knights Templar faced sudden ruin. On 13 October 1307, the deceitful and deeply in debt King Philip IV of France ordered a secret crackdown: royal agents simultaneously stormed every Templar centre and threw its members in prison.

Under enormous political pressure from the king of France, Pope Clement V joined the purge – on 22 November 1307 he issued the bull Pastoralis praeeminentiae, instructing all Christian rulers to arrest Templars and seize their goods. Within days the order’s leadership was shattered. Grand Master Jacques de Molay and many senior knights were captured in Paris; even Raymbaud de Caron, officially named “Commander of the Templar fleet,” was among those caught. The Templars’ era of power abruptly ended, not through battle but by betrayal. Just as Judas Iscariot had betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, so King Philip IV of France had betrayed the protectors of Christendom for their wealth and lands.

La Rochelle: A Templar Port on the Atlantic

Long before 1307, the port of La Rochelle on France’s Atlantic coast had been one of the Templars’ most important bases. By the mid-1100s Eleanor of Aquitaine had granted them special privileges there (such as exempting the order from duties). Over the next century La Rochelle grew into the Templars’ principal harbour on the Atlantic. As one source notes, La Rochelle became “the Templars’ largest base on the Atlantic Ocean,” where they “stationed their main fleet” of ships.

In practical terms, the Templars at La Rochelle ran a busy trade. Records show they exported wine and goods by sea. This was a lucrative business and in wartime the order’s ships could (if needed) defend themselves. Importantly, though, these were mostly merchant transports, not a standing navy. In fact, medieval military ships were usually hired by the Templars rather than owned outright. In short, La Rochelle was a thriving Atlantic port and the main staging area for the order’s ships. How many of those ships were purely military in nature remains unknown and uncertain.

The Legend of the Fleeing Fleet

Into this setting the legends were born. Years after the Templars’ fall, when fear of being associated with the Knights Templar had subsided, stories began to circulate that on the eve of October 1307 something mysterious happened at La Rochelle. According to these tales, a secret convoy of Templar ships put out to sea just before dawn – literally escaping Philip’s dragnet by hours. As one source puts it (in French):

“la légende voudrait que… le 12 octobre 1307, 17 ou 18 navires… aient appareillé pour une destination inconnue” – Legend has it that on 12 October 1307, 17 or 18 ships sailed off to an unknown destination”.

This image of a fleet slipping away with the order’s treasures and leaders was popularized by books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail. For example, Holy Blood tells how an armada of 18 galleys (said to have carried Grand Master Molay from Cyprus to France) left La Rochelle “laden with knights and treasures” just as the arrest warrant was issued. In these accounts, trusted knights made off with gold, silver and even sacred relics, vanishing into the Atlantic dawn.

What cargo would this fleet have carried? Legend has it the ships were heavy with the Templars’ treasure – gold, jewels and cash – as well as secret archives or relics. The fleet supposedly also bore living fugitives. Other versions say ships carried nothing but documents and important people who would rebuild the order elsewhere. The common thread though is that something unusually precious was spirited away.

In narrative form, the story reads like a seafaring adventure: valiant Templar priests and knights, warned just in time, hauling a secret treasure fleet out of harm’s way. But over time these tales became increasingly elaborate and conflicting.

Criticism of the Legend and Common Sense Rebuttals

Claim: Modern historians claim there is no evidence to back up these legends. Contemporary records do not describe any clandestine naval escape. In fact, when Philip’s men moved against La Rochelle, they found the port firmly under royal control.

Rebuttal: It is a fact that the Templars had a huge network of advisors and political insiders. It is highly likely that they had picked up whispers of trouble ahead and acted just in case even though they would have believed nothing could be actioned against them while under the protection of the Papacy. The Port of La Rochelle was a Templar port, and it is more than possible that ships could have left without being recorded as this would have been the deliberate plan and the records managed by those who wanted to conceal the action. Furthermore, no royal soldier or commander would have admitted that they’d let King Phillip’s greatest prize escape for fear of personal reprisals. To support the theory that treasure left the country, Malcolm Barber notes that the king’s forces “found no substantial treasure” when they seized Templar properties. The royal agents did take control of whatever ships remained at La Rochelle but only after the Royal decree by which time a small fleet could easily have departed. As this would have been a top secret and highly clandestine operation, that lack of historical records is irrelevant.

Claim: The fleet likely never sailed as its commander, Raymbaud de Caron, was captured on land and the French crown quickly appropriated the order’s ships and goods. Demurger notes dryly that the supposed disappearance of the La Rochelle fleet “is more likely a legend than fact”. Whatever gold the Templars had was mostly on paper (land, loans, buildings) and much of it fell to the king or passed to the Hospitallers; no hidden hoard was found at La Rochelle or elsewhere.

Rebuttal: The fact that the fleet’s commander was captured on land is, again, irrelevant. The ships captains would have been under clear orders to leave with or without him. It is true that the majority of the Templar wealth was in lands and property, but they were also known as God’s Bankers and would have had to have had significant liquid assets. These would have been worth less than 10% of their ‘paper’ wealth but would still have represented a vast and fabulous fortune. The fact that these reserves were never found implies that they were either spirited away by the Templars or stolen by the kings of Europe. The fact that no ‘hoard’ was found at La Rochelle, the Templars main port and trading centre, is suspicious in itself.

Popular Theories and Speculation

There have been many theories about “where the ships went.” Over the centuries, numerous scenarios have been proposed. It is fair to say that many of these theories are pure speculation but that doesn’t make them any less interesting.

• England, Scotland and the Sinclairs. One long-standing legend connects the fleeing Templars with Robert the Bruce. In this version, Scottish forces let the Armada in as allies; the veteran Templar knights joined Bruce at Bannockburn, even helping win the war against England. The Sinclair (St. Clair) family of Rosslyn is often cast as harbourers of these survivors. Some writers even claim that Henry Sinclair later led a secret Templar expedition to the New World. For example, David Hatcher Childress (in Pirates and the Lost Templar Fleet) argues that “another portion of the fleet fled to the deep fjords of Scotland” under Sinclair command, and “these Templars then made a voyage to Canada in the year 1398, nearly 100 years before Columbus” (There is no medieval evidence for any such voyage. Historians view it as fanciful speculation.)The problem with legends is that they grow and are exaggerated so in this case it is best to do the opposite. England and Scotland would have been a good first destination in line with typical winds and the fact that the ships, if they existed, would have been lightly provisioned and would need supplies. The actual number of Templars could have been little as 50 with another 150 sailors, servants and supporters. This number could easily have been absorbed into the infrastructure of the nobility without much notice – particularly if that was the intention. What might have happened after that is anyone’s guess.

• 

  Portugal and the Order of Christ. The historical record does show that some Templars did find refuge on the Iberian Peninsula – but through political channels, not a flight. In 1312–1319 King Dinis of Portugal quietly transformed the former Templar properties into the new Order of Christ. As one source notes, “under [King Dinis’s] protection, Templar organizations simply changed their name and became the Order of Christ”. As such, some legends claim that the La Rochelle fleet escaped southward to Iberia, carrying treasure to Portuguese shores, which was then used in part to buy sanctuary from the king.

• The Swiss Connection – The emergence of a country and banking. The historical record does show that the emergence of Switzerland as a country made up of Cantons coincided around the same time as the expulsion and persecution of the Templars. Some have speculated that a portion of the Templar fleet sailed through the Mediterranean to Monaco and then travelled across land via Turin to the newly created Gotthard Pass and then on to the Uri Valley. It is fascinating to note that the Swiss flag is a truncated version of the Latin cross used by crusaders and that Templars were largely offered sanctuary after this time.

Coincidences and Possibilities

It is very interesting, if circumstantial, to note that the countries that turned out to be the least supportive of the action against the Templars were also those most like to have been destinations for the legendary Templar treasure fleet. It is also likely that the fleet, if it existed, would have split up and headed for multiple friendly destinations using the wealth on the ships to secure sanctuary for themselves and their comrades. Is it just a coincidence that England, Switzerland, Portugal and Monaco would go on to become global banking, trading and financial centres

The truth is that we don’t know what happened that fateful morning so many years ago. We do know that the Templars must have had financial reserves in gold and other portable assets and that these were never found. We do know that countries that generally rejected the persecution of the Templars were the same destinations likely to have been on the routes of the ships. We do know that the Templars had an excellent network of informants and may well have known of the plot even if they believed it could never be executed. We know that the lack of records is easily explained and that following the departure of the fleet the coincidences mount up one after another. Does this mean the fleet was real? We still can’t prove that, but to dismiss the legend as a just a myth is just foolish.