Order in Chaos Hardcover - 2009

by Jack Whyte

The third novel in the thrilling historicaltrilogy about the rise and fall of thepowerful and mysterious Templars, fromthe author of the immensely popularCamulod Chronicles.

Order in Chaos begins just prior to Friday the thirteenthof October 1307, the original Day of Infamy that markedthe abrupt end of the Order of the Templars. On thatday, without warning, King Philip IV sent his armies to arrestevery Templar in France in a single morning. Then, with the aidof Pope Clement V, he seized all the Temple assets and set theHoly Inquisition against the Order.

Forewarned at the last minute by the Grand Master himself,who has discovered the king's plot too late to thwart it, SirWilliam St. Clair flees France with the Temple's legendarytreasure, taking with him several hundred knights, along withthe Scots-born widow of a French Baron, the Lady JessicaRandolph. As time passes and the evidence of the French King'streachery becomes incontestable, St. Clair finds himself increasinglydisillusioned and decides, on behalf of his Order, to abandonthe past. He releases his men from their "sacred" vows ofpapal obedience and leads them into battle as Temple Knightsone last time, in support of King Robert Bruce at the battle ofBannockburn. And in the aftermath of victory, he takes his survivingmen away in search of another legend: the fabled land,mentioned in Templar lore, that lies beyond the Western Oceanand is known as Merica.