Editing Knights Templar (section)

=== Modern popular culture ===
{{Main|Knights Templar in popular culture}}

The Knights Templar have been associated with legends circulated even during their time. Many orders, such as the freemasons, claimed to have received esoteric wisdom from the Templars, or were direct descendants of the order. Masonic writers added their own speculations in the 18th century, and further fictional embellishments have been added in popular novels such as ''[[Ivanhoe]]'', ''[[Foucault's Pendulum]]'', and ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'';<ref name="HC">[[History (U.S. TV channel)|The History Channel]], ''Decoding the Past: The Templar Code'', 7 November 2005, video documentary written by Marcy Marzuni.</ref> modern movies such as ''[[National Treasure (film)|National Treasure]]'', ''[[The Last Templar (miniseries)|The Last Templar]]'', ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]''; the television series ''[[Knightfall (TV series)|Knightfall]]''; as well as video games such as ''[[Broken Sword]]'', ''[[Deus_Ex (video game)|Deus Ex]]'', ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' and ''[[Dante's Inferno (video game)|Dante's Inferno]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |author1=Magy Seif El-Nasr|author2=Maha Al-Saati|author3=Simon Niedenthal|author4=David Milam |title=Assassin's Creed: A Multi-Cultural Read |url=http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/viewPDFInterstitial/51/46 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091106113413/http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/viewPDFInterstitial/51/46 |archive-date=6 November 2009 |access-date=1 October 2009 |pages=6–7 |format=PDF |quote=we interviewed Jade Raymond ... Jade says ... Templar Treasure was ripe for exploring. What did the Templars find }}</ref>

The Templars were the subject of many conspiracy theories and legends. A legend is that when [[Louis XVI]] was executed, a freemason dipped a cloth in the king's blood and said, "Jacques de Molay, you are avenged.", the idea being that the king of France was responsible for destroying the Knights Templar back then. A theory states that they are still existent and running a secret conspiracy to preserve the bloodline of Jesus.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-03-26 |title=Templar {{!}} History, Battles, Symbols, & Legacy {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Templars |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

There have been speculative popular publications surrounding the order's early occupation of the [[Temple Mount]] in Jerusalem as well as speculation about what [[relic]]s the Templars may have found there. The association of the [[Holy Grail]] with the Templars has precedents even in 12th-century fiction; [[Wolfram von Eschenbach]]'s ''[[Parzival]]'' calls the knights guarding the Grail Kingdom ''templeisen'', apparently a conscious fictionalization of the ''templarii''.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2005|p=133}}. Helmut Brackert, Stephan Fuchs (eds.), ''Titurel'', Walter de Gruyter, 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6v224EoQ8Q4C&pg=PA189 p. 189] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701003539/https://books.google.ch/books?id=6v224EoQ8Q4C&pg=PA189 |date=1 July 2017 }}. There is no evidence of any actual connection of the historical Templars with the Grail, nor any claim on the part of any Templar to have discovered such a relic. See Karen Ralls, ''Knights Templar Encyclopedia: The Essential Guide to the People, Places, Events and Symbols of the Order of the Temple'', p. 156 (The Career Press, Inc., 2007). {{ISBN|978-1-56414-926-8}}</ref><ref>Louis Charpentier, ''Les Mystères de la Cathédrale de Chartres'' (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1966), translated ''The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral'' (London: Research Into Lost Knowledge Organization, 1972).</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sanello, Frank |url=https://archive.org/details/knightstemplarsg00sane/page/207 |title=The Knights Templars: God's Warriors, the Devil's Bankers |publisher=Taylor Trade Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-87833-302-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/knightstemplarsg00sane/page/207 207–208]}}</ref>