Anything History

Yesterday I decided to go to attend the first session on Military Strategies, Tactical Maneuvers, and Officer Training. There were 3 students presenting their 485 topics and the research they have done. The first student to present was Andrew Bohn and his topic was The Fall of Constantinople: 1453. I did think that his presentation was interesting and he made a couple of interesting points about his use of the primary sources he found. However, I did find that his presentation was unorganized and there were times where I lost track of what he was talking about.

The second presentation was Christine Cooper and her topic was How the Selfish Attitude of Red Army Officers Combined with the Lack of training in the 1930′s Led to the Failure of the Red Army Officer Corps in World War II. It was a long title and I had to read it a couple of times so that I could understand it. Although I noticed for her presentation, it was condensed. Of all the presentations, I felt that hers was the strongest and most organized. I followed what she was saying and she did go into proper depth about explaining her topic. In some areas she mentioned things that were somewhat unrelated to her topic, but it was still interesting to learn about.

The final presentation was The Military and Diplomatic Engagements of Frederick the Great during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) by Michael Toeller. He did a great job outlining what was happening leading up to the Seven Years’ War. However, I felt that this presentation was disorganized and that he wasn’t prepared. I think that he was also really nervous and because of this he forgot his place.

Overall, I was impressed with the work that these students have done. I did learn a lot about these topics, and I now have more of an understanding of what I am expected to do for my 485 topic. I did feel that these presentations could have been stronger but now I know what I can do to make sure that I can improve.

      As I continue my research about the Templars I find that I am always asking more questions. I will find the answer to one question but that one answer will open up a series of new questions. For example, my first goal was to get a general understanding about the trial itself and the events surrounding it.  I then found that there was a lot of tension between the Catholic Church and the European Monarchies. I wanted to look up why this was and if this tension had anything to do with why the Templars were eventually put on trial. I found out that this tension contributed greatly to the Templars eventual persecution.

      I have also contacted historians that specialize in my topic. One of which is Malcolm Barber, who is a leading historian in the field and he has dedicated most of his life to researching the Templars. He gave me a list of sources I could use to look further into my topic. This includes a work by Gilmour-Bryson called The Trial of the Templars in Cyprus (1998), and also to look into the Councils of Vienne because they dealt with the crimes the Templars were accused of. He even told me where I could find a copy in English, which has helpful.

      Due to language barriers and the general time setting of my topic it has been difficult finding primary sources. For that reason I have been reading up on a lot of secondary literature, which has its own values in that they provide an account for what happened. My next step is to look a bit deeper into the primary sources I have so that I can create a strong argument for my final paper.

Lately I have been doing a lot of research about the Templars. I have found that the more I learn about the Templars and the circumstances of their downfall, the more I want to find out. For example, many of the books I am reading a Guillame de Nogaret as being involved with the arrest and later trials of the Templars. Before I read about him I had no idea he even existed but now I want to find more on him to see how deep he was actually involved.

I have also been doing research on the books I have been reading, mostly for the literature review that will be due soon. I found a book review on JSTOR that critiques Malcolm Barber’s The Trial of the Templars (1978). The reviewer, Gabriel Spiegel, begins by mentioning that the study of the Templars has become popular. She goes on to give a summary of Barber’s book. She claims that he does remarkable job with outlining that events surrounding the trial and the arrests of the Templars. She also claims that Barbers most important point comes from when he looks at the trials outside of France. When he compares the interrogations from other countries he sees that the Templars didn’t confess to the crimes that they were accused of. Spiegel continues her critique with the weaker pints n Barber’s book. She says that Barbers weakest point is when he tries to find an argument for the reason behind Philip IV’s accusations against the Templars.

This review provided me with a new insight to this book, and it also gave me more of an idea of how I should write my literature review.

Gabriel M. Spiegel, review of The Trial of the Templars, by Malcolm Barber, Speculum, no. 2 (April 1980): 329-332.

This week I had an interview with Dr. Tokareva and I think it went well. She gave me many ideas on how I could narrow my topic and gave me advice on where to look for primary sources. She said to try to look for documents from the church because they keep track of everything, even the trials that the Templars eventually faced. It was a great start for the project because it helped me gather my ideas and finally have something I could use to write a paper. This was one of my main concerns for this paper.

I decided I want to focus on the downfall of the Templars, and ask about what it was that made them fall.  Did they really become too powerful? Were people tired of loaning them money? However, weren’t they well liked? Considering these questions, I think there might have been an even bigger power struggle, such as between the Church and State. In this case, maybe the Templars were caught in the middle.

 I guess I will continue to narrow my topic as I learn more. I found a section of books in the library dedicated to the Templars so I picked up a couple of books from there. This includes a book with many translations of texts about the Templars from that time. I think I am also going to look for information about King Philip IV (France) and Pope Clement V because they were the ones who eventually caused the arrest of the Templars. This weekend I plan on looking at the online databases and hopefully finding many more texts about my topic.

After brainstorming several ideas I thought it would be interesting to study more about the Knights Templar. I know that this is a broad topic for a 6-8 page paper so I figured I could focus more on the banking system that they created. I know that one of the problems I am going to face is finding sources about the topic. Most likely, I will not be finding many primary sources and secondary sources are probably going to be a bit biased. I figured I would start researching a little more on the topic so that I could learn more about the kinds of sources that are available. I will also be meeting with Dr. Tokareva to learn more about the topic and what kinds of sources are available that are also reputable. Chances are I might look into more about how the church was affiliated with the Knights Templar. Here I might ask about why the church felt threatened by the Knights Templar.

If this topic doesn’t work out then I was thinking I could do some research about the Printing Press and how it sparked the Protestant Reformation. Also if that the Protestant Reformation backfires, I figured I could research about the winter Napoleon tried to take Russia. I can only hope that I will find what I need for this research paper.