2. The Knight Swan

Holy Grail

Why would Theodor Herzl, whose entire mission was to solve the problem of anti-Semitism, have belonged during his student days at the University of Vienna to the Burschenschaft fraternity system, which is known to have been the point of origin for the German nationalism and anti-Semitism behind the rise of the Nazis? And why would Herzl have shared the organization’s admiration for Hitler’s favorite composer Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883), whose ideals participated in the Pan-German movement behind the Burschenschaft system? Herzl opened the Second Zionist Congress in 1898 with the overture from Wagner’s Tannhäuser opera, a story about the Sängerkrieg, or “Song Contest,” during which the medieval Minnesinger Wolfram von Eschenbach (c. 1160/80 – c. 1220) produced his Grail story Lohengrin, a tale of the Knight of the Swan, which was perceived of some importance by those families who traced their descent back to the leaders of the First Crusade to retake the Holy Land in 1099. Their descendants were not only responsible for the rise of the Rosicrucian movement, Freemasonry and the Illuminati, but of the traditions of German romantic philosophy, with the likes of Goethe, Herder, Fichte and Hegel, who inspired the rise of German Nationalism.

Knight Swan ancestry was linked very early with the English crown, beginning in 1125 with the marriage of Stephen I, King of England, to Matilda, the daughter of Eustace III of Bouillon, the brother of Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin I of Jerusalem. William of Tyre (c. 1130 – 1186), writing his History of the Crusade about 1190, records the tale of the Knight of the Swan from whom Godfrey of Bouillon and his brothers Baldwin and Eustace were descended. The tale was repeated in the Crusade cycle, where Godfrey was the hero of numerous French chansons de geste. The legend of the Knight of the Swan, most famous today as the storyline of Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, based on the grail story Parzival by German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach (c. 1160/80 – c. 1220). Wolfram claimed to have obtained his information from a certain Kyot de Provence, who would have been Guyot de Provins (d. after 1208), a troubadour and monk at Cluny. According to Wolfram, Kyot had uncovered a neglected Arabic manuscript in Moorish Toledo, Spain. Wolfram maintains that Kyot, in turn, supposedly received the Grail story from Flegetanis, a Muslim astronomer and a descendant of Solomon who had found the secrets of the Holy Grail written in the stars.

Wolfram, referring to the Templars, also claims Kyot’s research had revealed a genealogical connection to the Grail: “And the sons of baptized men hold It and guard It with humble heart, and the best of mankind shall those knights be who have in such service part.”[1] According to Wolfram, the Grail sustained the lives of a brotherhood of knights called Templeisen, who are guardians of the Temple of the Grail. Like their real-life counterparts, who made their home in a palace near the site of Solomon’s Temple, the Templeisen were headquartered in a castle. This fictional castle was called Munsalvaesche, or “Mountain of Salvation,” a name which recalls Montsegur, the mountain fortress of the Cathars in Languedoc.[2]

Hugh of Champagne’s step-brother was Stephen II, Count of Blois (c. 1045 – 1102), one of the leaders of the Princes’ Crusade, and the father of Stephen I, King of England (1092 or 1096 – 1154), who married Matilda, the niece of Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin I of Jerusalem. Matilda’s mother was Mary, whose brother was David I of Scotland (c. 1084 – 1153), a supporter of the Templars. The first blood libel case of the Jewish ritual murder of William of Norwich was suppressed, according to Thomas Monmouth, by Stephen I of England. Thomas of Monmouth’s account of the accusation against Jews of the ritual murder of William of Norwich helped inflame antisemitic sentiment in England, resulting in the eventual expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.

Stephen I of England’s brother was Henry of Blois (1096 – 1171), Abbot of Glastonbury, Bishop of Winchester, who was intimately tied to the legends of King Arthur. According to Francis Lot, author of The Island of Avalon, Henry Blois, used Geoffrey of Monmouth as a nom de plume to compose the pseudo-historical Historia Regum Britanniae (“History of the Kings of Britain”), written between 1135 and 1139, and was responsible for the Prophecies of Merlin.[3] The actual author is not proven but Hank Harrison was the first, in 1992, to suggest that Henri of Blois was the author of the Perlesvaus.[4] The fact that the Grail sagas are concerned with a secret and purportedly sacred lineage is indicated in the Perlesvaus, where we read: “Here is the story of thy descent; here begins the Book of the Sangreal.”

Henry of Blois’ other brother was Theobald II, Count of Champagne (1090 – 1152), who inherited the titles of their uncle Hugh of Champagne. Theobald II was among the delegates at the Council of Troyes in 1128 to endorse the recognition of the Templars. Theobald II was the father of Theobald V, Count of Blois (1130 – 1191), married Alix of France, the daughter of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Like his uncle Stephen I of England, Theobald V also came to the defense of a blood libel case against the Jews. Implicated in the affair was Theobald V’s mistress, Pulcelina of Blois, a Jewish woman, mistress and moneylender to the count.[5]

Theobald V’s brother, Henry I of Champagne (1127 – 1181) married Alix’s siter, Marie of France, who sponsored Grail author Chrétien de Troyes (fl. c. 1160 – 1191). Henry of Champagne’s court in Troyes became a renowned literary center, which included Walter Map, source of the Melusina and “Skull of Sidon” legends.[6] According to the legend reported by Map, a Templar “Lord of Sidon” committed a necrophilic act with his deceased lover, and Armenian princess, which nine month later produced the skull and bones, which in due course, passed to the possession of the Templars.[7] Marie’s son, Henry II of Champagne (1166 – 1197) was King of Jerusalem in the 1190s, by virtue of his marriage to Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem, the daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem, the second son of Fulk of Jerusalem, and Melisende, identified with the demon Melusine, the eldest daughter of Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Morphia, who inspired the necrophilic legend of the Skull of Sidon. Morphia belonged to the Rubenid dynasty, an alleged offshoot of the larger Bagratuni dynasty, who became rulers of Armenia in the ninth century AD, and who claimed Jewish descent.[8]

Before she married Henry II of Champagned, Isabella I had first been married to Conrad of Montferrat (d. 1192). Isabella’s half-sister Sibylla was reportedly the founder of the Order of Melusine.[9] Sibylla married Guy of Lusignan (c. 1150 – 1194), who lost his claim to the throne of Jerusalem when his wife Sibylla died in 1190. Conrad then acquired the title of King of Jerusalem by virtue of his marriage to Isabella I. It was after Conrad was assassinated by the Assassins, Isabella married Henry II of Champagne.[10] After Henry II died in 1197, Isabella married Guy’s brother, Aimery of Cyprus (before 1155 – 1205). They were crowned together as King and Queen of Jerusalem in January 1198 in Acre. Isabella was succeeded as queen by her eldest daughter by Conrad, Maria of Montferrat.  

Wartburgkrieg

Stephen was succeeded as King of England by Henry II (1133 – 1189), of the Plantagenet dynasty, and husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The House of Plantagenet, descendants of the House of Anjou, the House of Luxembourg and French House of Lusignan—all descended, according to medieval folk legends from the dragon spirit Melusine. These dynastic alliances were founders of the Order of the Dragon and the Order of the Garter, based on the legend of Saint George, founded by Charles I of Hungary (1288 – 1342). The entire family network would have been aware of the significance of their ancestry from Hungary, and their descent from Magog, the claimed ancestor of the Scythians, and the Khazars, as the Gesta Hungarorum, Latin for “The Deeds of the Hungarians”, a record of early Hungarian history, written by the unknown author around 1200 AD, the Magyars were Scythians, originally descended from Magog. The saga traces the ancestry of Arpad, the founder of the Hungarian dynasty, to the Turul who impregnated his grandmother. The Turul, like the Turkic Toghrul of the Khazars, is a giant mythical eagle, a messenger of god.[11]

In recognition of his heritage, Charles I of Hungary gave importance to the cults of the princess Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, the wife of Landgrave Louis IV of Thuringia (1200 – 1227), famous for having performed the Miracle of the Roses.[12] According to the fable, while Elizabeth was taking bread to the poor in secret, she met her husband Louis on a hunting party. In order to quell suspicions that she was stealing treasure from the castle, he asked her to reveal what was hidden under her cloak, which at that moment fell open to reveal a vision of white and red roses, which proved to Louis that God was protecting her work.[13]

Elizabeth and Louis’ daughter, Sophie of Thuringia, married Henry II, Duke of Brabant (1207 – 1248), who could claim descent from the Knight of the Swan. The story of the fairy ancestry of the Knight of the Swan has been provided to explain the ancestries of not only the Houses of Bouillon, but also of Cleves, Oldenburg and Hesse. As in other versions, Loherangrin is a knight who arrives in a swan-pulled boat to defend a lady, in this case Elsa of Brabant. In Wolfram’s story, Wartburg is the Grail castle Munsalvaesche, where Parzival’s son, the Knight Swan Loherangrin, hears a call of distress from Elsa of Brabant, who is being held prisoner in the castle of Cleves, modern Kleve, Germany. The principal French versions of the romance are Le Chevalier au Cygne and Helyas. Helyas married Elsa of Brabant, producing a son, Elimar, who married Rixa, the heiress of Oldenburg, and became the Count of Oldenburg.[14] Helyas then marries Beatrix of Cleves and becomes king of Francia. They have three sons: Diederik, who succeeded his father in the county of Cleves; Godfrey, who became count of Lohn; and Konrad, who became ancestor of the counts of Hesse.[15]

The Swan line of Cleves was particularly celebrated.[16] The Schwanritter by Konrad von Würzburg (c.1220-1230 – 1287) has the Swan Knight rescuing the Duke of Brabant’s widow, and from them descend the houses of Cleves, Guelders, and Rheinecks. Jacob of Maerlant’s thirteenth-century Spiegel Historiael has the dukes of Brabant as Swan Knight descendants. The Dukes of Cleves in the Grail castle Schwanenburg, located along the Northern Rhine, where Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote the story of Lohengrin, immortalized in Wagner’s famous opera. The Chronicles of the Dukes of Clèves of the fifteenth century depict Beatrice in her Schwanenturm (“Swan Tower”) receiving the Swan Knight.

In 1197, the first duke of Brabant was Henry I, Duke of Brabant (c. 1165 – 1235), who joined as one of the leaders the crusade launched by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. Henry I married Matilda of Boulogne, the granddaughter of King Stephen I of England and Matilda of Boulogne. Their son, Henry II, Duke of Brabant married Sophie of Thuringia, the daughter of Elizabeth of Hungary and Louis. Louis’ father, Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia (d. 1217), supported poets like Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach who wrote part of his Parzival at Wartburg Castle in 1203. A contemporary poem known as the Wartburgkrieg presented the story of the Knight of the Swan Lohengrin as Wolfram’s entry in a story-telling contest held at Wartburg Castle by Louis’ father, Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia (d. 1217).[17] In the Rätselspiel (“mystery game”), the subsequent poetic duel between Wolfram and the magician Klingsor of Hungary, Wolfram proved himself capable and eloquent, and when Klingsor grew weary he summoned a demon to continue the duel. When Wolfram began to sing of the Christian mysteries, the demon was unable to respond. Klingsor predicted the birth of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, from whom the Landgraves of Hesse in Germany claim their descent. Henry II and Sophie’s son was Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse (1244 – 1308), the first of the landgraves of Hesse.

Order of Santiago

Early descendants of the Knight Swan included Edward I of England and Ferdinand III of Castile (1199/1201 – 1252), whose reign saw the most massive advance in the reconquista, the reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims—with the aim of establishing their own “Second Holy Land.”[18] The Abbey of Cluny also played a significant role in directing the Reconquista. Strong political ties with Burgundy in France, in which the interests of Cluny were closely interwoven, were established with the marriage of Ferdinand III’s ancestor, Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile (c. 1040/1041 – 1109) to Constance of Burgundy, the niece of the Hugh, Abbot of Cluny (1024 – 1109), also known as Hugh the Great, who played an important role through his influence over Pope Urban II, who launched the First Crusade.[19] Alfonso VI’s daughters, Urraca and Teresa, married Constance’s nephew Raymond (c. 1070 – 1107) and his cousin Henry of Burgundy (1066 – 1112). Raymond was the brother of Pope Callixtus II (c. 1065 – 1124), who was connected to Cluny, and uncle of Isabella, the wife of Hugh of Champagne. These marriages produced the descendants responsible for the creation of knightly orders which would represent the survival of the Templars: the Order of Santiago, the Order of Calatrava, the Order of Montesa, the Order of Saint George, and the Order of Christ.

Order of Calatrava was founded by Raymond’s son, Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile (1105 – 1157), who was married to Berenguela, the daughter of the Templar, Ramon Berenguer III (1082 – July 1131), Count of Barcelona.[20] After the conquest of Calatrava from the Muslims, in 1147, Alfonso VII placed his Jewish advisor Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra, in command of one of his fortresses, later making him his court chamberlain.[21] Judah was related to Abraham Bar Hiyya’s student, Abraham Ibn Ezra, a Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra, and shared with him a mutual friend in Judah Halevi (c. 1075 – 1141).[22] Judah, also called ha-Nasi, was a relative of a relative of Moses ibn Ezra (c. 1060 – 1140), who belonged to one of the most prominent families of Granada. Judah had considerable influence with Alfonso VII. In the beginning of his reign, Alfonso VII curtailed the rights and liberties that his father accorded to the Jews. Abraham Ibn Daud, in his Sefer ha-Kabbalah, praises Judah ibn Ezra, stating that, in reference to “When I would heal Israel, then is the iniquity of Ephraim uncovered” (Hosea 7:1), God “anticipated [the calamity] by putting it into the heart of King Alfonso the Emperador to appoint our master and rabbi, R. Judah the Nasi b. Ezra, over Calatrava and to place all the royal provisions in his charge.”[23]

In 1171, Alfonso VII’s son Ferdinand II of Leon (c. 1137 – 1188), founded the Order of Santiago, known also as the Order of Saint James of the Sword. Ferdinand II’s nephew, Alfonso VIII of Castile (1155 – 1214), who was a patron of the Order of Santiago, married Eleanor of England, the sister of Richard Lionheart, both children of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England. Alfonso VIII was the principal benefactor of the Order of Monfragüe, founded by the knights of the Order of Mountjoy who dissented from a merger with the Templars. Rodrigo Álvarez (d. 1187), a member of the Order of Santiago, founded the military Order of Mountjoy in 1174 in the kingdom of Jerusalem in the tower of Ascalon and affiliated it with the Cistercian Order that he had long patronized.

Rodrigo received support from Alfonso II of Aragon (1157 – 1196)—the son of Alfonso VII by his second wife Richeza of Poland—who donated the castle of Alfambra to the order in return for military aid against the Muslims.[24] Wolfram von Eschenbach, claimed to have obtained his information from a certain Kyot de Provence, who would have been Guyot de Provins (d. after 1208), a troubadour and monk at Cluny, who, in his famous La Bible Guiot, named his protectors, who included: Alfonso II of Aragon, Fredrick Barbarossa, Louis VII of France, Henry II of England, Henry the Young King, Richard the Lionheart, and Raymond V of Toulouse, all closely associated with the Melusine line.[25] In 1201, Alfonso II’s son, Peter II of Aragon (1174/76 – 1213), founded the Order of Saint George of Alfama, in gratitude for the patron saint’s assistance to the armies of Aragon.[26] Peter II was killed at the Battle of Muret supporting the Cathars. Peter’s son James I Aragon (1208 – 1276), who was raised by Templars, was known as “the Conqueror” for his role in the Reconquista.[27]

In 1221, the Order of Calatrava was merged into that of Monfragüe, by order of Ferdinand III of Castile, whose son, Alfonso X Castile (1221 – 1284), James I’s daughter Violant.[28] An illustration in the book of chess produced for Alfonso X shows two Templars playing the game, indicating their familiarity with the Castilian court.[29] From the beginning of his reign, Alfonso X, sometimes nicknamed el Astrólogo (the Astrologer), employed Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars at his court from the Toledo School of Translators primarily for the purpose of translating books from Arabic and Hebrew into Latin and Castilian, although he always insisted in supervising personally the translations. Under Alfonso X’s leadership, Sephardic Jewish scientists and translators acquired a prominent role in the School.[30] It was during the time of Alfonso X that the Zohar was written in the Kingdom of Leon by Moses de Leon (c. 1240 – 1305). Yehuda Liebes has presented substantial evidence in support for his hypothesis that Shimon bar Yohai, the central figure of the Zohar, was modeled after a leading Jewish scholar at the court of Alfonso X, Todros ben Joseph HaLevi Abulafia (1225 – c. 1285), a Kabbalist and rabbi recognized by the Jewish community as their Nasi, whose son Joseph was a friend of de Leon.[31]

Jolly Roger

The island of Sicily had been ruled as a medieval kingdom since the early 12th century, when Norman lord Roger II of Sicily (1095 – 1154)—who was married to Elvira, daughter of Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile and Zaida, a Muslim princess—conquered the island and established the Kingdom of Sicily.[32] Roger II of Sicily was a supporter of Anacletus II (d. 1138), who ruled in opposition to Pope Innocent II from 1130 until his death in 1138. Although many heads of the Catholic Church have been rumored over the ages to be of Jewish descent, Anacletus II is known to have been born Pietro Pierleoni, a noble Roman family of Jewish origin, who dominated Roman politics for much of the Middle Ages. Baruch, the great-grandfather of Anacletus II, was a Roman moneylender who converted to Christianity and changed his name to Leo de Benedicto, whose baptismal name comes from the fact that he was baptized by Pope Leo IX himself. He married into Roman aristocracy, and it was his grandson, Petrus Leonis, who chose to have his son enter the priesthood. Petrus studied in Paris and was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Cluny, before returning to Rome.[33]

The enemies of Anacletus II attacked him for his Jewish ancestry, and he was accused of robbing the church of much of its wealth, together with Jewish helpers, and of incest.[34] Anacletus II is associated with the Jewish legend of a Jewish pope named Andreas.[35] According to an old Spanish document discovered among some penitential liturgies by Eliezer ben Solomon Ashkenazi (1512 – 1585), published in 1854, Andreas was a Jew who, upon becoming a Christian, created such an impression that eventually became cardinal and eventually pope.[36] According to a traditional account, Pope Andreas was El-hanan, or Elhanan, son of Rabbi Simeon the Great, of the Makhir-Kalonynus line, ancestor of Rashi.[37]

Under the marriage agreement between Roger II and Elvira, if Baldwin I and Adelaide had no children, the heir to the kingdom of Jerusalem would be Roger II. Roger was a Templar from Normandy, who conquered Sicily during the time of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.[38] Roger II of Sicily, was to become the “Jolly Roger” of history, related to the legend of the Skull of Sidon, having flown the skull and crossbones on his ships. As a reward for his support, Anacletus approved Roger II’s title of “King of Sicily” by papal bull after his accession.[39]

Roger II and Elvira’s son, William I of Sicily, married Margaret of Navarre, the niece of a famous count of the Perche, Rotrou III (1099 – 1144), who according to Swiss scholar André de Mandach was ‘‘Perceval’’ of the Grail legends. Rotrou III married Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche, an illegitimate daughter of King Henry I of England, and sister-in-law of Geoffrey V of Anjou, founder of the Plantagenet dynasty, and Robert Count of Gloucester who had commissioned copies of the Historia Regum Brittaniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth which popularized the legend of King Arthur. By his second wife, Hawise, daughter of Walter of Salisbury, Rotrou III was the father of Stephen du Perche, Archbishop of Palermo, who was Margaret’s counsellor.

Stephen du Perche hired Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135 – 1202), a heretical Cistercian abbot from Calabria—and a disciple of Bernard of Clairvaux, patron of the Knights Templar—who would exercise an enormous influence in millennialism, dealing with expectations of the Biblical End Times.[40] Joachim’s family lived in a region of many Jews, and studies have explored the possibility that Joachim had Jewish origins.[41] Joachim’s ideas were clearly not of a Christian origin, and may stem from the fact that, as pointed out by Robert E. Lerner, who accepts the claims of Joachim’s Jewish ancestry, Joachim was very likely drawing on rabbinical sources.[42] According to Joachim, first was the Age of the Father, corresponding to the Old Testament, characterized by obedience of mankind to the Rules of God. Second was the Age of the Son, between the advent of Christ and 1260 AD, represented by the New Testament, when Man became the Son of God. And finally, the Age of the Holy Spirit when mankind was to come in direct contact with God, reaching the total freedom preached by the Christian message. In this new Age the ecclesiastical organization would be replaced, and the Church would be ruled by the Order of the Just, later identified with the Franciscan order.

By his second wife Beatrice of Rethel, grand-niece of Baldwin II of Jerusalem, Roger II of Sicily had a daughter, Constance, Queen of Sicily, who married Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1165 – 1197), the son of Frederick Barbarossa (1122 – 1190) and Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy. Their son was Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194 – 1250). Frederick II’s birth was also associated with a prophecy of the magician Merlin. According to Andrea Dandolo (1306 –1354), the 54th doge of Venice, writing at some distance but probably recording contemporary gossip, Henry doubted reports of his wife’s pregnancy and was only convinced by consulting Joachim of Fiore, who confirmed that Frederick was his son by interpretation of Merlin’s prophecy and the Erythraean Sibyl.[43] In addition to Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II was also King of Sicily, King of Germany, King of Italy, and King of Jerusalem by virtue of his marriage to Isabella II of Jerusalem, the daughter of Maria of Montferrat.

Perceval

Sancha of Castile, Ferdinand II’s sister, married the brother of Margaret of Navarre, Sancho VI of Navarre (1132 – 1194). Their daughter Berengaria Sánchez married Richard the Lionheart. Margaret’s son, William II of Sicily (1153 – 1189). William II was a champion of the papacy and in secret league with the Lombard cities he was able to defy the common enemy, Frederick Barbarossa. In the Divine Comedy, Dante places both William I and Margaret’s son, William II of Sicily, and Joachim of Fiore in Paradise. It is suggested that Joachim of Fiore’s image of God as three interlaced rings inspired Dante.[44] Joan later married Cathar supporter Count Raymond VI of Toulouse 1156 – 1222), grandson of Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, one of the leaders of the Princes’ Crusade.

Margaret’s sister Blanche married Sancha’s brother, Sancho III of Castile (c. 1134 – 1158). Their son was Alfonso VIII of Castile, a patron of the Order of Santiago. Raymond VI was the most ardent defender of the Cathars when the Church finally launched the Albigensian Crusade of 1209, and in reference to the Languedoc center at Albi, when an army of some thirty thousand knights and foot soldiers from northern Europe descended on the Languedoc to extirpate the heresy. It was Raymond VI’s nephew, Raymond-Roger Trencavel, Viscount of Béziers and Carcassonne (1185 – 1209), who faced the full force of the first crusade. Raymond-Roger, whose family was related to Rotrou III, was the son of Roger II Trencavel (d. 1194), and Adelaide of Béziers, the daughter of Raymond VI’s father, Raymond V of Toulouse (c. 1134 – c. 1194). Roger II took the most prominent Jews among under his personal protection. For example, he secured the freedom of Abraham ben David of Posquières, who had been thrown into prison by the lord of Posquières, and gave him shelter at Carcassonne.[45]

According to the earliest sources, Percival, one of King Arthur’s legendary Knights of the Round Table, the original hero in the quest for the Grail, was identified with Raymond-Roger Trencavel.[46] Though Raymond-Roger was not a Cathar himself, his wife, Philippa of Montcada, and several of his relatives were.[47] Roger II’s niece, Esclarmonde of Foix was a Cathar, who was mentioned in Esclaramonde, by Bertran de Born, and in Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. A tradition which is based on a reworking of the Chanson de la croisade albigeoise, written in Languedoc between 1208 and 1219, attributes to her the initiative of the reconstruction of the Cathar fortress of Montsegur.[48]


[1] Laurence Gardner. Bloodline of the Holy Grail: The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed (Great Britain: Element Books, 1996), p. 137

[2] Edward Peters, ed (1980). “The Cathars.” Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe (University of Pennsylvania Press). p. 108.

[3] Francis Lot. The Island of Avalon: Volume 1. Lulu.com. pp. 420

[4] Hank Harrison. The Cauldron and the Grail (Media Associates, 1993), p. 223.

[5] Nissan Mindel. “The Martyrs of Blois - (circa 1171) - Jewish History.” Kehot Publication Society (June 16, 2006).

[6] Joshua Byron Smith. Walter Map and the Matter of Britain (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), p. 218 n. 8.

[7] J. S. M. Ward. Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, 2nd ed (London, 1926), p. 305.

[8] Nicholas Adontz (1938). “Samuel l'Armenien, roi des Bulgares,” MAR Bclsmp (in French) (39): 37; David Marshall Lang. The Bulgarians: from pagan times to the Ottoman conquest (Westview Press, 1976), p. 67; Tom Winnifrith. Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania (Duckworth, 2002), p. 83.

[9] Adrien Pascal. Histoire de la maison royale de Lusignan (L. Vanier, 1896), p. 13.

[10] Patrick A. Williams. “The Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat: Another Suspect?.” Traditio, 26 (1970), p. 382.

[11] Hamori, Fred. The Devi and his Helpers and his Aliases, http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/devil.htm

[12] Gabor Klanniczay. “The Great Royal Trio: Charles IV, Louis I of Anjou and Casimir the Great,” in Kaiser Karl IV – Die böhmischen Länder und Europa - Emperor Charles IV, Lands of the Bohemian Crown and Europe, eds. Daniela Břízová, Jiří Kuthan, Jana Peroutková, Stefan Scholz (Prague: Kalsuniversität, 2017), p. 265.

[13] Charles Forbes René de Montalembert. Hagiography of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (1839).

[14] David Hughes. The British Chronicles, Volume 1 (Heritage Books, 2007), p.379.

[15] "Beatrix van Kleef van Teisterband (c.695 - c.734) - Genealogy". Retrieved from https://www.geni.com/people/Beatrix-van-Kleef-van-Teisterband/6000000002141639343

[16] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).

[17] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Lohengrin.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lohengrin-German-legendary-figure

[18] Natalie Jayne Goodison. Introducing the Medieval Swan (University of Wales Press, 2022).

[19] John Williams. “Cluny and Spain.” Gesta, Vol. 27, No. 1/2, Current Studies on Cluny (1988), p. 93.

[20] Helen Nicholson. A Brief History of the Knights Templar (Constable & Robinson Ltd. 2010), p. 102.

[21] “Spain Virtual Jewish History Tour.” Retrieved from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/spain-virtual-jewish-history-tour

[22] Adolph Drechsler. Illustriertes Lexikon der Astronomie (Leipzig: J. J. Weber, 1881); Schuchard. Restoring the Temple of Vision, p. 44.

[23] Abraham Ibn Da’ud. Sefer ha-Qabbalah: The Book of Tradition, (ed.) and trans. Gerson D. Cohen. (Oxford: Littman Library, 2005), pp. 259 ff.

[24] Simon Barton. The Aristocracy in Twelfth-Century León and Castile. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

[25] Otto Rahn. Crusade Against the Grail (1933)

[26] C. Moeller. “Orders of St. George.” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912). Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13350a.htm

[27] H. J. Chaytor. A History of Aragon and Catalonia (London: Methuen, 1933), p. 82.

[28] Enrique Rodríguez-Picavea Matilla. “Documentos para el estudio de la Orden de Calatrava en la Meseta meridional castellana (1102-1302).” Cuadernos de Historia Medieval Secc. Colecciones Documentales (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 1999), 2.

[29] Helen Nicholson. A Brief History of the Knights Templar (London: Constable & Robinson, 2001).

[30] José Muñoz Sendino. La escala de Mahoma (Madrid: Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, 1949), p. 15.

[31] Yehuda Liebes, Studies in the Zohar (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), pp. 135-138; cited in Mark Verman. “Kabbalah and Jewish Empowerment.” H-Judaic (April, 2015). Retrieved from https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=43555; Heinrich Graetz. History of ‘he Jews, Vol. IV. From the Rise of the Kabbala (1270 C. E.) to the Permanent Settlement of the Marranos in Holland (1618 C. E.) (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1894).

[32] “Queen Elvira de Leon, of Leon (born Castille), 965 - 1017.” Retrieved from https://www.myheritage.com/names/elvira_castille

[33] David B. Green. “This Day in Jewish History / An Anti-pope of Jewish Descent Dies.” Haaretz (January 25, 2013).

[34] Horace K. Mann. The Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages, Vol 8 (1925), p. 235.

[35] P. G. Bietenholz & Peter G. Bietenholz. Historia and Fabula: Myths and Legends in Historical Thought from Antiquity to the Modern Age. Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History (Brill Academic Publishers, 1997. p. 106.

[36] H. G. Enelow. “Andreas.” Jewish Encyclopedia.

[37] Joshua Schwartz & Marcel Poorthuis. Saints and role models in Judaism and Christianity (Brill Academic Publishers, 2004). p. 308.

[38] David Hatcher Childress. Pirates and the Lost Templar Fleet, (Adventures Unlimited Press, 2003) p. 60.

[39] Marjorie Chibnall. The Normans (Wiley & Sons, 2006), p. 86.

[40] Christopher Macintosh. The Rosicrucians: The History, Mythology, and Rituals of an Esoteric Order (Weiser Books, Sep 1, 1998) p. 27.

[41] Dokcin Zivadinovic. “The Origins And Antecedents Of Joachim Of Fiore’s (1135-1202) Historical-Continuous Method Of Prophetic Interpretation Historical-Continuous Method Of Prophetic Interpretation.” Andrews University (2018).

[42] Lerner. The Feast of Saint Abraham, p. 27.

[43] T. C. Van Cleve. The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen: Immuntator Mundi (Oxford. 1972), pp. 13–16.

[44] M. Reeves & B. Hirsch-Reich. The Figurae of Joachim of Fiore (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972).

[45] Richard Gottheil, Isaac Broydé. “Carcassonne.” Jewish Encyclopedia.

[46] Adolfo Salazar & Gilbert Chase. “Parsifal in Romanic Lands.” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1 (January, 1939).

[47] Barber. The Cathars, p. 52.

[48] René Nelli. Les Cathares : L’éternel combat, Paris, Grasset, coll. “Histoire des personnages mystérieux et des sociétés secretes” (1972), p. 244.

Zionism