Like some shadowy da Vinci code enigma, the Knights Templar Christian order left plenty of intriguing questions when they were forcibly wound up by Edward II one cold January day in 1308.

Not the least is this one: what happened to the order's potentially vast wealth which may well have been stored at Faxfleet next to the River Humber?

Was their treasure – most likely gold and silver coins – buried somewhere in the area before the King's men arrived to arrest them? There's certainly no record of their money being impounded. And if it was stolen, by whom? We may never have answers to the questions. What is known, however, is that Yorkshire was the largest and wealthiest of all Templar regions in England. The Knights were formed after the First Crusade of 1096 for the purpose of taking back the sacred city of Jerusalem from Islamic rule. As a Christian order, they initially saw themselves as soldiers who would protect all Christians in the Holy Land, but actually for most of their two centuries of existence there was a rather more mundane side to their work. The Knights Templar were fund-raisers for those who would later go on Crusades and pilgrimages.

To raise the necessary money, they established farming communities called preceptories, and according to the first book on the Knights Templar in Yorkshire, there were 10 of these in the old Ridings. No other English county had as many. The next biggest Templar county was Lincolnshire, with five preceptories. Derbyshire didn't even have one.

Being a determinedly all-male Order it is ironic, then, that the book which traces their two centuries of history in Yorkshire has been researched and written by two women. Diane Holloway of Pudsey, Leeds, and her sister Trish Colton of Huddersfield had long been interested in medieval history, and the Templars' legend in particular. They found plenty of references in books to the Templars in England, but as far as their activities in Yorkshire were concerned, the picture was almost non-existent. So they set about researching the Templars, burrowing through local archaeological archives and following up leads at university libraries as far away as Austin in Texas. Many books and documents were in Latin.

They also traced 10 Templar preceptories in Yorkshire, visiting each site and learning as much as they could about how the Knights operated as farmers and landlords to make money
that would help to keep Jerusalem in Christian hands.

The preceptories were mostly in North and East Yorkshire, the land in South Yorkshire at that time being less suitable for cultivation. The remotest of them were at Westerdale on the North York Moors and Penhill in Wensleydale. There were others at Temple Cowton, near Northallerton, Foulbridge, near Scarborough, Ribston, near Wetherby, Copmanthorpe, near York, Temple Newsam, near Leeds, Temple Hirst and Whitley, between Selby and Doncaster, and Faxfleet on the north bank of the Humber. The Templars' finances depended on the generosity of several great ruling families in Yorkshire, people like the de Mowbrays and the de Lacys.

They gifted the Templars a great deal of land, which was used for growing crops and rearing livestock. In return, so immersed in religion was the medieval mind that these wealthy benefactors expected to spend less time in purgatory during their journey through the afterlife.

Diane says: "The Templars really looked after their farmer tenants, making sure they didn't pay a lot of taxes and tithes."

To that end, their tenants were allowed to display a Knights Templar cross on their houses, which was an early form of tax exemption. However, people who had nothing to do with the Templars cottoned on to this and also put up crosses – an early tax avoidance scam.

Through their research, Diane and Trish found that a number of these crosses still exist. One is attached to a gable on the Pack Horse pub, off Briggate in Leeds. Another is high on the wall of a house at Cottingley, near Bingley.

But the most interesting and colourful relic of the Templars' past found by the sisters can be seen outside the village of Little Ribston, to the north of Wetherby. Attached to the grand 17th century Ribston Hall is a chapel which, although now privately owned, was originally
built for the village of Great Ribston, whose population was wiped out by the Black Death. It contains a remarkable stained glass window showing a Knight wearing the classic white mantle and
red cross.

The Knight also wears a long sword, and it is easy to see why Kings and senior churchmen eventually became wary of the power wielded by the Templars.

They had been long endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church, but when the Holy Land fell to Muslims their power faded. Added to this, rumours surfaced about secret initiation ceremonies, and the King of France, Philip IV – who found himself up to his eyes in debt to the Knights – played on these rumours to persuade Pope Clement V, then living at Avignon in Provence, to take action against the Order.

The crackdown came in 1307. Philip demanded that a papal bull be sent out ordering the arrest of the Templars. In France, the date was Friday the 13th of September – the origin of the date's unlucky reputation – and the Templars were burned at the stake.

In Yorkshire, says Trish Colton, nobody was put to death. Initially, Edward II was reluctant to act against the Templars, but when faced with the threat of excommunication, he was left with no choice but to wind them up.

"He wrote to the Archbishop of York, who was unhappy about having to dissolve the preceptories and kept putting it off. But after two letters from the King, he had to do something, so the Templars were arrested and imprisoned at York Castle."

And what happened to their money?

"It might have been buried, as some people think," Diane says. "But there isn't any evidence that there was anything to take, really. It's all part of the legend.
For instance, Faxfleet on the Humber
was the wealthiest preceptory, and
also the repository for such things as deeds and papers from the other preceptories in Yorkshire. It was decreed that all this should be packed up when the Templars were arrested, and sent
to London."

Which is what happened, Diane and Trish discovered. It was indeed packed up, but it never arrived at its destination.

"After it left Faxfleet," says Diane, "nobody knows what happened to it."

n The Knights Templar in Yorkshire, by Diane Holloway and Trish Colton, is published by The History Press, £12.99. The authors are signing copies at Borders, Briggate, Leeds, today, 11am-3pm. To order a copy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free on 0800 0153232 or online at yorkshirepostbookshop.co.uk. Postage and packing is £2.75.

The Templar Chapel at Little Ribston will be open to the public for a sung Eucharist on November 30, 10am.