The Crusades and the journey down the rabbit hole

Perhaps you’ve never heard of the Black Pope, Octogon, Executive Outcomes and Blackwater, but the names Dutch East India Company, Hudson's Bay Company, Wells Fargo and Jesuits may strike more of a chord? No doubt many will have come across the Templars, Crusaders and Masons… but what do all these bodies have in common?

Well the answer is simple, they are all players in the power grab that has taken place over the past millennium or two which has created the world we now live in, one where we falsely believe Democrats, Republicans, Communists, Fascists, Labour or Conservative call the shots... but the real seats of power stretch back through history to the dynasties that have survived the passage of time.

To some it is recognised as the Deep State, Illuminati or New World Order… to a more select group it is known as Octogon.

Which is it? It doesn’t really matter because all these names refer to the top one per cent of the population on our planet who control every aspect of our lives, but they do it all through a complex network of fronts that leave the vast majority in society totally oblivious to the extent to which they are being exploited.

When the Dutch East India Company, or Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, was ferrying slaves around the globe the exploitation was plain to see but the abolition of the slave trade certainly didn’t put an end to it… the dynasties that built their wealth through plunder and destruction didn’t simply pack up sticks and go away, they just realised they would have to conceal their avarice better if they wanted to continue to profit from human misery and suffering.

You’d find it hard to even uncover the top layer of this network of deception now, with precious little chance of getting to the bottom of it… history erased and massaged to hide the extent to which the corruption and greed pollutes our world.

I wouldn’t even begin to surmise where the story starts but I’ll simply go back to about 1095, supposedly the dawn of the Crusades, when Pope Urban II gathered the Council of Clermont together and the pacifist doctrines that had previously governed Christendom were abandoned to create the foundations for Catholic conquest.

The history books often refer to Urban II as a good orator and there’s little doubt he did an amazing job at inciting Christians to come together to wage war on Muslim Turks and Arabs through largely unfounded allegations they were assaulting pilgrims and that Christianity's sacred sites were being desecrated. In fact, many historians have concluded the Muslims were very tolerant towards Christians and Jews, with all minorities co-existing in the Holy Land living in harmony under the moral code of Islam.

But back then there were no mobile phones, television or internet so the medieval Europeans had no way of knowing this and, due to their allegiance to the Vatican in Rome and services being conducted in Latin, they were blissfully unaware of the Eastern Orthodox Church or the Greek-speaking Byzantium, and had even less understanding of the Islamic world.

Common people relied on hearsay for their knowledge of world affairs, so Urban and his followers had little difficulty in inciting hostility... with promises that all sins would be forgiven acting as powerful incentives for believers to join the Holy War. And, handing out fabric crosses for followers to emblazon on their garments, it was not a difficult task to foment hatred for the Muslims… a scenario that has changed little in the millennium that has followed, although it takes a far more sophisticated form of indoctrination now than a symbol of a red cross.

The First Crusade began after 1095 when Christians from France, Germany and Italy, known as the Franks, began a long journey to the Holy Land and up to 30,000 Crusaders converged on Constantinople, before taking control of the cities of Edessa and Antioch. After a long siege they captured Jerusalem in 1099, massacring many civilians in the process.

The loss of Jerusalem was a huge defeat for the Muslims, who had been in control of the city for more than 400 years, and was of great religious significance as control of important sites, such as the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, were surrendered to the Christians.

The Crusaders established a kingdom around Jerusalem that survived until 1187 when a powerful new Muslim leader named Saladin – who had earlier united parts of Syria, Palestine and Egypt – took back the city in the aftermath of the Second Crusade.

As well as the “Kingdom of Jerusalem”, two other states were established by the Crusaders, the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa, with another – the County of Tripoli – added by 1109.

The Second Crusade, decreed by Pope Eugene III in 1144, began in 1147 and was in response to the fall of the Mesopotamian city of Edessa. It was led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, aided by a number of European nobles.

The ultimate aim was to recover the County of Edessa and provide reinforcements for Jerusalem, which was felt to be at risk because the majority of knights participating in the First Crusade had since died.

In the summer of 1147 the Crusaders marched across Europe to Constantinople, then on to the Levant, where they were joined by Italians, northern Europeans and another contingent from France who had sailed rather than travelled by land. But their attempt to recapture Edessa failed, with Conrad’s army heavily defeated by the Turks.

The following year Louis’ army, also ravaged by its passage across the continent, descended on Damascus but after only four days their siege of the city had to be abandoned, bringing an end to the Second Crusade.

As a result of this failure, Jerusalem was left without adequate protection, which ultimately led to the Third Crusade after Saladin recaptured the city in 1187. But, unlike the Christian army a century earlier, Saladin is believed to have shown mercy to the Crusaders in Jerusalem, allowing them to leave in safety for a ransom which helped fund his army.

The defeat by Saladin led to the Third Crusade in 1189, with English Christians led by Richard I (the Lionheart), Germans by Frederick I and French by Philip II spearheading the assault.

Frederick set out on an overland route in 1189 but his force, decimated by disease, never reached the Holy Land. Richard and Philip travelled by sea and arrived safely, but dissent soon caused friction between the kings.

Although the Crusaders successfully reclaimed the cities of Acre and Jaffa in 1191 to move within range of Jerusalem, agreement could not be reached on the unified attack that was necessary to recapture the city.

Finally, in October 1191, Philip returned to France and began attacking Richard I’s territory there. A year later, in October 1192, Richard also returned to Europe, but on his journey home he was captured, imprisoned and held for ransom by Leopold, duke of Austria, whose banners he had insulted at the siege of Acre.

The failure of the Third Crusade sounded the death knell for the remaining Crusader states, although for the next century Crusades continued to be launched, but by 1291 when the city of Acre was finally reclaimed by Muslim forces this chapter of history had practically run its course.

But by now the Crusades had already given birth to the Knights Templar, a military order of the Catholic faith founded around 1119 and based at Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Endorsed by the Catholic church, the Templars became a favoured “charity” throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. In their distinctive white mantles emblazoned with a red cross, the Templar knights were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades.

Non-combatant members of the order were prominent in Christian finance, managing a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom that created innovative financial techniques that were an early form of banking, controlled by arguably the world's first multinational corporation.

The Templars were closely tied to the Crusades so, as their holdings in the Holy Land were eroded, support for the order waned. And, tarnished by rumours of bizarre secret initiation ceremonies, distrust grew and allowed King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Templars, to take advantage.

In 1307 King Philip pressured Pope Clement V to have many of the order's members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions and then burned at the stake… with the order believed to have been disbanded in 1312.

But would such a wealthy and powerful group of people really simply cease to exist… or, like the Nazis 750 years later, would they just take off the uniforms and disappear to some distant land? It’s a question I can’t adequately answer, but if I said the words Rosslyn Chapel and Oak Island you’d no doubt have an idea about how my mind works.

And, what followed the Templars? Well, that’s just the start of the journey down the rabbit hole... Jesuits, Masons, Octagon, take your pick, but rest assured, whichever it is, they are the ones holding the keys to the castle now!