The Heretic's Gold: A Novel of the Knights Templar

They took an oath of poverty and became the wealthiest corporation in the world. They swore to protect pilgrims and ended up as bankers to kings. This was a problem.
For two centuries, the Knights Templar were the untouchable sword-arm of Christendom, pioneering a system of international finance that could move a fortune across the globe on a slip of parchment. They were disciplined, pious, and too successful for their own good. Because when you are the only solvent bank in a world of bankrupt monarchies, your most powerful clients are also your most dangerous predators.
Enter King Philip IV of France—a ruler as beautiful as a marble statue, as pious as a saint, and as cold as the tomb. Drowning in debt and consumed by envy, he turns to his ruthless lawyer, Guillaume de Nogaret, a man with a talent for manufacturing sin.
What they unleash is not a war of swords, but of whispers. A meticulously planned conspiracy to dismantle the most powerful order in Europe. From the taverns of Paris to the papal court in Avignon, a chilling campaign of propaganda, torture, and lies paves the way for a single, bloody dawn when every Templar in France is seized in the name of God and Crown.
The Heretic's Gold is a sweeping saga of faith and finance, power and paranoia. It is the story of how an order of holy warriors becomes a political target, how truth is reshaped into heresy, and how the last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, faces the flames to forge a final, defiant curse that will haunt his betrayers to their graves.
This is the story of how an empire is destroyed not by an army, but by an accountant. And how its true treasure was never gold, but a legend so powerful it has outlived kingdoms and continues to be bought and sold to this day.