Assassins and Templars

Steve Tibble tells the story of the medieval world's most extraordinary organisations, the Assassins and the Templars.

About the event

The Assassins and the Templars are two of history’s most legendary groups. One was a Shi’ite religious sect, the other a Christian military order created to defend the Holy Land. Violently opposed, they had vastly different reputations, followings and ambitions. Yet they developed strikingly similar strategies, and their intertwined stories have, oddly enough, uncanny parallels.

Steve Tibble traces the history of these two groups from their origins to their ultimate destruction. He shows how, outnumbered and surrounded, they survived only by perfecting ‘the promise of death’, either in the form of a Templar charge or an Assassin’s dagger.

Death, for themselves or their enemies, was at the core of these extraordinary organisations. Their fanaticism changed the medieval world. And, even up to the present day, in video games and countless conspiracy theories, they have become endlessly conjoined in myth and memory.

Additional information

This event is eligible for our 20% ticket bundle discount.

Book tickets to three or more different events across the festival and you can save 20%. Tickets must be purchased in the same transaction and the discount will automatically be applied within the basket.

Entry to this event is via London Gate.

About the speaker

Steve Tibble is a research associate at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of ‘The Crusader Armies’, ‘The Crusader Strategy’, ‘Templars’, and ‘Crusader Criminals’.