Knights Templar History & Medieval Myths
This is a Horstmann Knights Templar sword. To avoid any confusion, this is not a medieval sword used by the Order of the Knights Templar. What you see here is a beautiful ceremonial sword used by a Masonic organization, probably in the 19th century. The Latin phrase “In Hoc Signo Vinces” is a classic Templar motto. It can be seen in the last image, along with the letters “K” and “T”. The photographs were taken and kindly submitted by Jo Anne Farrell. All images can be zoomed in.
FilmSwords is a company makes medieval decorative swords “as seen in the movies.” This makes me believe that the Swedish film “Arn: The Knight Templar” is more popular than I thought.
Peter Johnsson (who works as designer for Albion) modelled it on a type of sword being used at the end of the 1100s. A well-known representative of this type exists and is preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna: the sword of Saint Maurice, part of the imperial regalia of the Holy Roman Empire.
Arn was given his sword by his master and mentor, monk and one-time Templar, Brother Guilbert.
The sword bears an inscription “In hoc signo vinces” – “With this sign though shall be victorious.” This motto is not exclusively a Templar device, but it was somewhat favored by the Knights of the Temple. Other than that I have nothing to say about the authenticity of the sword. Buy at your own risk!
For a very serious Templar buff, there are functional swords, such as this one by Marco of Toledo:
