Abbot Henry de Blois, Templars and
the Holy Grail
Henry de Blois was the nephew of King Henry
I, prince and devoted brother of Stephen of Champagne (later King of England
1135-59). Prince Henry was the maternal grandson of William the Conqueror, son
of the latter’s daughter Adela, by Count Stephen of Blois. Henry’s father
died in the Crusade at Razes when he was only two years of age. Little is known
about his childhood, still sources tell us he was nicknamed “the sage”
because he seemed to know and remember everything, and that he spent some years
in the great monastery of Cluny in Burgundy.
At the young age of 23, Henry was appointed Prior of Monacute in
Somerset, where his uncle Henry (Beauclerc) was planning to create a fine royal
abbey. By this time, Henry de Blois had undergone and perfected his studies in
the seven liberal arts; trivium (grammar, rhetoric and logic), quadrivium
(geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy) together with architecture.
In 1126 at the age of 29, Henry was appointed Abbot
of Glastonbury. What he saw there was an Abbey in a state of collapse and the
monks lacked even the bare necessities for life. Abbot Henry took immediate
action proving himself as an excellent administrator and architect. Keen on
centralised administration and economic strength, he recovered and restored the
monastery and manors at Mells, Uffculme, Camerton, Damerham, and the villages of
Siston, Ashcott, Pedwell and Moorlinch. He also built castles at Farnham,
Downton and Taunton and supervised building at Merton, Wolvesey and Waltham.
At Glastonbury
alone he built a bell tower, chapter house, cloister, lavatory, refectory,
dormitory, the infantry with its chapel, a beautiful building called the 'Castellum'
an attractive outer gate of dressed stone, a brewery and stables for many
horses and also extended St Dunstan's library.
By 1143, Glastonbury Abbey is described in the
Doomsday book as “the wealthiest in England”. It had only taken Henry 17
years to transform Glastonbury Abbey to a landmark in England, the Abbey also
becoming a centre for pilgrimage and learning throughout the rest of the known
world.
Three years after Henry was designated the abbacy at
Glastonbury, he was to become Bishop of Winchester. Here at this splendid
cathedral he enclosed parts of the south transept to for the cathedral's
priceless possessions. Henry also altered the east end around the relics of St
Swithun, including the Holy Hole, where pilgrims could crawl underneath the
relics to get closer to the curative powers which were thought to emanate from
the saint’s relics.
The illuminated Winchester Bible was also produced
under the patronage of Bishop Henry (still unfinished at his death).
One of the finest buildings Henry had built was the Hospital of St Cross on the outskirts of Winchester. Some years later, Henry was to assign the guardianship of this place to the Knights Templar. The Hospital of St Cross is Britain's oldest existing charitable foundation. It was built between 1133 and 1136 by Henry de Blois for 'for 13 poor men, so feeble and so reduced in strength that they can scarcely, or not at all support themselves without other aid'. For the wandering pilgrims of today it is a heart-warming place to rest ones weary legs...and receive their Wayfarer's Dole, a drink of beer and some bread is offered in the Porter's Lodge.
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Curious Stone
Carving, St Cross
King
Stephen (Henry's brother), and Queen Matilda were two of the greatest
benefactors to the Templars, they gave them land in London, Lincoln and what was
the largest Templar estate in England, Cressing and Witham, which put together
measured 1.400 acres. Where the Templars had their Manors and preceptories were
of major importance, for different reasons. Many where built on ancient Holy
sites, on hills or by Holy wells. But they also chose their locations for
practical reasons, like St Cross which I have mentioned, from there they had one
day left to travel on horseback, before their last night's sleep in England,
Holy Rod at Southampton. Early the next morning ships were awaiting them, to set
sail for the Crusades, and the Holy Land.
The Knights Templars connection was growing stronger
and Henry supplied them with Purbeck marble for their main seat in England,
Temple Church in London. Henry was the first person in England to use Purbeck
marble. This was a very difficult material to work with due to its hardness. The
skills to work with Purbeck, he might have acquired from his trips to Rome, most
likely bringing Roman stonemasons back with him. We do know about Henry’s
affections for aestheticisms, this is demonstrated in the “Narratio de
Mirabilibus Urbis Romae" of Magister Gregory, where descriptions of
Henry’s purchases of great statues - both classical and pagan can be found.
Unfortunately none, as far as we know, remain.
Henry was the patron of great writers one being Archdeacon,
Gerald of Wales, crusader and writer of at least 17 books, and the renowned
William of Malmsbury. In William of Malmsbury’s work, “De Antiquitate Glasttonie Ecclesie”, which he dedicated
to Henry, he tells us that “the monk he knew personally, and in fact whom he
“served” was shy, learned and a great writer”. Personally Henry gave some
sixty books to the great library at Glastonbury. He had books copied, such as
Pliny’s Natural History, the book of Enoch, several other books of Origen, St.
Jerome and St. Augustine. The standard works of Bede, Alchane and Addlehelm were
included alongside medical treatises, the lives of the saints and the basic
primers of Greek and Latin grammar and rhetoric. In addition to these major
works a curious selection of older books, now lost or dispersed, were listed,
which John of Glaston later describes as “Vetustissimi”.
The Vetustissimi were the books of the ancient ones, all copied before
the Norman Conquest, especially under the great and active leadership of St
Dunstan. Henry also studied the book of St Dunstan. The book deals with St
Dunstan´s sorceries and divinations resisting the Devil, his alchemical
formulae, and a mysterious Gnostic book called "Organum" or "Primum
Organum".
Another thing that might be worth to mention, is the fact that the Welsh
Mabinogion, which some scholars ascribe to had been written around 1060, were
translated to English in the early days of Blois’ tenure. The stories in the
Mabinogion are apparently the first written sources mentioning Arthur. Much has
later been written about King Arthur, his deeds, his knights, his round table
and the search for the Holy Grail-
One of the first grail romances is titled The High History of the Holy
Graal. A curious book, indeed, its language and its profound way of relating
challenging the reader through a labyrinth of Arcane legends. The author describes the local terrain around
Glastonbury so detailed in The High History of the Holy Graal; he must have been
a local to the area, a person steeped in folklore and esoteric wisdom. Its author is anonymous, perhaps for a very good
reason! Could Henry de Blois really have written this monumental Grail Romance?
Whilst drawing a 20th century
illustration of the High History of the Holy Graal, Katharine Maltwood
rediscovered, John Dee had also stated that there was a zodiac at Glastonbury.
Katharine had been asked to draw a map of the itinerary of the Arthurian Grail
Quest around Avalon. This great geomantic circle of giant effigies, ten miles
across and thirty miles round, modelled relief by hills and contours, outlined
in parts by streams depicted the zodiac. The twelve signs of the zodiac have
been completed by man through the ages, by roads, paths and canals, and
embellished by tumuli, ramparts and lynches at nodal points. Katharine goes as
far as claiming the zodiac was constructed by the Sumerians when they arrived in
Britain thousands of years ago and that the Knights Templars worked on it during
their time of dwelling at Glastonbury.
If we look closer into Henry’s family and relations, we will see the
Grail connection getting even stronger. His cousin Theobald was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine ´s daughter,
Marie, Chretien de Troyes being under direct commission by them. As Henry de
Blois also being Chretien de Troyes patron, we have to take into consideration
that Henry might have known about the Grail legends and perhaps even one of its
earliest authors.
In the Elucidation appended to Comte Del Graal by Chretien, the
authorship of one of the first grail books is ascribed to one famous
fabulator named master Blishis, possibly a rustic intonation
of Blois. In the Latin version of the High History, it is credited to a monk at
Glastonbury. Cretien was very close to Eleanor
of Aquitaine and her daughters and admittedly he says that; he
had been given a grail book by them to be romanticised and be read aloud at
court.
To proceed in the development of the Grail legends, we find further
understanding. Eleanor married King Henry II. The stories related to us is that
during a visit to Wales, King Henry was told by a sage the exact place to start
digging at Glastonbury Abbey. Between two pyramids, were the place where they in
1191 found the remains of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. So what we have here
are a few people, very closely related, as promulgators of the Grail story.
Henry’s family can be traced as far back as to Theobald the Cheath, the
man who conquered Chartres in the eight century. Chartres; a cult centre of the
Holy Mother, one of two hundred or so sanctuaries in France for the Black
Madonna, most of them dating back to the 11th and 12th
centuries. What we might be looking at is a continuation of an ancient mystery
veneration of the Sacred feminine. It came alive again through the Trouvers and
Troubadours in the beginning of the twelfth century. Their enchanting prose and
poetry of courtly love and chivalry, was a vessel for a secret tradition for the
initiated.
The Grail legend being one of the most recognised and Troyes seemed to
have played a major place of importance in those days. We have mentioned one of
the first grail romances by Chretien de Troyes and the council of Troyes being
the place the Templars were given their “rule” by St. Bernard. Henry de
Blois was a local to this area.
In the eleventh century Jews were hunted down and killed all over Europe,
but there were a few places they found refuge, one of them being Troyes. The
Counts of Troyes actually favored them there and from 1070, several schools of
Cabbalah were set up. Along with Rabbi Rashi’s commentaries on the Bible and
the Talmud, two books in particular flourished there, the Seper Yetzirah and
Bahir. The Seper Yetzirah was allegedly written by Abraham, dictated by God for
mankind to have a guide or a detailed map, describing how the universe was
created. I think we can see similarities in the Cabbalah, the Tarot deck and the
symbolism used throughout the architecture of the Gothic cathedrals.
Do the Grail legends portray any “secrets” at all? What we must take
seriously is the oral tradition of narrating folklore and esoteric symbolism.
Stories of great heroes and poems were, to an esotericist, mediums to preserve
and pass on knowledge from the master to the initiate. Not only this, it forges
a paradigm of bringing an un-perceptible land, encoded in its universal
symbolism.
William
of Malmsbury detected hints of a mighty secret in the geometrical pattern in the
church's mosaic at Glastonbury Abbey. Architect and excavator Frederick Bligh
Bond, during his excavations in the early 19th century also hinted
there was to be found an astrological wheel of 'initiation' pattern
engraved there. Could this be an earlier version of the Round Table? Was this an
initiation rite of the Knights Templar, a rite of an ancient mystery cult; was
this the itinerary of the Grail search? As Henry de Blois was appointed the See
of Winchester, it is not really surprising that it exactly here that can find
the Round Table, completed some 70 years after Henry's death in 1171. The table
is a is a magnificent piece of 13th century workmanship, made of oak,
it is 18 feet across and nearly 3 inches thick and weighs almost 1.25 tons. It
can now be viewed at The Great Hall of Winchester.
The
first literary mentioning of the Round Table was in Robert Wace's 'Roman de
Brute (1155) which says that King Arthur seated his knights around the table so
that all could be equal.
When excavating the tomb of Henry de Blois at Winchester, they found a small ivory head, accompanied by a chalice.
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Henry de Blois Tomb, Winchester Cathedral
What we have here is two of the sacred
objects, which figure so strongly in the Grail legends and Templar myths: the
Chalice or The Holy Grail, and the Head. The Head the Templars were accused of
worshipping. Keith Laidler in “The Head of God” suggests that not only John
the Baptist was decapitated, but also Jesus and that the Templars were in
possession of their decapitated heads.
Reading Elisabeth Jenkins' "Mystery of
King Arthur" page 92. "One of the additions made by another hand to
Chretien's Percval, or Le Conte Del Graal, a prologue called the Elucidation. It
speaks of "Master Blihis (Henry de Blois) as one…who knew all the stories
of the Graal". Recently I have come across references, which support that
it was Henry de Blois that first started looking for King Arthur's grave and not
Abbot Robert of Winchester that some other sources claim. This I shall deal with
in a different article.
Henry de Blois this great 12th century
pluralist holding the posts of Abbot of Glastonbury. Bishop of Winchester, Dean
of Waltham, Dean of St Martin-le-Grand and being a Papal Legate had tremendous
influence in all affairs on the British Isles and abroad.
There is a plaque in the British Museum depicting
Henry de Blois presenting a gift to God. The left angel holds a bowl, perhaps a
chalice or might it be The Holy Grail? The bowl is opaque red with yellow, which
adds a bright accent in the upper area of the plaque. The inscription on the
plaque says: the donor might follow the offering to heaven; but not immediately,
lest England weep, for war and peace, turmoil or tranquillity, depend on him.
Sources:
* Michell J: New light on the Ancient Mysteries of Glastonbury, Gothic Image Publications, Glastonbury 1990
* Laidler K: The Head of God, Weidenfeld and
Nicolson, London, 1998
* Weir A: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Jonathon Cape, London, 1999
* Carley, P J Glastonbury Abbey, The Boydell Press,
Suffolk 1988
* Jenkins E, The Mysteries of King Arthur, Michael O’Mara Books Ltd, London, 1975
* Riall N, Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester – A Patron of
the twelfth-Century Renaissance, No V, Hampshire County
Council 1994
* Matthews D, King Stephen, Habledon and London,
London, 2002
* English Heritage, Three palaces of the Bishops of Winchester, 2000
* Pitkin Guides: Winchester Cathedral 1998, The Hospital of St Cross 1999
* Guide Book to: Glastonbury Abbey: Its History, Antiquity and Ruins, D Woodhams, Wells MDCCCXCIX
* Malmesbury of W,
The Early History of Glastonbury: An Edition, Translation and Study of
William of Malmesbury's, Edited
by John Scott, The Boydell Press 2001
* Katharine Maltwood,
Guide to Glastonbury's Temple
of the Stars, J. Clark Cambridge, 1964
* Mabinogion, Voyager, 2000
* John de Glaston, The
Chronicle of Glastonbury Abbey, Boydell Press 2001
This is pretty much as the article appeared in Issue no 1 of The Temple,
August 2002. I have spent much time since searching for further information on
this luminous personality. As it happens most commentators on Antiquity, Grail
Legends and Templars seem to have completely ignored Henry de Blois. Why I
don’t know. Personality I think it is evident that he enacted a much bigger
role in grail-/history than has ever been acknowledged. Without continuing the
debate in greater detail in this work… there are a couple of things that has
been brought to my attention which I would like to add:
Firstly: The quote I used
in the above article, from Elisabeth Jenkins’ ‘The Mysteries of King
Arthur’ about Blihis, the person “who knew all the histories of the
Graal”. Jenkins actually thinks that this is a Welshman called Bleheries (1100
– 1150) and continues that Giraldus Camrensis refer to Blihis as Bleheries
too. At the time of writing the article, I was only provided with half the
quote, having now read the text in full I felt it in place to clarify.
There is also some uncertainty if it actually was Henry de Blois
remains, that was found inside the Purbeck marble tomb in Winchester Cathedral.
Nicholas Riall adds in his studies published by Hampshire Papers that the grave
may be William Rufus’. Only a couple of weeks ago I came across something that
may support this. In an old guidebook to Glastonbury abbey (see sources) it
says: ‘Leland who saw the tomb says “At the head of Arthur’s tomb, lay
Henricus, Abbas (Henry de Blois) and a crucifix: at the feet a figure of Arthur;
a cross on the tomb; and two lions at the head, and two at the feet.” When
exactly this was deleted or why in the modern guidebooks, I have not yet been
able to establish. However if this guidebook can be trusted then Henry de Blois
intimacy to Arthur (-ian legends) is at least established. Perhaps he even was
the fabulator famosus that was the author of the early Grail romance
which; Chretien de Troyes built his Comte Del Graal on!
O Olsen