Rothley Temple

Preceptory in Leicestershire, England

Around 1250, the preceptory was recorded as having a yearly revenue of £62. 10s. 5d., which was used to help fellow Knights Templar in Acre, in modern day Israel. This lasted until 1306, when King Edward issued the knights with another charter permitting them to hold a market and festival at their manor at Gaddesby, instead of at Rothley. This charter afforded a weekly market on a Wednesday and an annual festival in July in honour of Mary Magdalen.

After losing the Holy Land in 1291, the Knights Templar lost purpose, power and influence, and were forced to move their headquarters to France. Shortly after, King Philip IV of France, heavily indebted to the order, started a campaign against the Knights Templar, using his puppet Pope Clement V. King Philip had Pope Clement arrest the Templars for various offences, including: apostasy, idolatry, heresy, obscene rituals, homosexuality, financial corruption, fraud, and secrecy. In the 15th century the Hospitallers made alterations to the chapel at the preceptory.

Rothley Temple eventually passed to Thomas Babington (1758–1837) who was a prominent figure in the Clapham Sect and the fight to abolish the slave trade. A large stone monument and plaque stand outside the building today, commemorating the building's, and Babington's, part in the abolition of slavery. In 1800, Rothley Temple was the birthplace of the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859, later Lord Macaulay) named after his uncle.

The preceptory's chapel and part of the domestic buildings still exist, and are now part of the Rothley Court Hotel. The chapel was heavily restored in 1896. A number of stone artefacts and partial grave slabs have been discovered over the years around the chapel, where they can be seen. This includes a recently restored effigy of a Templar knight, originally discovered in Rothley Churchyard in 1790; following a £2,000 restoration completed in 2011, the effigy has been placed within the chapel at Rothley Temple.