Pierre Plantard was born in 1920 in Paris, and he died in February 2000. Plantard was a nationalist and, importantly, a monarchist. From 1937 he attempted to set up a series of associations, which were anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic. In France, the Masons and other secret (or esoteric) societies are associated with the origins of the French Revolution.

He also wrote to senior figures in the French government, including Edouard Daladier, who was Prime Minister at the outbreak of the war, and Marshal Petain, head of state for the Vichy government, which collaborated with the Germans. This appears to have been a pretentious attempt to look important.

Plantard produced a journal called Vaincre – For the Young Knighthood, “vaincre” meaning, “to conquer”. Plantard and his young knights were the only ones who could save France from this Jewish and Masonic conspiracy.

When the war ended, Plantard got married and moved to Annemasse, a town on the Swiss border opposite Geneva. And it was here in Annemasse where, in May 1956, Plantard finally got permission from the authorities to found an organisation; and he called this one the Prieuré de Sion.

He named it after Mont Sion, a nearby Alpine mountain.

This organisation was used to fight developers in the village from putting up low-cost housing (we could do with them in Solihull). But then, in December of 1956, Plantard was sentenced to twelve months prison for abusing a minor and the Prieuré de Sion organisation was disbanded.