241

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE GREAT MILITARY ORDERS.

(1164-1500.)

I.-Calatrava.

66 were

"WHETHER the military orders of Castile," says Prescott, suggested by those of Palestine, or whether they go back to a remoter period, as contended by their chroniclers, or whether they are survivals or imitations of similar associations that are known to have existed among the Spanish Arabs,1 there can be no doubt that the forms under which they were actually organised in the latter part of the twelfth century were derived from the monastic orders established during the early crusades for the protection of the Holy Land." 2

The Hospitallers, and especially the Templars, had obtained greater possessions in Spain than in any other part of Europe, and it was partly upon the ruins of their rich commanderiessequestrated by order of Clement V., in the early days of the fourteenth century—that arose the three-fold glory of the great Spanish Orders.3 Yet, long before the destruction of the magnificent Confraternity of the Knights Templars in Spain,

1 The Moors had established Rábitos or soldier monks (see note on the Almoravides, ante., p. 202), to guard their frontier and protect their pilgrims. So the imitating Spaniards founded their military religious Orders. Ford (1845), ii., 66. 2 The following pages are based chiefly upon information collected in Tratado historico-legal .. de los quatro ordenes Santiago, Calatrava, Alcantara, y Montesa compuesto de orden de S. M. Fernando el sexto por Pedro de Cantos Benitez, Alcalde de su casa y corte. Egerton MS., British Museum, No. 486. See also Capitulo general de los ordenes Militares, Toledo, 1560, Egerton MS., 485, D. xviii. There is a very good catalogue of works on Monastic, Religious, and Military Orders at the end of vol. iii. of Helyot, Dictionnaire Historique des ordres Monastiques (Guingamp, 1838).

3 Prescott, Ferd. and Isabel., i., 231.

4 As to the destruction of the Templars by Philip le Bel and Clement V., and the attitude of the Spanish kings of that time with regard to the Order, see Mr. H. 16

VOL. I.

the great military and religious Orders of Calatrava,1 of Santiago, and of Alcantara, associated as they are with so much that is noblest in Spanish history-were already flourishing in the Peninsula.

The origin of the eldest born, if not the most famous of the three, was entirely accidental. King Alfonso VII. el Emperador of Leon and Castile, advancing the southern outposts of Christian Spain on his way to the capture of Almeria, possessed himself, in 1147, of the fortress of Calatrava, which commanded the frontier of Andalusia, and which was confided by him, on its capture, to the keeping of the Knights Templars, who had accompanied him on his most adventurous march. For ten years the Templars maintained their position in this advanced post at Calatrava, until, on the death of King Alfonso and the advance of the Almohades in 1157, the Christians were compelled to retire. The fortress, thus abandoned, reverted as of right to Sancho III., the successor of Alfonso VII. in Castile ; and it was offered by that king, in 1158, to whomsoever would undertake to occupy and defend it against the Moors.

The honour was sought and found by two Cistercian monks, Raymond Abbot of Fitero, in Navarre, and Fray Diego Velasquez, who received at the king's hands, in addition to the castle of Calatrava, some twenty-eight square leagues of country surrounding the fortress. The Church was no less encouraging than the Crown; and the Archbishop of Toledo not only supplied the bold clerical adventurers with the needful funds, but he assisted their enterprise by preaching a local crusade against the infidel. The monks and their retainers, in fine, acquitted themselves so bravely, that within a short time the Moslems were expelled, not only from the castle, but even from the neighbourhood of Calatrava.

On the death of the bold Raymond, the knights, preferring a soldier to a priest for their captain, elected Don Garcia de

C. Lea, Eng. Hist. Review, April, 1894, as well as that author's History of the Inquisition, vol. iii. The first association of knights at Jerusalem which developed into the great Order of the Temple, took place in 1119; and nine years later, at the Council of Troyes (1128) St. Bernard of Clairvaux drew up the statutes of the Order.

1 Calatrava is an Arabic word, Kalat = Fort; Rabah = the name of one of the companions of the prophet. See Abulfeda, Géographie (Paris, 1848), vol. ii., p. 239; Gayangos, i., 356. The original name of the city before the Arab invasion is said to have been Oreto. Helyot, viii., 5.

2 Son of Queen Urraca and Raymond of Burgundy. See chapters xx. and

Redon, under whom the Order was formally established, in conformity with the rule of St. Benedict, with Fray Rodrigo as their abbot or chaplain. Under the new master the religious military Order was recognised by Pope Alexander III. in a Bull of 1164; and the powers and privileges of the knights were afterwards confirmed and augmented by Gregory VIII. and

Innocent III.

The aid of these Calatravan companions being sought soon after their incorporation by the king of Portugal, the knights responded to his appeal, and commanderies or convents were established at Evora, at Santarem, and other places in Portugal; while in Aragon, Alfonso II. endowed the new Order with the city of Alcañiz in 1179. After the battle of Alarcon in 1195, Calatrava was retaken by the Almohades, and the knights, transferring their headquarters to the castle of Salvatierra, were known for some time by the name of that fortress.2 In 1210 Calatrava was once more conquered and occupied by the knights under Don Martin Fernandez.

Their heroic defence of Salvatierra,3 in the following year, against all the attacks of the Almohades, was but the prelude to their prowess at the battle of the Navas de Tolosa in 1212. The Christians having obtained a firm footing in Andalusia after this memorable engagement, a new Calatrava was built, under the supervision of Don Martin Fernandez, at a distance of some thirty-five miles from the old one, which had been destroyed by the Moors; and the headquarters of the Order was transferred to this new and no less dignified fortress.* century later, Pope John XXII., by his Bull of 1317, recognised

A

1 The military Order of Avis was founded in 1162 in Portugal, under the name of the New Militia, and was affiliated to the Cistercian Order of Monks, and dependent to some extent upon the more distinguished Order of Calatrava in Spain. They took the name, in 1166, of Knights of Evora; but this was again changed soon after for that of Avis. It is said that two eagles or birds (Aves) pointed out the spot where the fortress was to be built in which they first established themselves, and whose name they took (1187). Angel, Manriquez, An. Ord. Cisterc., tom. ii.; Helyot, ubi supra, viii., 39-45.

2 A convent of nuns was attached to the Order in 1219, and a second in 1479. Lawrence-Archer, Orders of Chivalry (1887), p. 226.

There was a schism in the Order of Calatrava in 1296; and a grand master and an anti-grand master, after the manner of the Popes; Lopez de Padilla versus Gutierrez Perez. There was another schism in 1404, which was put an end to by the confirmation of the celebrated Henry de Villena in his office as Grand Master. Benitez, i., 16.

3 Romey, vi., 257. The old Calatrava was retaken by the knights, but the fortifications do not seem to have been worth restoring. Benitez, i., 16.

4 Lawrence-Archer (1887), p. 226.

the new establishment, which was to be governed by the same rules as the old Order of Calatrava.

The subordinate Order of Montesa 1 was established by James II. of Aragon in 1317, and chartered in accordance with a Bull granted by John XXII. in the previous year, endowing the new Order with all the estates of the Templars and of the Knights of St. John in the province of Valencia. But practically the new Order was little more than a branch of that of Calatrava, by whose statutes it was governed, although the administration was in the hands of the masters of Montesa, invested with separate jurisdiction over their own knights. In 1399, a third Order of knighthood was united with that of Calatrava, in accordance with a Bull of Benedict XIII.—the Spaniard Pedro de Luna-the Order of St. George of Alfama, which had been founded in 1201 by Peter II. of Aragon. To confirm and complete this union, another Bull was obtained from Benedict XIII. in 1400, and the Red Cross of St. George 3 took the place of the sable insignia of earlier days as the badge or cognisance of Calatrava.1

The United Order remained independent, but unimportant, for nearly two hundred years, until the death of Pedro de Borja, the last grand master, in 1587, when the revenues were finally appropriated by Philip II., and the independence of the confraternity extinguished, although royal lieutenants

1 Benitez, i., 19.

"Of the history of Montesa, and incidentally of the parent Order of Calatrava, there is a most excellent and trustworthy history in two vols., 4to (Valencia, 1669), by Hippolyto de Samper, prior of the Order, well arranged, with references to many authorities, a good table of contents, and a full and admirable index. The title takes up thirty-five lines; but the headline is Montesa Illustrada, which may suffice as a reference. See also Helyot, Dict., viii., 34-37.

3 As to the foundation of the Order of St. George-so spelt in the old documents, and not Jorge, as the name is now written, see Samper, i., fols. 378-383, where all the original documents, bulls and charters are given. For a fuller account of the legend of St. George, and the rise of the various military orders in Christendom under his protection, including that of the Garter, see Appendix V.

4 The old black cross of the Order survived for some time in the bordure sable to the cross gules borne by the knights of Calatrava.

At the present day the insignia consists of a red cross "cut in the form of lilies" (Sir B. Burke, Orders of Knighthood, p. 305) on a silver ground.

A black hood, or headpiece, closed under the chin and round the neck, was a part of the early habit. The frock was white. Helyot, op. cit., viii., 5. In 1540 the statutes were so far modified that the knights, like those of the other Orders, were permitted to marry.

Benitez, i., 21; Zurita, Anales de Aragon, II., vi., 24, fol. 30; Samper, i., fols. 54-59 and fol. 201; and ii., fol. 937 et seq. At the accession of Isabella the Order of Calatrava possessed sixteen priories and fifty-six commanderies, with a total revenue of about half a million of ducats. Sir Bernard Burke, ubi supra.

general were appointed as pro or vice-grand masters by successive kings of Spain.1

II.-Santiago.

The origin of the more distinguished Order of Santiago 2 was no less accidental, and no less curious, than that of Calatrava. The Order is traditionally supposed to have been instituted by Ramiro after the battle of Clavijo in 846, and is referred to at times as the Order of the sword, which was wielded by St. James himself at that apocryphal battle.3 According to the more serious authorities, the Order of Santiago came into existence in or about the year 1161, on the conversion from their lawless ways of certain outlaws (foragidos), who infested the territories of Leon, by Pedro Hernandez de Fuente, whom the converts accepted as their first chief or master.

United under his leadership, they turned their arms against the Moors, and became faithful subjects of King Ferdinand, who granted to them lands at Valdeverna and Villafafilla, and recognised their company as a loyal and knightly corporation of defenders of the faith and destroyers of the infidel. To ensure the practice of a Christian life in the midst of the dangers of war, this band of reformed robbers associated with themselves certain monks of St. Logo or Eloy, of the rule of St. Augustine, as canons or chaplains, whose spiritual ministrations, adapted to their military life, they required and enjoyed, until the appointment of regular chaplains as clerical members of their Order. So successful was this band of warriors in harrying the infidel, that in 1172, the Archbishop of Santiago accorded to their leader or Maestre, "the honour of

1 The first of these subordinate masters was D. Jayme Juan_Falco, appointed in 1593. The second was a Ferrer. The fourth general was a Borgia (1603-1610, Crespi de Borja). The ninth was another Crespi, appointed by Philip IV. in 1646, who was still in office in 1669 (es, y sea por largos años, Samper, ii., fol. 591 h.).

2 The best early account of the history of the Order of Santiago is a small folio published, without author's name, by Francisco Sanchez, Madrid, 1577; called La Regla y establimentos de la Cavalleria de Santiago del Espada.-H.

3 Benitez, i., 3. The sword is said to have been the noble charge on the coat of arms then granted to the Order, with the motto:

"Rubet ensis sanguine Arabum".

Heraldic charges, or coat armour, were of course unknown in Europe for more than 200 years after the death of Ramiro.

See D. Vincente de la Fuente, Historia Ecclesiastica de España, tom. iv., p. 163 and España Sagrada, xxvii.