Spain was the first territory in Europe to be attacked by Eastern Muslims, and it is not surprising that the centuries-old struggle with them left a deep imprint on both the history and culture of this country. No wonder such a famous British historian as David Nicole, his fundamental work "Weapons and armor of the era of the Crusades 1050 - 1350" begins exactly in 1050 - for this he had every reason. After all, warriors with crosses on their cloaks and it was on Spanish soil at that time already existed, and even much earlier than this date!
Zaragoza Fortress
So the Spaniards, one might say, are somewhat lucky with their history. After all, the biblical tradition of Saint James says that when all the apostles dispersed to preach about Christ, he just went to Spain. He founded several Christian communities there and returned to Jerusalem, where in 44 (and according to other sources, somewhere between 41 and 44) he became the first of the apostles to be executed for faith through beheading by order of King Agrippa I. grandson of Herod the Great.
According to legend, after such a martyr's death, his remains are followers of St. Jacob was put into a boat and entrusted to the will of the waves, that is, they were allowed to sail in the Mediterranean Sea. And this boat miraculously sailed to Spain, where the waves threw it ashore at the mouth of the Ulya River (where the city of Santiago de Compostela was later built). In 813, the local hermit monk Pelayo saw a certain guiding star, went after it and found this boat, and in it the relics of the saint, which remained incorrupt. After that, they were placed in a tomb and turned into an object of worship. And from that moment to her, she became the cherished goal of pilgrims from all over Europe, and Saint James himself, at this difficult time for Spain, the Arab conquest began to be revered as the heavenly patron and protector of the country. The Spaniards still revere him today, and are very sensitive to this shrine, kept in Santiago de Compostela. And one should not be surprised that soon on this holy foundation the first monastic order of St. Jacob of Altopashio, which became known as the Tau Order, which is considered the oldest among all other European spiritual-knightly orders. Already in the middle of the 10th century, in Altopascio, near the city of Luca, Augustinian monks founded a hospital designed to help pilgrims going to Rome or Santiago de Compostella. The very first mention of this hospital dates back to 952, and the second to 1056. It was at this time that the order became a real military, and its monks began to guard the pilgrims on the dangerous path between Lucca and Genoa. However, the order also retained its civic functions. The popes supported him until 1239, when he was officially given military status.
Although the order's hospitals were built not only in these places, but also in other regions of Europe, and even in France and England, he was never particularly popular and did not seek to advance among others. In 1585, this order merged with the Order of St. Stefan from Tuscany and virtually ceased operations. The Knights of the Tau Order were distinguished by the monastic appearance of a dark gray or even black robe with a T-shaped cross on the left chest. At the same time, their hood was red and it was also decorated with a white T-shaped cross.
To guard the pilgrims going to the relics of St. Jacob in Galicia, after the order of Tau appeared, the spiritual-knightly order of Santiago or St. Iago was also created, the exact name of which is: "The Great Military Order of the Sword of St. James of Compostela." It was founded around 1160, and it still exists as a civil knightly order under the patronage of the monarchs of Spain.
Effigia Dona García de Osorio, 1499-1505 The emblem of the Order of Santiago is visible on its surcoat. Alabaster. Toledo, Spain.
The sign of belonging to this order initially looked like a red sword with a cruciform handle, pointed downward. Then it was replaced by the image of a red lily-like cross, the lower end of which was in the form of a sharp-pointed blade.
This is how the history of numerous Spanish spiritual-knightly orders began, which appeared on Spanish soil at that time one after another, primarily because not only feudal fragmentation reigned there, but at the same time there was a war against the Moors everywhere! Well, then it happened that in 1150 King Alfonso "Emperor" captured the city of Calatrava from them and ordered the archbishop of Toledo to rebuild the main Muslim mosque of the city into a Christian church and consecrate it. By the decision of the king, the Knights Templars were supposed to defend the city. But those were too few to hold it in their hands, they in turn handed it over to the Castilian king Sancho III.
The situation was very difficult, because if Calatrava was lost, the Arab threat would then hang over Toledo and other lands of King Alfonso VII. Therefore, King Sancho decided to convene a Council of Nobles, among whom were Don Raimundo, abbot of the monastery of Santa Maria Fitero and a monk from Burgos, Diego Velazquez, a nobleman, and participant in many of King Alfonso's campaigns. The audience silently listened to the king and only one Raimundo addressed the audience with an ardent speech, arguing that the fight against the infidels should be continued, after which he asked the king to entrust the defense of the city from the Muslims to him. Diego Velazquez supported him, although to many it seemed insane. However, already on January 1, 1158, in the city of Almazan, King Sancho III, son of Alfonso VII, handed over both the city and the fortress of Calatrava to the Cistercian Order in the person of Abbot Raimundo and his other monks, so that they would protect them from the enemies of the Christian faith. The donation was confirmed by the king of Navarre, as well as several earls, magnates and prelates. Later, Sancho III presented the Order of Calatrava, calling it that, also the village of Siruhales, not far from Toledo, as a token of gratitude for its protection.
Don Raimundo and Don Diego Velazquez, who became his captain, organized an army of the order from among the knights, who went to them from all over Spain to fight the Arabs. Combining knightly fortitude with monasticism, they quickly made them think of themselves as strength.
Diego Velazquez was the soul of the order for a long time. When he died, the knights decided to choose a master of the order, which was done in 1164. And soon their order became a real military force, and its knights fought with success in many Christian armies, not only in Spain itself, but also in other European states. In Castile, they took part in the conquest of the city of Cuenca. In Aragon, with their active participation, the city of Alcaniz was recaptured from the Moors. It is not surprising that the order aroused such burning hatred among Muslims that the brave Arab commander Almanzor at the first opportunity gathered a strong detachment and laid siege to Calatrava. The fortress was taken, after which he killed all its defenders. In turn, those of the knights of the order who survived attacked the fortress of Salvatierra, captured it and turned it into one of the order's citadels.
Soon enough, the Order of Calatrava regained its strength, so much so that in 1212 it was able to participate in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, in which the master of the order fought with the infidels in the forefront of the royal army and was seriously wounded in the arm. Then the knights of Calatrava recaptured many cities and fortresses from the Muslims, and in the city of Salvatierra they founded a monastery, which they named Calatrava. In 1227 they took an active part in the siege of Baesa, and in 1236 in the capture of Cordoba.
By the 14th century, the order was so powerful and influential that the Spanish kings began to take it seriously and ensured that the elections for the master of the order were held with their participation. By the way, it was to the Order of Calatrava that the Pope transferred all the property of the Spanish Templars, which strengthened it even more.
Then, on All Saints' Day in 1397, Benedict XIII approved the emblem of the order. Well, in the 15th century, the order already had numerous vassals throughout Spain, but was engaged not so much in participating in the Reconquista, as in intervening in conflicts between various Christian sovereigns.
It is clear that such political activity did not suit "their Catholic majesties" - King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, so after the death of another master, they annexed the lands of the order to the possessions of the Spanish crown!
The Order of Alcantara had its predecessors the knights of the brotherhood of San Julian de Pereiro, founded in 1156 (or 1166) by the two brothers Suero and Gomez Fernandez Barrientos.
According to legend, they built a castle on the banks of the Tagus River to protect the surrounding lands from the Moors. Then the order of St. San Julian de Pereiro was approved by Pope Alexander III in 1177, and in 1183 he was adopted under the patronage of the Order of Calatrava (and the master of the Order of Calatrava received the right to supervise him). At the same time, he received a Cistercian charter and his own "uniform" - a white robe with a red cross embroidered on it. The order included both caballeros - that is, knights-nobles, and clergy-laymen.
Alcantara Bridge.
This order received the name Alcantara after the city of Alcantara, located on the plain of Extremadura and on the banks of the Tagus River, in the very place where the old stone bridge (in Spanish - cantara) was thrown across it. The city passed from the Moors to the Spaniards and back many times, until King Alfonso finally gave it to the Knights of Calatrava. However, those in 1217 felt that, since Alcantara was too far from their possessions, it would be difficult for them to defend it. Therefore, they asked the king for permission to transfer the city to the Order of the Knights of San Julian de Pereiro, as well as all their other possessions in the kingdom of Leon. Well, this order, sometimes also called the Order of Trujillo, was called the Order of Alcantara.
It was more difficult to enter it than to become a knight of the Order of Santiago or Calatrava. So, the candidate should have had not only two whole generations of noble ancestors, but all four families of his ancestors also had to own land estates, which had to be confirmed by the relevant documents.
Over time, the wealth and land holdings of the order reached such proportions that the rivalry of candidates for the post of master ended in armed conflict, which was in direct violation of the order's vow that it was forbidden to draw weapons against Christians. As a result, the order split, it came to bloody feuds, which, of course, did not go to the benefit of the order. Later, the Castilian nobility itself, and the spiritual-knightly orders dispersed to two warring camps, and the knights of the Order of Alcantara fought on both sides of the conflict! In 1394, another master of the order proclaimed a crusade against the Moors of Granada. However, it ended in failure. The troops of the crusader army were defeated, and Granada was taken only in 1492 by the joint efforts of the troops of King Ferdinand and both orders of Calatrava and Alcantara.
At that time, there were 38 commanderships in the order, the annual income of which was 45 thousand ducats, that is, he was very wealthy. But the importance of spiritual knightly orders in the armies of the Iberian Peninsula began to decline sharply at this time. So, for example, in 1491, out of ten thousand cavalry soldiers of the Castilian-Aragonese army that marched against Grenada (Granada), only nine hundred and sixty-two horsemen fell to the share of the soldiers of the Order of St. James and the Sword, only four hundred of the Order of Calatrava, and the Order of Alcantara only two hundred and sixty-six knights.
Knights of the most famous Spanish orders of chivalry.
However, all this time, the strife in the orders continued. Their commanders were elected and overthrown, and in the end it all ended with the fact that in 1496 King Ferdinand achieved the papal bull, which was granted to him the Master of the Order of Alcantara. Well, in 1532, King Charles V of Spain officially subordinated all Spanish spiritual-knightly orders to his royal power.
True, the goal of the Catholic kings of Spain was by no means to liquidate these orders, but only to their complete submission to the Spanish crown. Moreover, their military significance was falling all the time. In 1625, the Order of Alcantara numbered only 127 knights. Twenty years later, his knights with knights of other orders entered one order regiment, which was part of the Spanish army until the 20th century.
There also existed in Spain the spiritual-knightly Order of San Jorge (that is, St. George) de Alfam, following the charter of the Augustinian Order and founded in 1200. The headquarters of the order was located in the fortress of Alfama, hence its name. The significance and capabilities of the order were small, and then in 1400 he became a member of the Order of the Blessed Virgin of Montesa, which gave his knights the right to wear the red cross of the Order of Monteza. The Order of St. The Virgin of Montes was established much later than all the others and in its activities was limited to the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia.
In 1312, when the Order of the Templars was abolished and dissolved, the kings of Aragon Jaime II and the king of Portugal convinced the pope that it was not worth transferring his possessions in Aragon and Valencia to the Hospitallers, especially since the Aragonese brothers were found innocent at the trial of the Templars. The king offered to give them to the newly formed Order of the Virgin Mary of Montes in Valencia. Pope John XXII in 1317 blessed the new order and gave it the Benedictine charter. So the order of Montesa became the second order after the order of Christ in Portugal, which received the right to inherit the property of the local Templars, but unlike the Portuguese order, it was never declared the successor of the order of the Knights Templar.
Gateway to Almazan.
The knights of the new order could be Catholics with legal origins, two generations of landowning ancestors and no non-Christian ancestors. The Master of the Order of Calatrava also received the right to supervise his activities. At the same time, his knights retained the white color of their robes, but the red cross on them was replaced with black. In 1401, the military order of Monteza merged with the order of St. Georgy Alfamsky, since their goals completely coincided. Under the rule of the crown, the order remained autonomous until 1739, when the other three orders came under the control of the royal administration.
Subsequently, the Spanish Cortes disbanded all orders by law of 1934. However, the Order of Montesa was revived in 1978, although it was not included in the number of official state orders of Spain.
Montesa Cross.
The badge of the order was an equal-ended Greek cross of a simple form in red enamel on a white rhombus, and then became similar to the badge of the Order of Calatrava, but only in black with a Greek cross of red enamel superimposed on it. The badge is worn on a neck tape or sewn on the left side of the chest.
In the Kingdom of Aragon, the Order of Mercy was founded in 1233 by the Provencal nobleman Per Nolasco. Its purpose was to ransom Christians who fell into slavery to Muslims. Of course, he also defended the pilgrims by force of arms, so he soon became a military order. However, he never differed in numbers and had only a small detachment of knights. The brothers of the order wore white clothes and a small coat of arms of Aragon on the neck chain.
The modern defenders of Tortosa.
The Spaniards were also lucky that it was in this country that the first female knightly order of the Ax or Ax was founded, and this happened a very long time ago. And it so happened that in 1148 the combined forces of the participants of the second crusade recaptured the fortress of Tortosa from the Muslims, but the Saracens decided to reclaim the city the very next year, and it was this attack that women had to repel, since their men in this the time was occupied by the siege of Lleida. And they managed to fight off not from some small detachment there, and by no means throwing stones from the wall, but fighting, dressed in men's armor with swords and axes in their hands. When the troops of Count Raimund approached the city to help, he only had to thank the women of Tortosa for their courage, which he, of course, did. However, it seemed to him that simple gratitude was not enough, and in commemoration of their merits, he founded a knightly order, which he called the Women-Knights of the Order of the Ax. Married women in it were granted the same knightly rights with their husbands, and unmarried women - with their fathers and brothers. And it was a real military knightly order, the emblem of which was the image of a red ax on a tunic.
Cathedral of st. Maria in Tortosa is unique in that it has a three-tiered nave and a flat roof!
A feature of Spain was the formation there of a large number of orders of knighthood, which had, so to speak, local significance. For example, such orders as Montjoy and Montfrague were created in Aragon, but there was a real medieval "nationalism", which was understood then: you have your own order there, in Castile, and we have our own in Leon!
In this regard, the history of the Order of Montjoy (in Spanish Montegaudio), or the Order of the Holy Virgin Mary (Blessed Virgin Mary) of Montjoy ("The Mountain of Joy"), which was founded in the Holy Land by the Spanish Count Rodrigo, a former knight of the Order of Santiago, is also very interesting. In 1176, he handed over to the order he established the land holdings in Castile and Aragon, and the King of Jerusalem granted the “knights of Montjoy” several towers in the Palestinian city of Ascalon as abode, along with the duty to protect it.
The headquarters of the master of the order was located in the castle of Montjoy on the mountain of the same name near Jerusalem, and this mountain received its name during the first crusade, when the crusaders who approached the city saw the image of the Most Holy Theotokos on it, which instilled in them joy and confidence in the victory over the infidels …
The Order of the Most Holy Theotokos of Montjoy, whose members, like the Knights Templar, had a Cistercian charter and wore the same white vestments of the order, was recognized by the Pope in 1180. Initially, it was conceived as an international spiritual-knightly brotherhood (similar to the orders of the Johannites, Templars and Lazarites), but it turned out that over time it turned into a national Spanish order, just as the Order of Mary of Teutonic became the order of the German knights. Their emblem was a red and white eight-pointed cross. Individual knights of this order participated in the Battle of Hattin, and all died there, and the survivors left for Spain.
There was also such an amazing Order de la Banda or Belt in Spain, established in 1332 by King Alfonso XI of Castile and Leon, either in Burgos, or in the city of Victoria, and it was also one of the typically Spanish "shtetl" orders created by the Spanish kings to protect certain cities and quickly disappeared when the military threat to such cities disappeared.
Ruins of the castle Calatrava la Vieja.
In medieval Portugal, a spiritual-knightly order was also created, called the Order of Avis. There is no exact information about the date of its foundation, and information about it is very scarce and very contradictory. According to some sources, it was founded in 1147 and received the name of the Order of the New Knights, according to others, in 1148 it was founded by the participants of the second crusade.
What all sources are united in is the statement that the order was created to protect the city of Evora, which had just been recaptured from the Moors. At first, he also had the charter of St. Benedict, and therefore it was also called the Order of St. Benedict of Avis, but then in 1187 it was subordinated to the Spanish order of Calatrava and the old charter was replaced by the charter of the Cistercian monks. From that time on, it became known as the Order of the Evoor Knights of the Order of Calatrava. At the same time, the master of the order of Calatrava also confirmed the masters of the order.
The knights of Évora took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and pledged to fight against the Moors. But the name - the Order of Avis, was due to the fact that the city of Avis in the province of Alentejo was transferred to him. According to some sources, this happened in 1166, according to others - only in 1211 by the decision of King Alfonso II. In 1223 - 1224 Evora brothers made this city their residence, after which the order began to be called the Order of Avis. At the request of King Alfonso IV, the pope gave him a green anchor cross as an emblem. Moreover, according to some sources, this happened in 1192, and the pope at that time was Celestine III, and according to others - in 1204 under Pope Innocent III, who gave him privileges, freedoms and immunity, similar to those of the Order of Calatrava … It is also known that the knights of the Order of Avis showed miracles of courage during the siege of the city of Seville in 1248.
Although the order was formally subordinate to the Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava, it gradually acquired an autonomous character, and politically more and more dependent on the kings of Portugal, who gave the order vast lands recaptured from the Moors. The end of the Reconquista in Portugal (c. 1249) and the sluggish war with Castile made the formal dependence of the Avis Order on Castile dangerous for Portugal. Attempts to decide the question of who, to whom and in what form should obey, and should obey at all, gave rise to long proceedings, which ended only after the independence of the Portuguese orders was confirmed by Pope Eugene IV in 1440.
In the 15th century, the Order of Avis, together with the Order of Christ, played a very important role in consolidating Portugal in Africa. Then the first conquests on the African continent began with the capture of Ceuta by King João I and later the siege of Tangier in 1437. Over time, the "secularism" of the Order of Avis reached the point that in 1496 and 1505. his knights were freed, respectively, from the vows of poverty and chastity! In 1894, the order became known as the Royal Military Order of St. Benedict of Aviss. The Master of the Order became the Grand Commander, and he became the Crown Prince of Portugal. The award-winning Order of St. Benedict of Aviss received three classes: Grand Cross, Grand Officer and Knightly. In 1910, the republic canceled the order, but after the 1st World War in 1918, the Military Order of Avis was revived again as an order for military merit, and the president of the republic received the right to award it.
Royal Order of the Holy Wing of St. Michael's was a secular order of chivalry that was founded by the first king of Portugal, Don Alfonso Henrique, in 1171 or, according to other historians, in 1147, after he drove the Moors from the city of Santarema on May 8, 1147. A group of knights from the Kingdom of Leon took part in this battle, especially in reverence for St. Michael and called the "Military Wing (Ala) of the Order of Santiago" (hence the cross of St. James in the insignia of the order, on which the image of the scarlet wing was superimposed). The spiritual life of the knights of the order was led by Cistercian priests. Until now, there are both Portuguese and Spanish branches of this order, membership in which is considered very honorable and is given to both gentlemen and ladies.
Cross of the Order of Christ.
The Order of Christ became the successor order of the Templars in Portugal. It was founded in 1318 by King Dinish the Generous to fight the Moors. Pope John XXII transferred all the possessions of the Portuguese Templars to the Order of Christ, including the Tomar Castle, which in 1347 became the residence of his Grand Master. Hence another name for this order - Tomarsky.
By the way, the Templars settled on the lands of Portugal back in 1160, when they built their impregnable castle Tomar there, which, thirty years later, withstood a prolonged siege of the Moors from Yakub al-Mansur. The Portuguese monarchy hoped for the help of the Templars in the Reconquista, so already in 1318 King Dinis invited them to organize themselves into the "militia of Christ", and a year later this militia turned into a new order.
Fortress of São Jorge.
The headquarters of the order became the castle of Castro-Marim in the southern part of the kingdom. The knights took vows of poverty, celibacy and … obedience to the Portuguese monarch. In 1321, it consisted of 69 knights, nine priests and six sergeants, that is, it did not differ in its population among other orders. After the end of the reconquest, even he was left idle and threatened to become a burden for the state. Therefore, Prince Heinrich the Navigator, being the master of the order, turned him against Muslim Morocco, and in order for the order to have money, he obliged merchants from all African goods to pay tax in his favor, and it was with these funds that the reconstruction of the Tomar castle-monastery was carried out.
The Tomar knights, like their Aviz brothers, actively participated in the overseas expeditions of Portuguese sailors. So, Vasco da Gama sailed with the emblem of their order cross.
King Manuel, seeing in the Tomarians the support of royal power, secularized the order as Grand Master, and his successor, King João III, turned the post of Grand Master into hereditary, belonging to the kings of Portugal. The departure from the religious principle caused concern in the Vatican. At the same time, some popes, referring to the role of the papacy in the establishment of this order, began to present their own order of Christ, which the Portuguese monarchy initially opposed; there were known cases of placing the knights of the papal order in Portugal in custody.
Then, during the years of the Spanish-Portuguese union, another reform of the order was carried out. Now any nobleman who served two years in Africa or three in the Portuguese navy had the right to join it. In 1789 he was subjected to the final secularization, and in 1834 all his property was nationalized. After the collapse of the Portuguese monarchy (1910), all the old orders in the country were eliminated, but in 1917 the Order of Christ was restored as a civil award by the President of Portugal.
Very ancient, although not directly related to the Reconquista, was the Order of Saint Lazarus, which was both a religious and a knightly order, and was founded in the Kingdom of Jerusalem by Gerard de Mortigue around 1098 on the basis of a hospital for lepers. It was usually joined by knights sick with leprosy, a disease very widespread in the Middle Ages. The emblem of the order was a green eight-pointed cross. The knights of the order used to fight without helmets and by their mere appearance plunged the enemy into horror, moreover, they did not feel pain and fought, despite the wounds. After the fall of Acre in 1291, the knights of St. Lazarus left the Holy Land and Egypt and moved first to France and then, in 1311, to Naples. In 1517, part of the order merged with the Order of St. Mauritius into one Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus.
Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus.
