GREAT
ORDERS
OF
CHIVALRY
SPANISH
ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD
http://www.chivalricorders.org/orders/spanish/index.htm
The
Order of the Golden Fleece
The
Order of Charles III
The
Order of Isabella the Catholic
The
Order of Maria Luisa
The
Four Military Orders
The
Order of Santiago
The
Order of Calatrava
The
Order of Alcántara
The
Order of Montesa
THE
SPANISH MILITARY ORDERS
©Guy
Stair Sainty
The crusade to drive the Moors from Spain, four hundred years of almost
constant warfare interspersed with skirmishes and short periods of armed peace,
was not only the longest of all European wars but was the only crusade to
achieve its objective. The role played by the knights of the Military Orders
was a crucial one; their monastic structure, the harsh discipline and the
devotion of the knights to the cause of liberating their nation from the
invader, gave them an unmatched strength of purpose. By granting key strategic
fortresses to the knights, the Iberian Kings of Castille, Aragón, León and
Portugal were able to establish border outposts in newly conquered territories
whose boundaries were continually pushing back the areas controlled by the
Moors. With the success of the Reconquista and the expulion of the Moors,
the four Orders lost their independence from secular authorities when they were
put under the "perpetual administration" of the Spanish Crown. They
then found a new role as an elite corps of the nobility, maintaining their
castles and estates as commanderies to provide incomes for those who had
distinguished themselves in the service of the Monarch. With the loss of their
estates in the nineteenth century their role became purely honorary and the
Republic attempted to suppress them entirely, although this was contrary to
Canon Law under which they were regulated as Religious-Military Orders founded
by Papal Bull. Restored under the present Monarchy, they have been maintained
as exclusively Catholic, Noble Orders dependent on the Crown.
They had their origin in the small, local military confraternities founded
for self-protection by members of the knightly class. The Moors had conquered
almost all of the Iberian peninsular within five years of invading in the year
711 a.d. The Christians, however, advancing gradually southwards, fortifying
the small towns in which they settled, steadily regained their lost
territories. By the end of the eleventh century northern Spain was divided into
a number of small states, León, Castille, Navarre, Aragón, Galicia and
Portugal, frequently at odds with each other but united by their religion and
the continual concern over a revived threat from the Moorish states to the
south.
Although the Moors were relatively tolerant of religious minorities living
within their dominions, indeed there was considerable intermarriage between the
different communities, Christian, Jewish and Moor, they saw the expanding
Christian communities on their borders as ready victims for plunder. The
Moorish Kingdom based at Córdoba was itself divided by factionalism and its
break-up into smaller taifas (city states) gave the Christian
confraternities their chance to consolidate their power and firmly establish
themselves in the territories they had captured during two centuries of
protracted struggle. [1]
By the end of the eleventh century the Christian Kingdoms enjoyed an uneasy
truce with the Moors, interspersed with occasional hostilities, but this was
disrupted by the appearance of a fanatic Berber sect, the Almohads, in the
early twelfth century.
The Almohads, led by Abd al-Moumin, invaded Andalucia in 1147, uniting the
Moorish principalities under their rule and menacing the Christian states. The
Spanish Christians were forced to put aside their internal conflicts and, with
the help of the Templars, who had established themselves in a number of border
fortresses, united to defeat this new threat to their security. The example of
the Templars, a highly disciplined military confraternity dedicated exclusively
to the defense of the Church, proved to be the model which would be followed by
the native Spanish Orders. Some of the original defensive fraternities formed
in the outlying towns provided the nucleus for the Orders of Chivalry, while
others, more modest, later became Maestranzas or Noble Associations, some of
which have survived to the present day. The Templars themselves were in gradual
retreat in Spain as the local magnates preferred to endow the newly former
military Orders rather than further add to the strength of the threateningly
powerful Templar Order.
The first Order to be founded, but the second to receive Papal approval, was
the Order
of Calatrava. The earlier recognition, however, granted to the Order of
Santiago by the Holy See, gave the latter
precedence before the other three. Santiago was also far more extensively
endowed than the other Orders (in the eighteenth century the value of its
benefices totaled 40% of the combined value of those of all four Orders
together). Once the mission of driving the Moors from Spain was accomplished,
the four Orders, like the great crusader Orders elsewhere in Europe, were
perceived as over-mighty subjects and it became a priority for the Crown to
gain control over them - particularly as the not infrequent quarrels between
the rival bodies was a source of dissension at a time when the Crown was
struggling to establish its central authority.
The Spanish Kings had frequently obtained the election of close connections
of their families as Masters of the Orders and at Calatrava in 1489, Santiago
in 1494 and Alcántara
in 1495 the administration of the three Magisteries were ultimately granted
to King Ferdinand of Aragón, as Sovereign of Aragón and King-Consort of Castille.
Finally, by the Bull Dum intra of Pope Adrian VI dated 4 May 1523, the
`perpetual administration' of the three Orders was transferred to Charles I
(the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V), King of Spain, and his heirs and
successors, with the provision that this dignity could be exercised by a future
female Sovereign.
The much smaller Order of
Montesa was not perceived as such a threat as the other three and it was
not until a Bull of Sixtus V, of 15 March 1587, that its perpetual
administration was eventually transferred to the Crown of Aragón. By a further
Bull of 22 May 1739 (at the request of Philip V) its council was united with
that of the other three Orders. The Orders were administered by a `Council
and Tribunal' appointed in 1523, but each of the four retained their
independent structure, their own statutes, and requirements for noble proofs
and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The exemption from the control of local
ordinaries was preserved in the Bull of 1523 and in subsequent Papal
dispositions concerning the four Orders, until the first Spanish Republic. By
the mid-sixteenth century the Tribunal had authority over two cities, two
hundred and twenty small towns and seventy-five villages. Membership of the
Council included the Secretary of the Orders, the Treasurer of the Orders (Contador
Mayor), the Grand-Usher, three (later four with Montesa)
Procurator-Generals, three (later four) fiscals (who inspected noble
proofs) and a Treasurer of the Council. The lesser officers of each of the
Orders, lawyers, etc were not members of the Council. [2]
Without a military function, the four Orders became a valued means of
honoring the nobility and rewarding servants of the Crown who had distinguished
themselves. Thus, in the eighteenth century, a number of Jacobite exiles, who
had served in the armies of Philip V, were received into the four Orders and
rewarded with the grant of valuable commanderies. Several gentlemen of Irish,
English, Scots and Welsh descent settled permanently in Spain and between 1702
and 1780 there were forty knights of Santiago of British birth or origin
admitted, [3]
and a handful to the other four Orders (Santiago attracted more postulants
because of the larger number of benefices available). The admission into the
four Orders of foreigners who were not in the service of the Spanish crown was
almost unknown, and although there is no prohibition against non-Spanish
members of the four Orders today, only one - the Duke of Braganza, Head of the
Royal House of Portugal - has been admitted. [4]
Membership of the Order of the Golden Fleece, which was regarded as having
greater prestige both by the Borbón Kings and non-Spaniards, was considered
incompatible with membership in any of the four military Orders until a reform
of 1773 (before which a Papal Bull was required to leave one to receive the
other). The Fleece was therefore the preferred award of the Spanish Kings for
foreigners and the greatest nobles, while the four Orders were used to honor
service to the Crown, until the establishment of the Order of Charles III,
whose lowest rank also could be granted to less illustrious individuals.
The downfall of the Borbón Kingdom in 1808 and the establishment of a
Bonapartist Monarchy under Joseph NapoLeón, led to the suppression of the four
Orders by the secular authorities (canonically invalid) and the seizure of
their benefices. [5]
Ferdinand VII re-established them and restored their properties upon recovering
his Crown in 1814. Between 1814 and their suspension by the revolutionary
government in 1869, there were some three hundred and forty-admissions into the
Order of Santiago, one hundred and fifty into Alcántara and eighty-five into
Montesa.
The liberal government of the regency of María-Christina attempted to
suppress the Orders in 1836, confiscating their benefices, but re-established
them shortly afterwards (without restoring their estates). Their exempt
ecclesiastical jurisdiction was preserved under the terms of the 1851 Concordat,
by which certain of the confiscated properties were restored and concentrated
together near Ciudad Real, which was established as a Prelature nullius
dioeceseos, under the title Priory of the four reunited Military Orders
of Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara and Montesa [6].
In 1873 the Holy See, acting in disregard of this earlier agreement, suppressed
the exempt jurisdiction - to accord with the wishes of the new republican
government - but following the restoration of the Borbón Monarchy once again, with
Alfonso XII as King, the four Orders regained their independence in 1876. Their
ancient prerogatives restored, but with only those benefices situated at Ciudad
Real, the status of the four military Orders was primarily honorific - since
the Order of Saint John had ceased to require proof of nobility from the
mid-nineteenth century they were the only surviving Spanish Orders for which
proof of nobility was required. [7]
Once Alfonso XIII attained his majority, he began to take interest in the
Orders and their well-being, and attached to his other titles that of
"Grand Master" - obtaining de facto Papal approval of his new
title of Grand Master and Perpetual Administrator when the Holy See
confirmed certain regulations in 1916. The King was accustomed to wear the
crosses of the four Orders on all official occasions and actively participated
in their ceremonies. Indeed, the white mantle with the four Crosses was taken
with him into exile in 1931 and, on his death ten years later, his body was
dressed in this mantle when it lay in state. After his exile in 1931, a handful
of new knights were admitted whose nominations had been under way before the
downfall of the Monarchy - including several knights of Santiago and Calatrava.
[8]
The Count of Barcelona, who succeeded him as claimant to the Spanish Throne,
made only two admissions during the years from 1941 until the restoration of
the Monarchy, the Infants Luis-Alfonso and José-Eugenio, Princes of Bavaria,
who were received as novices on 23 April 1941. The Republic had declared the
four Orders abolished by an act of 29 April 1934 but, although this action was
canonically invalid, the nationalist government did not accede to the four
Orders request for reestablishment. [9]
The restoration of the Spanish Monarchy in 1975 led to new moves to restore
the four Orders. In 1978 the Count of Barcelona, who had abdicated in favor of
his son, King Juan Carlos I, as Head of the Royal House of Spain and Chief and
Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece in the previous year, was nominated
Dean President of the Council and Tribunal of the Orders of Chivalry of
Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara and Montesa. On May 29 of that year, Don
José Fernández-Villaverde y Roca de Togores, Marquess of Pozo Rubio and Grandee
of Spain (a novice knight of Calatrava since 1921), was appointed to be
"Councilor-Minister" of the four Orders. Three years later on 14
October 1981, in a decree signed by the Count of Barcelona in the name of the
King, the Marquess of Pozo Rubio was nominated "Grand Commander" of
Calatrava - an appointment which was followed by that of D. Gonzalo García de
Blanes as "Grand Commander" of Alcántara on 15 March 1982 (succeeded
by the Duke of Calabria on 13 October 1986). On 7 December 1982 the first admissions
of novices to the four Orders begun - eight to Santiago, twelve to Calatrava,
six to Alcántara and two to Montesa. The first professions were permitted from
January 1983 - some of those making profession having been novices for sixty
years or more.
Today the four Orders have a total membership of more than two hundred and
thirty - the majority in Calatrava - re-establishing themselves rapidly and
adopting various humanitarian duties. His Majesty the King retains the title of
Grand Master, Perpetual Administrator by Apostolic Authority, the late
Count of Barcelona was "Dean President" until the nomination
by His Majesty of His Royal Highness the Infante Duke of Calabria as his
successor on July 5th, 1993. There is also a Minister Councilor (previously the
Duke of Calabria) and two Councilors. The post of Prelate of Ciudad Real, to
which the titular Episcopal see of Dora had been attached, has, since 1984,
been elevated to the status of Bishop of Ciudad Real (within the Archdiocese of
Toledo), and the Priory of the four Military Orders is still attached thereto.
The Holy See has not intervened in the re-establishment of the Orders and when
a request was made as to the attitude of the Vatican, an informal reply was
given that their abolition in 1934 had been unrecognized by the Holy See and
that previous privileges (excepting the exempt ecclesiastical jurisdiction) had
not been revoked. Each of the four Orders have initiated ceremonies at their
ancient seats but the principal ecclesiastical seat is the Church of the four
Orders in Madrid.
Footnotes
[1]The most recent study in English of the Military
Orders can be found in Desmond Seward, The Monks of War, Eyre Methuen
1972, pp.135-193.
[2]For a general historical survey of the four Orders see
Count Carlos Zeininger de Borja, Les Quatre Ordres Militaires d'Espagne, in Rivista
Araldica, 1949, pp. 113-115, pp.208-214. For a more detailed study, see
Helyot, op.cit..
[3]Including Daniel, 1st Count O'Mahony in 1711, while in
1789 John and Sebastian O'Kindeland, the latter the ancestor of the famous
General in Franco's Nationalist Army, were admitted.
[4]To the Order of Calatrava, as a Novice knight, in
1985.
[5]Although four knights of Santiago were admitted
(between 1811 and 1813) and two knights of Alcántara (in 1810 and 1813).
[6]The
Priorato dei Riuniti Ordini Militari Spagnoli di Santiago, Calatrava,
Alcántara, Montesa (Annuario Pontificio, 1994).
[7]Noble proofs were later restored in the Spanish Priory
of the Order of Saint John after it was reunited with the Sovereign Military
Order of Malta, but were generally less rigorously applied. Today, because of
internecine squabbling among the members of the Spanish Assembly of the
S.M.O.M. and a cooling of the relationship between that Order and the Royal
Family, many of the most eminent candidates who might hitherto have been
expected to join Malta have instead joined the four Orders.
[8]Among the latter were the Conde de Barajas and D.
Diego de León y Núñez-Robles, on 7 April 1932, the Marqués de Herrera and his
brothers D. Luis and D. Ramón Díaz de Bustamente y Quijano on 23 February 1935.
Certain of the titular offices of the Order were filled by a process of
seniority - for example in 1960 the Baron de Llauri was appointed to the post
of Clavero Mayor of the Order of Montesa.
[9]This decision of the Franco government, which
ultimately re-established every other Monarchical institution, was never
explained and it has been presumed that it was related to their decision not to
prohibit the actions of the "Order of Saint Lazarus" which
established itself in Spain in the 1930's.
ORDER OF SANTIAGO
ORDER OF CALATRAVA
ORDER OF ALCANTARA
ORDER OF MONTESA
http://www.chivalricorders.org/orders/spanish/fourspan.htm
