Christian Military Religious Orders

I'm looking for all kind of information about all Christian Military Religious Orders across Europe and middle east. Date of foundation, their costumes and crosses, military campains and battles, main castles, how did they end, and so on...

Here is a list of the main orders i found, with date of foundation (militarisation):

1120 Knights Templar
1136 Knights of St John
1142 Knights of St Lazarus
1158 Order of Calatrava
1170 Order of Santiago
1173 Order of Montjoie
1176 Order of Aviz
1193 Teutonic Order
1202 Livonian Brothers of the Sword
1227 Knights of St Thomas
1261 Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary
1270 Order of Santa Maria de Espana
1290 Order of San Jorge de Alfama
1319 Order of Christ
1317 Order of Montesa
1408 Ordo draconis
1459 Order of Our Lady of Bethlehem

:charge:

Also, to add

Order of the Lizard, who turned against the Teutons at Tannenburg 1410
Order of the Star(something like this), appeared in France....

So, the info.....

Knights Templar - Founded in 1120, they wore a red cross on a white mantle, they fought many battles like Hattin 1187, Acre 1291..... They had their foundations in France, near Rennes-le-Chateau, important castles they didn't have many(Kerak was the most powerful and famous), they were famous for their monasteries..... Their end was in 1312, when King Fillip confiscated their lands because he wanted their huge wealth....

Knights of St John - Known as the Knights Hospitaller, Knights of Rhodes or Knights of Malta.... They started as a cleric order, but after that they became knights, and they were the equal of the Templars. Their most powerful castle was Krak des Chevaliers in Syria and also the Island of Malta which is the most fortified island in the world. They still exist as a cleric order.

Teutonic Knights - Founded in 1193, they were official in the 1226, with the official Bull from Rimini which made them a fighting order. They started like the Hospitaller Knights. After that they became the most powerful order(in my opinion). After the disbanding of Crusades, they conquered Prussia(from the Pagans) and Pomerania(from the Poles). They were a very powerful order, having a powerful and big army. They suffered many defeats however, the defeat at Lake Peipus in 1246 by Alexander Nevskii and at Tanneberg in 1410 by the combined Polish/Lithuanian army. In 1525 the order was secularised but today, they exist!!!! They have many offices, the main is in Vienna, Austria.

Livonian Brothers of the Sword - Founded in Livonia(present day Estonia and Latvia) and later they were included in the Teutonic Knights.

The Order of Santiago - The most powerful order from Spain, originally protecting pilgrims in the Crusading States. They also were a powerful order, with hardy and powerful knights. The Battle at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 marked their peak.

The Order of Calatrava - The second powerful order from Spain, they often fought with the Moors from Spain. Also, the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 marked their peak.

That's all I know....

And for links: www.templarhistory.com

Cheers! ~:cheers:

Livonian Brothers of the Sword - Founded in Livonia(present day Estonia and Latvia) and later they were included in the Teutonic Knights.

Livonian Brothers of the Sword was founded in beg of 13th century to protect cristianic interests on Baltic and to help spread of cristianity. Conquered livs and lets in Latvia and all Estonia, but were beaten in 1236 battle of Saule so badly that had to unite with Teutonic order and became as Livonic order. This actually happened after long discussions, because Livonian Brothers had very bad reputation, so bad, than even Teutonics didn`t want to deal with them.

Knights of Dobrzyn

Small Polish order founded to fight against pagan Prussians. Never too big - absorbed by the Teutonic Order as far as I remember. :bow:

Thanks,

And the dates of foundation of the orders you've mention?

Knights of Dobrzyn
Order of the Lizard? are you sure? isn't the same as Order Of the Dragon?
Order of the Star

Quote:

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1136 Knights of St John

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Or better knowna as Knights Hospitalers or their full title . The Sovereign Military Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta.

The order was founded in the early 12th century, and their original purpose was to protect a hospital built in Jerusalem by Gerard before the first Crusade. The brothers were sworn to assist the defense of Jerusalem, as well as to poverty, chastity and obedience.

The first leader of the order, Gerard, was called rector, and later leaders were called grand masters. Due to the protective duties in an extremely troubled time, the Hospitalers was a military order, and the knights were armed and of noble birth. In the Holy Land, they formed a community under the Rule of St. Augustine that endured until the failure of the Crusades.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by King_Of_Portugal_2

Thanks,

And the dates of foundation of the orders you've mention?

Knights of Dobrzyn
Order of the Lizard? are you sure? isn't the same as Order Of the Dragon?
Order of the Star

---

Here's some info I found from a book about medieval times from 1986!!!

Knights of Dobrzyn - founded in 1216, small military order, absorbed by the Teutonic Knights in 1228

Knights of Alcantara - founded in 1176, small Spanish military order, absorbed by the Knights of Santiago

Knights of the Lizard - founded in 1397, by a Polish knight, who was a member of the Teutonic Knights. They were the Lizard League. They were accused of treachery at the Battle of Tannenberg/Grunwald because they helped the Poles although they were with the Teutonic Knights.

I'll find more.....

BTW, check www.chivalricorders.org

Societas Jesu - 1450 (Pius II) more commonly known as the Jesuit order.

Knights of the Lizard - founded in 1397, by a Polish knight, who was a member of the Teutonic Knights. They were the Lizard League. They were accused of treachery at the Battle of Tannenberg/Grunwald because they helped the Poles although they were with the Teutonic Knights.

If I am correct these guys were trying to rebel against the Teutonic Order and join Poland. It was the ancestor of future Prussian Alliance which rebelled against the Teutons in 1454, declared themselves the loyal subjects of the Polish-Lithuanian state and provided money to fight the Order during the 13 Years War between Poland and the Teutonic Order.
All the members of the Alliance found themselves in Poland after the war was ended and remained autonomous and loyal part of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic - Danzig especially ( resisted the Prussians untill 1793).

Regards Cegorach :book:

Thanks to all you guys!

Here is some information i found:

Order Of Aviz

The Order is today commonly believed to have its origins in a Militia of Knights created under King D. Afonso Henriques (1128-1185) sometime after 1166, to secure the defence of the recently re-captured city of Évora. It was the time of the caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf (1163-1184), the leader of the raising Muwahhid (Almohad) empire in North Africa and in al-Andalus (islamic iberic peninsula), with whom a truce had been accorded between 1173-78 [2].

Around 1187, seeking a regular obedience it received the Rules and Constitution of the Order of Calatrava, and became known as the Évora Militia of the Order of Calatrava.

The Castilian Military Order of Calatrava had been founded by D. Sancho III, King of Castile, who in 1158 donated the town of Calatrava, which had been abandoned by the Knights Templars, to San Raimundo de Fitero and his friars who formed a Militia to defend Calatrava from the Moors.

The new Order submitted to the obedience of the Rule of the Cisterian Order and was confirmed by papal bull - Alexander III - in 1164.

The Évora Militia of the Order of Calatrava assumed the nature of a Monastic-Military Order, the knights being committed to vows of poverty, chastity and obedience with the obligation of fighting the Moors.

The Order followed the Rule of St. Benedict until 1187, when it adopted the Rule of Cisterian Order. Pope Celestine III (1191-1198) confirmed the Order in 1192.

In 1211, the King of Portugal, D. Afonso II, donated the town of Avis to D. Fernando Annes, Master of the Évora Militia who, in turn, had the town fortified and a castle and a convent built. Having completed the fortification of Aviz, the Friars of Évora moved its seat there in about 1223-1224 during the time of Fernão Rodrigues Monteiro, the Master of the Order in Portugal. Henceforth, the militia became known as the Order of Avis.

The Order of Aviz was present and commanded by its Master D. Martim Fernandes during the siege and conquest of Seville in 1248, led by Ferdinand III, the Saint, King of Castile.

Several Papal Bulls (Gregory VIII, Quoties a nobis,1187; Innocent III, 1199, 1201 and 1214) refer to the possessions of the Order of Calatrava in Portugal, thus considering the Order of Évora as a branch of Calatrava.

Nonetheless, Innocent III's bull - Religiosis vitam eligentibus, of May 21st, 1201, is expressly addressed to Magistro et fratribus Elborensis milicie, professis ordinem Calatravae, stating the Order's possessions in Portugal (which the other Bulls considered as belonging to the Order of Calatrava) and conceding to the Friars of Évora the same privileges, liberties and immunities as those of Calatrava.

Although the Order was formally dependent upon the Grand-Master in Castile, in as far as the power of visitation and the confirmation of the elected provincial Masters was concerned, it maintained from the beginning a national and autonomous character. Politically, it depended only upon the Kings of Portugal.

The Portuguese Kings had donated vast territories of land conquered from the Muslims to the Order of Aviz. Nevertheless, from the beginning of the XIII th century, the Portuguese knights begun to elect their own particular Masters.

Furthermore, with the completion of the Reconquest in the Kingdom of Portugal and of the Algarve (c. 1249), and owing to the latent state of war between Portugal and Castile at the time, the formal dependence of the Order of Aviz upon Castile became dangerous to the interests of the Portuguese Crown.

Considering these circumstances, King D. Diniz desired to obtain, from Rome, the recognition of the independence from foreign rule of the Orders of St. James (Santiago) and of Aviz, as well as pleading the creation of the Military Order of Christ to inherit the vast estates which the Knights Templars had possessed in Portugal.

The first practical result of those requests was the Bull Pastoralis officii, dated September 17th, 1288, from Nicholas IV, commanding the Portuguese friars of St. James to elect their own Master in Portugal reserving the right of Visitation to the Grand-Master in Castile.

Under the protests of Castile, this rule was negated by Popes Celestine V and Boniface VIII (1295). Before the election of Pope John XXII, the Portuguese Friars elected their own Master - Dom Lourenço Eanes, Grand-commander of the Order. The Castilian Grand-Master D. Diego Muñiz excommunicated the Portuguese friars and sent ambassadors to Rome seeking the revocation of Nicholas IV's bull. John XXII, decreed in 1317 - bull "Inter caetera" - the submission of the Portuguese friars of St. James to Castile. D. Dinis appealed to Rome sending special envoys requesting the Pope the revocation of his decision. The Pope then ordered in 1319 an inquiry through the Archbishops of Compostela and of Braga. The dispute was only solved by Pope Eugene IV, who recognised the separation of the Order of St. James in Portugal from the Order in Castile. Furthermore, Pope Nicholas V extended the privileges of the Order in Castile to the Order of St. James in Portugal (see, Order of St. James of the Sword).

These disputes also occurred in the Order of Aviz, especially after the Orders' Master in Portugal - Prince John, was proclaimed King of Portugal (1385-1433), against Castilian pretensions, under the name of John I.

After the ascension to the throne of JohnI, the Order's Chapter met at the Castle of Aviz on October, 3rd, 1387, and elected as their Master Dom Fernando Rodrigues de Siqueira without the intervention of the Grand-Master of Calatrava, and under the pretext that the Kingdom of Castile recognised the schismatic Pope at Avignon - Clement VII - they requested Urban VI, at Rome, to approve of the election without the confirmation of the Grand-Master at Calatrava, as the Statutes of the Order ruled.

Boniface IX confirmed the election on November 9th, 1389.

When the Grand-Master of Calatrava - Don Gonzalo Núnez de Guzmán, came to Portugal to visit the Order of Aviz, King John I ordered the Master of Aviz, D. Fernando Rodrigues de Sequeira, to receive the Calatrava Grand-Master with all the honours due to a personage of his rank and as a guest, but not to accept him as his Superior or as a Prelate.

There arose a long dispute with the Kingdom of Castille and the Grand-Master of Calatrava, whose supreme authority was not recognised by the Portuguese knights, through successive appeals to Rome, and to the Council of Basle in 1436.

The dispute ended in 1440, with the papal recognition of the independence of the Orders of St. James and of Aviz from Castile, by Pope Eugene IV's bull, during the reign of King D. Afonso V , under the Regency of his uncle D. Pedro, Duke of Coimbra.

Following the death of the last elected Master - D. Fernão Rodrigues de Sequeira, in the reign of King D. Duarte I, the administration of the Order fell within the Royal Family until, in 1551 it was conceded to the Crown by Pope Julian III.

In 1789, upon request of Queen Mary I, Pope Pius VI, approved the secularisation of the Orders. Therefore, the Orders became primarily Orders of Knighthood of aristocratic nature, as far as the lay knights were concerned.

Order Of Christ

A successor, so to speak, in the Kingdom of Portugal of the Order of the Knights Templar, the Military Order of Christ has its origins in the medieval "Order of the Knights of Our Lord Jesus Christ" which was created on 14th March 1319 by Pope John XXII's Bull, "Ad ea ex quibus".

King Dennis I (1261-1325) had requested the creation of a new order to replace the suppressed Order of the Knights Templars (Pope Clement V, at the Council of Vienne, in 1312). The first Grand-Master was D. Gil Martins -till then had been the elected Master of the Order of St. Benedict of Aviz- who died in 1321.

It assumed the nature of a religious military Order, the lay knights being committed to vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The original seat of the Order was at the medieval town of Castro Marim, in the Algarve. However, in 1357, in the reign of Peter I (1357-1367) having long ago ended the reconquest, the Order moved to the town of Tomar, former seat of the Order of the Knights Templars in Portugal, during the mastership of D. Nuno Rodrigues - 6th Grand-Master of the Order.

Its last elected Grand-Master was D. Lopo Dias de Sousa who died in 1417. At this time King John I (1385-1433), married to Queen Philippa of Lancaster, requested the Pope the office of Governor on behalf of his third son Prince Henry, "the Navigator" (1394-1460).

In 1420, Prince Henry assumed with papal approval the administration of the Order with the title of Governor, thus commencing a new period which was to be brilliant in the history of the Order, linking its destiny, as it did, to the Discoveries.

During his office the Order was reformed by John, Bishop of Lamego, in 1449, with the approval of Pope Eugene IV. Prince Henry was succeeded in the governorship of the Order by his nephew and adopted son Prince Ferdinand, son of King Edward I, who died in 1470.

In 1484, Emmanuel, Duke of Beja, became the XIth Governor of the Order and was eventually recognized as the Grand-Master of the Order, by Leo X's Bull "Constante fide", (June 30th, 1516) after ascending to the throne of Portugal in 1495 . He was succeeded by his son King John III who was confirmed as administrator by a brief of Pope Adrian VI - "Eximiae devotionis" (14th April, 1523).

However, in 1551, after the death of Prince George (1481-1550), Duke of Coimbra, (a bastard son of King John II) - Master of the Orders of Avis and of St. James, Pope Julian III, in the reign of John III (1521-1557), conceded in perpetuum, the Grand Mastership of all Military Orders to the Crown.

In 1523, John III went to Tomar and held a Chapter of the Order having entrusted Frei António de Lisboa with the responsibility to undertake the reform of the Order. In 1529, new statutes were approved whereby the Friars (the Professed Knights of the Order) submitted to confinement in the Convent. In as far as the Friars were concerned, the Order thus became a Regular one. In order to receive the Friars, John III ordered the building of the Convent of the Order at Tomar.

In 1789, Queen Mary I reformed and secularized the three traditional Military Orders with the approval of Pope Pius VI, who by the brief "Qualqunque a majoribus", 18 August 1789, confirmed the Grand Mastership of the Orders to the Portuguese Crown and permitted the Queen to reform the Military Order of Christ. Therefore, the Orders, in as far the lay knights were concerned, became mere Orders of Knighthood of aristocratic nature.

Order Of Santiago (St. James)

The Order of Santiago (Sant'Iago), more properly the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, was originally a small military brotherhood based near Caceres in Estramadura. Their initial purpose was to provide protection for the pilgrims traveling to and from the tomb of Saint James at Compostella, the most important pilgrimage center in Western Europe, who were frequently harassed by Moorish bandits.

Between 1164 and 1170 the thirteen founder knights had attached themselves to the order of regular canons of the monastery of Sant'Eloi at Lugo, on the Mino in Galicia, promising to give them military protection and adopting their rule of Saint Augustine. The knights brought a considerable endowment to the new combined Order, and the monks soon assented to sharing their common revenues and agreed to provide hospital services to the knights, their serving brothers and sick pilgrims.

The 1173 concordat between the Master of the knights, D. Pedro-Fernándo de Fuentes Encalada and the Prior of the canons, Dom Fernándo, which regulated the terms of this agreement, was approved by the Papal legate, Hiacinto Cardinal Bubo (later Pope Celestinus III), in early 1175 and later that year Fuentes traveled to Rome, where he was received in audience by Pope Alexander II, who approved the new Order in the Bull Benedictus Deus of 3 July 1175.

The knights made similar vows as the members of the Hospitaller and Templar Orders, although only taKing the lesser vow of "marital chastity". They were not only required to provide hospital services, however, but like the Teutonic knights in Prussia also undertake the evangelisation of the citizens of their new territories. The head of the Order, accorded the title of "Master", ruled with a Council of Thirteen (the Trecenezago), while the religious members (the Canons and Canonesses) were headed by their own Prior. The Master's deputy (a member of the Trecenezago), was accorded the title of Grand Commander (Commendador Mayor) and subsequently the responsibilities of this office were divided between five Grand Commanders, of Castille, León, and Montalbán (or Aragón) - which still exist - and two others, Portugal and Gascony, which have been dissolved.

The council of thirteen was replicated in the Order's principal fortress communities (or encomienda), each containing thirteen knight brothers.

The Order had immediately obtained the support of King Ferdinand of Aragón who, in 1171, had granted it title to the original headquarters, the town of Caceres and, over the next two years, they captured Badajoz, Mora (near Toledo), and Fuentiduena (near Aranjuez). In 1174 they were granted the castle of Uclés (between Toledo and Cuenca) by King Alfonso IX of Castille, where they established their principal seat following the loss of Caceres and Badajoz. Within ten years they had founded hospitals at Toledo, Avíla and Talavera and, in 1188, at Cuenca.

In 1186 they inaugurated the convent of Santa Eufemia of Cozolos for the Canonesses attached to their Order and soon afterward opened a leper hospital at Villa San Martín, near Carion. They were granted extensive properties in Portugal, including the town of Palmela, and later acquired properties in France, Italy, Palestine, Carinthia, Hungary and England (given them by grateful pilgrims).