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.