Military Order of al-Cántara

8/7/2019 Military Order of al-Cántara

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/military-order-of-al-cantara 1/14

Military Order of

al-Cántara

Copyright © 2009 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.



Alcántara, a town on the Tagus (here crossedby a bridge--cantara, whence the name), issituated in the plain of Estremadura, a greatfield of conflict for the Moslems and Christiansof Spain in the twelfth century.

First taken in 1167 by the King of Leon,Fernando II, Alcántara fell again (1172) into thehands of the fierce Jussuf, the third of the

African Almohades; nor was it recovered until

1214, when it was taken by Alonzo of Leon, theson of Fernando. In order to defend this conquest, on a border

exposed to many assaults, the king resorted tomilitary orders.



The coat of arms

Knights of al-Cantara

al-Cantara town

the Bridge



The Middle Ages knew neither standing armiesnor garrisons, a deficiency that the militaryorders supplied, combining as they did military

training with monastic stability. Alcántara was first committed (1214) to the care

of the Castilian Knights of Calatrava, who hadlately given many proofs of their gallantry in thefamous battle of Las Navas de Tolosas againstthe Almohades (1212).

Alonzo of Leon wished to found at Al cantara aspecial branch of this celebrated order for hisrealm.



But four years later these Knights felt that thepost was too far from their Castilian quarters.

They give up the scheme and transferred the

castle, with the permission of the king, to apeculiar Leonese order still in a formative stage,known as "Knights of St. Julian de Pereiro".

Their genesis is obscure, but according to asomewhat questionable tradition, St. Julian de

Pereiro was a hermit of the country of Salamanca, where by his counsel, someknights built a castle on the river Tagus tooppose the Moslems.



They are mentioned in 1176, in a grant of KingFernando of Leon, but without allusion to their military character.

They are first acknowledged as a military order by a privilege of Pope Celestine III in 1197.

Through their compact with the Knights of Calatrava, they accepted the Cistercian rule

and costume, a white mantle with the scarletovercross, and they submitted to the right of introspection and correction from the Master of Calatrava.



This union did not list long. The Knights of Alcántara, under their

new name, acquired many castles andestates, for the most part at the expense

of the Moslems. They amassed great wealth from booty

during the war and from pious donations. It was a turning point in their career.

However, ambitions and dissensionsincreased among them. The post of grand master became the

aim of rival aspirants.



They employed against one another swordswhich had been vowed only to warfare againstthe infidels.

In 1318, the castle of Alcántara presented thelamentable spectacle of the Grand Master, RuyVaz, besieged by his own Knights, sustained inthis by the Grand Master of Calatrava.

This rent in their body showed no less than

three grand masters in contention, supportedseverally by the Knights, by the Cistercians,and by the king.

Such instances show sufficiently to what a passthe monastic spirit had come.



All that can be said in extenuation of such a scandal is that military orders lostthe chief object of their vocation when

the Moors were driven from their lastfoothold in Spain.

Some authors assign as causes of their disintegration the decimation of the

cloisters by the Black Death in thefourteenth century, and the laxity whichrecruited them from the most poorlyqualified subjects.



Lastly, there was the revolution in warfare,when the growth of modern artillery and infantryoverpowered the armed cavalry of feudal times,the orders still holding to their obsolete mode of fighting.

The orders, nevertheless, by their wealth andnumerous vassals, remained a tremendouspower in the kingdom, and before long wereinvolved deeply in political agitations.

During the fatal schism between Peter the Crueland his brother, Henry the Bastard, whichdivided half Europe, the Knights of Alcántarawere also split into two factions which warredupon each other.



The kings, on their side, did not fail to take anactive part in the election of the grand master,who could bring such valuable support to theroyal authority.

In 1409, the regent of Castile succeeded inhaving his son, Sancho, a boy of eight years,made Grand Master of Alcantara.

These intrigues went on till 1492, when Pope Alexander VI invested the Catholic King,Ferdinand of Aragon, with the grand mastershipof Alcántara for life.

Adrian VI went farther, in favour of his pupil,Charles V, for in 1522 he bestowed the threemasterships of Spain upon the Crown, evenpermitting their inheritance through the femaleline.



The Knights of Alcántara were released fromthe vow of celibacy by the Holy See in 1540,and the ties of common life were sundered.

The order was reduced to a system of endowments at the disposal of the king, of which he availed to himself to reward hisnobles.

There were no less than thirty-seven

"Commanderies", with fifty-three castles or villages. Under the French domination the revenues of

Alcántara were confiscated, in 1808, and theywere only partly given back in 1814, after the

restoration of F

erdinand VII. They disappeared finally during the subsequentSpanish revolutions, and since 1875 the Order of Alcántara is only a personal decoration,conferred by the king for military services.



Sources

DE ROBLES, Privilegia militiae de Alcantará apontificibus (Madrid, 1662); DE VALENCIA, Definiciones

y establecimientos de la Orden de Alcántara (Madrid,1602); MANRIQUE, Annales cistercienses (till 1283)(Lyon, 1642), 4 vols. fol.; RADES Y ANDRADA, Cronicónde las tres órdenes y caballerías (Toledo, 1572);

ARAUJO Y CUELLAS, Recopilación histórica de lascuatro ordenes militares (Madrid, 1866); HÉLYOT,

Histoire des ordres religieux et militaires, 6 vols. (Tours,1718); DE LA FUENTE Historia ecl. de Españna, 4 vols.(Madrid, 1874).



APA citation. Moeller, C. (1907). Military Order of Alcántara. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert AppletonCompany. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01271b.htm

MLA citation. Moeller, Charles. "Military Order of Alcántara."The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton

Company, 1907.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01271b.htm>. Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by

Bobie Jo M. Bilz. Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1907.

Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Impr i matur. +John CardinalFarley, Archbishop of New York.

Contact information. The editor of New Advent is KevinKnight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (Tohelp fight spam, this address might change occasionally.)Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciateyour feedback ² especially notifications about typographicalerrors and inappropriate ads.

Military Order of al-Cántara

Documents

Transcript of Military Order of al-Cántara