Following Orders

[Lady Christina de Pond]

you are soo bad brother maybe you should do some pentance.
and be inducted into a new order a female order

[Sir William Marcus]

my memory like a steel trap

[Lady Christina de Pond]

  funny but i was thinking more like a box with solid steel sides what you put in ain't leaking out.

[Femme Falchion]

Sir William....gramercy.  The Saints of the Order of Malta is quite interesting.  

How good to know that there have been others before me; living in perfect matrimonial chastity, taking care of husband, house, and doing good works.  

(*must get out!*)


Lady De Pond....I have a trap to suggest....

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

[Femme Falchion]

Lady De Pond...now I am vexed that I've offended thee...

I would rather pour all the consecrated wine out in the streets than do so....

please forgive me if it was offensive.

[Lady Christina de Pond]

wow what a trap

[Mikael of Aragon]

Welcome to 'Templars in Spain: 101', your instructor: Frere Mikael de Aragon...

It is not until 1131 that the Templars are mentioned in dated documents of a reliable character in north-eastern Spain. Nevertheless, there appears to be an earlier reference to them in Aragon in an undated letter written apparently not later than 1130 by William, archbishop of Auch. The letter concerns the militia which Alfonso I of Aragon had established at Monreal del Campo and mentions that this militia had been freed by Alfonso from paying the royal tax of a fifth of booty captured from the Moors 'like the militia of Jerusalem'. The Temple therefore appears to have been receiving privileges from Alfonso I by 1130.

The century following the Templars' arrival in the Iberian Peninsula witnessed a very marked expansion of the Order in north-eastern Spain. In that region the Templars acquired more wealth than the Hospitallers, while the Spanish military orders failed to attain in the Corona de Aragón the importance which they possessed in the centre of the Peninsula. This Templar expansion resulted to a considerable degree from the favour shown to the Order by the rulers of Aragon and Catalonia in return for its participation in the reconquista.

By the time that the Templars arrived in Spain the raiding between Christian and Moor which had characterized much of the eleventh century had been partly replaced on the Christian side by a policy of conquest, and in the north-east of the Peninsula the later decades of the eleventh and the early years of the twelfth centuries had been marked by notable Christian advances. Alfonso I, the king of Aragon and Navarre when the Templars reached the Peninsula, had conquered much of the middle valley of the Ebro, including the city of Zaragoza, and had made further gains to the south along the rivers Jalón and Jiloca. And to assist him in preserving and extending his gains, Alfonso had in 1122 founded the military confraternity at Belchite. In these circumstances it is not surprising that in Aragon and Catalonia, as in Portugal, the Templars were immediately expected to give military assistance against the Moors. This expectation is apparent from the count of Barcelona's grant of the castle of Grañena, for this lay in the march or frontier area, and was given 'for the defence of Christendom according to the purpose for which the Order was founded'; and this wording was repeated in 1132 when Armengol VI, count of Urgel, gave the Temple the frontier castle of Barbará, which his family had held of the counts of Barcelona since 1067. The task of defending frontier castles, which the Templars were later to perform in the Holy Land, was already being assigned to them in Catalonia.

[Mikael of Aragon]

Templar Commanderies in the Corona de Aragon (Kingdom of Aragon, Iberian Peninsula, present day Spain):




The Commandery of Monzon (of which Frere Mikael is the Precepteur):

The Templars received the Monzón castle in 1143 and, then, Saint John's Royal Chapel. This rich commandery, on which they had civil, criminal and religious jurisdiction, had a network of farms and knight commander representatives.

According to the writer Castillón Tallada, the Monzón castle experienced the revival of a new conception of religious life, as the Templar charisma did not consist of living cut off from the world, but integrated in the Medieval society while doing an unprecedented military, agricultural and cultural apostolate.

Prince James and his cousin Raymond Berenguer V, count of Provence, were educated under the protection of the knight commander Guillem de Mont-rodon. James I The Conqueror went to Monzón to celebrate the Cortes, in 1232, which dealt with the conquest of Valencia. The Monzón castle was the Order's last bastion, which resisted heroically against the troops of King James II.



The Monzón castle preserves five big towers scattered in the parade ground. The walls of the keep (9th-10th C) combine boulders and ashlar works. The temple, the refectory, the bedroom outbuildings and the tower of James I stand around the keep.

The temple, with a defensive appearance, has an underground tunnel with an external exit, which is accessible from the apse. These magnificent grounds are completed with the stables, the guard post, the powder magazine, the rainwater cisterns, the corridors and the defensive batteries (18th C) of the artillery barracks.

Monzón's old quarter includes Saint Mary's Cathedral (12th C) -a monument of a great historical and artistic interest-, various museums, exhibition halls and Renaissance palaces surrounded by beautiful landscapes.

[Mikael of Aragon]

Seals of the Templars in Aragon:

In 1224 the provincial master was using a round seal (25 mm. in diameter) of black or dark-green wax, depicting a lamb and bearing the legend: S. PVINCIE ET ARAGONIS. According to a bull issued by Innocent IV in 1251 it was customary for successive provincial masters to use the same seal. A change had been made, however, when the province of Provence and certain parts of Spain was divided into two. The master of Provence contined to use a seal depicting a lamb, but the seal of the Aragonese master William of Cardoona, although round (29 mm. indiameter) and of black or dark-green wax, depicted a knight on horseback, carrying a lance and shield, on which was a cross; it bore the legend: S. MINISTRI TEMPLI ARAGON CATALON. This form of seal was also used by later Aragonese provincial masters.

Seals of convents and commanders:? 
Alfambra - 1248. Brown wax, round, 30 mm. in diameter, depicting a cross. Legend:......LUM CASTRI

Barbará - Early fourteenth century. Yellow wax, round, 29 mm. in diameter, depicting a castle between two fishes. Legend: S. COMAND.....BARBERA

Gardeny - Early fourteenth century. Yellow wax, round, 27 mm. in diameter, depicting a cross, with stars in two angles and shields with crosses in the other two. Legend: S. AR..........GARDENNI. This is the seal of Arnold of Banyuls.

Huesca - Round, depicting a castle. Legend: S. DOM. TEMPLI DE OSCA.

Miravet - 1278, 1287. Depicting a lion.

Monzón - Early fourteenth century. Round, depicting a castle with three towers, with a griffin on each side. Legend: S. CASTELL........ONI.

Tortosa - Late thirteenth century. Depicting a cross. Legend: SIGILLUM MILICIE TEMPLI IN DERTOSA.


CLASS DISMISSED FOR THE DAY!!!

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

Frere Mikael,

For being a wounded warrior of the Faith, that was an absolutely splendid overview of the Templars in Iberia! A struggle that most folks overlook because of the publicity of the "Eastern" Crusades. It should be noted by passing "thread pilgrims", that the conflict in Spain (Reconquista) was the only successful crusade against the Muslim enemy. (I direct their attention to the fact that is was a success as a Crusade against Moors, while the only other success in Crusades was the epic 20 year struggle in the Albigensian affair against Cathar heretics)

Brother, if possible, could you provide some of the battle analysis for specific fights in this region?

Pax vobiscum, and again well done!

[Mikael of Aragon]

Let me consult the official Aragonese scrolls, which I, er...left at the day job.   

[Mikael of Aragon]

(Nightschool is now in session...)

At the beginning, the main activity of the Knights Templar was the protection of the pilgrims going to the Holy Land. This was their initial and only objective as Gregory IX said in his bull of 1238. This meant, in particular, the protection of the road from Jaffa to Césarée. This was an everyday job involving frequent fighting.

Their first recorded battle was however in Portugal. In September 1132, they defended Grayana and the Marche and for this they received the castle of Barbara from the Count Ermengaud d'Urgell. Liberating Spain and Portugal of the Moslems was considered as important as taking back the Holy Land. The first crusade to free these countries started in Toulouse in 1064 and aimed to free Barcelona. The Templar military story at the beginning involved mainly Spain. They received their first fort, Calatrava, between 1126 and 1130. When the King of Spain, Alphonse d'Aragon died in 1134, having no heir, he left Spain to the Templars, the Hospitallers as well as to the Chaplains of the Holy Sepulchre. The Templars refused, feeling that their first vocation was in the Holy Land. However they had large estates in the Iberian peninsula. The Queen of Portugal gave them the castle of Soure. They also received the forest of Cera and there they founded the towns of Radin, Ega and Coimbra. In Spain they received many castles and forts such as Monzon and Montjoie following their participation in the war against the Moslems.

[Mikael of Aragon]

(And to our sisters in the Order of the Hatchet, it is my honor to welcome you back home to Aragon) :

The Order of the Hatchet

There is a case of a clearly military order of knighthood for women. It is the order of the Hatchet (orden de la Hacha) in Catalonia. It was founded in 1149 by Raymond Berenger, count of Barcelona, to honor the women who fought for the defense of the town of Tortosa against a Moor attack. The dames admitted to the order received many privileges, including exemption from all taxes, and took precedence over men in public assemblies. I presume the order died out with the original members.

Here is a description taken from Ashmole, The Institution, Laws, and Ceremony of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (1672), Ch. 3, sect. 3:

"The example is of the Noble Women of Tortosa in Aragon, and recorded by Josef Micheli Marquez, who plainly calls them Cavalleros or Knights."

(Please reference the previously posted map of Templar commanderies in Aragon, showing the location of Tortosa in the Corona de Aragon. And Brothers William and Cliff wonder why Frere Mikael is stationed in Spain; that's where the spirited women are!!!)   


Nnight Class dismissed!!!  Tomorrow's lessons will focus on Templar battles in the Corona de Aragon, as requested by Frere Cliff.   

[Sir William Marcus]

Well done indeed Sir Mikael, good read my brother.