Portuguese Military Orders' Overview

The Portuguese Military Orders - Overview

The ancient Military religious Orders

The ancient Military Orders were, like their counterparts - the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem and the Templars which had evolved earlier in the Holy Land - true religious orders. The knight-friars took the evangelical vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and swore to defend the faith and the Church. Besides these knight-friars - who in reality were, as it has been emphasized by modern scholars, lay members - the Orders had religious brothers and sergeants [see on the subject, Paul Crawford's introduction paper on the Military Orders].

The most famous of them all - the Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ - was created in 1319, by King Dennis I, with the Pope's approval, so as to succeed to the Order of the Knights Templar in the domains of the Portuguese Crown.

Unwilling to accept the suppression of the Knights Templars' Order and the subsequent transmission of that Order's properties and wealth to the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem as decreed by the Council of Vienna, the Iberian kings soon made an alliance to evade this solution. The Iberian alliance, after years of negotiations with Rome, resulted in the creation of the Military Order of Montesa (in the kingdom of Valencia) by the King of Aragon, and the Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ created by the King of Portugal with the Pope's approval.

The Order of Aviz originated as a confraternity of knights who, by 1166, took upon themselves the defense of the city of Evora on the frontier with the Moors. Later, desiring to obtain recognition from Rome they took the Rule of St. Benedict and came under the "Visitation" powers of the Order of Calatrava.

Whether the Order of Aviz was officially a "branch" of the of the Order of Calatrava is still open to debate. Notwithstanding, they were to become an independent Order by the middle of the XIV th. century, rendering obedience only to the Pope and to the Kings of Portugal and of the Algarves.

The Portuguese Order of St. James of the Sword (Sant'Iago da Espada) was initially (XII th. century) a mere grand-commandery of the Castilian Order of Santiago, but soon became de facto autonomous, during the later part of the XIII th. century, having its own elected Master - D. João Fernandes. In 1440, its autonomy was definitively recognized by Rome and Castile.

By the XIV th. century the military orders had accumulated vast dominions and strongholds, especially south of the river Tagus, and held important strategic positions along the border with the Kingdom of Leon/Castille. Conscious of their power and political importance, the Kings of Portugal of the Burgundian Dynasty always tried to secure their support in internal as well as external struggles. But as the consolidation of power in the hands of the Crown increased, the monarchs felt the need to gain control over these important armed bodies. That is why, on various occasions, every time there was an election of the grand master in one of the orders the king felt secure to "recommend" a knight to the Chapter General of the Order.

In the succession crisis of 1383-85 and the war that followed with Castile, Prince John, Master of the Order of Aviz and a bastard son of King Peter I, became Defender of the Realm with strong popular support, over the "legitimist" claim to the throne of Portugal by the Castilian King who was married to the legal heiress to the Portuguese crown.

In 1385, having won important and decisive battles against the Castilians, Prince John was proclaimed King of Portugal at the Cortes of Coimbra with the widespread support from the common people, the wealthy merchants from the cities and the lower nobility. During his reign a new nobility emerged, favored with land and titles by the new dynasty of Aviz.

By the beginning of the XVth century, the last of the elected grand masters of the military orders died and the king used this opportunity to request the Pope for the appointement of Royal Princes to the governorship and administration of the Orders. This marked the end of the statutory election of the Masters by the knights in the Chapter General.

In the middle of the XVIth century, King John III, who had been governor for life of the Order of Christ, since his father's death in 1523, requested the Pope the mastership of the remaining orders for himself and his successors, to which Rome agreed. The three Orders and their huge rents came thus under the tight control of the Crown, who begun to use it to pay services and reward its subjects, without having recourse to an exhausted Treasure [1].

Apart from losing the power vested in the primitive Statutes to elect their own respective Grand Masters, the friars-knights and clerics - became less and less observant of their vows. The vow of poverty had slowly been forgotten over the years. The vow of chastity (in the Order of Santiago the knights had always had the right to marry) was to be transformed by the end of the XVth century. In fact, in 1496, Pope Alexander VI allowed the knights to marry transforming the essence of the vow to marital chastity.

And in 1501, Pope Julius II mitigated the vow of poverty into the payment of a tax - the meia-anata. This meant the payment by the knights or commanders of one-half of the yearly revenue of the Orders, while the remainder was retained by those knights or commanders. In the Order of Christ the tax was higher - 3/4 of the revenues. So the knights and commanders, apart from enjoying during their lifetime the fruits of their commanderies, could now transmit it to their heirs.

On the other hand, by the middle of 1570's, and after the introduction of the Inquisition and the beginning of the official persecution of the Jews, the Orders began to close their doors to non-nobles and to people of infected blood, making it necessary, before being admitted, to prove noble status and the absence of Jewish or Moorish blood.

During the second half of the XVI th. - XVIII th., being admitted to an Order became thus a symbol of "purity" of race and of nobility, thus giving its holder a considerable status in society. This helps to explain why so many people fought their way into the Orders. By the reign of King Joseph I and the government of his omnipotent Minister - the Marquis of Pombal, the proofs of purity of blood were finally abolished (1773).

In the following reign of Queen Mary I , an important reform was introduced (1789) in the military orders with papal approval. Thereby, the class of Knights Grand Cross was introduced, apart from that of Knight Commander and Knight.

As far as the secular knights were concerned, the Orders became, after 1789 reform, primarily Orders of Knighthood of an aristocratic nature. However, by their very nature, the military orders remained religious orders, still dependent upon Rome in spiritual matters. As such, the patrimony of the Orders could not be alienated because it belonged to a religious body.

In 1834, however, under the constitutional monarchy, which resulted from the defeat of King Michael I in the Civil War, all religious orders were abolished, including the Military Orders and all their properties and possessions were confiscated by the government. The Convents, where the religious brothers still lived, were subsequently evacuated and sold in public auction.

The ancient Military Orders, transformed by the liberal constitution and subsequent legislation into mere Orders of Merit, continued to be awarded for individual merits and services to the State and the Crown. The privileges which once had been an essential part of the membership of the old military orders also ceased, since they were contrary to the new principles of equality of all subjects before the law.

The Order of the Tower and of the Sword, in turn, was revived in the early XIX th. century, as an order of chivalry, open to non-Roman Catholics and was again reformed in 1832, under the new principles of Liberalism.

The other former military orders, however, continued to be awarded, as mere Orders of Merit, by the Liberal Sovereigns of Portugal, under the old legislation of Queen Mary I!

Indeed, the Order of St. James of the Sword was only to be "reformed" in 1862, and was then reserved to reward merits and services in the fields of Science and the Arts.

The Order of Aviz only underwent "reform", as late as 1894, and became known as the Royal Military Order of St. Benedict of Aviz [2], and was restricted to members of the Armed Forces. The Order of Christ was kept, formally unchanged, till 1910.

Thus, the French model of "order of merit" - a mitigated imitation of the old orders of chivalry - which followed the French Revolution and the creation by Napoleon of the Legion d'Honneur, finally made its way in this far corner of Europe, as it did elsewhere.

So the modern States, born of the XIX th. centuries revolutions, saw in the Orders of Merit, a way to recognize and reward services rendered to society, rewarding individual merits in all fields of activity.

Portugal was no exception. After a brief suppression by a decree of the provisional republican government, just after the Revolution of 1910, the old military orders orders mentioned above were re-established in 1918-19, as Orders of Merit, having the Head of State as Grand Master exercising the traditional "fons honorum".

Although different in nature, purposes and organization, the Portuguese Orders of the Tower and of the Sword, of Christ, of Aviz and of St. James of the Sword have a glorious and ancient tradition, which goes back, with the exception of the first mentioned, to the medieval ages, making them amongst the oldest orders still awarded today.[3].

Notes:

[1] The main study on the membership of the Military Orders (1551-1621) is Fernanda OLIVAL, Para uma análise sociológica das ordens militares no Portugal do Antigo Regime (1581-1621), (mimeo), 2 vols., Lisboa, F.L.L., 1988; for the Order of Aviz, see Fernanda OLIVAL, O dispositivo linhagístico e a atribuição das Comendas de Avis (1551-1670): Perspectivas de Análise, in «Primeiras Jornadas de História Moderna», Lisboa, 1986 (1991), p. 571; for the middle of the XVIth century to the early XIXth century, see, Nuno Gonçalo MONTEIRO, Os Comendadores das Ordens Militares (1668-1832): Perspectivas de uma Investigação, in «As Ordens Militares em Portugal e no Sul da Europa - Actas do II Encontro sobre Ordens Militares», 1992, Lisboa, Eds. Colibri/CMPalmela, 1997, pp. 217-229; idem, A Casa e o património das Grandes portugueses (1750-1832), (mimeo), Lisboa, 1995; on the membership of the Order of Christ in the XVI th. century, see F. DUTRA, Membership in the Order of Christ in the Sixteenth Century: Problems and Perspectives, in «Santa Barbara Portuguese Studies», I (1994), pp. 228-239; and on the Order of Santiago, see also F. DUTRA, The Order of Santiago and the Estado da India, 1498-1750, in «The Portuguese in the Pacific» (F. Dutra & J. Camilo dos Santos, eds.), Santa Barbara, California, 1995, pp. 287-304.

[2] Curiously enough, despite all its declared anti-clericalism and laicism shown in the 1830's, the liberal government kept a reference to "St. Benedict" in the Order's name, and in its structure, also kept some High Offices, which recalled those which had existed in the old military religious orders!

[3] Two former Royal Orders -Nossa Senhora da Conceição Vila Viçosa and Santa Isabel - which had been founded by the Monarchy, in the early 1800's, as Orders of Chivalry - were not revived by the Republican government.
The exiled last Monarch of Portugal - King Emmanuel I, never accepted the situation and it is known that he wore on several occasions the Sash of the Grand-Crosses of the Three Military Orders (Christ, Aviz and Santiago) which was the private insignia of the Sovereign, as well as the insignia of Knight Grand-Cross of Our Lady of Vila Viçosa of which the King considered himself the Chief and Sovereign.
His successor as Head of the Royal House of Braganza - H.R.H. Prince Dom Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza, also wore the insignia of the latter Order.
Following a recent trend, the Order of Our Lady of the Conception, has increasingly been classified by some of authors, as a «Dynastic Order» of the Royal House of Braganza. But this, however, has never been formally recognised as such by the Portuguese authorities, as elsewhere.

[Home] [Order of Christ] [Order of Avis] [Order of St. James of the Sword] [Order of the Tower & of the Sword]

© (1997,1998) by José Vicente de Braganza - (English text kindly revised by Stewart LeForte, Esq., to whom the author warmly thanks

Last updated: 26 October 1998