Their role was to fight corsairs in the Mediterranean, and they took part in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the action that ended Turkish strength at sea. These orders mainly consisted of monks who were called ‘knights of the Christ’. Never having gained the power and influence of the Teutonic Knights, they were largely absorbed into that order following the disaster. Medieval knights and the Crusades thus became intertwined for a long time. eval(ez_write_tag([[336,280],'medievalchronicles_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_6',346,'0','0']));Various orders of the knights were created during the Crusades upon the orders of the Pope. This is the case of the Orden Militar de la Constancia ('the Military Order of Loyalty'), founded by the authorities in the Spanish protectorate zone of Morocco on 18 August 1946. Most of the knights of this order were lepers, and Hospitallers who caught the disease had to transfer to the Knights of Lazarus. Similarly, the Order of the Knights Templar was formed in 1120 under the patronage of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Warmund. After the Franks in the First Crusade captured Jerusalem from Muslim conquerors in 1099, many Christians made pilgrimages to various sacred sites in the Holy Land.
Despite the order’s popularity, the power of the Hospitallers and the Templars limited the ability of the Teutonic Knights to gain castles and positions of influence in the Holy Land. One of those that did emerge was the Knights of Calatrava. ‘. However, they were not purely male institutions, as nuns could attach themselves as convents of the orders. Within a year, they cleared the surrounding region of bandits. Even their lay sergeants were lepers, commoners recruited to fight alongside knights who suffered the same disease. The Crusades were the military campaigns sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church in the 11th century and aimed at liberating the holy land of Jerusalem from the Muslims. Although the city of Jerusalem was relatively secure under Christians control, the rest of Outremer was not. Medieval knights and the Crusades eventually became the two interlinked institutions as the knights took active part in liberating the holy lands from the infidels. The first order founded in the Holy Land, the Knights of the Temple were created in 1115 by Hugue de Payens and Godfrey de Saint Adhemar, who recruited seven other French knights to help them escort pilgrims safely between Jerusalem, Jericho and the traditional site of Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan. Because of the necessity to have a standing army, the military orders were created, being adopted as the fourth monastic vow. For instance, the Order of the Knights Hospitaller was founded soon after the First Crusade in 1113 and was headed by Blessed Gerard. The downfall of the famous orders of the medieval knights came soon after the end of the Crusades. Founded during the 1189-90 siege of Acre, the Hospitallers of St Thomas were an English order named after Thomas Becket, the recently martyred Archbishop of Canterbury. It was during this apogee when the secular brotherhood was created. The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors, Military Religious Orders of Middle Ages: The Hospitallers, The Templars, The Teutonic Knights and Others. Teutonic Knights and the Remarkable Teutonic Order! Founded shortly after the Hospitallers, the Knights of St Lazarus were also based in Jerusalem, possibly arising around a pre-crusade leper hospital. From there, they expanded to fight elsewhere in Spain, temporarily changing their base and name while Calatrava was briefly occupied by Moors. The Reconquista, the series of wars that re-Christianised the region, lasted from the early 11th to the late 15th centuries. The foundation of the Templars in 1118 provided the first in a series of tightly organized military forces which protected the Christian colonies in the Outremer, as well as fighting non-Christians in the Iberian Peninsula and Eastern Europe.
Some of the most popular of these orders were Knights Hospitaller, Knights Templar, and Teutonic Knights. Their order was divided between those who fought and those who retained a more traditional, non-violent religious role. Catholic military orders appeared following the First Crusade. Awarded to military officers and men, Moroccan and Spanish, in a single class. Knights Templar 2. Obsolete 1956. In the late 1150s, a band of 13 Castillian knights offered their services to protect pilgrims travelling to the famous Spanish shrine of St James at Compostella. © medievalchronicles.com. The history of medieval knights in the Crusades begins soon after the initiation of the Crusades. Though their rules were based on those of the Augustinian monks and the Templars, they were significantly different in being allowed to marry and own personal possessions. Catholic military orders appeared following the First Crusade. The principal feature of the military order is the combination of military and religious ways of life. Richard the Lionheart 1157 – 1199 – Brave as a Lion! Also known as the Order of the Tau because of their symbol, the Order of St James of Altopascio was an Italian warrior brotherhood, and arguably the first knightly order.