Consuegra, Priory of Castile

During the Reconquista the kings of Castile entrusted the Order of St. John with a series of frontier castles, most of which they relinquished as the Christian frontier advanced. But in 1183 King Alfonso VIII of Castile bestowed on  the Hospital the definitive grant of the castle of Consuegra, together with a large frontier march that came to be known as the Campo de San Juan. This was the central area of a large expanse of border marches that were  entrusted to the military orders of Calatrava, St. John and Santiago. Consuegra became the headquarters of the Hospital in the kingdom, the seat of the Priory of Castile from 1187 until c.1287, and from 1517.

The Hospitallers had not long been established at Consuegra when the Christian advance was reversed by the Almohads who defeated the Castilian army at the battle of Alarcos (1195) and swept north pushing the frontier to the north of the capital Toledo. For seventeen years Consuegra was a beleaguered Christian outpost, although the Campo de San Juan was not conquered. In 1212 the power of the Almohads was broken decisively at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, at which the Hospitallers fought under the Prior of Castile, Fra. Gutierre Ermegildez.

In c.1187 the seat of the Priory of Castile was transferred to nearby Alcazar de San Juan. The Priory was to become, for over a century, the appenage of the ducal house of Bejar. When in 1482 Antonio de Bejar expected to become prior his accession was was opposed by the duke of Alba who had his own candidate, Don Diego de Toledo appointed, against the wishes of the Order, but with the backing of King Ferdinand and the acquiescence of pope Leo X. The dispute was only resolved in 1517 after Charles V had come to the throne. He ordered that the Campo de San Juan be divided between the two rival claimants. Consuegra became the seat of the prior of Castille, while Don Toledo resided in the palace of Alcazar de San Juan as the nominal prior of Leon. The division persisted until 1566.

The 16th century was to be the golden age of the order of St. John in Castile. While the national military orders went into decline after the end of the Reconquista and the annexation of their masterships to the crown, the gift of Malta by the Emperor Charles V to the Order of St. John and the strategic cooperation between Spain and the Knights gave new prominence to the Order. After the Siege of Malta in 1565 there was a surge in  membership of the Order in Castile.

The castle of Consuegra occupies a strategic position at the end of the Cerro Calderico, one of the long ridges that rise from the plains of La Mancha. It lies beside the main route from the capital, Toledo, to the south. The first castle at Consuegra may have been built by Roman Emperor Trajan, who was an Iberian. The Knights of St. John built the present fortress on earlier Moorish foundations. An indication of the importance Alfonso VIII gave to the presence of the Hospital on his frontier was the  award of the revenues from a tax gathered in Toledo, for ten years, to help with the cost of building and maintaining the castle's defences. Within the curtain walls are three internal wards and and inner enciente protected by strong impressive towers. Above the entrance to the inner enciente are carved in stone the arms of Don Juan Jose of Austria. In 1642 Philip IV conferred the Priory on his thirteen- year-old illegitimate son, Don Juan Jose of Austria, who became a confessed knight and grew up to become one of the great statesmen of his age.

Don Juan Jose of Austria
Prior of Castile

In the 18th century the Grand Priory of Castile  became reserved for royal nominees. Charles III appointed his second son, Don Gabriel, Grand Prior of Castile in 1766, and in 1785 he turned the Priory into a appenage of the royal cadet line, severing in all but name its link with the Order of St. John.

The Castle of Consuegra was badly damaged in 1813 during the Peninsula wars and has since been restored.

Since the 16th century, Consuegra has been famous for windmills. That is when the Knights of St.John built the thirteen windmills along the Cerro Calderico behind the castle of Consuegra. The ridge, rising above plains of la Mancha, is superbly placed to take advantage of the incessant winds that blow across the flat treeless plains, with nothing to impede its velocity. This technology, harnessing the wind for grinding corn was appreciated and utilized by the Hospitallers in Outremer, they built windmills on the ramparts of Crac des Chevaliers. On Rhodes they built windmills along the harbour moles.

At Consuegra farmers would haul their grain (mostly wheat) up to the ridge for grinding. Over the centuries the windmills were handed down from father to son. Consuegra has more of them in one place than anywhere else in Spain. These are the windmills that were made famous by Miguel de Cerventes in his celebrated novel, 'The Ingenuous Gentlemen Don Quixote of La Mancha'. These are the 'giants' that challenged our hero. Where once there were thirteen, there are now only twelve, though they are scarcely less impressive for that.

Flor da Rosa, Priory of Crato

After the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa had broken the power of the Almohads, the Portuguese were able to push beyond the  southern  frontier across the River Tagus. As a result the Hospitallers gained extensive new lands centered on Crato which became the seat of the priors. The Hospitaller's estates in Portugal were grouped into what was known as the Priory of Crato.

In 1356 the monastery palace of Flor da Rosa  near Crato was built as the residence of the priors. This  building, the project of the first prior of Crato, Fra. Alvaro Goncalves Pereira whose tenure lasted between 1340 and 1383  has been described as the most worthy act of a man who lived with scandalous indulgence. In his enthusiasm for the pleasures of this world he fathered  thirty two illegitimate children, but he was  eventually excommunicated for failing to pay his responsions to Rhodes
.

The severe appearance of the fortified palace and church is a worthy monument to spiritual aspiration however compromised Fra. Alvaro was by his addiction to the pleasures of this world. This was the golden age of the Priory of Crato's power and prestige. The prioral estates amounted to a virtual autonomous principality that included  ten towns and twenty nine villages.The prior of Crato held the rank of count and was later accepted as a grandee of Portugal. The Vicar General of Crato was a mitered prelate whose jurisdiction in religious matters within the priory was absolute.

Cizur Menor, Priory of Navarre

There may have been a few donations to the Order of St. John in Navarre before Alfonso I, el Ballator, king of Aragon and Navarre gave the Hospital his palace of Sanguesa, and properties at Sos and Uncastello in 1131. In his will of  the same year, Alfonso famously left his kingdom in equal shares to the Order of St. John, the Order of the Temple and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Even though neither of the military orders had  fought by then in the Reconquista, it seems that Alfonso, who had spent 30 years fighting the Moors, believed they would defend the kingdom and  take the fight to the Moors. But at his death in 1134, the barons  rejected the will and chose instead Garcia Ramirez to be king. Perhaps to partly compensate the Hospital for its loss, Garcia Ramirez and his successor Sancho VI granted the Order further privileges and property. With the death of Alfonso, Navarre ceased to play any further part in the Reconquista.

A second commandery was set up by the Hospital  at Cizur Menor in the foothills of the Pyrenees near Pamplona. The Priory of Navarre itself was established there c1185. The Romanesque priory church at Cizur Menor, dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel dates from this period. By 1189 a further 10 commanderies had been added to the priory. The Hospitallers were the only military order with significant landed property in Navarre and the Prior was ranked as one of the four prelates of the kingdom, along with two bishops and the prior of Roncesvalles.

The marriage of the queen of Navarre to Philip the Fair of France in 1284 brought Navarre into the Provencal sphere of influence and from 1297 it was Provencal knights who were appointed as priors of Navarre. From 1314 Hospitallers serving at the convent in Rhodes belonged to the Langue of Provence. Only when Charles II came to the throne in 1350 was the kingdom reoriented  towards Spain and in 1358, the Priory of Navarre was restored to the Langue of Spain.

During the 14th and 15th centuries the priors of  Navarre managed ,most of the time ,to maintain close relations with the monarchy. The prior of the Hospital was a member of the royal council and an important and influential member of the court in the reigns of both Charles II and Charles III. The Hospitallers contributed troops to Charles II's wars. During the reign of King John II and his wife Queen Blanca, the prior of the Hospital, Fra. Jean of Beaumont was appointed guardian of Charles, prince of Viana and chancellor of the kingdom. He had position in the prince's household and a seat in the Navarrese parliament.

However there were serious breaches of these good relations. One of these occurred when Prior Jean of Beaumont sided with the prince of Viana is his rebellion against his father King John II which began in 1451. The king  confiscated all the Hospital's properties, which were only restored after the tenuous truce brought about by the Concord of Barcelona that ended the conflict in 1460.

However when John II arrested his son, the prince of Viana later the same year, the Beaumont family resumed their armed struggle. And as the prior aligned himself with Henry IV of Castille in his war against John II all the Order's properties in Navarre were confiscated again. It was only in 1564 when the prior  realigned himself with the king that the Hospital's property in Navarre were restored. A new revolt by the Beaumont family in 1471 brought yet another confiscation, this time of four of their commanderies, though the king did not prevent the payment of their responsions to the convent at Rhodes.

The price paid by the Hospital of their close proximity to royal power was increasing interference in the Order's internal affairs by the monarchy, a trend that was to become all to common elsewhere.

The  prioral church at Cizur Menor now belongs  to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta who have established a hostel for pilgrims following the Camino to Santiago de Compostella that is open from July to September.