The Monks of War
Page 16
Enrique of Trastámara schemed with implacable hatred. In 1354 a second rising was very nearly successful and the Maestre of Santiago joined his brother, but was reconciled with Pedro the following year. The king had to make sure of the Orders. Frey Fernán Pérez Ponce de León,2 Alcántara's Maestre, would not submit and was deposed, as was his successor, Diego Gutierrez de Zavallos, who proved equally unsuitable, the freyles being forced to take Suero Martínez as their superior. Old Juan Nuñez of Calatrava had tactlessly criticized the royal mistress, Blanche de Padilla, and then intrigued with Aragon; he was arrested at Almagro and taken to the commandery of Maqueda, where his throat was cut.3 He left two bastard sons but it was his nephew who avenged him, the Grand Commander, Pedro Estevañez Carpenteiro. The brethren elected Frey Pedro, whereupon the king ordered them to instal Blanche's brother, Diego Garcia de Padilla. The Grand Commander proclaimed himself Master at the commandery of Osuna, mustering 600 lances and occupying Calatrava. The Order was split. When the anti-Master finally surrendered at Toro in 1355, he was brought to the royal palace, where the king personally butchered him in the presence of the queen-mother.4 Finally in 1358 King Pedro lured Frey Fadrique of Santiago to Seville. The Master was hunted through the Alcazar by the arbalestier guards, who clubbed him to death with maces;5 he was still breathing, and Pedro gave his own dagger to a Moorish slave to finish the job. Santiago then elected Garcia Alvarez de Toledo with royal approval. The king now controlled the only real armies in Castile.
His power was at its zenith in 1362 when Pere IV, 'lo Ceremonios', of Aragon, was all but defeated. Since Castile was now allied with England, the despairing Enrique had to take refuge in France. The Moors had become friends. When in 1359 the emir Abu Said seized power, the deposed Muhammad V fled to Fez, but, receiving no help from the Marinids, tried Seville. Pedro welcomed him, lent him troops and money and set him up at Ronda from whence he recovered Granada in 1362. In his turn Abu Said, 'the Red King', took refuge with Pedro, who promptly murdered him.6 No doubt Diego Garcia of Calatrava mourned him, as he had once been taken prisoner by Abu Said and released after a most hospitable entertainment.7 Though Pedro kept the Nasrid crown jewels brought by his rash visitor, he maintained excellent relations with the Alhambra.
Martín López de Córdoba, to whom the king gave the maestrazgo of Alcántara in 1365, was contador mayor (royal treasurer) and from the same mould as the period's politician prelates, though none the less unswervingly loyal to Pedro. That year Enrique invaded Castile, having hired French mercenaries by making huge promises. The French, commanded by the great captain, Bertrand du Guesclin, proved invincible in their heavy plate armour, riding down the lightly armed Spaniards. Soon the Castilian nobility began to desert, and all three Orders divided into Pedro or Trastámara factions.
Meanwhile, as Enrique continued to advance, the king sent Frey Martín, now Master of Calatrava,8 to Edward III to beg for help; and then in 1366 fled to Bordeaux – murdering the Archbishop of Santiago en route. Next year he returned with Edward, Prince of Wales, whose seasoned companies could cope with the best French troops. On 3 April 1367 he met the Trastámara army at Nájera. Calatrava, Santiago and Alcántara had brethren fighting on both sides. As usual, the Black Prince routed his opponents, though Enrique escaped to Aragon. However, despite Pedro's considerable charm and the gift of the Red King's great ruby (actually a garnet), Prince Edward was infuriated by his inability to pay for the expedition and left Spain.
Then the Trastámara came back with du Guesclin, accompanied by his Masters of Santiago and Calatrava. Pedro's army was mainly mudéjar and Granadine jinetes and he dared not face the French cavalry. In the end he lost patience and marched to meet his enemies. In 1369 du Guesclin easily routed the Moors at Montiel. After the battle the two rivals met in the Frenchman's tent. On entering, Pedro the Cruel rushed at his half-brother, but a page tripped him and as he lay on the ground Enrique pulled up the king's belly armour and stabbed him in the stomach. The Maestre Martín López, legal guardian of Pedro's daughters, held out for them at Carmona until May 1371. He was beheaded in the marketplace at Seville despite Enrique's sworn word.9 Helped by his Frenchmen, King Enrique II (as the Trastámara was now called) overcame all opposition by recklessly mortgaging the realengo (the royal domains), granting lands, privileges and titles in wild profusion.
Between 1355 and 1371 no fewer than sixteen Masters or anti-Masters had occupied the three Castilian maestrazgos, of whom six died a violent death, three being murdered. Not only had they waged purely secular battles, but brethren had fought brethren. The last quarter of the fourteenth century saw a series of visitations which attempted to restore discipline. Calatrava was the daughter house of Morimond, whose abbot possessed the right of visitation. Similarly Alcántara, Aviz and Montesa were subject to Calatrava's visitation; either the Master came in person or sent a deputy. Pride was the freyles' worst vice but fornication followed close. Ballads often refer to beautiful Mooresses, and since Christian Spain had taken over slavery from the Moors there were many temptations. In 1336 Abbot Renaud forbade suspicious-looking women to be admitted at Alcañiz after nightfall, ordering that a reliable man act as porter. The Order's statutes contained savage punishments for lapses of chastity,10 including flogging, which meant 'the discipline' every Friday, besides eating one's food off the floor for a year. In practice concubinage seems to have been common and in 1418 Abbot Jean IV of Morimond ordered that brethren who kept mistresses must forfeit their offices; none the less several Masters left bastard children.
In Portugal the brethren's power had increased steadily, even if the Cortes complained of their rapacity. Hospitallers were frequently employed as ambassadors to Rome. Their priory of Crato, which included Galicia, had its headquarters at Belver. Towards the middle of the fourteenth century Prior Álvaro Gonçález Pereira built a castle at Almiéria which still stands, its donjon, the largest of four square towers, serving as keep. The Portuguese Hospitallers enjoyed greater power than their Spanish brethren, but it was the brothers of Aviz who had the most decisive impact on domestic politics.
In 1383, King Fernando died. His heir was Beatriz, wife of the Castilian Juan I. The Portuguese, especially the merchants and peasants, after countless atrocities had a real loathing for their neighbours, so with much popular support a bastard half-brother of the late king was proclaimed Governor and Defender of the Realm. This new ruler was a brother-knight, João, Mestre of Aviz, his supporters being led by 'the Holy Constable' Nun' Alvarez Pereira, one of the Hospitaller Prior's thirty-two sons. Their cause was described by a contemporary as 'a folly got up by two cobblers and two tailors', opposed by the majority of ricoshomems who included the claveiro of Aviz and the Constable's brother, Pedro, Prior of Crato.11 The first Castilian invasion, in 1384, was a failure, and two successive Masters of Santiago died of plague besieging Lisbon. After João, dispensed from his vows, had been proclaimed King of Portugal, King Juan returned in 1385 accompanied by 20,000 cavalry and 10,000 foot, among whom were detachments from Alcántara, Calatrava and Santiago. More nobles had now joined the popular cause, including Fernão Afonso de Alburquerque, Mestre of São Thiago, the new king's ambassador to London and original architect of the Oldest Alliance. None the less, João had pitifully few troops.
On 14 August 1385 the royal Mestre and the Holy Constable met the Castilians at Aljubarrota as they were advancing on Lisbon. The Portuguese army was mainly infantry, with 4,000 spearmen and slingers, 800 crossbowmen and a small company of English archers. Though some brethren were present, João had only 200 horse. Nun' Alvarez employed classical tactics, his foot soldiers giving way in the centre before the Castilians, who pressed in towards the young king's banner. This allowed archers and crossbowmen a clear field of fire, shooting point blank at the enemy, till the Portuguese cavalry broke the demoralized rabble of cursing men and screaming horses. Juan's forces were completely routed, with very heavy casualties, among them the Master of Calatrava, and the king fled to Seville. Sho
rtly afterwards Nun' Álvarez invaded Castile and smashed the army of Alcántara at Valverde, killing Pedro Múñiz of Santiago. Thus began the dynasty of Aviz.
Castile suffered another disaster ten years later. The Master of Alcántara, Martín Yáñez de Barbudo, once claveiro of Aviz, proclaimed a crusade in 1394 and led an expedition into Granada. The Nasrid kingdom was difficult country to invade, mountainous and without water. The vega was rich enough, but there were only small areas under extensive cultivation while cattle had to be imported from north Africa or rustled from the infidels. An enemy would find his supply lines cut in this inhospitable land and the Moors' favourite tactic was to ambush raiders in the mountain passes. Muhammad VI's soldiers surrounded Frey Martín's over-confident troops, then massacred them.12
Calatrava was undergoing radical reforms. Though Gonzalo Núñez, a former Master of Alcántara, was not untouched by scandal – there were stories of a secret marriage – he was a gifted administrator. By now the offices of Grand Commander and Clavero had become elective, but the Maestre could still allot benefices. Frey Gonzalo introduced priorados formados for the chaplains, whose superiors ranked as priors. Life in the new houses reflected that at Calatrava and Alcañiz, though there were no resident caballeros. In 1397 the visiting Cistercian abbot confirmed this innovation. The reason was financial rather than spiritual, as religious needed funds to support themselves, being no longer content with bare necessities. Calatrava now possessed about forty commanderies. The number of freyles caballeros is not known, though Abbot Martín, who visited Calatrava in 1302, noted that over 150 knights were present. At its peak Santiago, the largest order, may have numbered – without its Portuguese offshoot – nearly 250 freyles. However, with no more than four caballeros to every commandery – communities of twelve had long been abandoned – each military brother had a reasonable chance of obtaining a commandery.
The Aragonese Brotherhood of Montesa was exceptionally poor and its brethren were advised to obtain financial assistance from relations while waiting for a commandery; on one occasion ten gold libras was stipulated.13 Less rigorous qualifications for admission may be attributed to this poverty: only two proofs of nobility, while sometimes candidates of ignoble birth were accepted. The problem was partly solved by union with Alfama in 1400. The joint order was henceforth known as that of Our Lady of Montesa and St George of Alfama, its freyles wearing a red cross.
Afonso IV had obtained papal permission for Aviz to bear a green cross, while Knights of Christ bore a double one of red and silver.14 São Thiago's cross was red, like that of its Spanish parents, but the bottom arm ended in a fleur-de-lis, not a sword. In 1397 Calatrava adopted a red cross fleury which evolved into a curious and distinctive shape, the petals of the lis bending back until they touched the stem to form a Lombardic 'M' – for Maria. Shortly afterwards Alcántara began to use a green cross of similar design.
Modifications in dress reflected the decline of primitive ideals. In 1397 the chapter general at Calatrava obtained papal permission for freyles caballeros to stop wearing hood and scapular. From 1400 the cut of a brother's clothes resembled an ordinary nobleman's – a short grey tunic with a cross embroidered on the breast. He was clean-shaven and wore linen, though he continued to sport the great white mantle. Later, Santiago brethren adopted a black tunic with a prominent red espada on the chest. Despite sartorial indulgence, the Cistercians watched carefully over their military brothers' spiritual welfare, their visitations continuing with much fulmination against fornication.
Sometimes the brethren proved bad lords. Lope de Vega has a play, based on an incident in Rades y Andrada's Chrónica de las tres Órdenes, which is called 'Fuente Ovejuna' after the remote Extremaduran town of that name near Córdoba. Here, in 1476, the townsmen rose against a tyrannical commander of Calatrava, Frey Fernán Gómez de Guzmán, who was too fond of their wives and daughters and even of their brides. After his servants had been killed, the commander was hurled from his castle window on to spears and pikes held by women waiting below.
In the red palace beneath the perpetual snow of the Sierra Nevada Nasrid sultans still reigned in splendour. Granada both repelled and fascinated its neighbours. Embassies from the north wandered under the coral turrets and through the strange courts of the Alhambra and the Generalife, past fountains and date palms, through gardens of mimosa and almond blossom or lemon groves and orangeries, shaded by cypresses. Many brethren had visited Granada as captives, ambassadors or even guests and acquired a taste for such oriental luxuries as sherbet, soap, carpets and steam baths. They were taught to fight in the Moorish way, as jinetes or on foot with axes, and to ride Arab ponies, and they employed mudéjar Turcopoles and secretaries.
Muhammad VI's attack on Murcia in 1406 provoked a furious Christian reaction. In 1407 the Regent of Castile, Don Fernando, led the royal army into western Granada, accompanied by many freyles including Enrique de Villena, the eccentric Master of Calatrava. After a siege of only three days the brethren of Santiago stormed Zahara, then Ayamonte; but Ronda proved too strong, even though the regent had brought St Fernando's sword with him. However, he returned in 1410 to invest the rich town of Antequerra.15 A relieving party came down from the hills in May and attacked a Christian division, mistaking it for the whole army, whereupon the Castilian vanguard charged the Moors from behind and cut them to pieces. Sultan Yusuf III abandoned all hope of saving his beleaguered subjects, who tried to assassinate the regent. But on 18 September Christian troops scaled the walls, though the citadel was not taken for another week. Don Fernando came back to Seville in triumph, with Moorish prisoners in chains. Yusuf made peace, ceding Almería, a valuable salient for future raids.
It has been claimed that by 1400, because of the decline of feudal cavalry, the brotherhoods were no longer a military asset, while the new mercenary companies had by now acquired a higher degree of discipline. But brethren knew how to adapt themselves, and freyles, besides hiring troops, left their squadrons to officer crossbowmen, artillery or infantry. The fifteenth century saw them more formidable than ever. Each Maestre controlled one of the three most numerous, best-equipped, best-organized, best-paid, best-led and most dangerous professional armies in Castile.
The sons of ricos hombres or escuderos, most brethren had a natural bent for estate management, though they were assisted by the indispensable Jews. Probably conventual life was ill-observed in the smaller houses as some of them were left to stewards.16 High officers were magnates who dominated local society, while the Master of Santiago was ex officio treasurer of the Mesta, a confederation of sheep-ranchers which constituted the richest and most powerful corporation in medieval Spain. Many noble families owed their wealth and prestige to a relative's tenure of a maestrazgo; the Figueroa dated their rise to fortune from Lorenzo Suárez's mastership of Santiago, as did the Sotomayor from Juan and his nephew Gutierre's occupation of Alcántara.17 A Master could bring massive patronage to his kinsmen's aid, obtain 'mercies' for them from the king, including lordships and lucrative posts, win friends by granting benefices, intimidate their enemies with his soldiers, and in general give them unlimited opportunities of advancement. Fifteenth-century Maestres either came from great families like that of Guzmán, the most powerful in Spain, or founded new dynasties.18
Though an excellent steward to young King Juan II, the regent coveted these princedoms for his sons. In 1409 Alcántara became vacant. Its brethren elected their clavero as Master despite Fernando's known wishes, but the election was quashed on a technical hitch. The regent wrote two letters to each commander and in January 1409, with papal dispensation, his eight-year-old son was solemnly clothed with the habit and then installed as Maestre.19 The same year Ferdinand obtained the mastership of Santiago for his even younger son, Enric. However, Don Fernando himself found promotion in 1410, being elected to the throne of Aragon. The coronation at Saragossa, postponed until 1414, was organized by the king's friend and cousin, Enrique, Marqués de Villena, Maestre of Calatrava.
Maestres have an admirable record of patronage. Villena's supplanter, Luís de Guzmán, himself commissioned a Spanish translation of the Hebrew Old Testament (now known as the Alba Bible) from Rabbi Moshe Arragel of Guadalajara, which is also a triumph of the illuminator's art; its frontispece shows the Master seated on his throne, holding the Order's sword and wearing a grey tunic and a great white cloak with the red cross, while below him his brethren in grey, red-crossed but without cloaks, are depicted fulfilling the seven duties of a Christian. The Rabbi had toiled at his task for ten years, in the commandery of Maqueda. Like all grandees, each Master kept 'his Jew' who combined the roles of financial adviser, land agent, accountant and even tutor.