Convent of Christ

In the eleventh century, the Almoravids, an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in Morocco, established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus. By the twelfth century, the Reconquista had confined the Almoravids to the southern portion of the Iberian Peninsula. The northern parts were divided between the Kingdom of Aragon in the northeast, the Kingdom of Castile in the center, the Kingdom of Leon in the northwest, and Portugal occupying the western portion of the peninsula. In 1139, after a decisive victory in the Battle of Ourique against the Almoravids, Afonso I of Portugal (1106/1109/1111 – 1185), also called Afonso Henriques, was proclaimed the first King of Portugal by his troops.

Afonso I of Portugal (1106/1109/1111 – 1185), also called Afonso Henriques, achieved the independence of the County of Portugal, establishing a new kingdom and doubling its area with the Reconquista, an objective that he pursued until his death. Afonso I was the son of Henry of Burgundy and Teresa of Leon, the daughter of Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile. One of Henry of Burgundy’s paternal aunts was Constance of Burgundy, the wife of Alfonso VI of León and Castile, and one of his grand-uncles was Hugh, Abbot of Cluny, one of the most influential and venerated personalities of his time. Henry’s brother Hugh I (1057 – 1093) became prior of the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny. Henry of Burgundy’s other brother was Odo I, Duke of Burgundy, who sponsored abbey of Molesme, which included Stephen Harding and Bernard of Clairvaux before they went on to found the Cistercian Order.

Odo I married Sibylla of Burgundy, the sister of Raymond of Burgundy and Pope Callixtus II. Their niece Isabella was the wife of Hugh, Count of Champagne, one of the founding members of the Templars, who consulted with Rashi. Hugh was also a step-brother of Stephen of Blois, the father Henry of Blois, Abbot of Glastonbuy, Bishop of Winchester, and author of the anonymous Grail saga Perlesvaus which celebrated the Templars. Henry of Blois’ brother was Stephen, King of England who was married Matilda I, Countess of Boulogne, daughter of Eustace III, brother of Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin I of Jerusalem. Their niece was Marie of France was the wife of Henry I of Champagne, and patroness of Grail author Chrétien de Troyes.

Sibylla’s sister Gisela of Burgundy married Humbert II of Savoy, whose son Amadeus III of Savoy—who accompanied his nephew Louis VII of France and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine on the Second Crusade—was the father of Afonso’s wife Matilda of Savoy. Nicknamed the Conqueror by the Portuguese, Afonso actively campaigned against the Moors in the south. In 1139, Afonso won a decisive victory at the Battle of Ourique and was proclaimed the first King of Portugal by his troops. Some years later, the idea of a miraculous intervention in the battle by Saint James in favor of the Portuguese appeared in the chronicles of the battle and served as a political instrument to defend Portuguese independence as divine will. In the legend, Afonso was surprised before the battle by a ray of light that showed him the sign of the cross and Jesus Christ on a crucifix, who told him he would defeat the Almoravids.

With Portugal finally recognized as an independent kingdom by its neighbors, Afonso I and his successors, aided by the Knights Templar, the Order of Aviz or the Order of Saint James, pushed the Moors to the Algarve on the southern coast of Portugal. Portugal was the first country in Europe where the Templars had settled. After the Templars were founded around 1118, they soon formed commanderies around Europe, settling in Portugal at least since 1122, in the region of Braga. In 1126, the Templars received lands donated by Afonso’s mother Theresa.[1] Gualdim Pais (1118 – 1195), the provincial Master of the Order of the Temple in Portugal, fought alongside Afonso I against the Moors, and received a knighthood by him in 1139, after the Battle of Ourique. Pais was the founder of the city of Tomar, where he constructed the Convent of Christ in 1160. The church, like some other templar churches throughout Europe, was modelled after the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which was believed by the crusaders to be a remnant of the Temple of Solomon.

Genealogy of the Order of Santiago

• ALFONSO VI OF LEON AND CASTILE + Constance of Burgundy (marriage orchestrated via connections at Alfonso’s court with the ABBEY OF CLUNY)

  • Urraca + RAYMOND OF BURGUNDY (brother of Pope Callixtus II, and uncle of Isabella the wife of Hugh, Count of Champagne, one of the founding members of the Templars in contact with Rashi. Hugh was step-brother of Stephen II, Count of Blois, leader of the Princes’ Crusade, and father of Stephen, King of England who Matilda I, Countess of Boulogne, daughter of Eustace III, brother of Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin I of Jerusalem. Stephen’s brother was Henry of Blois, Abbot of Glastonbuy, Bishop of Winchester author of Perlesvaus)

    • ALFONSO VII OF LEON AND CASTILE (founder of the ORDER OF CALATRAVA, advised by Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra, relative of Abraham ibn Ezra, student of Abraham Bar Hiyya, influence on temple mysticism of Templars) + Berenguela (d. of Templar Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona)

      • Sancho III of Castile + Blanche of Navarre

        • ALFONSO VIII OF CASTILE (patron of the ORDER OF SANTIAGO) + Eleanor of England (sister of RICHARD LIONHEART)

          • Berengaria of Castile + Alfonso IX of León (see below)

          • Urraca of Castile + Afonso II of Portugal (see below)

          • Blanche of Castile + Louis VIII of France

      • FERDINAND II OF LEON (founder of the ORDER OF SANTIAGO) + Urraca of Portugal (d. of Afonso I of Portugal)

        • Alfonso IX of León + Berengaria of Castile (see above)

          • Berengaria of León + John of Brienne

            • Marie of Brienne + Baldwin II of Constantinople

            • Isabella II of Jerusalem + FREDERICK II, HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR (birth confirmed by JOACHIM OF FIORE as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Merlin and the Erythraean Sibyl)

          • FERDINAND III OF CASTILE (merged the ORDER OF CALATRAVA into that of the ORDER OF MONFRAGUE) + Elizabeth of Swabia (g-d. of Frederick Barbarossa)

            • ALFONSO X OF CASTILE, el Astrologo + Violant of Aragon (see below)

          • Ferdinand III + Joan, Countess of Ponthieu

            • Eleanor of Castile + EDWARD I OF ENGLAND (see below)

      • Constance + Louis VII of France

        • Margaret, Queen of England and Hungary + Henry the Young King (later + Béla III of Hungary)

      • Sancha of Castile + Sancho VI of Navarre (s. of García Ramírez of Navarre + Marguerite de l’Aigle, niece of ROTROU III, COUNT OF PERCHE or “PERCEVEL”)

        • Sancho VII + Constance of Toulouse (d. of Cathar Raymond VI of Toulouse and Beatrice of Béziers)

        • Berengaria Sánchez + RICHARD LIONHEART

        • BLANCHE OF CHAMPAGNE + Theobald III, Count of Champagne (s. of Henry I of Champagne + Marie of France, patroness of Grail author Chretien de Troyes)

          • THEOBALD IV OF CHAMPAGNE (called the Troubadour, brought back ROSE OF PROVINS to Europe from the BARONS’ CRUSADE)

    • ALFONSO VII OF LEON AND CASTILE + Richeza of Poland

      • Sancha + ALFONSO II OF ARAGON, the Troubadour (patron of Guyot of Provins, source for Wolfram von Eschenbach)

        • PETER II OF ARAGON (killed at the BATTLE OF MURET supporting CATHARS, founder of the ORDER OF SAINT GEORGE OF ALFAMA) + Marie of Montpellier

          • JAMES I OF ARAGON (raised by TEMPLARS) + Violant of Hungary

            • Violant of Aragon + ALFONSO X OF CASTILE, el Astrologo (see above)

              • Sancho IV of Castile (had affair with Rachel the Beautiful, Jewess of Toledo) + María de Molina

                • Ferdinand IV of Castile + Constance of Portugal (see below)

                • Beatrice of Castile + Afonso IV of Portugal (see below)

              • Beatrice of Castile + Afonso III of Portugal (see below)

            • Peter III of Aragon + Constance, Queen of Sicily (g-d. of FREDERICK II, Holy Roman Emperor)

              • JAMES II ARAGON (founder of the ORDER OF MONTESA) + Blanche of Anjou

              • Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (Miracle of the Roses) + DENIS I OF PORTUGAL (founder of the ORDER OF CHRIST, see below)

              • FREDERICK III OF SICILY (hired Templar Roger de Flor) + Eleanor of Anjou (sister of CHARLES I OF HUNGARY, founder of the ORDER OF SAINT GEORGE)

                • Constance of Sicily, Queen of Cyprus + HENRY II OF LUSIGNAN (transferred property of Templars to Hospitallers. In contact with Ramon Llull)

            • James II of Majorca (student of Raymond Llull) + Esclaramunda of Foix (her grandfather was a cousin of Raymond-Roger Trencavel, identified with Perceval)

            • Isabella of Aragon + Philip III of France (see below)

        • Alfonso II, Count of Provence (his father transferred the County of Provence from his uncle Sancho to him) + Garsenda, Countess of Forcalquier

          • Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence (raised by Templars) + Beatrice of Savoy (daughter of Thomas I of Savoy)

            • Margaret of Provence + Louis IX of France (see above)

              • Isabella of France + Theobald II of Navarre

              • Philip III of France + Isabella of Aragon (see above)

            • Eleanor of Provence + Henry III of England

            • Sanchia of Provence + Richard, King of the Romans, brother of the king of England

            • Beatrice of Provence + CHARLES I OF ANJOU, King of Sicily (see above)

        • Eleanor + Raymond VI of Toulouse

        • Sancha + Raymond VII of Toulouse

  • Urraca + Alfonso the Battler (no issue)

  • Teresa + HENRY OF BURGUNDY, Count of Portugal (cousin of RAYMOND OF BURGUNDY)

    • AFONSO I OF PORTUGAL + Maud of Savoy

      • Afonso II of Portugal + Urraca of Castile (see above)

        • Afonso III of Portugal + Beatrice of Castile (d. of ALFONSO X OF CASTILE, see above)

          • DENIS I OF PORTUGAL (founder of the ORDER OF CHRIST) + Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (see above)

  • Elvira of Castile + ROGER II OF SICILY (Jolly Roger)

    • William I of Sicily + Margaret of Navarre (whose counsellor Stephen du Perche, archbishop of Palermo hired JOACHIM OF FIORE)

      • William II of Sicily + Joan Plantagenet (s. of Richard Lionheart, later m. Raymond VI of Toulouse)

As early as 1128, the year of the Council of Troyes, Afonso described himself as a brother of the Templars.[2] Afonso built several monasteries and convents and bestowed important privileges to religious orders, and most notably he built the Abbey of Santa Maria de Alcobaça, in 1153 as a gift to Bernard of Clairvaux, patron of the Templars, following the king’s conquest of the city of Santarém from the Moors in 1147. Portugal was not yet recognized as an independent kingdom by Rome and Afonso’s granting of the charter to Bernard was designed to win over a figure with crucial influence in Rome. The independence of Portugal is thus intrinsically linked to the establishment of Alcobaça abbey.[3]

Henry of Burgundy’s cousin, Raymond of Burgundy, married Teresa’s sister, Urraca, and fathered Alfonso VII of Lon and Castile, who married Berenguela, daughter of the Templar, Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona. Their son, Sancho III of Castile (c. 1134 – 1158), married Blanche of Navarre, daughter of García Ramírez of Navarre, whose mother was Cristina, daughter of El Cid. Sancho III’s sister, Sancha of Castile, Queen of Aragon, married Alfonso II of Aragon, the son of Petronilla and Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona, unifying Aragon and Barcelona into the Crown of Aragon. Petronilla was the daughter of Ramiro II of Aragon and Agnes, daughter of Duke William IX of Aquitaine, the Troubadour, and grandfather of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Sancho’s III’s sister Constance of Castile was Queen of France as the second wife of Louis VII, who married her after the annulment of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Order of Calatrava

For most of his reign, Alfonso II of Aragon was allied with Alfonso VIII of Castile, the grandson of Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile, both against Navarre and against the Moorish taifas of the south. Alfonso VIII of Castile was a patron of the Order of Santiago, known also as the Order of Saint James of the Sword, is one of the four Spanish military orders, the other three being the neo-Templar Orders of Calatrava, Alcántara, and Montesa.[4] Briefs from various popes placed the principal Military Orders of Spain under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Abbot of Morimond, the Cistercian Abbey in Champagne: the Order of Calatrava (1187); the Order of Alcantara (1214); the Order of Christ in Portugal (1319), and later on, those of the Orders of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus in Savoy. Founded in 1115, Morimond Abbey is a religious complex in Parnoy-en-Bassigny, Haute-Marne department, in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France. It was the fourth of the four great daughter abbeys of Cîteaux Abbey, of primary importance in the spread of the Cistercian Order, along with La Ferté to the south, Pontigny to the west and Clairvaux to the north.

After the conquest of Calatrava from the Muslims, in 1147, Alfonso VII placed his Jewish advisor Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra, in command of one of his fortresses, later making him his court chamberlain.[5] Judah was related to Abraham Bar Hiyya’s student, Abraham Ibn Ezra, a Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra, and shared with him a mutual friend in Judah Halevi (c. 1075 – 1141).[6] According to Keith Schuchard, the Templars adopted the Second Temple mysticism that would later feature in Freemasonry, principally from three leading Jewish Kabbalists from Spain: Ibn Gabirol, Abraham bar Hiyya and Abraham ibn Ezra, who were the leading influences behind the mystical tendencies of the Ashkenazi Hasidim.[7] Judah, also called ha-Nasi, was a relative of a relative of Moses ibn Ezra (c. 1060 – 1140), who belonged to one of the most prominent families of Granada. Moses ibn Ezra is considered one of Spain’s greatest poets and to have had a great influence in the Arabic literary world. His Arugat ha-Bosem quotes authorities like Hermes (identified with Enoch), Pythagoras, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, pseudo-Empedocles, Alfarabi, Saadia Gaon, and ibn Gabirol, a major influence on the Toledo School. “The true philosophical home of Avicebron [ibn Gabirol],” explained F.E. Peters, “is in the Zohar and in the speculative sections of the Cabala.”[8]

Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra had considerable influence with Alfonso VII. In the beginning of his reign, Alfonso VII curtailed the rights and liberties that his father accorded to the Jews. He ordered that neither a Jew nor a convert could exercise legal authority over Christians, and held the Jews responsible for the collection of the royal taxes. Soon, however, he became more tolerant, confirming the Jews in all their former privileges and even granting them additional ones, granting them equality with Christians. Abraham Ibn Daud, in his Sefer ha-Kabbalah, praises Judah ibn Ezra, stating that, in reference to “When I would heal Israel, then is the iniquity of Ephraim uncovered” (Hosea 7:1), God “anticipated [the calamity] by putting it into the heart of King Alfonso the Emperador to appoint our master and rabbi, R. Judah the Nasi b. Ezra, over Calatrava and to place all the royal provisions in his charge.”[9]

As the castle was difficult to defend, Alfonso VII resorted to the help of the Templars, who proved however unable to defend Calatrava and abandoned it.[10] As such, in 1158, Alfonso VII’s son, Sancho III of Castile, ceded the fortress of Calatrava to Raymond, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Fitero, with instructions to defend it against the Moors. Thus, Raymond founded the Order of Calatrava, which was formally recognized by the pope in 1164, and it became closely affiliated with the Cistercian abbey of Morimond in Champagne in 1187. A general chapter held at Cîteaux gave to the Knights of Calatrava their definitive rule, which was approved in the same year by Pope Gregory VIII. The rule obliged them to follow Cistercian customs and to wear the Cistercian white mantle with the scarlet cross fleur de lisée. The order participated in the Christian Reconquest of Andalusia and was rewarded with grants of land in both Castile and Aragon.[11]

While on his way back to León from Badajoz, Ferdinand II took control of the city of Cáceres, where he, the bishop of Salamanca, and thirteen knights established the Order of the Fratres of Cáceres. In the same year, the order received its first rule from Cardinal Jacinto, the legate of Pope Alexander III in Spain. Pedro Fernández de Castro served as its first Grand Master. De Castro was a veteran crusader who had gone on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he encountered the Templars and was inspired to establish a similar order in his homeland. The order took the name “Santiago” after St. James the apostle, with the purpose to protect protecting the pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago.

Alfonso VII’s son Ferdinand II of León (c. 1137 – 1188), founded the Order of Santiago in 1171. The Order of Santiago is one of the most renowned military orders in the history of the world, its insignia, consisting of a red cross resembling a sword, with the shape of a fleur-de-lis on the hilt and the arms, being particularly recognizable and abundant in Western art.[12] Diego Velazquez’ “Las Meninas” features a knight of the Order of Santiago wearing the cross. The Order’s initial objective was to protect the pilgrim of St. James’ Way, to defend Christendom and to remove the Muslim Moors from the Iberian Peninsula. The Order of Santiago was closely related to the Military Order of Saint James and the Sword, such that historians debate whether they were the same order. Santiago Matamoros (“Saint James the Moor-slayer”) is the name given to the depictions of the apostle James, son of Zebedee as a legendary, miraculous figure who appeared at the also legendary Battle of Clavijo in 834, helping the Christians conquer the Muslim Moors. A Portuguese branch of the Order of Saint James emerged when Afonso I of Portugal donated Arruda dos Vinhos to the Order of Santiago in 1172.

Alfonso VIII was the principal benefactor of the Order of Monfragüe. The Order of Monfragüe was founded by the knights of the Order of Mountjoy who dissented from a merger with the Knights Templar. Rodrigo Álvarez (d. 1187), a member of the Order of Santiago, founded the military Order of Mountjoy in 1174 in the kingdom of Jerusalem in the tower of Ascalon and affiliated it with the Cistercian Order that he had long patronized. Rodrigo received support from Alfonso II of Aragon, who donated the castle of Alfambra to the order in return for military aid against the Muslims.[13]

Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

Alfonso VIII suffered a great defeat with his own army at Alarcos against the Almohads in 1195. As recounted by his great-great-grandson, Sancho IV of Castile (1284 – 1295), the family blamed the loss of Alfonso’s VIII extramarital affair with Rahel la Fermosa (“Rachel the Beautiful”), also known as the Jewess of Toledo. According the Cronica de Castilla, whose surviving Gallician-Portuguese version dates to 1295 – 1312, Alfonso VIII was to have been so in love with her that for seven years he neglected his kingly duties. The great love he felt for her was suspected to have been caused by spells and love magic that she performed. Under her influence, a number of Jews were appointed to positions within the royal court. The nobles were so concerned that they murdered her and her entourage in front of Alfonso VIII. As Alfonso was mourning her death, an angel appeared to him and chastised him for his sin and threatened punishment from God.[14] This love-story has been dramatized by Luis de Ulloa y Pereira, Vicente Antonio García de la Huerta, and other Spanish writers, as well as by Franz Grillparzer in his play, Die Jüdin von Toledo, which was also the name of a novel by Lion Feuchtwanger, based on the story, as is La Historia de Fermosa by Abraham S. Marrache. Rahel was portrayed in the 1919 film The Jewess of Toledo by Thea Rosenquist.

Alfonso VIII is most remembered for his part in the Reconquista and the downfall of the Almohad Caliphate, which had replaced the Almoravids as a ruling dynasty both in Morocco and Al-Andalus.[15] After his humiliating defeat at Alarcos, Alfonso VIII led the coalition of his rivals, Sancho VII of Navarre (c. 1157 – 1234), Peter II of Aragon (1178 – 1213) and Afonso II of Portugal (1185 – 1123), who broke the power of the Almohads in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, an important turning point in the Reconquista, signaling the beginning of a long decline in the power of the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula.[16] Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor’s daughter, Berengaria of Castile, nicknamed the Great, was engaged to Conrad II, the son of Frederick Barbarossa. Berengaria’s sister, Blanche of Castile, married Louis VIII King of France (1187 – 1226). Berengaria’s other sister, Urraca of Castile, married Afonso II of Portugal.

Sancho VII was probably the eldest child of Sancho VI and Sancha, daughter of Alfonso VII of Leon. His youngest sister was Blanche of Navarre, Countess of Champagne. Sancho’s other sister Berengaria was married to Richard I the Lionheart of England in 1191 on the island of Cyprus on the way to the Holy Land for the Third Crusade. Sancho and Richard were reputed to have been good friends and close allies, even before the marriage brought them together. Sancho VII was married twice. His first wife was Constance, daughter of the Cathar supporter Raymond VI of Toulouse and Beatrice of Béziers, whom he married in 1195. When he died, his only nephew and Blanche's son Theobald IV of Champagne was recognized as his successor.

Ferdinand II of León married Urraca of Portugal, the daughter of Afonso I, the first king of Portugal. Their son was Alfonso IX of Leon (1171 – 1230), who married Berengaria, the daughter of Alfonso VIII after she had been engaged to Conrad II, the son of Frederick Barbarossa. As queen of Leon, Berengaria supported the Order of Santiago and supported the Basilica of San Isidoro, not only donating to it, but also exempting it from any taxes.[17] In 1211, Alfonso IX of Leon gave the castle of Alcañices to the Templar Order, where inhabitants celebrated the great victories of the order.[18] After Alfonso VIII was defeated at the Battle of Alarcos, Alfonso IX invaded Castile with the aid of Muslim troops.[19] Following his marriage with Berengaria in 1197, Alfonso IX was summarily excommunicated by Pope Celestine III.

In 1221, the Order of Calatrava was merged into that of Monfragüe, by order of Ferdinand III of Castile (1199/1201 – 1252).[20] Alfonso VII had divided his kingdoms between his sons, which set the stage for conflict in the family until the kingdoms were re-united by Alfonso IX’s son by Berengaria of Castile, Ferdinand III of Castile. Ferdinand III was one of the most successful kings of Castile, securing not only the permanent union of the crowns of Castile and Leon, but also leading the most expansive campaign of Reconquista until his time. In 1228, the last remnant of the Almohad forces left for Morocco. Seeing the opportunity, the Christian kings of the north, including Ferdinand III of Castile, Alfonso IX of León, James I of Aragon and Sancho II of Portugal, immediately launched a series of raids on al-Andalus. By both military and diplomatic efforts, Ferdinand III annexed many of the great cities of al-Andalus, including Cordoba and Seville, and establishing the boundaries of the Castilian state for the next two centuries. In 1236, Fernando III gave the Templars the castle of Capilla in south-central Castille. He was canonized in 1671 by Pope Clement X.

El Astrologo

Alfonso X Castile (1221 – 1284) was the son of Ferdinand III by his first wife, Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen, grand-daughter of Frederick Barbarossa. Alfonso succeeded his father as King of Castile and León in 1252. The following year he invaded Portugal, capturing the region of the Algarve. In 1254, Alfonso X signed a treaty of alliance with Henry III of England, supporting him in the war against Louis IX of France. In the same year, Alfonso's half-sister, Eleanor, married Henry’s son Edward. Alfonso’s descent from the Hohenstaufen through his mother, a daughter of Philip of Swabia, gave him a claim through the Hohenstaufen line. After 1257, the crown of the Holy Roman Empire was contested between Richard of Cornwall, who was supported by the Guelph party, and Alfonso X who was recognized by the Hohenstaufen party. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose Alfonso X to be king of Germany. In the end, after Richard’s death, the German princes elected Rudolph I of Habsburg in 1273, Alfonso being declared deposed by Pope Gregory X.

An illustration in the book of chess produced for Alfonso X shows two Templars playing the game, indicating their familiarity with the Castilian court.[21] Alfonso X, called the Wise, fostered the development of a cosmopolitan court that encouraged learning, where Jews, Muslims, and Christians played prominent roles. As a result of his encouraging the translation of works from Arabic and Latin into the vernacular of Castile, many intellectual changes took place. Likely the most memorable was the development of the use of Castilian as a primary language of higher learning, science, and law. It was during this period that the Zohar was composed in Castile, by Moses de Leon.

Alfonso X was sometimes nicknamed el Astrólogo (the Astrologer). According to the prologue of the Latin translation, the Picatrix was translated into Spanish from the Arabic by order of Alfonso X, at some time between 1256 and 1258.[22] As an intellectual, Alfonso X gained considerable scientific fame based on his encouragement of astronomy, which included astrology at the time and the Ptolemaic cosmology as known to him through the Arabs. His fame extended to the preparation of the Alfonsine Tables, based on calculations of al-Zarqali (known as “Arzachel,” 1029 – 1087), which provided data for computing the position of the Sun, Moon and planets relative to the fixed stars. One use of these and similar astronomical tables was to calculate ephemerides, which were used by astrologers to cast horoscopes.[23] Alexander Bogdanov maintained that these tables formed the basis for Copernicus’ development of a heliocentric model of the universe.[24] Because of his work, the lunar crater Alphonsus is named after him.

Under King Alfonso X, the city of Toledo rose to even greater importance as a translation center, as well as for the writing of original scholarly works. From the beginning of his reign, Alfonso X employed Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars at his court from the Toledo School of Translators primarily for the purpose of translating books from Arabic and Hebrew into Latin and Castilian, although he always insisted in supervising personally the translations. Under Alfonso X’s leadership, Sephardic Jewish scientists and translators acquired a prominent role in the School.[25] The primary intellectual work of these scholars centered on astronomy and astrology. Alfonso’s nephew Juan Manuel wrote that the King was so impressed with the intellectual level of the Jewish scholars that he commissioned the translation of the Talmud, the law of the Jews, as well as the Kabbalah.[26] The translation of the Picatrix ordered by Alfonso was undertaken by a Jewish scholar named Yehuda ben Moshe (Yhuda Mosca, in the Old Spanish source texts), the Rabbi of the Synagogue of Toledo.[27] Moshe also collaborated in the translation of the Libro de las cruces, Libros del saber de Astronomía, and the Alfonsine tables, compiled by Isaac ibn Sid another renowned Jewish translator favored by Alfonso X.[28] Rabbi Zag Sujurmenza is credited with the translation from Arabic of Astrolabio redondo (“Spherical Astrolabe”), Astrolabio llano (“Flat Astrolabe”), Constelaciones (“Constellations) and Lámina Universal, an instrument that improved on the astrolabe. Zag also translated the book Armellas de Ptolemy. Abraham of Toledo, physician to both Alfonso X and his son Sancho IV of Catile (1258 – 1295), translated several books from Arabic into Castilian, such as Al-Heitham’s treatise on the construction of the universe, and al-Zarqālī’s Astrolabe.

It was during the time of Alfonso X that the Zohar was written in the Kingdom of Leon by Moses de Leon. De Leon was a friend of the son of a leading Jewish scholar at the court of Alfonso X, Todros ben Joseph HaLevi Abulafia (1225 – c. 1285), a Kabbalist and rabbi recognized by the Jewish community as their Nasi.[29] Todros ben Joseph was a nephew of Meir Abulafia (c. 1170 – 1244), Chief Rabbi of Castile, also known as the Ramah, who was a major Sephardic Talmudist and Halachic authority in medieval Spain. Meir also penned Halachic responsa in Aramaic, and wrote a commentary on Sefer Yetzirah, entitled Lifnei v’Lifnim. Todros ben Joseph was a cousin of Todros ben Judah HaLevi Abulafia (1247 – after 1300), a poet in the tradition of the troubadours who also became a courtier to Alfonso X. Alfonso X granted Todros ben Joseph estates in Seville and Jerez de la Frontera, and accompanied him to France in 1275. Alfonso X ordered the arrest of all Jewish tax farmers in 1281, and it was Todros ben Joseph who convinced him to relent. However, he also notified the Jewish wealthy that their corruptive behavior would result in their excommunication.[30]

Todros ben Joseph also obtained an honorable position at the court of Alfonso X’s son Sancho IV, and was in special favor with his wife, Queen Maria de Molina, as a physician and financier. In 1290, Todros ben Joseph was with Sancho IV and Maria when they held a meeting in Bayonne with the King Philip le Bel of France to settle their mutual hostilities, and he was highly flattered by the Jews of southern France.[31]

Battle of Muret

The role in the Reconquista in Mediterranean Spain similar to that of Ferdinand III was exercised by James I of Aragon (1208 – 1276), who continued to war with the Moors in Murcia, on behalf of his son-in-law Alfonso X of Castile, who was married to his daughter Yolanda. James’ father was Alfonso VIII’s ally Peter II, “the Catholic,” who was King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona. Peter II was the son of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile, the only surviving child of King Alfonso VII of Castile by his second wife, Richeza of Poland. In 1201, Peter II founded the Order of Saint George of Alfama, in gratitude for the patron saint’s assistance to the armies of Aragon.[34] Peter II had been crowned king by Innocent III in 1204. He was the first king of Aragon to be crowned by the pope. Following his performance against the Moors, Peter II became the most famous and respected crusader of the period. Peter II returned from Las Navas in the autumn of 1212 to find that in the course of the Albigensian Crusade, Simon de Montfort (father of Amaury de Montfort of the Barons’ Crusade) had conquered Toulouse, exiling the Cathar heretic Raymond VI Count of Toulouse, who was married to Peter’s sister Eleanor.

It was Peter II’s vassal, Raymond-Roger Trencavel, nephew to Raymond VI of Toulouse, who faced the full force of the first Albigensian crusade in 1209. Peter was the son of Adelaide of Toulouse, a Cathar and the sister of Raymond VI, who was said to have later married Peter II’s father, Alfonso II. A number of authors have identified Raymond-Roger with Percival of Grail legend. To Wolfram von Eschenbach, Alfonso “el Custis,” as he calls him, married Herzeloyde, the mother of Parsifal. Herzeloyde was the Germanized name of Adelaide, retained in Wagner’s libretto. To Guyot de Provins, Wolffram’s source, Herzeloyde is the Viscontess Adelaide of Carcassone, the domina of Alfonso II.[35]

Peter II married Marie of Montpellier, whose half-sister married Raymond-Roger Trencavel. Marie was the daughter of William VIII of Montpellier and Eudokia Komnene, a relative of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. William VIII was the son of Matilda of Burgundy, the granddaughter of Odo I, Duke of Burgundy, brother of Henry I of Burgundy, Count of Portugal. Matilda’s sister Sibylla married Roger II of Sicily. Raymond-Roger married William VIII’s daughter Agnes. William VIII was a patron of troubadours, and Arnaut de Mareuil came to his court after fleeing from the entourage of Adelaide of Toulouse. At least one of Arnaut’s poems is addressed to him. Lacking a male heir William VIII separated from Eudokia, and married Agnes of Castile. Their daughter, also named Agnes, married Raymond-Roger.[36] The Pope ruled William VIII’s marriage to Agnes as illegitimate and their daughter Marie was given the throne.[37]

Before the Albigensian crusade, Western France along the Mediterranean was at that time divided between the Crown of Aragon and the County of Toulouse. The Crown of Aragon was widespread in the area that is now southwestern France, but which at that time was under the control of vassal local princes, such as the Counts of Toulouse. To repel the Catholic Crusaders, the Cathars turned to Peter II for assistance. Peter petitioned the clergy at the Council of Lavaur to restore Raymond’s lands, arguing that he was ready to repent. The council rejected his recommendations, refusing to absolve Raymond and insisting that his lands were still influenced by heresy.[38] Concerned that Simon had grown too powerful, Peter II decided to come to the aid of Toulouse. The Crown of Aragon, under Peter II, allied with the County of Toulouse and various other entities to oppose Simon. Peter led a force against Simon’s troops in 1213, in the Battle of Muret. The Crusaders were heavily outnumbered, and although their first lines were beaten back, Simon managed to outflank the coalition cavalry. Peter II was struck down and killed.

The conflict culminated in the Treaty of Meaux-Paris, in which the integration of the Languedoc territory into the French crown was agreed upon. In November 1225, the Council of Bourges had convened in order to deal with the Cathar heresy. At the council, Raymond VII of Toulouse, the son of Raymond VI of Toulouse and Joan of England., like his father, was excommunicated. Raymond VII married Peter II’s sister, Sancha of Castile. When Louis VIII died, Queen-regent Blanche of Castile allowed the crusade to continue. Eventually, Blanche offered Raymond VII a treaty recognizing him as ruler of Toulouse in exchange for his fighting the Cathars. A condition was that Raymond VII had to marry his daughter Joan to Louis’ brother Alphonse, with the couple and their heirs obtaining Toulouse after Raymond’s death. Raymond agreed and signed the Treaty of Paris at Meaux in 1229. By giving up all the lands of the Languedoc conquered by Simon de Montfort to the crown of France, this meant the end of the Albigensian Crusade.

James the Conqueror

Peter II and Marie’s son, James I of Aragon, was known as “the Conqueror” for his role in the Reconquista. Peter II attempted to placate the Crusaders by arranging a marriage between the two-year-old James and Simon de Montfort’s daughter. Peter entrusted James to be educated in Montfort’s care in 1211, but was soon forced to take up arms against him, before dying at the Battle of Muret. Montfort would have used James as a pawn for extending his own power, but the Aragonese appealed to Pope Innocent III, who insisted that Montfort surrender him. James was handed over to the care of Guillen de Monredon, head of the Templars in Spain and Provence.[39] When the regency fell to his great-uncle Sancho, Count of Roussillon, and his son, the king's cousin, Nuño, the kingdom was given over to confusion, which was only resolved in 1217 when the Templars and other loyal nobles brought the young James to Zaragoza.[40] It was probably on the advice of such leaders among the Templars that a marriage was arranged between James and Leonor, the daughter of Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of England, which was celebrated early in 1221, when James was little more than thirteen years of age.[41]

As king, James I renounced northward expansion and taking back the territories lost by his father at the Battle of Muret, and then decided to turn south. One of the main reasons for this renunciation was the fact that he was raised by the Templars, who had defeated his father fighting for the Pope alongside the French.[42] James’ long reign, the longest of any Iberian monarch, saw the expansion of the House of Aragon and House of Barcelona in three directions: Languedoc to the north, the Balearic Islands to the southeast, and Valencia to the south. James conquered Majorca in 1229, Menorca in 1232 and Ibiza in 1235. Valencia capitulated in 1238.

During James I’s reign, the Spanish monarchy also started to take an interest in Jewish philosophy and religion. In 1263, James convened the Disputation of Barcelona, a formal ordered medieval debate between representatives of Christianity and Judaism regarding whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. It was held at James’ royal palace, in the presence of James himself, his court, and many prominent ecclesiastical dignitaries and knights, between Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and Nachmanides (1194 – 1270), a leading Kabbalist known as Ramban. Since the Dominicans claimed victory, Nachmanides left Aragon never to return again and in 1267 he settled in Palestine. There he founded a synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, the Ramban Synagogue. It is the oldest synagogue in Jerusalem.

James I was renowned as a patron of poetry. An eloquent tribute to him appears at the outset of the epic poem Jaufre, written between 1225 and 1228. His grandfather, Alfonso II was a composer himself and was known in consequence as El Trobador. In the times of Alfonso, the majority of troubadours were members of the Cathars.[43] As a consequence of the Albigensian Crusade, many troubadours were forced to flee southern France and many found refuge in Aragon.[44] Olivier lo Templier, a Knight Templar and troubadour, composed a song praising the Crusader fleet which left Barcelona with James I at its head in 1269. James I also wrote the Libre de la Saviesa or “Book of Wisdom,” which book contained proverbs from various authors, from the time of King Solomon to Albertus Magnus. The book contains maxims from the medieval Arab philosophers and from the Apophthegmata Philosophorum of Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809 – 873), who had worked with a group of translators, among whom were the Sabian Thabit ibn Qurra.[45] From these James I derived his selections through one of his interpreters, Jehuda, who made other translations into Catalan at his orders. However, James I’s confessor, Ramon de Penyafort, a prominent Dominican, who regarded troubadours as heretics, persuaded James I to introduce the Inquisition into Aragon and in 1233 to prohibit the circulation of any romance translation of the Scriptures in his dominions.[46]

In 1235, James I married Yolanda, the daughter of Andrew II of Hungary (c. 1177 – 1235) by his second wife Yolande de Courtenay. Andrew II was the son of Bela III Arpad, King of Hungary (c. 1148 – 1196) and Agnes of Antioch. Agnes was the granddaughter of Bohemond II, Prince of Antioch, a descendant of Robert Guiscard, and Alice, the daughter of Fulk of Jerusalem and Melisende, identified with Melusine, and the daughter of Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Morphia of the Skull of Sidon legend. Agnes was the ancestress of all subsequent Kings of Hungary, as well as the Hungarian princesses, and by marriage of the Piast Duchesses St. Kinga and Yolanda of Poland, the daughter of Bela IV of Hungary. In addition, from her descended the Kings of Bohemia from the Premyslid, Luxembourg, Habsburg, Jagiellon and Vasa families. Andrew II’s granddaughters included Saint Margaret of Hungary and Saint Kinga (Cunegunda). Many of the details of her life and deeds are known from the Legend of Saint Margaret, written probably in the fourteenth century and translated from Latin to Hungarian in the fifteenth. Andrew II employed Jews and Muslims to administer royal revenues, which caused a discord between him and the Holy See starting in the early 1220s.[47] He participated in the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land in 1217–1218, but the crusade was a failure. Yolanda’s half-sister, Elizabeth of Hungary, from whom were descended the Landgraves of Hesse is a greatly venerated Catholic saint who was an early member of the Third Order of St. Francis, by which she is honored as its patroness.

Pontigny Abbey, the second of the four great daughter houses of Cîteaux Abbey, founded by Hugh of Mâcon, the first abbot and a friend and kinsman of Bernard of Clairvaux, was closely associated with Agnes Antioch.[48] Agnes was the daughter of Raynald of Châtillon (c. 1125 – 1187), and Constance, Princess of Antioch, the only child of Bohemond II of Antioch by his wife, Alice of Jerusalem, the second daughter of Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Morphia of Armenia. Agnes’ activities were also connected with the presence in Hungary of the first Cistercian monks, who came from Burgundy, with whom she shared ancestral links. The first Cistercian monastery in Hungary, founded in 1182, was closely associated with three Cistercian abbeys located near Pontigny in Burgundy, and the surrounding estates belonged to the Donzy family, from which Agnes was descended.[49] Agnes’ father Raynald was a firm supporter of Baldwin IV’s sister, Sybilla, and her husband, Guy of Lusignan, during conflicts regarding the succession of the king. Raynald attacked a caravan travelling from Egypt to Syria in late 1186 or early 1187, claiming that the truce between Saladin and the Kingdom of Jerusalem did not bind him. After Raynald refused to pay a compensation, Saladin invaded the kingdom and annihilated the crusader army in the Battle of Hattin, signaling the end of the Crusaders’ hold over the Holy Land. Raynald was captured in the battlefield. Saladin personally beheaded him after he refused to convert to Islam.

War of the Vespers

The first son of James I and Yolanda was Peter III (c. 1239 – 1285), King of Aragon, King of Valencia, and Count of Barcelona. Peter III married Constance of Sicily, the daughter of Manfred of Sicily, the son of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. At the invitation of some rebels, Peter III conquered the Kingdom of Sicily and became its king in 1282, pressing the claim of his wife, Constance II, to unite the kingdom to the Crown of Aragon. In the end, however, it was Charles of Anjou (1226/1227 –1285), one of the most powerful European monarchs in the second half of the thirteenth century, who became the champion of the Guelfs, and was proclaimed King of Sicily and Naples by the Pope. Charles I was the youngest son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile, the third daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England, sister of Richard the Lionheart. Allied with the papacy, Charles conquered Naples and Sicily in the 1260s, defeated and killed Manfred at the battle of Benevento in 1266, and defeated and executed the last Hohenstaufen, the young Conradin, soon afterwards. Charles thereafter expanded his power into the Balkans and in 1277 became heir to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

During Middle Ages, there were several marriages between the Árpád dynasty and the House of Capet. Charles of Anjou, with his first wife, Beatrice of Provence fathered his eldest son, Charles II of Naples (1254 – 1309). Their youngest daughter, Elizabeth was given in marriage to the future Ladislaus IV of Hungary in 1269. In 1270, Charles II married Mary of Hungary, daughter of Stephen V of Hungary—the grandson of Andrew II and his first wife Gertrude of Merania—and Elizabeth the Cuman. They had fourteen children which provided the House of Anjou-Sicily with a secure position in Naples.

In 1279, Charles II of Naples discovered the purported body of Mary Magdalene at Saint-Maximin near Aix-en-Provence after she appeared to him in a vision, an event that inextricably linked the House of Anjou to the Magdalene, whom they then adopted as patron saint of their dynasty.[50] In the twelfth century, Berenguer Ramon I, Count of Provence, the son of the Templar Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, had established Saint-Maximin as a town under his care. In 1246, following the death of Raymond IV Berenger, the cousin of Peter II of Aragon, Provence passed through his younger daughter to Charles II’s father Charles of Anjou. The founding tradition of the relics at the Dominican’s basilica at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume were that the remains of Mary Magdalene were preserved there, and not at Vézelay. After he discovered her remnants, Charles II founded the massive Gothic Basilique Sainte Marie-Madeleine in 1295, with blessing of Boniface VIII, who placed it under the new teaching order of Dominicans. Under the basilica’s crypt is a glass dome said to contain the relic of her skull. Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume gradually displaced Vézelay in popularity and acceptance.[51]

Charles of Anjou also managed to extend his power over Rome, to the extent that in the Sicilian Vespers revolted against his rule in 1282. Known as the War of the Sicilian Vespers, it was a conflict fought in Sicily, Catalonia and elsewhere in the western Mediterranean between the kings of Aragon helped by the Italian Ghibellines against the Charles of Anjou, his son Charles II of Naples, the kings of France, supported by the Italian Guelphs and the Papacy. After the uprising, Sicily became an independent kingdom under the rule of Peter III. In 1284, Pope Martin IV preached a new Crusade against the rebels, as well as against Peter III, who had chosen to champion the revolt and to push his own claim to Sicily. The controversial Crusade escalated, with Charles’s forces invading Aragon. The invasion was a failure, however, and on it died King Philip III of France, the father of Philip le Bel. Charles of Anjou was assassinated in 1285 and the French expelled.

The War of the Vespers ended in 1302 with the Peace of Caltabellotta and the division of the old Kingdom of Sicily. Charles II was confirmed as king of Sicily’s peninsular territories while Peter III’s son, Frederick III of Sicily (1272 – 1337) was confirmed as king of the island territories, beginning a long period of Spanish hegemony on the island. The Italian adventurer and Templar Roger de Flor (1267 – 1305), one of the most successful pirates of his time, was in the service of Frederick III. Roger de Flor was born in the Kingdom of Sicily, the second son of an Italian noblewoman of Brindisi and a German falconer named Richard von Blum in the service of Emperor Frederick II, the grandfather of Peter III’s wife Constance. Roger began his career working on a Templar ship, when he was made Sergeant-Brother. The Templars acquired a Genoese ship, the largest of the time, called the Falcon, on which Roger made a lot of money. Following some intrigues and personal disputes, Roger was accused of robbery and denounced to the pope as a thief and an apostate. This resulted in his relegation from the order by Jacques de Molay. Roger fled to Genoa, where he borrowed a considerable sum from Ticino Doria, purchased a new vessel and began a career in piracy, becoming one of the most successful and infamous privateers of the time.[47] Some accounts trace the origin of the “Jolly Roger” flag of the pirates to Roger de Flor.[48] The struggle between the Aragonese kings of Aragon and the French kings of Naples for the possession of Sicily was at this time going on and Roger, by then one of the most experienced military commanders of his day, was called to the service of Frederick III, who gave him the rank of vice-admiral. Roger was stabbed to death 1305, just two years before the arrest of the Templars. Some believe Philip le Bel and the Pope would never have dared their attack on the order had it not been for Roger’s death.[49]

Order of Christ

In 1293, Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars began a tour of the West to try to gather support for a reconquest of the Holy Land, developing relationships with Pope Boniface VIII, Edward I of England, James I of Aragon and Charles II of Naples. Meanwhile, pressure increased in Europe that the Templars should be merged with the other military orders, like the Knights Hospitaller, and all placed under the authority of one king, who would become the new King of Jerusalem if it was conquered, a view supported by Charles II of Naples.[55] The same plan was supported by the famous alchemist Ramon Llull, who was seneschal to Peter III’s younger brother, James II of Majorca (1267 – 1327). James II married Esclaramunda of Foix, of the Foix dynasty who were immersed in the Cathar controversy and Albigensian Crusade. Esclaramunda’s great-grandfather, Raymond-Roger of Foix, was the brother of Roger II Trencavel, who married Adelaide of Toulouse, daughter of Raymond V of Toulouse, and fathered Raymond-Roger Trencavel. Meeting frequently with the Templars and Hospitallers, Lull tried to enlist them for a peaceful crusade. In 1275, he wrote the Book of the Order of Chivalry, in which he laid out a program for the knights.

Lull hoped the aggressive Philip le Bel would lead a new crusade, and he presented his plan for the reformation and unification of the military orders. In 1299, he then travelled to Cyprus, where he urged Henry II of Lusignan to join his campaign to convert the Jews and Muslims of the island to Christianity. Though Henry was not interested, Jacques de Molay, “cheerfully received” Llull into his house in Limassol for several weeks in 1302.[56] Llull wanted a united Order under what he called a Bellator Rex, a role he expected would be filled by James II’s nephew, James II of Aragon (1267 – 1327), the brother of Frederick III.[57] James II of Aragon succeeded their father in Sicily in 1285 and his elder brother Afonso III in Aragon and the other Spanish territories, including Majorca, in 1291. James II of Aragon married Blanche of Anjou, the daughter of Charles II of Naples, and the sister of Eleanor of Anjou, the wife of Frederick III of Sicily. Constance, the daughter Frederick III and Eleanor, married Henry II of Lusignan, Grand Master of Hospitallers, six years after he appropriated properties of the banned Templars in 1313.

Similarly, James II of Aragon eventually won the right to deliver the Templars’ properties to the new Order of Montesa.[58] It was affiliated to the Order of Calatrava, from which its first recruits were drawn, and it was maintained in dependence upon that order. The members of the order, which was dedicated to Our Lady, and based at Montesa, in the Kingdom of Aragon, considered themselves Templars.[59] The Templars were received with enthusiasm in Aragon from their foundation in 1128. Although the Aragonese branch of the order was pronounced innocent during the trials of the Templars, Clement V’s Bull of suppression was applied to them in spite of the protests of James II, who was skeptical about the accusations made against them. However, he soon turned against the order, and captured the castle of Peniscola and took the Grand Preceptor Exemen de Lenda into custody, but other Templars held out much longer, most notably Ramon sa Guardia in Miravet. At length, the resistance faded and the Templars and their lands were taken into custody. With the approval of antipope Benedict XIII, the Order of Saint George of Alfama founded by James II’s great-grandfather Peter II was amalgamated with the Order of Montesa, and thereafter known as the Order of Montesa and Saint George of Alfama.[60]

Finally, Frederick III’s sister Elizabeth married King Denis I of Portugal (1261 – 1325), who founded the Order of Christ in 1319, a survival of the Templar order. After several campaigns, the Portuguese part in the Reconquista came to an end with the definitive capture of the Algarve in 1249, bringing Portugal under the control of Afonso III of Portugal (1210 – 1279), the son of Afonso II, and the father of Denis I of Portugal. Denis’ mother was Beatrice of Castile, the daughter of Alfonso X of Castile and Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, a member of one of the most aristocratic families in the court of Ferdinand III.

According to Jewish legend, as a young prince, Denis was successfully treated by Alfonso X’s Jewish physician and translator, Rabbi Yehuda ben Moshe. Denis had fallen ill with no physician being able to diagnose his malady. Yehuda had heard that Alfonso had received a diplomatic delegation from Denis’ father Afonso III. Afonso III’s priest had convinced him that he was being punished by God for employing Jewish officials in his government. Apparently, Alfonso X’s son Sancho was suggesting the marriage of his sister Maria to the young Denis. The basic terms of the alliance was that the kingdoms of Castile and Portugal change their attitude to the Jews and decree the expulsion of all Jews who would not convert to the Christianity. Yehuda then traveled to Portugal, where he gained access to Denis and concluded that the prince was suffering from a blood-clot. Yehuda performed the difficult operation, saving the boy’s life, and in this way, succeeded in counteracting the threatened deportation of Jews from Castile and Portugal.[61]

After the Templar’s suppression by Pope Clement in 1312, some Templars fled to Scotland, and sought refuge with the excommunicated the king of Scotland, Robert the Bruce. However, the majority of the Knights Templar joined their compatriots in Portugal. By papal decree, the property of the Templars was transferred to the Knights Hospitaller except in the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal.[62] With the protection of Denis I, who refused to pursue and persecute the former knights, who were reconstituted the Order of Christ.[63] Denis negotiated with Pope Clement’s successor John XXII for recognition of the new order and its right to inherit the Templar assets and property, and Pope John XXII approved the order by a Papal bull in 1319. It was to John XXII that Robert the Bruce had dedicated his Declaration of Arbroath. Like others at the time, the Order of Santiago also took in Templars after 1312.[64] The Order of Christ was first seated at Castro Marim, in the Algarve, in the Diocese of Faro. In 1357, the order was moved to the town of Tomar, former seat of the Templars in Portugal.

Ferdinand & Isabella

When James II completed the conquest of the kingdom of Valencia, the Crown of Aragon established itself as one of the major powers in Europe. Through the marriage of Peter IV to Maria of Sicily in 1381, the Kingdom of Sicily, as well as the duchies of Athens and Neopatria, were finally implemented more firmly into the Crown of Aragon. The Crown of Aragon eventually included the Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia (until the twelfth century as County of Barcelona), the Kingdom of Valencia, the Kingdom of Majorca, the Kingdom of Sicily, Malta, the Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sardinia. For brief periods the Crown of Aragon also controlled Montpellier, Provence, Corsica, and the twin Duchy of Athens and Neopatras in Latin Greece. In 1469, marriage of the “Catholic Monarchs,” Queen Isabella I of Castile (1451 – 1504) and King Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452 – 1516), Grand Master of the Order of Santiago, created a union that contemporaries referred to as “the Spains,” leading to what would become the Kingdom of Spain under their great grandson King Philip II (1527 – 1598), also a Grand Master of the Order of Santiago.

King Denis I and Elizabeth of Aragon’s son was Afonso IV of Portugal (1291 – 1357), who became Grand Master of the Order of Christ.[65] Afonso IV’s daughter married D. Fernando de Castela, the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago. Afonso IV’s sister was Constance of Portugal, whose son was Alfonso XI of Castile (1311 – 1350). Federico Alfonso of Castile, 1st Señor de Haro (1334 – 1358) was the fifth illegitimate child of Alfonso XI and Eleanor of Guzman, the daughter of nobleman Pedro Núñez de Guzmán and his wife, Beatriz Ponce de Leon, a great-granddaughter of Alfonso IX of Leon. In 1342, Federico rose to the leading role of Maestre of the Order of Santiago. Federico’s mistress was reputedly a Jewish woman named Paloma, who belonged to the bin Yahya family, members of which were prominent in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Turkey, and before that going back to the Exilarchs in Babylonia and Persia.

Genealogy of the Ferdinand and Isabella

• King Denis I of Portugal (founder of the Order of Christ) + Elizabeth of Aragon (d. of Peter III of Aragon + Constance of Sicily)

  • Afonso IV of Portugal (1291 – 1357, Grand Master of the Order of Christ)

    • D. Fernando de Castela, (Grand Master of the Order of Santiago)

    • Peter I of Portugal + Teresa Lourenço

      • John I of Portugal + Philippa of Lancaster (d. John of Gaunt, s. of Edward III of England, founder of the Order of the Garter + Philippa of Hainault)

        • Prince Henry the Navigator (Grand Master of the Order of Christ)

        • Edward, King of Portugal

          • Afonso V of Portugal (Knight of the Garter)

        • John, Constable of Portugal + Isabella of Barcelos

          • Isabella of Portugal, Queen of Castile + John II of Castile

    • Maria of Portugal, Queen of Castile + Alfonso XI of Castile

  • Constance of Portugal + Ferdinand IV, King of Castile (s. of Sancho IV, had affair with Rachel the Beautiful, Jewess of Toledo)

    • Alfonso XI of Castile + Leonor de Angulo

      • Federico Alfonso of Castile, 1st Señor de Haro (Grand Master of Order of Santiago) + Paloma (d. of Gedalia Shlomo ibn ben Shlomo ibn Yahya haZaken, who was head of the Jewish community in Castile)

        • Alonso Enríquez (1354 – 1429, associated with the chapel of the Holy Christ of the Church of Santa Clara de Palencia) + Juana de Mendoza

          • Fadrique Enriquez (c. 1388), + Mariana Fernandez de Cordoba y Ayala

            • Queen Juana of Aragon + King John II

              • FERDINAND II OF SPAIN + QUEEN ISABELLA

    • Alfonso XI of Castile + Maria of Portugal (d. of King Afonso IV of Portugal and his first wife Beatrice of Castile)

      • Peter of Castile + María de Padilla

        • Constance of Castile + John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster

          • Catherine of Lancaster + Henry III, King of Castile (s. John I of Castile + Eleanor of Aragon)

            • John II of Castile + Isabella of Portugal (d. of John, Constable of Portugal)

              • QUEEN ISABELLA + FERDINAND II OF SPAIN

Paloma and Federico’s son was Alonso Enríquez (1354 – 1429), also known as Alfonso Enríquez, who was Lord of Medina de Rioseco and Admiral of Castile. Although contemporary Castilian chroniclers wrapped the figure of his mother in mystery and later genealogists do not mention her, other authors, for example, the Portuguese Fernão Lopes wrote in connection with events that occurred in 1384, that the Admiral was the son of a Jewess. The Memorial of old things attributed to the Jewish dean of Toledo, Diego de Castilla (1510/15-1584), stated that Federico had Alonso from a Jewess from Guadalcanal called Paloma. The story was recounted by Elijah Capsali (c. 1483 – 1555), rabbi and historian of Candia, Crete, in his Seder Eliyahu Zuta, who claimed to have heard it from “the mouths of sages and elders” among Spanish exiles.[66] Still later, a romance said Alfonso was really the illegitimate son of Queen Blanche de Bourbon, but he was raised by a Jewish girl named Paloma.[67]

In modern times, the theory developed that Paloma might have been the same person as Yonati, who is said to have been a daughter of Gedalia Shlomo ibn ben Shlomo ibn Yahya haZaken, who was head of the Jewish community in Castile.[68] Shlomo was the great-grandson of Yahia Ben Rabbi (c. 1150 – 1222), a Portuguese nobleman, who was reputed to be a direct descendant of the Hebrew exilarchs of ancient Babylonia, who claimed direct descent from the Biblical King David and was the eponymous progenitor of the Ibn Yahya family. Ben Rabbi was the son of Yaish Ibn Yahya (d. 1196) and grandson of Hiyya al-Daudi (d. 1154), who was a prominent rabbi, composer, and poet and served as advisor to Portugal’s first king, Afonso I (1106 / 1109 – 1185). Ben Rabbi resided in Lisbon and was respected by Sephardic Jews as well as by King Afonso I, who knighted him for his courage by awarding him the title, “Lord of the Village of the Negroes,” and presented him with an estate that had belonged to the Moors. Ben Rabbi's nickname then became “Yahia the Negro.”[69]

Alonso Enríquez was associated with the chapel of the Holy Christ of the Church of Santa Clara de Palencia, where the figure of a reclining Christ is venerated in a glass case. This carving was made in Germany at the end of the fourteenth century and brought to Spain following the trail of the Camino de Santiago. However, in 1377, according to legend, when Alonso was Admiral of Castile and Captain General of the Navy, one of his ships sailing in the war against the Moors, spotted an urn floating in the Mediterranean Sea and emitting a supernatural glow. Approaching to object, they found that it was a glass case that housed the image of Christ laying down. Alonso decided to move the figure to Palenzuela. Once the ship reached port, the figure was escorted by knights and soldiers, but when it reached the town of Reinoso, the animal carrying the Christ refused to go on and when let loose headed towards the monastery of Poor Clares. Interpreted as a miracle, they kept the figure there for veneration, now known as the Cristo de las Claras. In the seventeenth century a further miracle happened. Apparently, the original figure was a reclining Christ with his face looking up to the sky and his hands clasped on his chest. But, in the year 1666, after a loud noise was heard from the room where the Christ was kept, the Poor Clare nuns found that his face tilted to the side and his arms were by his hands.[70]

The result of Alonso Enríquez’s marriage to Juana de Mendoza were thirteen children, who included Fadrique Enriquez (c. 1388), who married Mariana Fernandez de Cordoba y Ayala, and fathered Queen Juana of Aragon (1425 – 1468). Born Juana Enriquez de Córdoba, 5th Lady of Casarrubios del Monte, a Castilian noblewoman, she was Queen of Navarre from her marriage in 1444 to King John II, and Queen of Aragon from John II’s accession in 1458 until her death. Their son was Ferdinand II of Spain, who married Queen Isabella, known as the Catholic Monarchs, famous for having sponsored Columbus’ voyage to discover the New World. Isabella’s paternal grandparents were King Henry III of Castile and Catherine Plantagenet of the House of Lancaster, a half sister of King Henry IV of England. Her maternal grandparents were John, Constable of Portugal (1400 – 1442), Grand Master of Santiago, and brother of Henry the Navigator.

Marranos

The joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon completed the Reconquista with a war against the Emirate of Granada that started in 1482 and ended with Granada’s surrender on January 2, 1492. On March 32, 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella enacted the Alhambra Decree, also known as the Edict of Expulsion, ordering the expulsion of Jews from the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and its territories and possessions by July 31. As in other parts of Europe, violent persecution had been growing in Spain and Portugal, where in 1391, hundreds of thousands of Jews had been forced to convert to Catholicism.

Publicly, the Jewish converts known as Marranos, and also as Conversos, were Christians, but secretly they continued to practice Judaism. Over half of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula converted to Christianity, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, thus avoiding the Decree of Expulsion in 1492. A phylogeographic study in 2008 appeared to support the idea that the number of forced conversions has been significantly underestimated, as 20% of the tested population had haplogroups consistent with Sephardi ancestry.[71]

Amongst the Jews, these converts were called apostates anusim (“forced ones”). The term anusim had been more frequently used after the forced conversion to Christianity of Ashkenazi Jews in Germany at the end of the eleventh century. In his religious legal opinions, Rashi commented about the issue of anusim.[72] In normal circumstances, a person who abandons Jewish observance, or part of it, is classified as a meshumad. Such a person is still considered a Jew for purposes of lineage, but cannot claim any privilege pertaining to Jewish status. Anusim, by contrast, since their conversion was done against their will, not only remain Jews by lineage but continue to be considered as fully qualified Jews for all purposes.

While secret conversion of Jews to another religion during the Spanish inquisition is the most known example, as Rabbi Joachim Prinz explained in The Secret Jews, “Jewish existence in disguise predates the Inquisition by more than a thousand years.”[73] There were also the examples of the first Gnostic sects, which comprised of Merkabah mystics who entered Christianity. Likewise, in the seventh century, the Quran advised the early Muslim community, “And a faction of the People of the Scripture say [to each other], “Believe in that which was revealed to the believers at the beginning of the day and reject it at its end that perhaps they will abandon their religion.”[74]

As reproduced in 1608 in La Silva Curiosa by Julio-Inigues de Medrano in 1492, Chemor, chief Rabbi of Spain, wrote to the Grand Sanhedrin, which had its seat in Constantinople, for advice, when a Spanish law threatened expulsion. This was the reply:

Well-beloved brothers in Moses, if the king of France forces you to become Christian, do so, because you cannot do otherwise, but preserve the law of Moses in your hearts. If they strip you of your possessions, raise your sons to be merchants, so that eventually they can strip Christians of their possessions. If they threaten your lives, raise your sons to be physicians and pharmacists, so that they can take the lives of Christians. If they destroy your synagogues, raise your sons, to be canons and clerics, so that they can destroy the churches of the Christians. If they inflict other tribulations on you, raise your sons to be lawyers and notaries and have them mingle in the business of every state, so that putting the Christians under your yoke, you will rule the world and can then take your revenge.[75]

Many Marranos or their children occupied offices of importance at Court. In 1480, both the supreme court of justice of that kingdom and the Cortes were presided over by persons of Jewish extraction. The progress of the Santángel family was characteristic. Luis de Santángel (d.1498), perhaps grandson of the founder of the family, worked as escribano de racion to Ferdinand and Isabella, which left him in charge of the Royal finance. In Castile, the families of Gonzalez, Chinet, and Coloma attained similar influence. Hernando de Pulgar (1436 – c. 1492) was made one of Henry IV’s secretaries, and under Isabella he became councilor of state.

But the most illustrious was the Benveniste de la Cavalleria family. The Benveniste were an old, wealthy and scholarly Jewish family of Narbonne and northern Spain from the eleventh century, who were in contact with the Kalonymous and shared the title of Nasi.[76] The Jewish families of Makhir, Hasdai, Sheshet and Shealtiel appear together with the name Benveniste in official and Jewish documents of Narbonne, Barcelona and Aragon from the eleventh to thirteenth century AD with the title Nasi added to their names. They appear in the travel books of Benjamin of Tudela from the twelfth century. Isaac ben Josef ibn Benveniste Nasi, lived in Saragossa and Málaga in the eleventh century, and associated with the poets Moses ibn Ezra and Judah Halevi. Family members received honorary titles from the authorities and were members of the administration of the kingdom of Aragon and Castile. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the honor of “Benveniste de la Cavalleria (Knights)” was given to the family by the Templars, who protected them and who in turn administered the Templars’ tax system.[77]

During the fifteenth century, a family schism occurred after a large section of its members adopted Catholicism. At the close of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century, eight out of the nine sons of Don Solomon ibn Labi de la Cavalleria, the then head of the family, were baptized. The eldest brother, Bonafus (d. 1464), who assumed the Christian name of Pedro, was Comptroller General at the court of Aragon, won the favor of Queen Maria, the spouse of Alfonso V of Aragon, a member of the Order of the Dragon. Bonafus was appointed him commissioner of the Cortes (parliament) which convened at Monzón and Alcañiz (1436 – 37), and all the liberties and privileges which the Cavalleria family had enjoyed for a long time were confirmed to him and his descendants.[78]

Alfonso was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Kingdom, Luis became Counselor to King Juan, and Jaime was a trusted companion of Ferdinand the Catholic. One of Bonafus’s brothers, Samuel, who also took on the name of Pedro, rose to high office in the Church. Another, Isaac (Fernando), was Vice-Principal of the University of Saragossa. Ahab (Felipe) became a leader in the Cortes. The youngest brother Luis rose to the office of High Treasurer of the kingdom of Navarre. Pedro (c. 1415 – c. 1461), elder son of Bonafos and his Christian wife Leonor de la Cabra. Pedro won a reputation as a jurist, advocate, and adviser to Alfonso V. The sons of Isaac de la Cavalleria amassed vast fortunes by farming the public taxes, and attained high position in the state. One of them, Pedro de la Cavalleria, was sent in 1469 on a special mission by the infante Ferdinand with the chronicler Alfonso de Palencia to convey the famous pearl necklace which served as guarantee for the marriage contract of Ferdinand and Isabella.[79]

Another member of the family, Martin de la Cavalleria, was appointed to the command of the fleet at Majorca. The remaining son of Don Solomon ibn Labi, Benveniste, continued faithful to Judaism. However, after his death, his family followed the general tendency of the time. One of his daughters married Don Apres de Paternoy, a wealthy landowner of Jewish extraction, and their descendants were important in Spanish history. His son Vidal Benveniste (de la Cavalleria), an accomplished Hebrew poet, who assumed the name of Gonzalo, continued his literary interests after his conversion, and translated some of the works of Cicero into Spanish. He was elected, by the notables of the Jewish communities of Aragon, as the speaker before the pope at the beginning of disputation of Tortosa in 1412, one of the famous ordered disputations between Christians and Jews of the Middle Ages.

Paul of Burgos (c. 1351 – 1435), who had been Rabbi of Burgos, whose original name was Solomon ha-Levi de la Cavalleria Benveniste, converted along with his brothers in 1390, took holy orders and eventually became Bishop of Cartagena, Bishop of Burgos and papal legate. He was the most wealthy and influential Jew of Burgos, a knowledgeable scholar of Talmudic and rabbinical literature. His father, Isaac ha-Levi de la Cavalleria, who was bailiff of Alfonso IX, had come from Aragon to Burgos in the middle of the fourteenth century where he married Maria Benveniste.

Paul of Burgos gained the confidence of King Henry III of Castile, who in 1406 appointed him keeper of the royal seal. His descendants changed the Santa Maria surname to de Cartagena and became the most powerful Converso family in late medieval Spain and, according to historians, the single most important and prolific Converso dynasty in Spanish history.[80] Paul’s eldest son, Gonzalo, became was Bishop of Sigüenza and was Spanish delegate to the Council of Constance, serving in other positions in the Spanish Church as well. Alonso de Cartagena, his second son, succeeded his father as Bishop of Burgos. His second son, Alonso de Cartagena, succeeded his father as Bishop of Burgos, and was one of the Spanish delegates to the great Church Council of Basle, the anti-Jewish policy of which he advocated. Several other members of the family attained eminence in politics and literature.

In fifteenth-century Castile under Isabella, at least four bishops were of Marrano origin: the Archbishop of Granada, Hernando de Talavera, and the Cardinal Juan de Torquemada (1388 – 1468), the uncle of the first Inquisitor-General, Tomás de Torquemada (1420 – 1498), who was it turns out, was also of Jewish descent.[81] For a number of years, Torquemada served as the regular confessor and personal advisor to Queen Isabella. He was present at her coronation in 1474, and remained her closest ally and supporter. Torquemada even advised her to marry King Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469, in order to consolidate their kingdoms and form a power base he could draw on for his own purposes.[82] In the fifteen years under Torquemada’s direction, the Spanish Inquisition grew from the single tribunal at Seville to a network of two dozen Holy Offices. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov features a parable involving Christ coming back to Seville in the days of the Spanish Inquisition, and being confronted by Torquemada as the Grand Inquisitor.

The master of the Order of Santiago was Don Juan Pacheco, Marquis of Villena (1419 – 1474), was a Marrano. Pacheco rose to power in the last years of the reign of Juan II of Castile and came to dominate the government of Castile during the reign of Juan II’s son and successor Henry IV of Castile, and actually aspired to Isabella’s hand. The same was the case within the Order of Calatrava, which was headed by brother Pedro Giron (1423 – 1466), an important political figure at the court of Henry IV of Castile.[83] Giron was the younger brother of Juan Pacheco and nephew of Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña, Archbishop of Toledo. Henry IV offered the hand of Isabella, his half-sister, in marriage to Giron. But when Giron travelled to Madrid in 1466, at the head of a 3,000-strong force to negotiate the marriage, he suddenly fell ill and died. Pope Pius II granted to Pedro Giron the privilege of resigning his grand mastership in favor of his bastard son, Rodrigo Telles Giron, a child of only eight years old. The Abbot of the Cistercian Abbey of Morimond in Champagne was called upon to devise a temporary administration, until Telles should reach his majority.

By the fifteenth century, the Order of Calatrava reached its apogee of prosperity, and held fifty-six commanderies and sixteen priories, or cures, had a membership of 200,000 and an annual income of 45,000 ducats. To neutralize this potential threat to the crown, Ferdinand and Isabella, with papal sanction, took over the administration of the order in 1489.[84]

In 1454, Henry IV had granted Pedro several towns and titles including Lord of Osuna, which would become the powerful House of Osuna. King Henry IV then offered the hand of his half-sister Isabella in marriage to Pedro. But when Pedro travelled to Madrid at the head of a 3,000-strong force to negotiate the marriage, he suddenly fell ill and died. Together with his brother and uncle, he was the de facto ruler of Castile, until 1461 when Beltrán de la Cueva became the new confidant of Henry IV. Juan and Pedro were the nephews of Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña (1410 – 1482), Archbishop of Toledo. Carrillo acted as Isabella’s main advisor and played a major part in arranging her marriage to Ferdinand in 1469.

[1] Napier. A to Z of the Knights Templar.

[2] Dan Jones. The Templars (Head of Zeus Ltd, 2017).

[3] “Space and Time.” Retrieved from http://www.mosteiroalcobaca.gov.pt/en/index.php?s=white&pid=196&identificador=

[4] Father Richard Augustin Hay. Genealogie of the Saintclaires of Rosslyn, ed. James Maidment, (1835); cited in Karen Ralls. The Templars and the Grail: Knights of the Quest (Quest Books, 2003), p. 178.

[5] “Spain Virtual Jewish History Tour.” Retrieved from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/spain-virtual-jewish-history-tour

[6] Adolph Drechsler. Illustriertes Lexikon der Astronomie (Leipzig: J. J. Weber, 1881); Schuchard. Restoring the Temple of Vision, p. 44.

[7] Scholem. Kabbalah, p. 38.

[8] F.E. Peters. “Avicebron (Ibn Gabirol, Solomon ben Judah),” s.v. New Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967), p. 1130.

[9] Abraham Ibn Da’ud. Sefer ha-Qabbalah: The Book of Tradition, (ed.) and trans. Gerson D. Cohen. (Oxford: Littman Library, 2005), pp. 259 ff.

[10] Charles Moeller. “Military Order of Calatrava.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908). Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03149d.htm

[11] “Order of Calatrava.” Encyclopædia Britannica (Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., July 20, 1998).

[12] Enrique Gallego Blanco. The Rule of the Spanish Military Order of St. James - 1170-1493, p. 3

[13] Simon Barton. The Aristocracy in Twelfth-Century León and Castile. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

[14] David Nirenberg. “Deviant politics and Jewish love: Alfonso VIII and the Jewess of Toledo.” Jewish History, 21 (2007).

[15] Napier. A to Z of the Knights Templar.

[16] Clifford J. Rogers. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Vol. 1. (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 28.

[17] Ibid., pp. 63,74–76.

[18] Gonzalo Martínez Díez. Los Templarios en la Corona de Castilla (1st ed.). (Burgos: La Olmeda, D.L.), p. 103; Historia (October 22, 2015). “Apéndice I. Los lugares del Temple.” In Martínez, Gemma; Mínguez, Nines (eds.). Templarios. Del origen de las cruzadas al final de la Orden del Temple (1st ed.). (Madrid: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, S.A.U.), p. 417.

[19] E. Michael Gerli & Samuel G. Armistead, eds. Medieval Iberia: an encyclopedia. (Routledge, 2003), p. 54.

[20] Matilla, Enrique Rodríguez-Picavea (1999). “Documentos para el estudio de la Orden de Calatrava en la Meseta meridional castellana (1102-1302).” Cuadernos de Historia Medieval Secc. Colecciones Documentales (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), 2.

[21] Cecil Roth. The Jews of Medieval Oxford (Clarendon Press, 1951).

[22] Helen Nicholson. A Brief History of the Knights Templar (London: Constable & Robinson, 2001).

[23] David Pingree. “Between the Ghāya and Picatrix. I: The Spanish Version.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 44, (1981), p. 27

[24] Crawford Howell Toy, Ludwig Blau. “Raziel, Book of.” Jewish Encyclopedia.

[25] Owen Gingerich. Gutenberg’s Gift, pp. 319-28 in Library and information services in astronomy V (Astron. Soc. Pacific Conference Series vol. 377, 2007).

[26] Alexander Bogdanov. Bogdanov;s Tektology: Book !. (Hull: Centre for Systems Studies, 1996). p. 27.

[27] José Muñoz Sendino. La escala de Mahoma (Madrid: Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, 1949), p. 15.

[28] Castro y Calvo. Juan Manuel, Libro de la caza (Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1947). p. 2.

[29] James Carroll. Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2002), p. 327–328).

[30] Noah J. Efron. Judaism and Science: A Historical Introduction (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007).

[31] Heinrich Graetz. History of ‘he Jews, Vol. IV. From the Rise of the Kabbala (1270 C. E.) to the Permanent Settlement of the Marranos in Holland (1618 C. E.) (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1894).

[32] “Todros ben Joseph HaLevi Abulafia.” Retrieved from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/todros-ben-joseph-halevi-abulafia

[33] Graetz. History of the Jews.

[34] C. Moeller. “Orders of St. George.” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912). Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13350a.htm

[35] Otto Rahn. Crusade Against the Grail (1933)

[36] Gad Freudenthal & Samuel S. Kottek. Mélanges d'histoire de la médecine hébraïque: études choisies de la Revue dh́istoire de la médecine hébraïque (1948-1985) (Brill, 2003). Cited in “Guilhem VIII de Montpellier,” Wikipedia (French). Retrieved from https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilhem_VIII_de_Montpellier

[37] E. Jenkins. The Mediterranean World of Alfonso II and Peter II of Aragon (1162-1213). (Springer, August 6, 2012), p. 113.

[38] Thomas F. Madden. The New Concise History of the Crusades (Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield, 2005), p. 130.

[39] NNDB, “Henry the Navigator” Retrieved from http://www.nndb.com/people/995/000094713/

[40] H. J. Chaytor. A History of Aragon and Catalonia (London: Methuen, 1933), p. 82.

[41] Ibid.

[42] Juan Garcia Atienza. The Knights Templar in the Golden Age of Spain (Simon and Schuster, 2006), p. 149.

[43] Adolfo Salazar & Gilbert Chase. “Parsifal in Romanic Lands.” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1 (January, 1939), p. 88.

[44] Ibid.

[45] Nadim (al-), Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Ishaq. Bayard Dodge, (ed.). The Fihrist of al-Nadim; a Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture. Translated by Bayard Dodge (New York & London: Columbia University Press, 1970), pp. 440, 589, 1071.

[46] H. J. Chaytor. A History of Aragon and Catalonia (London: Methuen, 1933). Retrieved from https://libro.uca.edu/chaytor/hac6.htm

[47] Pál Engel. The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526 (I.B. Tauris Publishers 2001), pp. 96–97.

[48] M. M. de Cevins: Les implantations cisterciennes en Hongrie médiévale [in:] Unanimité et diversité cisterciennes, ed. Nicole Bouter (Saint-Étienne, 2000), pp. 458–459; F. L. Hervay, Ciszterciek [in:] G. Kristo (ed.): Korai magyar térténeti lexikon (Budapest, 1994), p. 473, 479-480.

[49] Ibid.

[50] Sarah S. Wilkins. “Imaging the Angevin Patron Saint: Mary Magdalen in the Pipino Chapel in Naples.” California Italian Studies, 3, 1 (2002).

[51] Susan Haskins. Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor (New York: Pimplico, 2005), pp. 129–132.

[52] Mark Dupuy. “The Master’s Hand and the Secular Arm:Property and Discipline in the Hospital of St. John in the Fourteenth Century,” Crusaders, Condottieri, and Cannon: Medieval Warfare in Societies Around the Mediterranean, ed. Donald Joseph Kagay, L. J. Andrew Villalon, (Brill, 2003), 329.

[53] Ralls. Knights Templar Encyclopedia, p. 25.

[54] Ibid.

[55] Barber. The Trial of the Templars, p. 19.

[56] Schuchard. Restoring the Temple of Vision, p. 75.

[57] Barber. The Trial of the Templars, p. 20.

[58] Napier. A to Z of the Knights Templar.

[59] E. William Monter. Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily (Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 134.

[60] C. Moeller. “Orders of St. George.” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912). Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13350a.htm

[61] Nissan Mindel. “Rabbi Yehuda Ben Moshe HaKohen: The Jewish Physician of Toledo.” Retrieved from https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112510/jewish/Rabbi-Yehuda-Ben-Moshe-HaKohen.htm

[62] Charles Moeller. “Knights Templar.” In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia, 14 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912).

[63] Jean Bécarud. The Catholic Church today: Western Europe (University of Notre Dame Press, 1969), p. 159; Helen J. Nicholson. The Crusades (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004). p. 98.

[64] Ralls. The Templars and the Grail, p. 178.

[65] Childress. Pirates and the Lost Templar Fleet, p. 61.

[66] Salo Wittmayer Baron. A Social and Religious History of the Jews: Late Middle Ages and the era of European expansion, 1200-1650 (Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 389.

[67] Norman Roth. Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2002), p. 320.

[68] Justin Swanstrom. “More lines from King David : Paloma.” GENi (May 10, 2018). Retrieved from https://www.geni.com/discussions/181233

[69] Joseph Jacobs & Schulim Ochser. “YAḤYA.” Jewish Encyclopedia.

[70] “Leyenda de el Christo de Las Claras de Palencia.” Retrieved from

https://turismodepalencia.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/leyenda-de-el-cristo-de-las-claras-de-palencia/

[71] Adams, Susan M.; Bosch, Elena; Balaresque, Patricia L.; et al. (2008), “The Genetic Legacy of Religious Diversity and Intolerance: Paternal Lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula,” American Journal of Human Genetics, 83 (6): 725–736.

[72] Norman Roth. Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (Madison, WI, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002). p. 26.

[73] Joachin Prinz. The Secret Jews (New York: Random House, 1973) p. 5.

[74] Al Imran 3: 72.

[75] Julio-Inigues de Medrano. La Silva Curiosa. (Paris Orry, 1608), pp. 156-157, with the following explanation: “This letter following was found in the archives of Toledo by the Hermit of Salamanca, (while) searching the ancient records of the kingdoms of Spain; and as it is expressive and remarkable, I wish to write it here.”

[76] Isaac Broydé & Richard Gottheil. “Kalonymus ben Todros.” Jewish Encyclopedia.

[77] “Cavalleria (Caballeria), De la.” Encyclopaedia Judaica. Retrieved from  https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cavalleria-caballeria-de-la

[78] Cecil Roth. History of the Marranos (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1932), p. 23.

[79] “Cavalleria (Caballeria), De la.” Encyclopaedia Judaica.

[80] Norman Roth. Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (Madison, WI, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002), p. 148.

[81] Ezer Kahanoff. “On Marranos and Sabbateans: A Reexamination of Charismatic Religiosity – Its Roots, Its Place and Its Significance in the Life of the Western Sephardi Diaspora.” כתב עת לעיון ומחקר (Journal for Research and Research), vol. 8.

[82] Fernando del Pulgar. Claros varones de Castilla (G. Ortega, 1789).

[83] Roth. History of the Marranos, p. 25.

[84] “Order of Calatrava.” Encyclopædia Britannica (Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., July 20, 1998).

Volume One

Introduction

1. Babylon

2. Ancient Greece

3. The Hellenistic Age

4. The Book of Revelation

5. Gog and Magog

6. Eastern Mystics

7. Septimania

8. Princes' Crusade

9. The Reconquista

10. Ashkenazi Hasidim

11. The Holy Grail

12. Camelot

13. Perceval

14. The Champagne Fairs

15. Baphomet

16. The Order of Santiago

17. War of the Roses

18. The Age of Discovery

19. Renaissance & Reformation

20. Kings of Jerusalem

21. The Mason Word

22. The Order of the Dragon