They founded states and dictated their will to European monarchs. The history of the knightly orders began in the Middle Ages and has not yet been completed.
Order of the Knights Templar
Date of foundation of the Order: 1119.
Interesting facts: The Templars, the Templars are the most famous knightly order, many books and films are devoted to the history and mysteries of which. The topic of "the curse of Jacques de Molay" is still actively discussed by lovers of conspiracy theories.
After being exiled from Palestine, the Templars switched to financial activities and became the richest order in history. They invented checks, were profitable usurious activities, were the main creditors and economists in Europe.
On Friday, October 13, 1307, by order of the King of France, Philip IV the Fair, all the French Templars were arrested. The order was officially banned.
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The Templars were accused of heresy - in denying Jesus Christ, in spitting on the crucifixion, kissing each other in an obscene manner and practicing sodomy. In the "proof" of the last point, it is still customary to mention one of the emblems of the templars - two poor knights sit on one horse, which served as a symbol of non-acquisitiveness of the knights of the order.
Warband
Date of foundation of the order: 1190.
Interesting facts: The Teutonic motto is "Help-Protect-Heal". Initially, the order was engaged in this - helping the sick and protecting the German knights, but at the beginning of the 13th century the military history of the order began, it was associated with an attempt to expand the Baltic and Russian lands. These attempts ended, as we know, unsuccessfully. The "Black Day" of the Teutons was the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, in which the combined forces of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania inflicted a crushing defeat on the Order.
Deprived of its former military ambitions, the Teutonic Order was restored in 1809. Today he is involved in charity work and treating the sick. The headquarters of the modern Teutons is located in Vienna.
Order of the dragon
Date of foundation of the order: 1408.
Interesting facts: Officially, the Order of the Dragon was founded by the King of Hungary, Sigismund I of Luxembourg, but in the Serbian folk tradition, the legendary hero Milos Obilic is considered its founder.
The knights of the order wore medallions and pendants with images of a golden dragon with a scarlet cross curled into a ring. In the family coats of arms of the nobles who were in the order, the image of the dragon usually framed the coat of arms.
The Order of the Dragon included the father of the legendary Vlad Tepes, Vlad II Dracul, who received his nickname precisely because of his membership in the order - dracul means "dragon" in Romanian.
Order of Calatrava
Date of foundation of the order: 1158.
Interesting facts: The first Catholic order, founded in Spain, was created to defend the Calatrava fortress. In the 13th century, it became the most influential military force in Spain, with the capacity to field between 1,200 and 2,000 knights. During the period of its greatest prosperity, under Chiron and his son, the order controlled 56 commanders and 16 priories. The order employed up to 200,000 peasants, and its net annual income was estimated at 50,000 ducats. However, the order did not have complete independence. Since the days of Ferdinand and Isabella, the title of grandmaster has always been held by Spanish kings.
Hospitallers
Date of foundation of the order: around 1099.
Interesting facts: The Hospitable Order, the Hospitallers, the Knights of Malta, or the Johannites - the oldest spiritual knightly order, which received its unofficial name in honor of the hospital and church of St. John the Baptist. Unlike other orders, the Hospitallers accepted women novices into their ranks, and all men who joined the order were required to have a title of nobility.
The order was international, and its members were linguistically divided into seven langs in the Middle Ages. It is interesting that the Slavic languages belonged to the Germanic Lang. The 72nd Grand Master of the Order was the Russian Emperor Paul the First.
Despite the vow of non-covetousness, the Hospitallers were one of the richest orders of knighthood. During the capture of Malta by Napoleon, the French army caused damage to the order by almost three tens of million lire.
Order of the Holy Sepulcher
Date of foundation of the order: 1099.
Interesting facts: This powerful order was created during the First Crusade and the emergence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. His king stood at the head of the order. The mission of the order was to protect the Holy Sepulcher and other holy places in Palestine.
For a long time, the Pope were the Grand Masters of the order. Only in 1949 the title was transferred to the members of the Vatican Curia.
The order still exists today. Its members around the world are representatives of royal families, influential businessmen, political and scientific elite. According to a 2010 report, the order exceeded 28,000 members. Its headquarters is in Rome. More than $ 50 million was spent on charitable projects of the Order in the period from 2000 to 2007.
Order of Alcantara
Date of foundation of the order: 1156.
Fun Facts: The Order was originally formed as a partnership to defend the frontier fortress of San Julian de Peral in Spain from the Moors. In 1177 the partnership was elevated to a knightly order; he pledged to wage eternal war with the Moors and to defend the Christian faith.
King Alfonso IX in 1218 gave the order the city of Alcantara, where he settled under a new name. Before the occupation of Spain by the French in 1808, the order owned 37 counties with 53 cities and villages. The history of the order was full of twists and turns. It grew richer and poorer, it was abolished several times and restored again.
Order of Christ
Date of foundation of the order: 1318.
Interesting facts: The Order of Christ was the successor to the Templars in Portugal. The Order is also called Tomarskiy - after the name of the Tomar castle, which became the seat of the Master. The most famous Tomar was Vasco da Gama. On the sails of his ships, a red cross is depicted, which was the emblem of the Order of Christ.
The Tomarians were one of the main pillars of royal power in Portugal, and the order was secularized, which, of course, did not suit the Vatican, which began to present its own Supreme Order of Christ. In 1789, the order was finally secularized. In 1834, his property was nationalized.
Order of the Swordsmen
Date of foundation of the order: 1202.
Interesting facts: The official name of the order is “The Brotherhood of the Soldiers of Christ”. The knights of the order received the nickname "sword-bearers" because of the swords depicted on their cloaks under the clawed Templar cross. Their main goal was the capture of the Eastern Baltic. By agreement of 1207, 2/3 of the seized lands became the property of the order.
The plans of the eastern expansion of the sword-bearers were thwarted by the Russian princes. In 1234, in the battle at Omovzha, the knights suffered a crushing defeat from the Novgorod prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, after which Lithuania, together with the Russian princes, began campaigns on the lands of the order. In 1237, after an unsuccessful Crusade to Lithuania, the Swordsmen joined the Teutonic Order and became the Livonian Order. It was defeated by Russian troops in the Livonian War in 1561.
Order of Saint Lazarus
Date of foundation of the order: 1098.
Interesting facts: The Order of Saint Lazarus is notable for the fact that initially all its members, including the Grand Master, were lepers. The order got its name from the place of foundation - from the name of the hospitals of St. Lazarus, located near the walls of Jerusalem.
It is from the name of this order that the name "infirmary" comes from. The knights of the order were also called "lazarites". Their symbol was a green cross on a black cassock or cloak.
At first, the order was not a military one and was engaged exclusively in charitable activities, helping lepers, but from October 1187 the Lazarites began to participate in hostilities. They went into battle without helmets, their faces, disfigured by leprosy, terrified their enemies. Leprosy in those years was considered incurable and lazarites were called "living dead".
In the battle of Forbia on October 17, 1244, the order lost almost all of its personnel, and after the expulsion of the crusaders from Palestine, it settled in France, where it is engaged in charity today.