The military Order of Saint John and the Reconquest from the 12th to the 15th century

Abstract

The Military Order of Saint John was significantly involved in the Spanish reconquest during the 12th and 13th centuries. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Order experienced a militarization process parallel to the one it underwent in the Holy Land in the middle of the 12th century. It is possible that the aforementioned process began earlier in Spain that in Palestine. Afterwards the Hospitallers went to serve militarily in the boundary lines between all the Iberian kingdoms and the Islam. In the western kingdoms participation of the Order of Saint John in the Spanish reconquest was less significant and other military orders considerably exceeded it. Much more important was the implication of the Order of Saint John in the Reconquest of the Crown of Aragon.