Order of Montjoie
The Order of Montjoie (also: Order of Monte Gaudio ) was a Spanish knightly order that arose during the Crusades . The order was founded in 1172 to protect Christian pilgrims in Spain . The history of the order was short, it was united with the Order of Calatrava as early as 1221 .
The Order of Montjoie was founded in 1172 by Count Rodrigo Álvarez de Sarriá, a knight of the Order of Santiago, first in Castile and Aragon and later in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as a garrison of the fortress of Askalon . The headquarters of the Order was the mountain fortress of Montjoie , which was on the hill from which the first Crusaders first saw Jerusalem; and who was then named Montjoie ('Mountain of Joy', mons gaudii in Latin ). 1173 recognized Pope Alexander III. the order with a papal bull . The rule of the order was that of the Cistercian order , but it was an exclusively Spanish order. A red and white cross was the coat of arms of the Knights of Montjoie.
Some of the Knights of the Order fought at the Battle of Hattin in 1187 , but none of them survived. The rest of the order fled to Aragón and took the name Order of Trufac there. King Alfonso II entrusted the order with the defense of the south of Aragon. However, since the order did not succeed in gaining new knights, it was largely absorbed by the Knights Templar in 1196 , and the remains of the Order of Montjoie were merged with the Order of Calatrava in 1221 .