page_title: Order of Santiago
section_title: Territorial division
hierarchical_section_title: Order of Santiago / Internal organization / Territorial division
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato del Principe de Asturias
context_page_description: The Order of Santiago, also known as the Order of St. James of the Sword, is a religious and military order founded in the 12th century. It owes its name to the Patron Saint of Spain, "Santiago". Its initial objective was to protect the pilgrim of St. James' Way, to defend Christendom and to remove the Muslim Moors from the Iberian Peninsula. Entrance was not however restricted to nobles of Spain exclusively, and so many of her members have been prominent Catholic Europeans in general. The Order of Santiago is one of the most renowned military orders in the history of the world, its insignia being particularly recognisable and abundant in Western art.
  After the death of the Grand Master Alonso de Cárdenas in 1493, the Catholic Monarchs incorporated the Order into the Spanish Crown. Pope Adrian VI forever united the office of grandmaster of Santiago to the crown in 1523.
  The First Republic suppressed the Order in 1873 and, although it was re-established in the Restoration, it was reduced to a nobiliary institute of honorable character.
context_section_description: The Order was divided into several provinces, the most important ones being Castille and León because of their number of properties and vassals. At the head of each province there was a military commander with headquarters in Segura de la Sierra, Castilla and Segura de León, León. The province of León was divided into two parts, Mérida and Llerena; in each of them there were various encomiendas.
  The most important internal subdivision of the military orders were called "encomiendas", which were local units directed by a knight commander of military order. The "encomienda" could place the headquarters or residence of the knight commander in a castle or fortress or in a small town and was the administrative or economic center in which the rents of the estate and properties relevant to that "encomienda" were paid and received; it was the habitual residence of the knight commander and some other knight.
  Each "encomienda" had to support the knight commander and the other knights living there, and to pay and arm a certain number of spearmen, who had to be properly equipped and take part in military actions they were called to by their master. All of them formed the armed retinue or army of the Order, which answered to the orders of its master. The revenue of the Order came from land, pastures, industries, toll and right of way, taxes, and tithe. The revenue was allocated between the respective "encomiendas" and the board that financed the Master of the Order.
  By 1185, the order possessed lands as far afield as France, England and Carinthia.
caption: Infante Alfonso portrayed by Laszlo with the embroidered cross of the Order
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