Alonso de Cárdenas Alonso de Cárdenas was a Spanish noble who served as the 44th and 47th ( and last ) Grand Master of the Order of Santiago before the title passed to the Catholic Monarchs as the need for a powerful military order outside the direct control of the king ceased to exist with the end of the Reconquista . He is famous for building the castle at Puebla del Maestre in 1483 . Family Origins . Alonso was a member of the House of Cárdenas , a relatively new family that would become increasingly powerful in Spain ' s colonial possessions in the New World . He was the father of García López de Cárdenas who would go on to discover the Gran Cañón del Colorado , what is today known simply as the " Grand Canyon " . Biography . Alonso de Cárdenas served the Catholic Monarchs during the War of the Castilian Succession . One of the captains under his command was Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba , also known simply as the " Gran Capitan " for his considerable military exploits throughout Spain ' s European empire . After the Battle of Albuera , Alonso singled the Gran Capitan out for praise stating that he had always seen the captain leading his troops from the front , a fact he was sure of due to the splendor of his armor . Throughout his life , he had to engage in continuous power struggles to obtain and maintain power . With the finalization of the Spanish Reconquista , there were fewer and fewer possibilities to contribute militarily to the crown . For this reason , the struggles for power in contemporary Spain left the battlefield and were concentrated more on the political front . He was Grand Master of the Order of Santiago during two separate terms : the first was from 1474 to 1476 and the second lasted from 1477 to 1493 , the last year that the order existed in a semi independent form from the Spanish crown . Alonso de Cárdenas obtained his first term as Grand Master after his predecessor , Juan Pacheco , the Marquis of Villena , renounced his title in favor of his son , Diego López de Pacheco y Portocarrero . This type of succession for the Grand Mastership of Santiago was incorrect as the title was traditionally one obtained by election and not by inheritance . This kicked off a power struggle amongst the nobles of the order and led to a confrontation between Rodrigo Manrique de Lara , and Don Alonso de Cárdenas himself . The result of this power struggle was a period of time in which the order had two different Grand Masters , one for Castile and one for Leon . King Ferdinand II of Aragon stepped into the argument and mediated this division which ended upon the death of Pedro Manrique two years laterin 1476 . For his contribution in the war against Portugal , Alonso was eventually granted the title of Grand Master in 1474 . Throughout his tenure as the Grand Master , Alonso held his chapter meetings at Azuaga in the Chapel of San Sebastián which would later become known as the Convento de la Merced . Another instance of political conflict arose between members of the order and the Condado de Feria , located in Zafra . This dispute resulted in a confrontation between Alonso and the " Señor de Feria " afterwhich an agreement was made that the order would demolish their castle at Los Santos de Maimona which had consequently been rebuild only a few years previously in 1469 by the previous Grand Master , Juan Pacheco . Disputes also arose with Enrique de Guzmán , the Duke of Medina Sidonia , who in pursuit of the title of Grand Mastership , actively made war against Alonso and other members of the order . In 1475 , Alonso de Cárdenas was forced to take refuge in the Castillo de Jerez de los Caballeros to defend himself against the Duke . Shortly thereafter in 1478 , Alonso ambushed and defeated the Duke ' s forces at Guadalcanal after which time the Duke renounced his claim by order of the king . He finished his career as Grand Master in the Conquest of Granada Death and Legacy . Alonso de Cárdenas died in 1493 and was buried in a sepulcher at the churce of Santiago de Llerena in Llerena . After his death , the Order of Santiago , by papal mandate , passed into the ownership of the Spanish crown . With the finilization of the Reconquista , there was not any new Spanish territory to conquer on the Iberian Peninsula and nothing left to fight for .