Soon after, reproductions of these constructions were built in many different places, to remind people of these sacred monuments.

By reconstructing temples that reminded people of the sacred places of Jerusalem, the faithful did not have the need to make sacred journeys to the Holy Land once these were seen as the Holy Sepulchre itself, which made complete sense in a Europe “dominated by faith”.

Being considered the moiment of Jesus Christ, the Holy Sepulchre was many times seen as the centre of the world during the XII and XIII centuries and sometimes during the XIV century.

The city of Tomar and its Charola are considered to be a reflexion of all this.

The Charola was the private oratory of the Knights, inside the fortress. Their typology is common Byzantine churches, which returns to integrate the Romanesque with the movement of the Crusades.

This type temple is based on a plant develops around a central space which, in Templar roundabout has the shape of an octagonal prism, or drum, which divides into sixteen paramento faces on the ambulatory, thereby closing the measurements of the building. Completed in 1190, the Rotunda had to turn to the east entrance. Were the works of Manuel I that established the south, the ship that expanded the church, extramural castle.

Already with the castle headquarters of Christ’s knights, Prince Henry, governor and the Order of the mayor from 1420 to 1460, will make the first changes in Templar roundabout in order to provide it with the space requirements to then unfold the liturgical functions of the branch of contemplative monks however he introduced the Militia of Christ. To do this it will open two large windows in the regalia of the two spans of ambulatory facing west, and then install there, pendorado the masonry a chorus of wood. At the same time is open four chapels in the ambulatory walls oriented NE, NO, SE and SO. In the remaining spans install altars surrounding the ambulatory.

With the expansion of the liturgical space by King Manuel I, the woodwork of the Infante are removed and the legs of the big windows are definitely killed to make room for the will of the triumphal arch that articulates the Templar space with the Manueline nave. The Rotunda then will function as the main chapel of the new convent church. Will be enriched with work of sacred art that included sculpture, painting on wood and on leather, mural painting and stucco. Particularly important was the discovery, today, of Manueline paintings dome of ambulatory, and had been covered with lime at a later time the earthquake of 1755, whose effects were felt in the building. Its restoration took place between 1987 and 2014.

The capitals of the columns are still Romanesque (end of 12th century) and depict vegetal and animal motifs, as well as a Daniel in the Lions’ Den scene. The style of the capitals shows the influence of artists working on the Cathedral of Coimbra, which was being built at the same time as the round church.

The interior of the round church is magnificently decorated with late gothic/manueline sculpture and paintings, added during a renovation sponsored by King Manuel I starting in 1499. The pillars of the central octagon and the walls of the ambulatory have polychrome statues of saints and angels under exuberant Gothic canopies, while the walls and ceilings of the ambulatory are painted with Gothic patterns and panels depicting the life of Christ. The paintings are attributed to the workshop of the court painter of Manuel I, the Portuguese Jorge Afonso, while the sculptured decoration is attributed to Flemish sculptor Olivier de Gand and the Spaniard Hernán Muñoz. A magnificent panel depicting themartyrdom of Saint Sebastian, by Portuguese painter Gregório Lopes, was painted for the Round Church and now hangs in the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon.

During the administration of Prince Henry the Navigator (first half of the 15th century), a gothic nave was added to the round church of the Convent, thus turning the round church into a church apse. From 1510 onwards, King Manuel I ordered the rebuilding of the nave in the style of the time, a mix of late gothic and renaissance that would be called Manueline style by art historians. The architects involved were the Portuguese Diogo de Arruda and the Spaniard João de Castilho.

From the outside, the rectangular nave is covered by abundant Manueline motifs, including gargoyles, gothic pinnacles, statues and “ropes” that remind the ones used in the ships during the Age of Discovery, as well as the Cross of the Order of Christ and the emblem of King Manuel I, the armillary sphere. The so-called Window of the Chapter House (Janela do Capítulo), a huge window visible from the Saint Barbara Cloister in the Western façade of the nave, carries most of the typical Manueline motifs: the symbols of the Order of Christ and of Manuel I, and fantastic and unprecedented elaborations of ropes, corals and vegetal motifs. A human figure in the bottom of the window probably represents the designer, Diogo de Arruda. This window of the Convent constitutes one of the masterworks of Manueline decoration. Above is a smaller circular window and a balustrade. The façade is divided by two string courses of knotted ropes. The round angle buttresses are decorated with gigantic garters (alluding to investiture of Manuel I by the Order of the Garter by the English king Henry VII).

The entrance of the church is done through a magnificent lateral portal, also decorated with abundant Manueline motifs and statues of the Virgin with the Child as well as the Prophets of the Old Testament. This portal was designed by João de Castilho around 1530.

In the interior, the Manueline nave is connected to the Romanesque round church by a large arch. The nave is covered by beautiful ribbed vaulting and has a high choir that used to have Manueline choir stalls, unfortunately destroyed by invading Napoleonic troops in the early 19th century. Under the high choir there is a room that used to be the sacristy of the church.

Its window is the famous Chapter House Window already mentioned.

1320 Prince Pedro I is born

1325 King Dinis dies. King Afonso IV comes to the throne.

1336 Prince Pedro marries Constança, forced by his father

1336/55 Pedro and Inês love story and tragedy.

1357 King Afonso IV dies. Pedro I becomes King of Portugal. John, illegitimate son of King Pedro I, is born and taken under the care of the Order of Christ. The Order of Christ returns to Tomar and takes the former Templar castle and convent as its seat. This concludes the passage from the Templars to the Order of Christ, both in temporal and spiritual terms. Its now time to strengthen the Order of Aviz.

1364 When D. Martin de Avelar, Master of Aviz, dies, D. Nuno Frey de Andrade, Master of the Order of Christ and tutor of the young illegitimate Prince John, travels to Chamusca to meet King Pedro and request from him that he appoints his own son Master of Aviz. So, by appointment of King Pedro I, and the intervention of the Master of the Order of Christ, Prince John (of only 7 years of age) is designated Master of the Order of Aviz. This act consummates the move to take power on the part of the survivals of the Templars. Prince John’s tutorship is still held by the Master of Christ until he becomes of age, although the education in arms was undertaken in Aviz.

1367 King Pedro I dies. His son D. Fernando comes to the throne.

1383 King Fernando dies, leaving no male heir to the throne. For two years Portugal is in turmoil as the menace of losing independence is imminent with the King of Castille plotting to acquire the throne by marriage. A growing wave of support claims that John, Master of Aviz, should become the new King. This movement is supported and encouraged by the Order of Christ.

1385 John, son of Peter I, Master of the Order of Aviz, becomes king by popular acclamation, supported by the majority of the Portuguese noble houses and foreign kings, such as Richard II from England. This inaugurated the Dynasty called of Aviz. Under the leadership of Nuno Álvares Pereira, with the Order of Aviz and the Order of Christ on each side, the Portuguese King John I, Master of Aviz, defeats a far stronger army sent by King John I of Castille in a deadly battle in Aljubarrota, just a few miles off Alcobaça. In effect the Order of Aviz takes the throne.

1387 Forging an even stronger relationship with England, King John I of Portugal marries Filipa of Lancaster, sister of the soon to be King Henry the IV of England.

Part III – The Outcome

1400’s Led by Henry the Navigator, first from Sagres and then from the Convent of Christ in Tomar, the Portuguese start the great era of Discoveries.

This has been a short account of the influence of the Order of Christ and the Order of Aviz during the preparatory post-Templar 14th century in Portugal.

Both orders, Templars / Aviz, were the true backbone of the nation in Medieval times. That work was reinforced, as we have seen, after the Templars gave way to the Order of Christ. The fact that John, long before he would be in a position to be acclaimed as king, was placed under the care of the Order of Christ and later appointed Master of Aviz, openly protected by the Master of Christ and by another Order of Aviz hero, Nuno Alvares Pereira, clearly shows the importance of both Orders in Portuguese historical events. The protection of both Orders given to the rise of a new dynasty, the Dynasty of Aviz with King John I, is in many ways similar to the protection given by the Templars at least after 1126 to the first dynasty, the Dynasty of Bourgogne with Afonso Henriques. Different players, but the same pattern altogether.

Nuno Alvares Pereira, companion of John I, with the Cross of the Order of Aviz

However, there are reasons to believe that deeper secrets are hidden under the political relevance of the Order of Aviz and the Order of Christ / Templars along Portuguese and hidden European history. In an article published in 1982 Portuguese researcher and author Olimpio Gonçalves, a leading authority on this subject, makes a few valuable points. Those who look deeper into history and look for the signs of what lies beneath – the reasons for the apparent reason – understand that the Soul of the Lusitan nation, later embodied in Portugal, is “tutored” – so to speak – by 3 Orders, of which the red cross of the Order of the Temple (reformed by King Dinis into Order of Christ, maintaining the distinctive red colour and initiatic mandate…) and the green cross of the Order of Aviz, form the two visible pillars that stand vigilant guard to the orb inside, so beautifully expressed in the national flag adopted in 1910.

The cross of Saint Andrew ( X ), patron of Scotland, is a particularly important symbol to meditate upon here, since in the Templar context it is indissolubly connected with the greek cross of Christ ( + ), both valuable keys to understand the octagon and the eight sided Templar buildings (Tomar, Segovia, London, Paris, etc. – Mosque of Omar) and the so called occult Orders (such as the Priory of Sion or whatever real Order could have existed instead, playing the real role supposed for this 20th century fabrication). In this context, studying the Scottish survival of the Temple – with Skye, Rosslyn and Henry Sinclair, and ignoring Portugal with Sintra, Tomar and Henry the Navigator, is to simply look at the reflex of a broader light. Both lines are complementary and one would not survive without the other. I hope to be able to elaborate a bit more on this later.

The period between 1307 and 1385 is then characterized by preparatory work by the Order of Aviz and the Order of Christ which would both take centre stage in the political and scientific events that would follow soon. This preparatory work was undertaken in total discretion and very few documents prepare us for the flourishing years to come. The total eclipse of the Templar fleet and maps would give way to the Portuguese Discoveries, started early in the 1400’s, with vessels carrying the Cross of Christ to far away lands.

By 1307 Portugal – with extensive help of the Templars – had already a stable territory, most of which conquered to the Moors in the course of the Iberian Crusades. The south and west were nothing but a great opening to the vast and unknown Atlantic Ocean, full of legends and promises of hidden treasures. To the north it was divided from Galicia (a province of the Kingdom of Leon) by the Minho river and the border with the kings of Castille to the east was well defined since the times of the first Portuguese kings down to the south, where in the Algarve the fortress of Castro Marim (first seat of the Order of Christ) on the west bank of the Guadiana river, guarded the country from any foolish attempts that could have been made by the taifas (kingdoms) of the Moors of the Al-Andaluz. It would take the united Spanish kingdoms, under Isabel la Católica, almost 200 years more to conquer Granada in 1492 and close their side of the story as far as war with the Arabs was concerned.

Marriage between heirs to the throne of Aragon, Castille, Leon and Portugal were a common way to forge alliances and keep peace between Christian kings. However, there was always the danger that a king might die without male descent and another nation, by marriage, unite under a foreign country two territories. That had been the primary source of concern for the Portuguese crown since the early days. Falling under the crown of Castille would bring open war with the Moors again to a country that had been in relative peace for decades, in a favourable environment to see the flourishing of sciences, teaching, arts and commerce. Even Rome was far away on the horizon, many times neglecting this remote kingdom. The Portuguese kings had helped Castille in some battles against the Moors, especially when national borders might be at peril (Badajoz, Seville, Salado, etc.), but for the most part the time of the Reconquista was a thing from the past and smaller scale military warfare was only used in squabbles against neighbouring Christian Kingdoms. There were Arabs, Christians and Jews living side by side in the major Portuguese cities. Indeed some of the funding for the early Discoveries came from Jewish hands, showing how close the Order of Christ had come to that community. Unity with Castille would shake the Lusitan project from top to bottom and would throw a blanket of darkness and inquisitorial perusal into the practices, livelihood and teachings of a vast segment of the population. That “catastrophe” (interpreted by philosophers and poets as “catharsis”) only befell the nation centuries later, within a set of circumstances that are also of great interest for the students of Templar/Order of Christ history.

King Afonso IV

Amidst this prevailing fear, it was King Afonso IV’s primary concern to find a suitable bride for Prince Pedro I, future king. The choice fell on Princess D. Branca, granddaughter of King Sancho IV of Castille. However, by the age of 14 the Princess was very feeble and Prince Pedro absolutely refused to go ahead with this political marriage. His father then selected another suitable bride, D. Constança Manoel, daughter of one of the most noble lords of Castille, Leon and Aragon. However, Pedro rejected the bride as well, furious for not having been consulted on such a personal matter and not happy that she had already been rejected by King Alfonso XI of Castille before him. This choice wasn’t approved by Alfonso XI either. The intervention of the Master of the Order of Aviz was fundamental and, although Alfonso eventually accepted to have his former bride marry the Portuguese prince by means of a power of delegation, he held her prisoner in a tower in the city of Toro, preventing her from attending her own wedding. After a couple of years of active animosity, peace was finally signed in Seville and Constança travelled to join her husband in Coimbra. However Pedro was full of energy and passion for life, a great lover of hunting and not a very devoted husband. For a long time he didn’t pay attention to his duties as heir to the throne and led a life of pleasure, neglecting his wife that his heart never accepted.

One day his attention was captured by the fairest of the maids of his wife Constança. The ravishing beautiful Inês de Castro became the centre of his obsessive attention, causing scandal in the kingdom and severe misunderstandings with his father, King Afonso IV. It became such an important problem that Afonso IV was forced to retire Inês de Castro to a lonely and distant castle in the far away inaccessible lands of the Portuguese border. But if he thought that this would be enough to turn off his son’s love flame, he was in for a surprise. Pedro and Inês started to correspond with the help of intermediaries that would bring back and forth their love pledges and passionate writings. Pedro, like his grandfather King Dinis was a bit of a poet himself. It became a case of an impossible love. And the more impossible and distant, the more maddening and absorbing it got to restless Pedro. His duty to the nation – to have offspring – was being fulfilled with Constança, but his heart was fully united with Inês and the physical separation was unbearable.

In 1354 Constança died after having given birth to Prince Fernando (later to become King after his father, closing the Bourgogne Dynasty with his early death with no male heir). To great astonishment of the nation and repudiation of King Afonso IV, Pedro sees himself as a free man now and releases Inês from her exile, bringing her to openly live with him in an adulterous relationship, without marriage, establishing themselves first away from the agitated life of the court, but shortly after in the very city of Coimbra.

Pedro and Inês de Castro

The majority of Portuguese lords are not happy with the situation. Inês has two Spanish brothers that Pedro, to spite his enemies and his father, supports and advances politically. One of them even makes it as Constable of the Kingdom and Alcaide-Mor of Lisbon. As their love develops and the influence of the Spanish entourage of Inês grows, so their enemies become more and more suspicious and decide to warn King Afonso IV that the independence of the nation is at peril if nothing is done, since being followed in throne by his son Pedro, he could marry Inês, have offspring and then there would be little to prevent a full scale invasion from the Spanish kingdoms. To complicate matters even further, the Black Plague enters in Portugal and causes a wave of death of an unprecedented scale, causing famine and economical and political crisis. Many rush to condemn adulterous Inês as the cause of such misfortune and see the stubbornness of the Prince that didn’t want to lead the life of a heir to the throne with the nation’s best interests in mind, following instead his foolish passion, punished by Providence with the Plague.

Early in 1355 King Afonso IV is a divided man. He’s torn between reasons of state and his love as a father. Pedro declines all of his father’s suggestions of suitable brides to marry. Advisers of the King say that the reason might be that Pedro married Inês in secret. The only way out of the problem, they say, is to suppress Inês de Castro. His advisers eventually win and the King gives permission that the crime be carried out. Taking advantage of the fact that Pedro was an avid hunter, they prepare a trap to kill Inês while Pedro is away. It is said that the day Pedro was leaving for his hunting trip a great black dog leapt from amidst his dog pack and viciously run to attack Inês with fearful eyes of fire. The prince’s men were petrified and could not react, but Pedro, with one stroke of his sword decapitated the horrible dog whose blood stained fair Inês’s dress. Everyone became gloomy and the sense that grave things were close by was unmistakable. However Pedro decided to hold his departure no longer and bids a last goodbye to Inês.

Soon after Pedro leaves, King Afonso’s arrives with his men. Inês feels the danger and gathers her daughter and two sons and runs to the gardens. It’s in front of the Fonte das Lágrimas (Teardrop Fountain) that Inês pleads for the life of her children and says in her defence that her only sin is the undying love for Pedro. The King is inclined to use clemency, but three lords that were with him persuade the monarch that they should not back away from the mission. Shaken in his heart, Afonso spares the children, but allows for the lords to mercilessly behead Inês de Castro. To this day the Fountain spring is tainted in red.

Pedro was far away, hunting in the woods, in blissful ignorance of the tragedy.

Fernão Lopes, royal registrar, says about D. Pedro: “The hand of one that harms writes in sand, but the one who is harmed carves in marble and such was the case with D. Pedro.”

In Templar Chronicles IV – Alcobaça Part 3 we will finish the Pedro and Inês tragedy, we will understand why Pedro was known as “The Justice Bearer”, we will tell you about his relentless revenge and will look closely to their tombs since then in the Monastery of Alcobaça, face to face, each in one arm of the transept of the beautiful Cistercian church, so that when the Final Judgement comes and they are resurrected, each other will be the first person that each lover will see. To the end of the world…

To finalize for today, here is a chart detailing how the Order of the Temple survived as Order of Christ in Portugal under the protection of the Royal House and of the Order of Aviz, and how both Orders stood as two of the three secret pillars acting behind the courtains of history that lead to the Age of Discoveries with Prince Henry the Navigator, stepping in, in key moments.

Bibliography
Gonçalves, Olímpio, Revista Graal, Comunidade Portuguesa de Eubiose, 1982
Lopes, Fernão, “Chronica Delrey Dom Pedro deste nome o primeiro e dos Reys de Portugal o oytavo”, edição do Padre José Pereira Bayam, Lisboa 1735
Monteverde, Amilio Achiles, “Resumo da Historia de Portugal”, Lisbo

a 1844
Pina, Ruy de; “Chronica de Elrey Dom Afonso o Quarto”, Lisbon 1653

Copywrite Luis de Matos 2007: Text and Photos by Luís de Matos 2007. Chart by Luis de Matos 2007

Tarouca and Lafões are among the first Cistercian monasteries in Portugal. Followed them Santa Maria de Alcobaça, which soon became the most important Cistercian monastery in our territory and one of the greatest in Europe.

Then the monks held a most important work, without which the Templars would not have the necessary backing for the performance of its task of warrior-monks in the service of a nation and a global project: the union of East and West around a spiritual empire.

In Alcobaça, in addition to its important library, there was, in fact, which, appropriately, we can call the first center of higher education in Portugal, namely Alcobaça was the legitimate precursor of the Portuguese University. In addition to prayer and study, the Cistercian monks extraordinarily developed agriculture, within the perfect monastic spirit of Ora et Labora, prayer and work, contemplation and action. “

One of the most important Grand Masters of the Order was Prince Henry the Navigator, who ruled the Order from 1417 up to his death in 1460. Prince Henry gave great impulse to the pioneering Portuguese expeditions during the Age of Exploration. In the Convent, Prince Henry ordered the construction of various cloisters and other buildings. He also sponsored urban improvements in the town of Tomar itself.

Another important personality related to the Order was King Manuel I, who became Master of the Order in 1484 and King of Portugal in 1492. Under his reign there were several important improvements in the Convent, specially the addition of a new nave to the round church and its inner decoration with paintings and sculptures.

The successor of Manuel I, King John III, demilitarised the order, turning it into a more religious order with a rule based on that of Bernard of Clairvaux. He also ordered the construction of a new cloister in 1557, which is one of the best examples of Renaissance architecture in Portugal.

In 1581, after a succession crisis, the Portuguese Nobility gathered in the Convent of Christ in Tomar and officially recognised Philip II of Spain (Philip I of Portugal) as King. This is the beginning of the Iberian Union (1581–1640), during which the Crowns of Portugal and Spain were united in a dynastic union. The aqueduct of the Convent was built during this period.

The ornate convent has been put up in limestone from Porto de Mós, that has turned yellow ochre in the course of time. It has an original Portuguese style, a mixture of rayonnant and flamboyant Gothic architecture combined with strong elements of English Perpendicular, that finds few parallels in Europe. As with all Dominican churches, this church has no bell tower.

The western façade, facing the large square with the equestrian statue of general Nuno Álvares Pereira, is divided in three by buttressess and huge pilasters : the Founder’s Chapel (Capelo do Fundador), the side wall of an aisle and the projecting portal. On the right side of this façade are the Imperfect Chapels (Capelas Imperfeitas), a separate octagonal structure added to the complex.

Off the east side, next to the church choir is the chapterhouse (Sala do Capitulo). The closier of King João I borders on the church and this chapterhouse. The structure continues into the cloister of King Afonso V (Claustro de D. Afonso V). On the northern side of the complex lies the Tomb of the Unknown Warriors.

The portal shows in the archivolt a profusion of 78 statues, divided over six rows, of Old Testament Kings, angels, prophets and saints, each under a baldachin. The splays on both sides display (inferior copies of) statues of the apostles, with one standing on a chained devil. The tympanum shows us Christ enthroned, sitting under a baldachin and flanked by the Four Evangelists, each with his own attribute.

Nave and choir

The church is vast and narrow (22m) in proportion to its height (32.4 m). The nave was raised to its present height by the second architect Huguet, altering the proportions of the church and giving it its present aspect. Its interior gives a sober and bare impression by its complete lack of ornaments and statues in the nave. The ribbed vaults, supported by compound piers, are closed by ornamented keystones. Light enters the church through ten stained-glass windows of the clerestory and the tall, traceried windows in the side walls and the transept and through the two rows of lanciform windows in the choir. The choir extends into two-bay transepts and consists of five apsidal chapels, with the central one projecting.

Batalha probably had the first workshop for stained-glass windows in Portugal. The art was introduced in Portugal by German artists from the regions of Franconia and Nuremberg. The oldest windows date back to the end of the 1430s. But the Manueline, ogival stained-glass windows in the choir date from the 1520s and 1530s and were produced by Portuguese masters, among them Francisco Henriques. They represent scenes from the lives of Christ and Mary: the Visitation, the Epiphany, the Flight to Egypt and the Resurrection of Christ.

The architect Mateus Fernandes and his wife are buried under a marble tomb-slab close to the portal. The tomb of the knight Martim Gonçalves de Maçada, who saved the king’s life during the battle at Aljubarrota, can be found close to the Capela do Fundador.

Founders’ Chapel - Tomb of John I and Philippa

Tombs of the four princes (from left to right): Ferdinand, John, Henry, Peter

The square Founders’ Chapel (Portuguese: Capela do Fundador) was built between 1426 and 1434 by the architect Huguet on orders of King John I to become the first royalpantheon in Portugal. It gives a perfect synthesis between Flamboyant Gothic and the English Perpendicular style, as Philippa of Lancaster had brought along a few English architects. The chapel consists of three notional bays and a central octagon buttressed by eight piers, adorned with crockets, supporting deeply stilted arches.

The joint tomb of King John I of Portugal (d.1433) and his wife Philippa of Lancaster (d.1415) stands under the star vault of the octagon. Their statues lie in full regalia, with clasped hands (expressing the good relations between Portugal and England) and heads resting on a pillow, under elaborately ornamented baldachins. The coats of arms of the Houses of Aviz and Lancaster are put on top of these baldachins, together with the insignia of the order of the Garter. On the cover plate of the tomb are inscribed in repetition the mottos of the king Por bem (For the better) and of the queen Yl me plet (I am pleased).

This octagon is surrounded by an ambulatory with complex vaulting. At the south wall stand a row of recessed arches with the tombs of the four younger sons of John I, together with their spouses. From left to right: Ferdinand the Holy Prince (a bachelor, he died a prisoner in Fez in 1443, his bodily remains were later recovered and translated here in 1473), John of Reguengos, the Constable of Portugal (d.1442) with his wife Isabella of Barcelos (d.1466), Henry the Navigator (under a baldachin, d.1460, a bachelor), and Peter of Coimbra (regent for Afonso V, 1438-1448, who was killed at the Battle of Alfarrobeira in 1449, his remains were only translated here in 1456) with his wife Isabella of Urgell (d.1459).

The three tombs on the west wall are copies of the original tombs of King Afonso V (r.1438–1481), John II (r.1481–1495) (empty because the soldiers of Masséna threw away the bones) and his son and heir, Prince Afonso (who died in an accident at the age of seventeen, predeceasing his father).

Unfinished Chapels[edit]

Portal of the unfinished chapels

As Capelas Imperfeitas (The Unfinished Chapels) remain as a testimony of the fact that the monastery was never actually finished. They form a separate octagonal structure tacked on the choir of the church (via a retrochoir) and only accessible from the outside. It was commissioned in 1437 by King Edward of Portugal (“Dom Duarte”, d.1438) as a second royal mausoleum for himself and his descendants. But he and his queen Eleanor of Aragon are the only ones buried here (Eleanor died in exile in Toledo in 1445, her remains were only translated here in 1456).

The original design, begun by Huguet, was altered by successive architects, especially Mateus Fernandes (who is buried inside the church). The octagonal rotunda has seven radiating hexagonal chapels. In the corners of the chapels stand the massive unfinished buttresses, that were intended to support the vault. These pillars, designed by Diogo Boitac, are decorated with Manueline motives carved in stone.

The portal rises to a monumental fifteen metres. It was originally built in Gothic style, but was transformed beyond recognition by Mateus Fernandes into a masterpiece of Manueline style (completed in 1509). It is completely decorated into a lacework of sumptuous and stylized Manueline motives : armillary, spheres, winged angels, ropes, circles, tree stumps, clover-shaped arches and florid projections. This homage of King Manuel I to his predecessor King Edward mentions his motto Leauté faray tam yaserei (I will always be loyal). This motto is then repeated more than two hundred times in the arches, vaults and pillars of the chapels.

The Renaissance loggia, added at about 1533, was probably meant for musicians. It is ascribed to the architect João de Castilho.

Chapterhouse

The Chapterhouse (Portuguese: Sala do Capitulo) reminds the visitors of the military reason for its foundation: two sentinels guard the tombs of two unknown soldiers killed in World War I.

This square room is especially notable for its star vault lacking a central support and spanning a space of 19 square meters. This was such a daring concept at the time that condemned prisoners were used to perform the task. It was completed after two failed attempts. When the last scaffolds were removed, it is said that Huguet spent the night under the vault in order to silence his critics.

The stained-glass Renaissance window in the east wall dates from 1508. It depicts scenes of the Passion and is attributed to the Portuguese painters Master João and Francisco Henriques.

Royal Cloister

King John I Cloisters of Batalha Monastery.

The Royal Clositer (Portuguese: Claustro Real) is cloister was not part of the original project. It was built under the architect Fernão de Évorabetween 1448 and 1477. Its sober outward appearance is in stark contrast with the Flamboyant Gothic style of the church. The carved tracery decoration in Gothic style (including quatrefoils, fleurs-de-lis and rosettes) by Huguet in the ambulatory forms a successful combination with the Manueline style in the arcade screens, added later by Mateus Fernandes. Two different patterns alternate, one with the cross of the Order of Christ, the other with armillaries.

The colonnettes, supporting these intricate arcade screens, are decorated with spiral motives, armillaries, lotus blossoms, briar branches, pearls and shells and exotic vegetation.

Lavabo

Situated in the northwestern corner of the Claustro Real, this work of Mateus Fernandes is of a beauty and harmony difficult to describe. It consists of a fountain and two smaller basins above. The whole is bathed in a golden glow seeping through the intricate tracery of the arches around it.

Cloister of King Afonso

This sober cloister next to the Claustro Real was built in conventional Gothic style with double pointed arches. It was constructed in the second half of the 15th century by the architect Fernão de Évora. It stands in contrast with the Manueline flamboyance of the somewhat larger Claustro Real. The keystones in the vault carry the coat-of-arms of D. Duarte I and Afonso V.

]]> https://www.tomar.theperfecttourist.com/?feed=rss2&p=3249 0 https://www.tomar.theperfecttourist.com/?p=3225 https://www.tomar.theperfecttourist.com/?p=3225#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2015 18:55:12 +0000 http://tomar.theperfecttourist.com/?p=3225 Background and creation

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Knights Templar helped the Portuguese in the battles against the Muslims, receiving as a reward extensive areas and political power. The castles, churches and villages thrived under its protection. In 1314, Pope Clement V of French origin and Philip IV of France, tried to completely destroy this rich and powerful order (murders, absorption property, atrocities, that would lead Fernando Pessoa to affirm the continuing fight against tyranny, Ignorance and the fanaticism, he said, the three killers of Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Order) and Dinis succeeded in transferring to the Order of Christ the properties and privileges of the Templars.

The Order of Christ was thus created in Portugal as Ordo Militia Jesu Christo by Ad bull ae exquibus of March 15, 1319 by Pope John XXII, and King Dinis, shortly after the extinction of the Temple. “It was refound the Temple that previous papal bull of Clement V had condemned to extinction” .

Says the same obra2: “In Portugal, the assets of the Templars were ‘reserved’ on the initiative of the king, moving to the crown between 1309 and 1310, while stemmed the ‘process’, not without the monarch rejected the administrator appointed by Clement V – Stephen Lisbon. These same goods were free for the new congregation in November 26, 1319, and the Pope granted the exception to the kings of Castile and Leon, Aragon and Portugal, coalescing to counter the implementation of the measure which ordered his transfer to the Order of the Hospital. ”

The new Order thus emerged as a reform of the Templars. Everything has changed, to become more or less the same. The habit was the same, the brand also, with a slight change, and property, transmitted by the monarch, corresponded to the Templars goods. “He was given the Cistercian rule ‘remains the same Encyclopedia,” and named Master D. Gil Martins, also master of the Order of Avis, which had adopted the Cistercian rule, with the determination that the new monks elect its own master, after the death of that. The spiritual superior of the Order of Christ was the abbot of Alcobaça. ”

The June 11, 1421, a chapter meeting in Tomar adopted as a rule of the Order of Christ of the Order of Calatrava, which resolved any outstanding issues of a spiritual nature and obedience, keeping in cavalry ball.

The Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ was originally a religious and military order, created March 14, 1319 by the Papal Bull Ad and former quibus of John XXII, which thus acceded to the requests of King Dinis. He received the Order name of Our Lord Jesus Knights Cristo1 and was heir to the property and privileges of the Temple.

In May of that same year, a solemn ceremony was attended by the Archbishop of Évora, the Ensign-Mor United Afonso de Albuquerque and other members of the royal curia, King Dinis ratified in Santarém, the creation of New Order.

Was granted to host the castle of Castro Marim; but in 1357 the seat had already been installed in Tomar, the former headquarters templária2.

In 1789 the Order of Christ was secularized, becoming an honorary order to extinction in 1910, with the implementation of the Portuguese Republic. The order was re-established in 1917 as the Military Order of Christ and is led by its Grand Master, President of the Portuguese Republic.

The post master had spent after 1417 to be exercised by members of the Royal House, which passed to appoint directors and governors by papal appointment.

The first was Prince Henry, “who referred to what appeared to be his” mission “initial, the conquest of Asia, across the maritime travel, the order itself funded.” 3

The ideals of Christian expansion rekindled in the fifteenth century when its Grand Master, Prince Henry, invested the Order of income in offshore exploration. The emblem of the order, the Cross of the Order of Christ, adorned the sails of the caravels that explored the unknown seas.

The result is that in 1454 and 1456, by bulls of Pope Nicholas V and Pope Callistus III respectively, is granted or given obligation to the Order of Christ to establish the spiritual duty on all discovered lands, territories nullius as diocesis, and his diocesan seat the Church of Santa Maria do Olival in Tomar.

On the morning of the following day, the true dimension of the battle was revealed: in the field, the bodies of Castilians were enough to dam the creeks surrounding the small hill. In face of this, the Portuguese King offered the enemy survivors an amnesty and free transit home; an official mourning was decreed in Castile that would last until the Christmas of 1387. The French cavalry contingent suffered yet another defeat (after Crécy and Poitiers) by English defensive tactics, even though they finally defeated the English and unified their country after the 100 years war.

In October 1385, Nuno Álvares Pereira led a pre-emptive attack against Mérida, in Castilian territory, defeating an even larger Castilian army than at Aljubarrota in the battle of Valverde, in Valverde de Mérida. Scattered border skirmishes with Castilian troops would persist for five years more until the death of John I of Castile in 1390, but posed no real threat to the Portuguese crown; recognition from Castile would arrive only in 1411 with the signature of the Treaty of Ayllón (Segovia).

This victory assured that John of Aviz was the uncontested King of Portugal and the House of Aviz ascended to the crown of Portugal. In 1386, the closeness of relations between Portugal and England resulted in a permanent military alliance with the Treaty of Windsor, the eldest still active in existence.

His marriage to Philippa of Lancaster in 1387 initiated the Portuguese second dynasty, and their children went on to make historically significant contributions. Duarte, or Edward of Portugal, became the eleventh King of Portugal known as “The Philosopher” and “The Eloquent”, and his brother Henrique, or Henry the Navigator, sponsored expeditions to Africa.

In commemoration of the Battle of Aljubarrota the Portuguese erected the Monastery of Saint Mary of the Victory (Portuguese: “Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitória”) one of the best and original examples of Late Gothic architecture in Portugal, intermingled with the Manueline style.

In 1393 a chapel in honor of St. Mary and St. George was erected in the place where had been the standard of D. Nuno Alvares Pereira during the confrontation allowing us to know the precise geographic location of the confrontation site.

In 1958 archeologist Afonso do Paço organized the first campaign of excavations, revealing the complex defensive system consisting about 800 pits and dozens of defensive ditches and revealing one of the best preserved battlefields of the Hundred Years’ War.

In March 2002, under the initiative of António Champalimaud The Foundation Batalha de Aljubarrota was created. The Foundation began its activity by recovering the battlefield of Aljubarrota. Through a Protocol established with the Ministry of Defense, in August 2003, the Foundation received authorization to transform the Military Museum into a modern Interpretation Center of the Battle of Aljubarrota. This Interpretation Center was inaugurated in October 11, 2008.

On December 28, 2010, the Portuguese Official Journal published the Decret-Law n.º 18/2010, which states the legal recognition of the battlefield of Aljubarrota with the category of “national monument”.

Forces commanded by King John I of Portugal and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira, with the support of English allies, opposed the army of King John I of Castile with its Aragonese, Italian and French allies at São Jorge place, between the towns of Leiria and Alcobaça, in central Portugal. The result was a decisive victory for the Portuguese, ruling out Castilian ambitions to the Portuguese throne, ending the 1383–85 Crisis and assuring John as King of Portugal.

Portuguese independence was confirmed and a new dynasty, the House of Aviz, was established. Scattered border confrontations with Castilian troops would persist until the death of John I of Castile in 1390, but these posed no real threat to the new dynasty. To celebrate his victory and acknowledge divine help, John I of Portugal ordered the construction of the monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória na Batalha and the founding of the town of Batalha (Portuguese for “battle”,Portuguese pronunciation: [bɐˈtaʎɐ]). The king, his wife Philippa of Lancaster, and several of his sons are buried in this monastery, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The end of the 14th century in Europe was a time of revolution and crisis, with the Hundred Years’ War between the English and the French for Western France, the Black Death decimating the continent, and famine afflicting the poor. Portugal was no exception. In October 1383, King Ferdinand I of Portugal died with no son to inherit the crown. The only child of his marriage with Leonor Telles de Meneses was a girl, Princess Beatrice of Portugal.

In April of that same year the King signed the Treaty of Salvaterra de Magos with King Juan I of Castile. The treaty determined that Princess Beatrice was to marry Juan I, king of Castile, and the Crown of Portugal would belong to the descendants of this union. This situation left the majority of the Portuguese discontent, and the Portuguese nobility was unwilling to support the claim of the princess because that could mean the incorporation of Portugal to Castile^[a]; also the powerful merchants of the capital, Lisbon, were enraged from being excluded from the negotiations. Without an undisputed option, Portugal remained without king from 1383–85, in an interregnum known as the 1383–85 Crisis.

The first clear act of hostility was taken in December 1383 by the faction of John (João), the Grand Master of the Aviz Order (and a natural son of Peter I of Portugal), with the murder of Count Andeiro. This prompted the Lisbon merchants to name him “rector and defender of the realm”. However, the Castilian king would not relinquish his and his wife’s claims to the throne. In an effort to normalize the situation and secure the crown for him or Beatrice, he forced Leonor to abdicate from the regency. In April 1384, in Alentejo, a punitive expedition was promptly defeated by Nuno Álvares Pereira, leading a much smaller Portuguese army at the Battle of Atoleiros. This marked the first use of English defensive tactics on the Iberian peninsula, reportedly without any casualties to the Portuguese. A larger second expedition led by the Castilian king himself reached and besieged Lisbon for four months before being forced to retreat by a shortage of food supplies due to harassment from Nuno Álvares Pereira, and the bubonic plague.

In order to secure his claim, John of Aviz engaged in politics and intense diplomatic negotiations with both the Holy See and England. In October 1384, Richard II wrote to John (later King John I), regent of Portugal, reporting on negotiations, conducted in England, with John’s envoys – Dom Fernando, master of the order of Santiago, and Laurence Fogaça, chancellor of Portugal saying that an agreement had been reached under which an English force was to be sent to Portugal, to help defending the kingdom against its Castilian neighbor.^[2] On 6 April 1385, (the anniversary of the “miraculous” battle of Atoleiros, a fortuitous date), the council of the kingdom (cortes in Portuguese) assembled in Coimbra and declared him King John I of Portugal. After his accession to the throne, John I of Portugal proceeded to annex the cities in whose military commanders supported Princess Beatrice and her husband’s claims, namely Caminha, Braga and Guimarães among others.

Enraged by this “rebellion”, Juan I ordered a host of 31,000 men to engage in a two-pronged invasion in May. The smaller Northern force sacked and burnt populations along the border, a common practice at the time and similar to what the English were doing in Scotland, before being defeated by local Portuguese nobles in the battle of Trancoso, in the first week of June. On the news of the invasion by the Castilians, John I of Portugal’s army met with Nuno Álvares Pereira, the Constable of Portugal, in the town of Tomar. There they decided to face the Castilians before they could get close to Lisbon and lay siege to it again.

English allies arrived on Easter of 1385, consisting of a company of about 100 English longbowmen, veterans from the Hundred Years’ War, sent to honor the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 (presently the oldest active treaty in the world). The Portuguese set out to intercept the invading army near the town of Leiria. Nuno Álvares Pereira took the task of choosing the ground for the battle. Russell notes that the two Portuguese leaders [Nuno Álvares and Antão Vasques] had already shown themselves masters of the new developments in methods of warfare, i.e. the use of archers and dismounted men-at-arms. The chosen location was São Jorge near Aljubarrota, especially indicated for the chosen military tactic, a small flattened hill surrounded by creeks, with the very small settlement of Chão da Feira (Fair’s Ground) at its widest point, still present today.

Illegitimate child (bastard) of King Pedro I,  Master of the Order of Avis (based in Avis, Alentejo), as king following the crisis of 1383 to 1385 that threatened the independence of Portugal.

With the support of the kingdom constable, Nuno Alvares Pereira, and British allies fought the battle of Aljubarrota against the Kingdom of Castile, who had invaded the country. The victory was decisive: Castile retired, ending several years later by the officially recognized as king.

To seal the Luso-British alliance married Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, dedicating himself since the development of the kingdom.

In 1415 conquered Ceuta, strategic square for navigation in North Africa, which would start the Portuguese expansion. There were armed horsemen their children Duarte, Pedro and Prince Henry, called the brothers illustrious generation.

John was born in Lisbon as the natural son of Peter I by a woman named Teresa, who, according to Fernão Lopes, was a noble Galician. In the 18th century, António Caetano de Sousa found a 16th-century document in the archives of the Torre do Tombo, wherein she was named as Teresa Lourenço. In 1364, by request of D. Nuno Freire de Andrade, a Galician Grand Master of the Order of Christ, he was created Grand Master of the Order of Aviz, by which title he was known.

On the death of his half-brother Ferdinand I without a male heir in October 1383, strenuous efforts were made to secure the succession for Princess Beatrice, Ferdinand’s only daughter. As heiress presumptive, Beatrice had married king John I of Castile, but popular sentiment was against an arrangement in which Portugal would have been virtually annexed by Castile. The 1383–1385 Crisis followed, a period of political anarchy, when no monarch ruled the country.

On 6 April 1385, the Council of the Kingdom (the Portuguese Cortes) met in Coimbra and declared John, then Master of Aviz, King of Portugal.^[1] This was followed by the liberation of almost all of the Minho in the course of two months, in the war against Castile and its claims to the Portuguese throne. Soon after, the King of Castile again invaded Portugal with the purpose of conquering Lisbon and removing John I from the throne. John I of Castile was accompanied by French allied cavalry while English troops and generals took the side of John of Aviz (see Hundred Years’ War). John and Nuno Álvares Pereira, his Constable and talented supporter, repelled the attack on the decisive Battle of Aljubarrota (14 August 1385).^[2] John I of Castile then retreated. The Castilian forces abandoned Santarém, Torres Vedras, Torres Novas, many other towns were delivered to John I by Portuguese nobles from the Castilian side and the stability of the Portuguese throne was permanently secured.

On 11 February 1387, John I married Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, who had proved to be a worthy ally, consolidating the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance that endures to the present day.

After the death of John I of Castile in 1390, without issue by Beatrice, John I of Portugal ruled in peace and pursued the economic development of the country. The only significant military action was the siege and conquest of the city of Ceuta in 1415. By this step he aimed to control navigation of the African coast.

The raids and attacks of the Reconquista created captives on both sides, who were either ransomed or sold as slaves. The Portuguese crown extended this to North Africa. After the attack on Cueta, the king sought papal recognition of it as a crusade. Such as determination would then indicate that those captured could legitimately be sold as slaves.^[3]

John I requested and obtained from Pope Martin V a Papal bull, Sane charissimus,^[4] of 4 April, 1418, confirming to the king all the lands he should take from the Moors. Political weakness compelled the Renaissance Papacy to adopt an acquiescent and unchallenging position when approached for requests for privileges in favour of these ventures.^[5] Under the auspices of Prince Henry the Navigator, voyages were organized which ultimately led to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.^[2]

The ill result of the expedition against Tangier, which was undertaken against the advice of Eugenius IV and ended in the captivity of the Infanta Ferdinand, hastened the end of John I, and his son Alfonso V (1438-81) succeeded to the throne.^[2]

Contemporaneous writers describe John as a man of wit, very keen on concentrating power on himself, but at the same time with a benevolent and kind personality. His youthful education as master of a religious order made him an unusually learned king for the Middle Ages. His love for knowledge and culture was passed to his sons, often collectively referred to by Portuguese historians as the “illustrious generation” (Ínclita Geração): Edward, the future king, was a poet and a writer; Peter, the Duke of Coimbra, was one of the most learned princes of his time; and Prince Henry the Navigator, the duke of Viseu, invested heavily in science and the development of nautical pursuits. In 1430, John’s only surviving daughter, Isabella, married Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and enjoyed an extremely refined court culture in his lands; she was the mother of Charles the Bold.