HOSPITALLERS AND MONASTERIES IN THE KINGDOM OF CASTILE DURING THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES

The Order of the Knights of the Hospital absorbed several monasteries that already existed in the period prior to her introduction into the Crown of Castile. They were small family monasteries of limited size. Contact maintained by the Hospitaller brethren with large monastic entities for purely economic reasons were more common than with these smaller ones. Confrontations and lawsuits concerning specifically material issues took place primarily in the last quarter of the twelfth century and the first half of the thirteenth century. As a general rule, they were resolved by private agreements. Usually, a single deal solved all problems the Hospitallers had with each monastery. There are also cases of some very powerful monasteries with which there was a succession of confrontations. The Cistercian monks seem to have caused particularly serious problems for the Order of Saint John.