Confraternity of Belchite

The Confraternity of Belchite was an "experimental" community of knights founded in 1122 by Alfonso the Battler, king of Aragon and Navarre, and lasting until shortly after 1136. Members could enlist permanently or for a set time, vowing "never to live at peace with the pagans but to devote all their days to molesting and fighting them". When the Emperor Alfonso VII confirmed the charter of the confraternity, he specified that it existed "for the defence of Christians and the oppression of Saracens". A Christian organisation dedicated to a holy war against Muslims (reconquista), its impetus and development coincide with that of the international military orders and it introduced the concept of an indulgence proportional to length of service.

In 1117 Alfonso the Battler conquered the town of Belchite, about twenty-two miles southeast of his main target, the city of Zaragoza, which surrendered on 18 December 1118. The following years were spent consolidating these gains, and it was not until 1122 that Alfonso established a confraternity of knights in Belchite. He may have "envisioned international crusading movement based on military orders", as Peter Schickl suggested and Alfonso's will may attest. The foundation charter of the confraternity does not survive, but that of the similar Order of Monreal, founded by Alfonso in 1128, does. We know that the foundation charter of Belchite was witnessed by the most powerful bishops from throughout Spain: Bernard de Sedirac, Oleguer Bonestruga, Diego Gelmírez and Guy de Lescar.

José Lacarra (1971) speculated that the confraternity was merged into the Templar organisation, but there is no evidence of its continuance beyond 1136. More probably it had collapsed by the time of Alfonso the Battler's will (1134), leaving its confirmation charter of 1136 as a political ploy in the haggling over the succession in Aragon. In 1143 a settlement was reached in which Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona gave the castle at Belchite to the Templars "according as [they could] best come to terms" with its lord, Lope Sanz (Sánchez), who was the princeps and rector of the confraternity in 1136.

...
Wikipedia