Today Belchite lies in ruins, a casualty of the civil war
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".[1][2] 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".[3] 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.[4]
The confraternity may have used a palm tree as its emblem. The contemporary historian Orderic Vitalis called them Fratres de Palmis, 'brothers of the palm'.[5]
^Lourie, "The Confraternity [and] the Ribat", 166 n. 31: Ipsi autem confratres nunquam cum paganis pacem habeant, sed omnibus diebus eos perturbare ac expugnare studeant. The knights were only permitted to make peace with Muslims who submitted to Christian rule and lived as mudéjares.
^Fletcher, "Reconquest and Crusade", 45–46.
^Kantorowicz, "Pro Patria Mori", 478: ad Christianorum defensionem et Sarracenorum oppressionem.
^Lourie, "The Confraternity [and] the Ribat", 168.
^Wilson, "Tactics of Attraction", 212.
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