Its initial objective was to protect the pilgrims on the Way of St. James, to defend Christendom and to remove the Muslim Moors from the Iberian Peninsula with the Reconquista.

The Order's insignia is said to originate from the Battle of Clavijo, and is a red cross resembling a sword, with the shape of a fleur-de-lis on the hilt and the arms.

[3] It is said that its shape originated in the era of the Crusades, when the knights took with them small crosses with sharpened bottoms to stick them in the ground and carry out their daily devotions.

[5] Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, the centre of devotion to this Apostle, is neither the cradle nor the principal seat of the Order.

Two cities contend for the honour of having given it birth, León in the kingdom of that name, and Uclés in Cuenca Province in Castile.

In León, they offered their services to the Canons Regular of Saint Eligius in that town for the protection of pilgrims to the shrine of St. James and the hospices on the roads leading to Compostela.

This explains the mixed character of the Order: like the Knights Hospitaller, they both accommodated pilgrims and provided military service.

They were recognized as a religious order by Pope Alexander III, whose Bull of 5 July 1175,[1] was subsequently confirmed by more than twenty of his successors.

The right to marry, which other military orders only obtained at the end of the Middle Ages, was accorded them from the beginning under certain conditions, such as the authorization of the king, and sexual continence during Advent and Lent, and on certain festivals of the year, which they spent at their monasteries in retreat.

In Spain, these possessions included 83 commanderies (of which 3 were reserved to the grand commanders), 2 cities, 178 boroughs and villages, 200 parishes, 5 hospitals, 5 convents, and 1 college at Salamanca.

Abrantes, their first commandery in Portugal, dates from the reign of Afonso I in 1172, and soon became a distinct order which Pope Nicholas IV released from the jurisdiction of Uclés in 1290.

Thus arose the obligation imposed upon aspirants to serve six months in the galleys, which still existed in the eighteenth century, but from which exemption was easily purchased.

The Council elected the Grand Master and had the right to depose him for due cause; they had supreme jurisdiction in all disputes between members of the Order.

Under Charles V, Pope Adrian VI annexed to the crown of Spain the three great military orders (Alcántara, Calatrava, and Santiago) with hereditary transmission even in the female line (1522).

Once the Reconquest was finalized, a candidate who wished to join the Order of Santiago must have proved in his first four last names that he, his parents, and his grandparents were of noble descent by blood and not by privilege, and had never worked in manual or industrial labor.

Also included were people who had been punished for acts against the Catholic faith; had been an attorney, moneylender, notary public, retail merchant, or had worked where they lived or would have lived from their trade; had been dishonoured, had neglected the laws of honor and executed any act not proper for a perfect gentleman, or who lacked means of support.

The work of the ladies of the order, who were required to be of noble status and to prove the purity of their blood (limpieza de sangre) with corresponding records, was limited to the task of educating the children of the knights.

Knights of Santiago are a unique crusading military units that can be raised by the Spanish faction in the game Medieval II: Total War, made by Creative Assembly.