The Order of Santiago was a Spanish military religious order founded around 1170, dedicated to the apostle Saint James, whose shrine at Santiago de Compostela was one of medieval Christendom's great pilgrimage destinations, with an original mission to protect pilgrims travelling the route and to fight against Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista. Unlike the strictly celibate Templars and Hospitallers, Santiago knights were permitted to marry, which helped the order grow into one of the wealthiest and most influential in medieval Castile and Leon, accumulating vast estates, castles and revenues across Spain and, after 1492, holdings in the Americas as well. The order was governed by an elected grand master until the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella secured papal permission to annex the mastership permanently to the Spanish Crown in 1499, folding its resources and patronage directly into royal authority. The Order of Santiago continues today as a Spanish honorific order, its cross-shaped emblem remaining one of the most recognisable symbols of medieval Iberian chivalry.
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