ABSTRACT
According to the published versions of an undated letter, Raymond Berenguer IV, then ruler of both Catalonia and Aragon, asked Raymond ‘by the grace of God master of the Jerusalem militia’ to send at least ten knights to the Iberian Peninsula. 1 The background to this request is provided by Alfonso I’s unfulfilled bequest of the kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre to the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Holy Sepulchre contained in his will which was drawn up in 1131 and confirmed in 1134, 2 and by attempts on the part of the counts of Barcelona in the 1130s to gain the assistance of a military order in fighting against the Muslims in Spain: although by then both the Temple and the Hospital had possessions in the north-eastern part of the Peninsula, the revenues from these were being used to further the orders’ activities in the Holy Land. The letter begins by alluding to Alfonso’s bequest, and Raymond Berenguer was apparently hoping not only to gain military assistance but also to obtain a renunciation of claims to Aragon. In return he was prepared to offer concessions which included the towns of Daroca and Cutanda, the castles of Belchite and Huesa – all in Aragon – and a tenth of what he could gain in Hispania – a term which was commonly used at that time to describe the Muslim part of the Peninsula. Since the letter describes Raymond Berenguer as princeps Aragonensis, it was written not earlier than 1137, and the terminus ad quem is 1143, by the end of which year settlements about Alfonso’s bequest had been made with both the Temple and the Hospital, as well as the Holy Sepulchre. A number of historians have concluded that the recipient of the letter was the master of the Temple, 3 but others have maintained that it was addressed to the head of the Hospital of St John. 4 The reason for the latter assumption is that the master of the Hospital at the time was Raymond du Puy, whereas the Temple was headed by Robert of Craon, who held office from c.1136 until 1149.
