A life marked by discipline
During the Middle Ages, there were men who prayed like religious figures and fought like soldiers: They were the warrior monks of the military orders, communities created to defend Christian territories and participate in war campaigns.
Among them, the Order of Calatrava stood out, whose members eventually controlled fortresses, lands, and strategic routes in different parts of the peninsula. Their lives were marked by religious discipline, but also by weapons, horses, and military campaigns. And now, centuries later, their own remains are revealing details that the chronicles barely mention.
Why were they monks and knights at the same time?
The idea may seem strange today: men subject to a religious rule who, at the same time, were prepared to enter into combat; however, military orders arose precisely to combine both functions.
Their members followed religious norms and belonged to an organized community, but they also had the mission of defending fortresses, protecting territories, and participating in military operations.
The Order of Calatrava was born in the 12th century to defend Calatrava, a strategic position facing Muslim territories, and its members adopted the Cistercian rule, based on prayer, work, discipline, and an austere life in community, becoming linked to an especially rigorous way of religious life.
Thus appeared a peculiar figure of the Middle Ages: the warrior monk, capable of moving from prayer to battle within the same day.
When did religious men begin to take up arms?
For these men, fighting was not an activity separate from their religious identity; military defense was part of the order's mission.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, military orders acquired enormous importance in frontier territories, participated in campaigns, and were present in some of the decisive clashes of the expansion of the Christian kingdoms.
However, war left marks on their own bodies, and it is something that allows us today to imagine a little more of their history and life: fractures, traumas, and injuries compatible with weapons appear among the remains found in one of their main enclaves.
Zorita de los Canes: the castle of the warrior monks
One of the places that best allows us to get closer to their daily life is found in Zorita de los Canes, in Guadalajara, where the fortress, located on a hill next to the Tagus, dominated a strategic point of the territory.
The Order of Calatrava established an important military center there after the temporary loss of Calatrava la Vieja.
In its vicinity was a necropolis known as the "corral de los condes" (courtyard of the counts), used between the 12th and 15th centuries. There, people related to the community were buried.
An archaeological study carried out on the remains found in this necropolis allowed us to learn about some aspects of the diet of those who lived in this medieval enclave. The analyses revealed a diet that included cockerels, chickens, geese, and ducks, as well as wheat and barley. The consumption of poultry fit with the dietary restrictions related to the Cistercian tradition, which limited certain meats.
The analyses indicate a high consumption of marine fish despite the fact that Zorita de los Canes was located in the interior of the peninsula, so it probably arrived through medieval trade networks, preserved by salting or drying, which allowed it to be transported over long distances to communities with resources and commercial connections.
The contrast is revealing: while a good part of the population depended on more modest foods, products from very distant places circulated in this fortress, and even the cereals also reflect social differences: wheat and barley had a greater presence among the individuals studied, while millet appears related to popular sectors.
This contrast may support the relevance of the order and its role as protectors and warriors, for whom good nutrition was essential when facing the risks and work of day-to-day life.
