Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/91

 VI. JULY 28,1900.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 78 the wearing of a costume consisting of a white military coat, with a black hood above it, to which was fastened a narrow black scapulary reaching below the swordbelt, but without mountings of precious stones or gold on either weapons, spurs, or apparel. In 1166, having taken part in the capture of the city of Evora from the Moors, the king ordained that they should derive their title from that place, he granting them the palace. Their title was " Brothers of Evora," or "Order of Evora," or " Knights of Evora." The Crown of Portugal, however, having resolved to build a fortress in the country of Santara as a stronghold against the Moors, the king thought proper to exchange it with the Knights of Evora for the palace which he had given to the order. Thereupon the Grand Master accompanied by a deputation of knights went to view the new place. Ac- cording to the narrative of Itoderic Mendez de Silva, the Grand Master is said to have perceived two eagles perched upon an oak tree; this they considered an auspicious omen, and in consequence thereof they gave the name of "Avis" to that part of the country in which the prodigy was first be- held. Having built an important fortress on the spot, they styled themselves(l 184) Knights of the Order of Avis. Pope Innocent IV. formally approved the order. In 1213 Don Rodriguez Garcias di Assa, Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava, in Spain, having ceded to the Knights of Avis several important places and domains in Portugal, the two orders were united, the Portuguese order submitting to the Spanish order. This union was broken in 1385. At first the knights had the power of elec.ting their Grand Masters out of their own body. Twenty were so elected. Then the Pope interposing his authority, six princes of the blood were successively nominated. In 1521 King John III. annexed the Grand Mastership to the Crown, and ordained that it should remain so united for ever. In 1789 Queen Maria secularized it and converted it into an order of merit, dividing it into three classes, viz., six knights of the Grand Cross, forty nine commanders, and an unfixed number of knights. The order is one of the first three orders of Portugal, the other two being that of Christ and that of St. James. These particulars are taken chiefly from "An Accurate Historical Account of all the Orders of Knighthood at present existing in Europe by an Officer of the Chancery of the Equestrian-Secular and Chapteral Order of St. Joachim " (London, date about 1801-5), vol. ii. p. 32, and from Sir Bernard BurkeVBook of the Orders of Knighthood (London, 1858), p. 186. The latter gives coloured illustrations of the insignia, and calls the order "The Military Order of St. Benedict of Aviz (formerly called ' Order of Evora ')•" In the 'Aluianach de Gotha' (1889) it is called "Ordre de St. Benoit d'Aviz," and 13 Aug., 1162, is given as the date of its in- stitution (p. 383). The two books from which I have taken most of the above do not agree in all particulars, and their dates are some- times at variance. See also " Almanach der Ritter-Orden, von Friedrich Gottschalck" (Leipzig, 1818), vol. ii. p. 204, where the order is styled " Militair- Verdienst-Orden von Avis." In an extract from a newspaper (the Times 1) dated 10 Sept., 1839, in a review of Carlisle's ' Foreign Orders of Knighthood,' the order is called "The Order ot Military Merit of St. Bento d'Avis," and the date of its founda- tion is said to be about the middle of the twelfth century. ROBERT PIERPOINT. MR. HOOPER'S queries at once suggested a reference to 'L'Art de Verifier les Dates.' There, in a foot-note to the reign of Ferdinand, King of Portugal 1367-83, we read :— " On n'a rien de bien certain sur I'origme de 1'Ordre militaire et religieux d'Avis, ni sur 1'etymologie de ee nom. L'opinion commune eat qu'il fut mstitue' par Alfonso I., Roi de Portugal, en memoire de la conquete qu'il fit d'Evora sur les Maurea en 1147. Maia il ne prit la forme, quil a conservee depuis, qu'en 1162, auivant 1'Acte pri- mordial de Vetabliaaement de cet Ordre, dont 1'original, au rapport de Bernard Britto dana aes chrouiquea de 1'Ordre de Citeaux, est conserve dans les archives du Monastere d'Alcobara, du memo Ordre, et porte la date de 1'Ere d'Eapagne 1200. Uet Acte, que le Chroniqueur se contente de citer, et qu'il eut mieux fait de transcrire, doune pour premier Grand-Mai tre d'Avis un Prince de la Maisou de France, prolea regia, nom me Pierre, et non pas Ferdinand Kodrigue de Montorio, comme quelques una Tout avance. A 1'egard de l'6tymologie du nom d'Avie, lea uns le tirent du nom du lieu oil les Chevaliers batirent leur premiere forteresse, les autres de deux aigleaqui parurentau meuie endroit. (Je qui favoriae cette derniere etymologic, c'est que 1'Ordre d'Avis porte d'or a la croix fleurdelisee de sinople, accompagnte en pointe de deux oiseaux atfrontea en sable. The year 1200 of the era of Spain answered to 1162 A.D. Whether Avis has anything to do with the river Ave, at the head of which, at Guimaraes, the parents of Alfonso had their abode, and where he was probably born, I will not venture to guess. C. S. WARD. THE STRAPPADO (9th S. v. 369, 504).—I have the first edition of 'The Fortunes of Col. Torlogh O'Brien : a Tale of the Wars of King