Knights of Calatrava

[Erpingham]

I stumbled on this set of images from the Castle of Alcaniz, which I thought might be interesting for those with Spanish armies.  I'm afraid its in Spanish but there are 14 pages of images, many of them frescoes of knights, battles and seiges.

[aligern]

Very interesting, also very similar in style to the illustrations of the Cantigas de Akfons X. Only had a quick look but well woth a longer visit.
Well found and well shared.
Roy

[Swampster]

They are superb. I think it was only earlier this year that I came across them as I was adding a few extra troops to my Spanish. These plus the illustrations in the Cantigas and the fresco of the conquest of Mallorca provide some of the richest visual material for any of the 13th century armies. They are also very consistent and I don't think it is just an artistic convention thing. The 'moors' are also well illustrated though a bit less clear in the Alcaniz paintings. (One thing I didn't use were the shield devices of the moors - the hand and stars may well be accurate but somehow look wrong on the figures).

Talking of the cantigas, in Cantiga 205 there is a group of military order knights. http://warfare.gq/Cantiga/Cantigas_de_Santa_Maria-205-1.htm

The linked picture shows a shield, a banner and the emblem on a tent as black. Another online versions shows them as gold. I think this is a scanning/reproduction thing and they may well be the same version.
This http://warfare.gq/Cantiga/Cantigas_de_Santa_Maria-205.htm and this  http://warfare.gq/Cantiga/Cantigas_de_Santa_Maria-205-3-4-A_Concise_History_of_the_Crusades-Cover.htm seem to show an emblem of some sort instead.

I can't find a decent close up to confirm if there is a design. I _think_ they may be from different versions of the Cantigas (T and F perhaps) a some of the other gold or dark features on the first version are different on the second.

Does anyone have the Madden book or another decent colour copy of that version to compare the pictures and confirm if there is a visible design? I did wonder if the gold shield etc. was overpainting of some other design - Templars perhaps? - as a damnatio memoriae.