Canha Medieval Fair 2026

Dom Dinis’ marriage represented a problem, because, due to disagreements between his late father Afonso III and the clergy, the kingdom of Portugal was under interdiction for around twenty years, that is, the churches remained closed, and all religious ceremonies and sacraments were prohibited.

Once the marriage with Dona Isabel was established, in order to break the supremacy of Castile, King Dinis appointed three procurators who, on February 11, 1281, represented their monarch, by words of presentship, at the ceremony of receiving Dona Isabel of Aragon in the Royal Palace of Barcelona. The three procurators were the knights João Pires Velho and Vasco Pires and the cleric Dom João Martins de Soalhães, future bishop of Lisbon. This Friday recounts the eulogies and procedures in the nuptial arrangements in Barcelona and Castelo de Vide, as well as the reception in S. Felices de los Gallegos and Trancoso, with the Royal couple eventually arriving in the city of Coimbra, settling in the Royal Palaces of Alcáçova.

The Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ was originally a religious and military order, created on March 14, 1319, by the papal bull Ad ea ex quibus cultus augeatur of Pope John XXII, thus fulfilling the requests of King Dom Dinis. It received the name Order of the Knights of Our Lord Jesus Christ or Order of the Militia of Our Lord Jesus Christ and inherited the properties and privileges of the Order of the Temple.

In May of that same year, in a solemn ceremony attended by the Archbishop of Évora, the Standard-bearer of the Kingdom D. Afonso de Albuquerque, and other members of the royal court, King Dom Dinis ratified, in Santarém, the creation of the new Order.

“In Portugal, the Templars’ assets were ‘reserved’ at the king’s initiative, passing to the crown between 1309 and 1310, while the ’trial’ was underway, not without the monarch rejecting the administrator appointed by Clement V – Estêvão de Lisboa. These same assets passed untouched to the new congregation on November 26, 1319, the Pope having granted an exception to the kings of Castile and León, Aragon, and Portugal, who allied to oppose the execution of the measure ordering their transfer to the Order of the Hospital.” “By Royal Charter made in Santarém, on November 26 of the year 1357 (November 15, 1319), it was ordered that all the assets, income, and rights that belonged to the Order of the Temple, both spiritual and temporal, and debts, be delivered to D. Gil Martins, 1st Master of the Order of Christ.”

The Treaty of Alcanices was signed on September 12, 1297, between King Denis of Portugal and King Ferdinand IV of León and Castile in the Spanish border town of Alcañices, near Miranda do Douro.

The pact defined the definitive boundaries of Portuguese territory and also established the marriages of King Ferdinand IV to Constance (daughter of King Denis) and of the future King Afonso IV to Beatrice, sister of the Castilian king.