Commandery
{{Short description|Administrative land division of a military order}}{{Other uses|Commandery (disambiguation)}}
In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and Greg O'Malley (eds.), The Countryside Of Hospitaller Rhodes 1306–1423: Original Texts And English Summaries (Routledge, 2019), p. 27. The word is also applied to the emoluments granted to a commander. They were the equivalent for those orders to a monastic grange. The knight in charge of a commandery was a commander.
Etymology
The word derives from French {{lang|fr|commanderie}} or {{lang|fr|commenderie}}, from mediaeval Latin {{lang|la-x-medieval|commendaria}} or {{lang|la-x-medieval|commenda}}, meaning 'a trust or charge', originally one held {{lang|la|in commendam}}.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=765}} "commandery | commandry, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2018, https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/36962. Accessed 9 December 2018.
Originally, commanderies were benefices, particularly in the Church, held {{lang|la|in commendam}}. Mediaeval military orders adopted monastic organizational structures and commanderies were divisions of the Order of Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and later the Order of Teutonic Knights and other knightly orders were organized along similar lines. The property of the order was divided into priorates (or priories), subdivided into bailiwicks, which in turn were divided into commanderies or {{lang|la|commendæ}}; these were placed in charge of a {{lang|la|commendator}} or commander. The word is also applied to the emoluments granted to a commander of a military order of knights.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=765}}
A commandery of the Teutonic Knights, each headed by a {{lang|de|Komtur}}, was known as a {{lang|de|Komturei}} or {{lang|de|Kommende}}. The equivalents among the Knights Templar were preceptor and preceptory.{{Dubious|date=May 2011}} In 1540, the possessions in England of the Knights Hospitaller — the commanderies to which the English term first referred — were seized as crown property.
Usage
=Modern=
- A territory of the Venerable Order of Saint John
- A division of the Knights Templar, found within the York Rite of Freemasonry.
- A chapter of the Military Order of Foreign Wars.
=Medieval=
In the Near East and throughout Europe:
- A territory of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, the Knights Hospitallers
- A territory of the Order of Teutonic Knights and other orders
- The Commandery, an historic building in the city of Worcester, England probably built by Knights Hospitallers
See also
References
= Citations =
{{Reflist}}
= Sources =
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- {{EB1911|wstitle=Commandery|volume=6|page=765}}
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