Order of Mountjoy

{{Short description|Historical military order during the Crusades}}

{{more footnotes|date=February 2013}}

{{Infobox order

|title=Order of Mountjoy
Orden de Monte Gaudio

|image=Cross of order of mountjoy.svg

|caption=The order emblem

|image2=

|caption2=

|type=Catholic military order

|date=1180

|house=

|religion=Catholic

|head2_title=

|head2=

|notes=

}}

The Order of Mountjoy ({{langx|es|Orden de Monte Gaudio}}, also known as the Order of Trufac{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}) was a military order during the crusades.

The order of Montjoie is mentioned in the 13th century as having been founded for the purpose of protecting Christian pilgrims in Iberian Peninsula.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} Established c. 1180, it was merged with the Order of Calatrava in 1221.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

The order was founded by Galician count Rodrigo Álvarez in the kingdom of Aragon, specifically in the castle of Alfambra in 1174,{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} and then established in the Holy Land at the time of the Third Crusade.{{dubious|date=November 2018}}

"a society of gentlemen, who devoted themselves to the protection of Monte Gioia, or Mont Joie [...] According to some writers, the badge was a red cross, like that of the Knights Templars; others, that it was a red star of five points placed on a white mantle; but Palliott is positive that it was a white cross of five rays, and that their mantle was red."

William Berry, Encyclopædia Heraldica: Or, Complete Dictionary of Heraldry (1828).

Rodrigo was from the order of Santiago, and had already established the order in Castile and Aragon before establishing it in the kingdom of Jerusalem in the tower of Ascalon. The headquarters of the order in Jerusalem was situated on Montjoie, the hill where the original crusaders had first seen Jerusalem, hence its name ("mountain of joy", mons gaudii in Latin, Mont de joie in French, contracted in Montjoie{{dubious|date=November 2018}}).{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

The rule of the order was adapted from the Cistercian rule, and was entirely a Spanish{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} order. The emblem of the order was a red and white cross.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

A number of knights from the order fought at the Battle of Hattin in 1187, but none of them survived.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

Discontentment with the leadership of the master Fralmo in 1196 led to the establishment of a new Order of Monfragüe in Castile while the Aragonese element of the order was merged with Templars. In 1221 Ferdinand III of Castile joined the order of Monfragüe to the Order of Calatrava.

The Order of Montesa, established 1317, was inspired partly by the suggestion to re-establish Montjoie after the suppression of the Templars.