Disputes over the priorship of the Knights of St. John in Castile during the 14th and 15th centuries

The struggles for the priory of St. John were very frequent in Castile in the late Middle Ages. Many powers wanted to nominate candidates for this post: the Castilian monarchy, the nobility, the papacy and the master of Rhodes. The king unsuccessfully tried to choose the priors in the first half of the fourteenth century. Afterwards there were many quarrels amongst the Castilian Hospitallers for that office. Finally, the king managed to impose his men in the priory. However, he did not manage to incorporate it formally to join it to the Crown, as he did with the masterships of the Spanish Military Orders. The prior of St. John was usually a person from the lower aristocracy in the fourteenth century. Conversely, the position began to be occupied by younger sons of important lineages of the high Castilian nobility.