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The orders in the Holy Land were often the recipients of many donations, often in the form of estates, in all of Europe. As a result, they had to create a structure to administer these estates locally (a commendator was originally a trustee of such an estate, word later corrupted into commander). Thus, orders such as Malta, Saint-Lazarus and others became by nature far-flung, with estates and their administrators in various European countries, and the Order itself in the Middle East.
After the final expulsion of the Franks from Palestine in 1291, these orders either found new bases and activities, or else fell into oblivion. Naturally, their vast estates represented tempting targets, either for outright confiscation (the Order of the Temple was abolished by the Pope in 1312 at the instigation of the French king just for that reason; likewise, Henry VIII confiscated the estates of Malta in England), or else simply subjection of the order to the local sovereign so that its estates could be used as a source of favors and pensions. This was in essence the fate of the Order of Saint-Lazarus. Only Malta managed to survive through the ages, although by the 20th century it had lost its estates everywhere except in Austria.
To the category of military-monastic can also be added the Teutonic Knights (Deutscher Orden) and the Orders in Spain (Calatrava, Alcantara, Santiago, Montesa), which represented analogs of the crusading spirit deployed in the colonization of Eastern Europe or the Reconquista of Spain on the Muslims.
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