Praelatus sive magnatus: Hospitaller priors among the ecclesiastical elites of the Kingdom of Navarre in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

Abstract

Prelates or magnates? Spiritual or temporal lords? Scholars who study the relationship between the Order of Saint John and the monarchy usually ask these questions about the status of the Hospitaller priors among the elites in their respective realms. This paper aims to look into this matter in the Kingdom of Navarre in the Late Middle Ages. This issue became a bone of contention between the prior of Canons regular of Roncesvalles on the one hand and the prior of Saint John on the other as early as the sixteenth century. This feud and the arguments that both sides gave for and against their claim have been used as a starting point for examining the courtly position of Hospitaller priors during the preceding two hundred years. The present study is based on analysing records of royal ceremonies and acts that provide valuable information about ritual communication in public space, where precedence reflected not only the kingdom’s symbolic, institutional order, but also set the stage for political action.