This knight is depicted in his ceremonial robes, with Cistercian scarlet cross on the breast of his cloak.. The Order of Alcantara was a Spanish military order established in 1176. Originally known as the Knights of St. Julian de Pereiro, after a hermit of the country of Salamanca, they are first acknowledged as a military order by a privilege of Pope Celestine III in 1197. They accepted the Cistercian rule and costume, a white mantle with the scarlet overcross. The Knights of Alcántara, under their new name, acquired many castles and estates, for the most part at the expense of the Moslems. They amassed great wealth from booty during the war and from pious donations.. Handcolored copperplate engraving of a knight from a religious military order from Robert von Spalart's "Historical Picture of the Costumes of the Principal People of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages" (1796).