In Spain and Portugal the fight against the Moors who since the eighth century had conquered large sections of the Iberian peninsula prompted the founding of a considerable number of military religious orders. The chief ones in Spain were the Order of Calatrava (founded in 1158 and approved by Pope Alexander III in 1164) which absorbed the smaller orders of Montjoie (1180) and Montfrac (1198), the Order of Alcantara (1156), the Order of Santiago (1175) and the Order of Our Lady of Monteza (1319). Those in Portugal were the Order of Saint Benedict of Avis, previously known as the Order of the Knights of Evora (1146), the short-lived Ala Order, so called after the wing of Archangel Michael, and the Order of Christ (1318).[22] They were all founded in the second half of the twelfth century, except the Order of Christ and that of Monteza which originated more than a century later. The origin of several of these institutions is identified with the problem of finding a suitable garrison for frontier fortresses. When a king had captured a Moorish stronghold, he would evidently look around for some reliable soldiers to whom he could entrust his conquest. For instance, after the Castilian kings Alphonso III and Sancho III had conquered the Moorish fortress Calatrava in the Mancha, they entrusted the defense of this citadel to the Cistercian Abbot Raymond of Fiteiro, and soon numerous knights and soldiers rallied around the abbot for the protection of this bastion against the Moors. Thus the Order of Calatrava came into existence. The members took the rule and the habit of Citeaux and elected a grand master in 1164. A few years later the order severed connections with the Cistercians and was approved by several Popes as an autonomous regular military order. As the Moors were gradually forced back toward the south, the order changed headquarters several times; one of its residences was Montsalvat which acquired some fame in literature as the locale of many romances of chivalry. The Orders of Avis and Alcantara were established for the same purpose as that of Calatrava, namely the defense of the boundaries between Spain and Moorish territory.