Order of chivalry


An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is a society, fellowship and college of knights, typically founded during or inspired by the original Christian military orders of the Crusades and paired with medieval concepts of ideals of chivalry.
Since the 15th century, orders of chivalry, often as dynastic orders, began to be established in a more courtly fashion than could be created ad hoc. These orders would often retain the notion of being a confraternity, society or other association of members, but some of them were ultimately purely honorific and consisted of a medal decoration. In fact, these decorations themselves often came to be known informally as orders. These institutions in turn gave rise to the modern-day orders of merit of sovereign states.

Overview

An order of knights is a community of knights composed by order rules with the main purpose of an ideal or charitable task. The original ideal lay in monachus et miles, who in the order – – is dedicated to a Christian purpose. The first orders of knights were religious orders that were founded to protect and guide pilgrims to the Holy Land. The knightly orders were characterized by an order-like community life in poverty, obedience and chastity, which was linked with charitable tasks, armed pilgrimage protection and military action against external and occasionally internal enemies of Christianity. Examples are the Knights Templar, Knights of the Holy Sepulchre officially called The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, founded in 1090, the Order of St. John and the Order of Malta. These communities only became orders in the sense of canon law through papal recognition of their own binding rules of order and through the dissolution of ecclesiastical diocesan organizations.
In addition to the religious orders of knights, courtly orders of knights emerged in many European royal houses from the middle of the 14th century. This enabled the monarchs and princes to create a reliable household power independent of the church and to combine their court life with knightly virtues. During this time, the Burgundian court culture was leading and so the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded there in 1430, was for many a model in the sense of a princely order based on the ideals of Christian chivalry.
In the course of time, many orders of knights have been dissolved due to a lack of people or the field of activity has changed. So in many areas the charitable aspect and nursing came to the fore. There were also dissolutions for political reasons, such as the Knights Templar in 1312 or many orders of knights as opposition by Nazi Germany. While the Knights Templar was not re-established, some orders were reactivated after the end of World War II and the fall of the Iron Curtain.
There are repeated attempts to revive or restore old orders of knights. Often, old knight orders are used today to honor personalities. For example, the British Queen Elizabeth II regularly appointed new members to the Order of the British Empire in the 21st century. In Central Europe, for example, the Order of St. George, whose roots also go back to the so-called "last knight" Emperor Maximilian I, was reactivated by the House of Habsburg after its dissolution by Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, to this day, deserved personalities in republican France are highlighted by being awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour. In contrast, the knights of the ecclesiastical orders of knights such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Order of St. John mainly devote themselves to social tasks, nursing and care.

Terminology

Holy See

The Secretariat of the State of the Holy See – medieval pioneer of the original military orders – distinguishes orders in the following manner:
  • State orders or orders of merit: order of a sovereign state, rewarding military or civil merits of citizens, legally based on the sovereignty of their states
  • Pontifical equestrian orders
  • * collazioni diretti: conferred by the Pope
  • * subcollazioni: under the protection of the Holy See
  • Sovereign orders: the only extant one in this category is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, an international sovereign entity
  • Dynastic orders of a sovereign royal dynasty, either an active "dynastic state order", otherwise a "non-national dynastic order", as the head of a formerly reigning royal house operating under ius collationis, typically approved by Papal bulls in the case of older origins

    Sansovino

In Dell'origine dei Cavalieri, the Italian scholar Francesco Sansovino distinguished knights and their respective societies in three main categories:
Over time, the above division became no longer sufficient, and heraldic science distinguished orders into: hereditary, military, religious and fees.

Boulton

In a more generous distribution proposed in The Knights in the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Late Medieval Europe, the Canadian heraldist D'Arcy Boulton classifies chivalric orders as follows:
Based on Boulton, this article distinguishes:
  • Chivalric orders by time of foundation:
  • * Medieval chivalric orders: foundation of the order during the Middle Ages or the Renaissance
  • * Modern chivalric orders: foundation after 1789
  • Chivalric orders by religion:
  • * Catholic chivalric orders: membership exclusively for members of the Catholic Church
  • * Orthodox chivalric orders: blessed by the heads of Orthodox churches
  • * Protestant chivalric orders: blessed by the heads of Protestant churches
  • Chivalric orders by purpose:
  • * Monarchical chivalric orders: foundation by a monarch who is a fount of honour; either ruling or not
  • * Confraternal chivalric orders: foundation by a nobleman, either high nobility or low nobility
  • * Fraternal chivalric orders: founded for a specific purpose only
  • * Votive chivalric orders: founded for a limited period of time only by members who take a vow
  • * Honorific chivalric orders: consist only of honorific insignia bestowed on knights on festive occasions, consisting of nothing but the badge
  • * Self-styled orders: self-proclaimed imitation-orders without statutes or restricted memberships

    Military orders by time

Another occurrent chronological categorisation is into:

Monarchical orders

Late medieval monarchical orders (14th and 15th centuries)

Late medieval monarchical orders are orders of chivalry with the presidency attached to a monarch.
Confraternal orders are orders of chivalry with the presidency attached to a nobleman:

Princely orders

Princely orders were founded by noblemen of higher rank. Most of these were founded in imitation of the Order of the Golden Fleece, after 1430.
Baronial orders were founded by noblemen of lower rank.
Fraternal orders are orders of chivalry that were formed off a vow & for a certain enterprise.
Votive orders are orders of chivalry, temporarily formed on the basis of a vow. These were courtly chivalric games rather than actual pledges as in the case of the fraternal orders. Three are known from their statutes:
Cliental pseudo-orders are not orders of chivalry and were princes' retinues fashionably termed orders. They are without statutes or restricted memberships:
Honorific orders were honorific insignia consisting of nothing but the badge:
Together with the monarchical chivalric orders these honorific orders are the prime ancestors of the modern-day orders of knighthood which are orders of merit in character.
The distinction between these orders and decorations is somewhat vague, except that these honorific orders still implied membership in a group. Decorations have no such limitations and are awarded purely to recognize the merit or accomplishments of the recipient. Both orders and decorations often come in multiple classes.

Influence

The orders have influenced organizations which are completely separate and distinct from them. Since at least the 18th century, Freemasonry has incorporated symbols and rituals of several medieval military orders in a number of Masonic bodies, most notably, in the "Cross of Constantine">Christian cross">Cross of Constantine", the "Order of Malta", and the "Order of the Temple", the latter two featuring prominently in the York Rite.

Modern orders

Most orders created since the late 17th century were no longer societies and fellowships of knights who followed a common mission but were established by monarchs or governments with the specific purpose of bestowing honours on deserving individuals. In most European monarchies, these new orders retained some outward forms from the medieval orders of chivalry but were in essence orders of merit, mainly distinguished from their republican counterparts by the fact that members were entitled to a title of nobility. While some orders required noble birth, others would confer a title upon appointment while in yet other orders only the top classes were considered knights. Orders of merit which still confer privileges of knighthood are sometimes referred to as orders of knighthood. As a consequence of being not an order of chivalry but orders of merit or decorations, some republican honours have thus avoided the traditional structure found in medieval orders of chivalry and created new ones instead, e.g. the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria, or the Legion of Merit of the United States.

List of current orders

File:Aristide Michel Perrot - Collection historique des ordres de chevalerie civils et militaires pl. XVII.JPG|thumb|Spanish orders of chivalry. In the centre, the Order of the Golden Fleece, 1820
Following the example set by the French Legion of Honour, founded by Napoleon, most multi-level European orders comprise five ranks or classes. The highest is usually called the Grand Cross, then descending with varying titles. Alternatively, the ranks are referred to by number. Typical rankings are:
ClassCommon names
IGrand Cross, Commander Grand Cross, Grand Cordon, Grand Collar
IIGrand Officer, Commander 1st Class, Grand Commander, Knight Commander, Knight Companion, Commander with Star
IIICommander, Commander 2nd Class, Companion
IVOfficer, Knight 1st Class, Member 1st Class
VKnight, Knight 2nd Class, Chevalier, Cavaliere, Member

Each of these ranks wear insignia, usually badge on a ribbon. Typically these insignia are worn from a sash in the case of the senior ranks, around the neck for the middle ranks, and on the left chest for the lower grades. Many orders use insignia in the form of a cross, but there may also be stars, and military awards may have crossed swords added onto the insignias. Ladies may wear the badge on a bow on the left chest. In orders following the example set by the French Legion of Honour, the two highest classes also wear a star on the chest. In special cases the senior class may wear the badge on a collar, which is an elaborate chain around the neck.
In certain countries with feudal heritage the higher ranks may have vestments proper to them, including a robe or mantle and a hat. An example of such a modern-day order is the Order of the British Empire.
The French Legion of Honour democratised the honour systems of orders of chivalry and merit in the sense of formally omitting both the expectations of nobility on admittees while also no further implying the same status on previously non-noble conferees. Yet some orders may still expect noble ancestry on the part of recipients, such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and those of the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem. Others may continue to imply conferral of nobility on any admittee, whether hereditary or personal, such as in some of the cases of dynastic orders conferred by the House of Bavaria or the House of Imperial Russia.

Self-styled orders

claim to be chivalric orders but are actually private membership organisations that have not been created by a state or a reigning monarch. The answer to the question of whether an order is legitimate or not varies from nation to nation, François Velde wrote an "order of knighthood is legitimate if it is defined as legal, recognized and acknowledged as such by a sovereign authority. Within its borders, a sovereign state does as it pleases. Most, if not all, modern states have honorific orders and decorations of some kind, and those are sometimes called orders of knighthood." Exactly what makes one order legitimate and another self-styled or false is a matter of debate with some arguing that any monarch or even the descendants of such can create an order while others assert that only a government with actual internationally recognized authority has such power. Historically, nobility and knights have also formed Orders of Knighthood. The Noble Order of Saint George of Rougemont is a Baronial Order and the Ordre de la Pomme d'Or was founded by 14 knights in Auvergne in 1394.