HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD. 
eeenends ‘king of Poland, his cousin, 
solemnly invested him with the sovereignty 
of that country. This event took place at 
Cracow, on the 5th of April 1525; and thus 
russia became a_ possession of the house of 
Brandenburg. From that period it has been 
denominated Ducal Prussia: and Frederic 
the III. margrave of Brandenburg, and elec- 
tor of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1701 pro- 
cured the same to be erected into a kingdom, 
the Emperor Leopold the first, having grant- 
ed an Imperiz! concession to that effect. 
«* In the mean time, Walter de Kronberg, 
the new elected grand master, retired to Mer- 
géntheim in Franconia, and stiled himself 
administrator of the grand mastership in 
Prussia, and master of the Teutonic Eques- 
trian order, in the countries of Germany, 
Italy, and their dependencies. As such he 
was recognised as a sovereign prince of the 
empire ; was likewise received as a member 
of the circle of Franconia ; and the order has 
enjoyed these dignities to this day. 
** In 1790 the possessions of this order were 
' divided into 11 bailiwicks : viz. 1 Alsace; 2 
Austria; 3 Tyrol; 4 Coblentz; 5 Franco- 
nia; 6 Biesen; 7 Westphalia ; and 8 Lor- 
_ saine; which are of the roman catholic com- 
munion : and g Hesse; 10 Thuringia; and 
11 Saxony ; which three last are of the Lu- 
‘theran faith. But such protestants as are 
admitted, must in all other respects conform 
to the statutes of the order ; and attend the 
on ter at Mergentheim, whensoever it is 
held. 
__ The Emperor Joseph IT. diminished very 
considerably the pessessions of the order, si- 
_ tuated in his states: and the late treaty of 
“Laneville must have deprived it of two 
geeeeipal bailiwicks ; those of Alsace and 
- Lorraine. 
.,__‘* The present grand master, is his Royal 
‘Highness the Archduke Charles Louis, se- 
cond brother of the reigning emperor of 
tmany, born September the 5th, 1771. 
e succeeded to that dignity upon the death 
his uncle the late elector of Cologne.” 
It appears from the extract Which we 
ve just made, that the compiler of 
ese volumes gives an account of the 
nsignia of the different orders of knight- 
food now existing in Europe, and the 
“origin of them ; the ceremonies of in- 
" Westiture are generally added, their con- 
stitution, and present state of decadence 
orsplendour, &c. &c. &c. The number 
of orders now existing is sixty-six : three 
ithem aré chapteral, which elect their 
grand masters; one papal; eight 
ial; thirty-two royal; five elec- 
and archiepiscopal ; thirteen ducal 
eels and four destined particu- 
r 
Aotice,”” says the editor, that “* England 
y for the fair sex. “It is worthy of 
659.» 
is the only country: wherein there isyno 
established military order, as in the He- . 
reditary Imperial States, in Russia, in 
France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Nas 
ples, Savoy, Prussia, Florence, the 
Duchy of Wirtemburg, Hesse ‘Cassel, 
and several other states of the Empire: 
nor any for artists, as at Rome, in | 
France, and in Sweden, where sciences 
and the liberal arts haye,not been over. 
looked.” This is an unaccountable 
mistake to have made, since the Order 
of the Bath was instituted by Richard 
the second, as a military order, and the 
,author himself says, in another part of 
the work, that “it is almost equally 
distributed amongst, or conferred upon, 
the most deserving members of the di- 
plomatic corps: general . officers who 
have served with reputation, and naval 
commanders, whose valour and achieves 
ments, independent of court intrigue, © 
minisierial favour, or parliamentary 
preponderance, have obtained for them ° 
this mark of sovereign beneficence.’” 
In the united empire, no one who is an - 
officer in the army or navy, or who ene . 
joys any post under the crown, or in 
virtue of the king’s commission : under 
the sign manual, can accept any foreign 
order, without a royal warrant or! per- 
mission being first obtained, and’ duly ” 
registered in his majesty’s College of ” 
Arms. At present this fayour is - 
never refused, but in former times a - 
more jealous conduct was pursued: our ‘ 
editor has related an anecdote of Eliza. 
beth from the account of M..de Wic- 
quefort. “ Henry the fourth of France 
having given the Order of St. Mi- 
chael to Nicholas Clifford and» An- 
thony Shirley, as a reward for the ser- 
vices they had done him during the 
war; these two gentlemen returning to 
England, the queen ordered them to be 
put in prison, and commanded them 
to send back the order, and to take 
proper steps that their names should- 
be erased from the'régister.”” She said, 
“ that as a chaste spouse should look 
only on her husband, so ought a subject 
to look up to that sovereign whom God 
has established to reign over him. I 
will not allow,” said the queen, “ that 
my sheep be marked with a stranger’s 
mark, nor that they follow the whistle 
of a foreign shepherd !”? See “ L’Am- 
bassadeur et ses fonctions par M. de 
Wicqucfort, p. 99. Sec. ix, Liv, 2 
de Pedition de Cologne 1689, 
Ur2 : 
