C32 



ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD OR CHIVALRY 



Frederick-William III., which received a new constitution 

 from Frederick- William IV. in 1N.VJ IM-* H<|'ITAI.LKKS>. 

 Order of t'ii-il Merit in arU and sciences was founded 

 by Frederick- William IV. in honour of the- m. mory of 

 Frederick II. (Inter f fauna wai founde.l in 1815 

 by Frederick-William ill. for women's services in war. 

 Order of Ou Hotue of HohnuMem, founded in ISM . 



RoUMANIA. The Order of tlu Star, for civil and mil! 

 tery merit, instituted by Prince Charles in 1877. Order 

 of the Crown of Jtounuinia, founded in 1881 by the king 

 of Roumania. 



RUSSIA, like Prussia, has no very ancient order*, though 

 entry into all of them creates nobility. The Onler of .S< 

 Andrew, the patron saint of Russia, founded in lli'JS by 

 Peter the Great, is the highest in the empire. It carries 

 with it the order* of St Anne, Alexamt-r .Vrui.v, and 

 St Stanutant. Badge, the Russian double-headed eagle 

 charged with St Andrew on an azure cross, and sur- 

 mounted by the imperial crown. Order of St Catharine, 

 founded by Peter the Great in honour of his consort 

 Catharine I. in 1714, is now restricted to ladies. Onler 

 of Alexander Nersky, instituted by Catharine I. in 17i5 

 in honour of Alexander, son of Jaraslov, Prince of Nov- 

 gorod (1240). It is both civil and military, the latter 

 open to no one un.lcr the rank of major general Onler 

 of St Anne, founded in 1735 by Duke Frederick Charles 

 Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp in memory of the Empress 

 Anne, and declared a Russian order in I"'J i by Paul III. 

 Order of St George, instituted in 1796 by Catharine II. 

 for officers of the anny and navy. Oi-derof at Vladimir, 

 founded by Catharine II. in 17*2 as an order of civil and 

 military merit Among other qualifications, 'whoever. 

 at the peril of hU life, saves ten lives from tire or water 

 may claim it 



The POLISH orders of the White Eatfe, an old order 

 supposed to date from 1325, 'restored' in 1807, St 

 StaniMlaui, founded by Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski 

 in 1703, and Military Merit, by Stanislaus Augustus in 

 1702 and revived at Warsaw in 1807, were in 1831 united 

 with those of Russia. 



SAXONT. The Order of the Crown of Rue was founded 

 in 1807 by King Frederick Augustus, at the suggestion of 

 Napoleon I. Order of Albert the Valorous, for merit in 

 science, art, and civil virtue, instituted by Kin : John in 

 1850. Order of St Henry, for merit on the battlefield, 

 founded by Augustus III., king of Poland ami Elector of 

 Saxony in 1739. Order of Ciril Merit, founded in 1815 

 by King Frederick Augustus on his restoration. Order 

 of Sidonia, for ladies, founded in 1870 by King John as a 

 reward for services during war. 



SKRVIA has three orders: the Double-headed White 

 Kn'jlf, founded hy Milan I. in 1883 to commemorate the 

 re-establishment of the kingdom, is conferred tor services 

 to the king or country. The Crott of TaJcovo, founded 

 in 1865 by Prince Michael, is for services to the cause 

 of Servian inde|>endencc. The Onler of St tinea, for 

 services to education, literature, or the church, was 

 instituted in IS*). 



SIAJI -The Royal Order of the White Elei>hnnt was 

 instituted in 1861, and consist* of five classes. It is the 

 ln;:lu-'t of .Siamese orders, and was accented hy the 

 Empress-Queen Victoria. Badge, a beautifully enamelled 

 white elephant, surrounded by a triple circlet of leaves 

 in yellow, red, and green enamel, and surmounted 

 by the Siamese crown. The Onler of the I'nunn, the 

 second order in Siam. instituted by the king of .Siam in 

 IHTp'.i. ( ith.-r orders are Chulafhonlai ; the &icral Onler, 

 aid to hve been instituted in 178i; and the Order of 

 Mahn <:hakrnkri, founded by the king of Siam in 1882 

 in h"ii"iir of the centenary of hut capital. 



SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICAN STATES. Braxil, prior 

 to the establishment of a republic in 1890, had f.mr 

 orders Order of Pedro (1827); Order of the Soul h-rn 

 Orou ( 1822) ; Order of the tout (1829), all intinit..d by 

 Dora Pedro I. ; and Order nf St Benedict of Ai 

 /MM of the Stmnl, awl of Chritt, taken t. Brazil when 

 a dependency of Portugal, and proclaimed as ' national ' 

 in IfttS llolivia and Peru /.,,n',,,i ( //.,,,,,,,r i ]Nii6). 



Honduras Order of .Vin( Rt'um ( 1K08). Nicaragua 



Onler of St John of Nicaragua (1857). Venezuela 



fthf fiu-t of Bolirar ( 1825). 



SPAIN. The Order of Calalrnnt wa instituted to com- 

 memorate the recovery of that town from the Moors in 

 1147. Convent* of nuns were attached to the order in 

 1-K" and in 1479. In 1623 Charles V. vested in the 



crown of Spain the grand mastership of the orders of 

 i 'Hi-it i'n i a. Alcantara, and St Janet. Badge, on a gold 

 loaenge a red fleur-de-lis cross. Order of St Jamrt ol 

 Compotttllo, founded in 1175 in honour of the relies of 

 the patron saint of Spain, believed to be preserved at 

 < ompostello. It is now purely military. Badge, a red 

 enamel sword with fleur-de-lis hilt, in an oval white 

 enamel medallion with a red border Order nf Almntura 

 (q.v.), instituted in 1177 by Pope Alexander III., but the 

 name Alcantara was only assumed in 1213 on their getting 

 possession of that place. Badge, same as Calatrava, hut 

 green. Order of Our Lady of Monteta, founded in l:U7 

 by James II. of Aragon and Valencia. The Golden 

 Fl< i re, identical with the Austrian order of the same 

 name (see GOLDEN FLEKCE). Order of Charlei the 

 Thinl, founded by that sovereign in 1771. Order of 

 Muriii Louua, founded by Charles I V. in 1 7!fJ for noble 

 ladies.' Order of St Hermenyilde, founded by Ferdinand 

 VIL in 1814 for officers of the army and navy. St 

 Ferdinand, founded by Ferdinand VII. in 1S11 for 

 military exploits, includes a class for subaltern officers 

 and soldiers. Imbella the Catholic, founded by Isabella 

 of Portugal in 1815 for defence of the American posses- 

 sions. Bentftcenciu, established by royal decree in 1856 

 for humane and useful public service. Naral Mini, 

 founded on the 'Marine Cross" of 1816, in 1806. Maria 

 Isabella Louita, instituted in 1833 to reward the lower 

 ranks of officers, in honour of the king's ' august daugh- 

 ter.' Milit'ii-n Merit, founded by Queen Maria Isabella 

 Louisa in 1864. , 



SWEDEN AND NORWAT.- Order of the Seraphim, or 

 Blue y.iW/im, of doubtful origin, but assigned to King 

 Magnus (1280), revived in 1748 by Frederick I. It has 

 twenty-four Swedish nd eight foreign knights, who must 

 not be under rank of lieutenant-general. Order of tlie 

 Sword, or Yellow Ribbon, ascribed to Gustavns Vasa and 

 revived by Frederick 1. in 1748. Order of the Pole > 

 or Black Ribbon, founded in 1748 by Frederick I. for civil 

 merit. Order of Fora, founded by Un>tavns III. on his 

 coronation in 1770 to reward services in developing the 

 natural resources of the country. It has a green ribbon. 

 Order of Chnrlc* the Thirteenth, founded by that mon- 

 arch in 1811 for freemasons of high degree. It has a red 

 ribbon. This is memorable as the only knightly onier 

 into which only freemasons are admitted. Order of St 

 iilnf, founded hy King Oscar in 1847 in memory of st 

 Olaf. who in 1015 threw off the yoke of Denmark. It 

 is open to the meritorious of all classes. Red ribbon 

 with blue and white borders. 



TURKEY. Order of the Nithani Medjidi, established by 

 Sultan Abd-nl-Medjid in 1850 for good conduct in the 

 Turkish service. It has five classes, the first having 

 fifty and the last six thousand members, not including 

 foreigners who may receive it. Nithani Otmanie, in- 

 stituted in 1802. It has four classes for services to the 

 state, military and civiL Nixhani Shefakat, instituted 

 in 1877 for ladies, to commemorate the ' Turkish Com- 

 passionate Fund' under the auspices of Baroness Burdett- 

 Coutts. 



WCuTEMBERO. Order of the Crown of Wurtembero; 

 formed in 1818 by the union of an older order with 

 Frederick I.'s Order of Ciril Merit of 1S06. It confers 

 I n r-onal nobility on civilians. Order of Frederick, a 

 military order founded by King William in 1818 in 

 honour of his father. Order nf Military Merit, in- 

 stituted in 1759 by Duke Charles Eueene. Order of 

 iiliin, for ladies, founded by King Charles X. in 1871 in 

 honour of his queen, Olga. and is bestowed for special 

 service in the field, for both sexes. 



In addition there are many minor governments which 

 have orders. Hawaii has three, Kame/tamaha (1865), 

 Kiil-ibiua (1874), and Knpiolani (date uncertain). 

 Abyssinia, Cambodia, Liberia, Zanzibar, ic. have one 

 each. 



A complete account of all the orders, fully illustrated, 

 with a cnmp'ete bibliography of the subject, will be 

 found in Order* nf Cliinilru, \>y Major J. H. Lawrence- 

 Archer (Lond. 1887), to which work we arc indebted for 

 much of our information. See also Elias Ashmole, 

 'linn "f tin Barter mid other Military Order* 

 (Ifi'W)j Clark's Hittory of the Orders of Knighthood 

 17MI; Hansen, The Oi-deri of Europe (IfKtt); Carlisle, 

 'ii Order* of Kniitlitlinod (1839); Nicholas, Hittory 

 nf Britith Order* of Knighthood (1842); Sir Bernard 

 Burke, Itovk of Hie Order* of Knighthood (1858). 



