ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 187 



The ancient Danish decoration, the "Order of the Ele- 

 phant," dates from the time of King Christian I, who is 

 beheved by many to have instituted it at his coronation 

 in 1457. His wife. Queen Dorothea, was one of the few 

 women who have received this decoration, which has, in- 

 deed, been so closely confined to personages of royal birth 

 that, in 1907, out of eighty-seven members seventy-six were 

 of royal blood and only two were Danes. For a long period 

 after the institution of this order, the number of members 

 was limited to fifty, and the original foundation was of a 

 pronouncedly religious character. 



As first awarded, the decoration was a chain formed 

 of interlinked elephants, this chain supporting a larger 

 elephant figure as pendant, often adorned with a setting 

 of diamonds or other precious stones, the splendour and value 

 of the insignia differing, of course, in accordance with the 

 rank of the recipient. At a later date the order assumed 

 a purely secular character, and at present the decoration 

 consists of a white elephant in enamel, with a tower on its 

 back, and bearing a royal plaque with a white cross in the 

 centre on a red background; this may either be worn sus- 

 pended from a gold chain or from a scarf or band of blue 

 watered silk. The choice of the elephant as the emblem on 

 this decoration was due to the traditional belief in the 

 docility, sobriety, and even the piety of this animal. 



Because of its romantic interest we must regret that the 

 strict canons of historical criticism forbid us to accept the 

 recital according to which this Danish order owed its origin 

 to a feat of arms executed during the crusades. The story 

 ran that the Order of the Elephant* was founded by King 

 Canute IV of Denmark, in the twelfth century, to com- 



*A representation of this order, showing the interlinked elephants with the pendant 

 elephant, is given in Salmonsen's "Store lUustreredeKonversationslexikon," Kjobenhavn, 

 1896, Vol. V, p. 882. 



