chivalric order: Information and Much More from Answers.com

Chivalric Orders were created by European monarchs after the failure of the Crusades. The memory of the crusading military orders became idealized and romanticized, resulting in the late medieval notion of chivalry, and is reflected in the Arthurian romances of the time.

Later Medieval Europe

D'Arcy Boulton (1987) classifies other chivalric orders of the 14th and 15th centuries into the following categories:

1.Monarchical Orders, with the presidency attached to a monarch.

1. the Order of Saint George, founded by Charles I of Hungary in 1325/6
2. the Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III of England in ca. 1348
3. the Order of the Most Holy Annunciation, founded by Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy in 1362.
4. the Order of the Dragon, founded in 1408 by Sigismund of Hungary
5. the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1430
6. the Order of St Michel, founded by Louis XI of France in 1469

post-medieval foundations are the Order of Saint Stephen (1561), the Order of the Holy Spirit (1578), the Order of the Thistle (1687) and the Order of Saint Joseph(1807)

2. Confraternal Orders:

• Princely Orders, founded by princes; most of these were founded in imitation of the Golden Fleece, after 1430.
  1. Order of Saint Catherine, founded by Humbert, Dauphin du Viennois in ca. 1335
  2. Order of St. Anthony, founded by Albrecht I of Bavaria in 1384
  3. Society of the Eagle, founded by Albrecht von Habsburg in 1433
  4. Society of Our Lady (also known as the Order of the Swan), founded by Friedrich II of Brandenburg in 1440
  5. Order of Saint Hubert, founded by Gerhard V of Jülich and Berg in 1444
  6. Order of the Crescent, founded by René d'Anjou in 1448
  7. Society of Saint Jerome, founded by Friedrich II of Wettin in 1450
• Baronial Orders, like the Order of Saint Hubert (Barrois, (1422)) and the Noble Order of Saint George of Rougemont Also called Confraternity of Saint-Georges of Burgundy (Franche-Comté, 1440)

3. Fraternal Orders, formed ad-hoc for a certain enterprise

1. the Compagnie of the Black Swan, founded by 3 princes and 11 knights in Savoy (1350)
2. the Corps et Ordre du Tiercelet, founded by the vicomte de Thouars and 17 barons in Poitou (1377–1385)
3. Ordre de la Pomme d'Or, founded by 14 knights in Auvergne (1394)
4. Alliance et Compagnie du Levrier, founded by 44 knights in the Barrois (1416–1422), subsequently converted into the Confraternal order of Saint Hubert (see above).

4. Votive Orders, 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

1. Emprise de l'Escu vert à la Dame Blanche (Enterprise of the green shield with the white lady), founded by Jean Le Maingre dit Boucicaut and 12 knights in 1399 for the duration of 5 years
2. Emprise du Fer de Prisonnier (Enterprise of the Prisoner's Iron), founded by Jean de Bourbon and 16 knights in 1415 for the duration of 2 years
3. Emprise de la gueule de dragon (Enterprise of the Dragon's Mouth), founded by Jean comte de Foix in 1446 for 1 year.

5. Cliental Pseudo-Orders, without statutes or restricted memberships, these were princes' retinues fashionably termed "orders"

1. Ordre de la Cosse de Genêt (Order of the Broom-Pod), founded by Charles VI of France ca. 1388
2. Order of the camail or Porcupine, created by Louis d'Orléans in 1394
3. Order of the Dove, Castile, 1390
4. Order of the Scale of Castile, ca. 1430

6. Honorific Pseudo-Orders, without statutes, these were honorific insignia bestowed on knights on festive occasions, consisting of nothing but the badge

1. Order of the Holy Sepulchre, bestowed to knights who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, since the 15th century.
2. Knights of Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai, similar to the above, bestowed from the 11th to the 15th century
3. Order of the Golden Spur, a papal order
4. Knights of the Bath, in England. (recreated in 1725)

Modern orders

• the Order of the Elephant, Denmark, founded by Christian I in 1693
• the Order of St. Andrew, Russia, founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1698
• The Order of the Seraphim, Sweden, founded by Frederick I in 1748
• The Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary, founded by Empress Maria Theresa in 1764
• The Order of Saint Stanislas, Poland, founded by the last native King of Poland, Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski, on May 8th 1765
• The Order of St. George the Triumphant, founded in 1769 by Catherine the Great of the Russian Empire
• The Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav, founded on 21 August 1847 by King Oscar I of Norway
• The Order of the British Empire, United Kingdom, founded in 1917
• The Royal Norwegian Order of Merit, founded in 1985 by King Olav V of Norway

Modern orders no longer in existence

• The Order of the Iron Helmet of Hesse-Kassel (in present-day Germany), founded 1814
• The Wilhelmsorden (Order of Wilhelm) of Hesse-Kassel, founded 1851, abolished 1875
• The Ludewigsorden (Order of Louis) of the [Grand Duchy of Hesse]], founded 1807, abolished 1918
• The Order of the Norwegian Lion, founded 1904, abolished 1952

See also

• Knight
• Chivalry
• Order (decoration)
• titles (false)

External links

• History of Orders of Chivalry: A Survey
• Fake titles

Literature

• D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre Boulton, The knights of the crown : the monarchical orders of knighthood in later medieval Europe, 1325–1520, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, Palgrave Macmillan (February 1987). ISBN 0-312-45842-8. Second revised edition (paperback): Woodbridge, Suffolk and Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2000.
• Richard W. Kaeuper, Elspeth Kennedy, Geoffroi De Carny, The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi De Charny: Text, Context, and Translation, University of Pennsylvania Press (December, 1996). ISBN 0-8122-1579-6.