Chivalric order

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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.

Contents

[edit] 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
    7. the Order of the Holy Spirit, in France
    8. the Order of the Thistle of Scotland
    9. the Order of Saint Stephen, Tuscany, founded by Cosimo de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1561
    10. the Order of Saint Joseph, Tuscany
  1. Confraternal Orders:
  2. 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 (13771385)
    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 (14161422), subsequently converted into the Confraternal order of Saint Hubert (see above).
  3. 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.
  4. 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
  5. 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)

[edit] Modern orders

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] 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.