ORDERS OF CHIVALRY

 

“Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry Is never past; so long as there is a wrong left underexposed on earth”

Charles Kingsley quotes (British Anglican Clergyman, Teacher and Writer whose novels, widely read in the Victorian era, influenced social developments in Britain. 1819-1875)

The first Orders of Chivalry were formed during the 12th Century. The first of these was the Military Order of Malta. From this Order, others were formed such as the Order of Saint John (Knights Hospitaller) in 1080, the Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem (Knights Templar) in 1119, the Order of Saint Lazarus in 1100, and the Order of Saint Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem (Teutonic Knights) in 1190.

These orders were groups of Knights who banded together to create their own fraternal organization. These organizations were either sponsored by the Monarch of their home countries, or by the Pope (who is a sovereign power of himself). Each member of their organizations typically took vows and in essence became warrior monks.

 In 1291, when the last stronghold of Christendom fell to the Arabs, the missions of the Orders of Chivalry became obsolete. They now had neither hospitals to run, pilgrims to protect, or mission to achieve. Some Orders, like the Teutonic Knights, survived because they had already settled in eastern Europe. Others, like the Knights Hospitaller, conquered Malta and became a naval power and continued to wage war against the Arabs and later the Turks. Yet others, like the Knights Templar, tried to make a transition to become bankers (they also tried to merge with the Order of Saint John). However, because of their wealth, the French Monarchy falsely accused them of heresy and successfully disbanded the Order in 1312.

The Templar’s' existence was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. Rumors about the Templar’s' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, took advantage of the situation. In 1307, many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312. The abrupt disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends, which have kept the "Templar" name alive into the modern day.

The Sovereign Military Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, also known as the Order of Malta, the Order of St John of Jerusalem, or simply the Hospitallers, is a unique international confraternity. It is the only organization currently recognized, albeit by a minority of states, as quasi-sovereign. The Order of Malta is now dedicated to medical and charitable activities. The Teutonic Order became a simple religious order in 1929. The Order of Saint Lazarus split into two factions with one being protected by the French Crown and one protected by the House of Savoyard. The French faction was abolished by Louis XVI in 1791. There are many organizations today that claim to be descended from each of these orders.

Between 1335 and 1400, there was a rise in Monarchical Orders of Chivalry. Some of these orders still exist today. For example the Order of the Garter is an Order of Chivalry created by the British Crown. Over time, with the development of new ways to wage war, the Knights profession transformed into the modern soldier. With new technologies and the need for vast numbers of highly trained soldiers, the title of Knight became primarily honorific by the mid 1500's. By this time, only the Order of the Garter in England, the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain, the Order of Annunziata in Savoy, and the Order of Saint Michael in France remained.

Because knighthood was more of a professional association, knights were not necessarily nobles. The noble class and the knightly class began to merge in the 12th century. In the 13th century heredity enters into the knightly class, and more and more nobles were being knighted, to include royalty, for example Louis VI. With heredity being a part of knighthood, a son of a knight automatically became a squire and eligible for knighthood. By the late 13th century, laws were also enacted which greatly imposed restrictions on who could become a knight, for example the Parliament in Paris forbade a count from making un free men knights without the approval of the king. In England, anyone who held land in a knight's fee could pay a tax if they did not want to become a soldier. Also, as an interesting note, knighthood in England did not become a hereditary class, as in the rest of Europe.

Chivalric orders are orders of knights that were created by European monarchs in imitation of the military orders of the Crusades. After the crusades, the memory of these 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.

Chivalric Terminology. "The terms are often confused, and often needlessly distinguished. The term knighthood comes from the English word knight (from Old English cniht, boy, servant, cf. German Knecht) while chivalry comes from the French chevalerie, from chevalier or knight (Low Latin caballus for horse). In modern English, chivalry means the ideals, virtues, or characteristics of knights. The phrases "orders of chivalry" and "orders of knighthood" are essentially synonymous.

The German translation for "knight" is Ritter (literally, rider). The Latin term in the Middle Ages was miles, since a knight was by definition a professional soldier. In modern times, the Classical Latin term eques was preferred."

Chivalry was a feature of the High and later Middle Ages in Western Europe. While its roots stretch back to the 9th and 10th centuries, the system of chivalry flourished most vigorously in the 12th and 13th centuries before deteriorating at the end of the Middle Ages. However, the ideals of chivalry continued to influence models of behavior for gentlemen and the nobility during the Renaissance in the 16th century.

Chivalric ethics originated chiefly in France and Spain and spread rapidly to the rest of the Continent and to England. They represented a fusion of Christian and military concepts of morality and still form the basis of gentlemanly conduct. Noble youths became pages in the castles of other nobles at the age of 7; at 14 they trained as squires in the service of knights, learning horsemanship and military techniques, and were themselves knighted, usually at 21.

The ideal of militant knighthood was greatly enhanced by the Crusades . The monastic orders of knighthood, the Knights Templars and the Knights Hospitalers , produced soldiers sworn to uphold the Christian ideal. Besides the battlefield, the tournament was the chief arena in which the virtues of chivalry could be proved. The code of chivalrous conduct was worked out with great subtlety in the courts of love that flourished in France and in Flanders. There the most arduous questions of love and honor were argued before the noble ladies who presided (see courtly love ). The French military hero Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard , was said to be the last embodiment of the ideals of chivalry.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CRUSADES

The early Middle Ages had been a chaotic time in Europe. The Crusades were military expeditions undertaken by Christian knights to recapture from Muslim control the holy places of pilgrimage in Palestine, or the Holy Land. Although many knights enlisted in search of financial gain, military glory, and adventure, many were also moved by genuine religious enthusiasm. This enthusiasm was reflected in the founding of the military religious orders-the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights, and the Hospitalers. The members of these orders took religious vows and shared a common vision of recapturing the Holy Land for Christianity. These orders helped infuse chivalry with religious idealism.

The chief chivalric virtues were piety, honor, valor, courtesy, chastity, and loyalty. The knight's loyalty was due to the spiritual master, God; to the temporal master, the suzerain; and to the mistress of the heart, his sworn love. Love, in the chivalrous sense, was largely platonic; as a rule, only a virgin or another man's wife could be the chosen object of chivalrous love. With the cult of the Virgin Mary, the relegation of noblewomen to a pedestal reached its highest expression.

 In practice, chivalric conduct was never free from corruption, increasingly evident in the later Middle Ages. Courtly love often deteriorated into promiscuity and adultery and pious militancy into barbarous warfare. Moreover, the chivalric duties were not owed to those outside the bounds of feudal obligation. The outward trappings of chivalry and knighthood declined in the 15th cent., by which time wars were fought for victory and individual valor was irrelevant. Artificial orders of chivalry, such as the Order of the Golden Fleece (1423), were created by rulers to promote loyalty; tournaments became ritualized, costly, and comparatively bloodless; the traditions of knighthood became obsolete.

 

(Emperor Franz Joseph in the robes of the Grand Master of the Most Illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece, one of the grandest orders of chivalry in the Empire and dedicated to St Maurice)

THE LEGACY OF CHIVALRY

In the 15th and 16th centuries, chivalric ideals and customs continued to survive among the European nobility. By this time their importance consisted largely of keeping alive the memory of the knight's warrior tradition and in serving as a mark of the nobility's social distinction. At the same time, literary figures throughout Europe began to utilize the code of chivalry to serve as a model for the nobility and gentlemen at court.

In Renaissance Italy, Baldassare Castiglione used his Book of the Courtier, published in 1528, to fashion his advice for men and women at court based on knightly etiquette. In the two centuries that followed, many writers fashioned similar advice for both courtiers and worldly gentlemen. By the beginning of the 19th century, the figure of the knight had become romanticized. Writers saw the knight as pioneering the concept of romantic love and representing the highest expression of Christian ideals and civility.

In the 19th century, romantic authors like Sir Walter Scott began to attribute modern manners to medieval knights. Their work shows the ongoing adaptation and vigor of the concept of chivalry, a concept that continued to undergo significant historical development long after the age of medieval knights had passed.

EXAMPLE OF CHIVALRY

One of the greatest examples of chivalry in literature is Sir Gawain. He epitomizes the chivalric code. In the work, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain received a test of his honor. In the midst of the New Year's celebration at King Arthur's Camelot, a man of mighty stature comes to challenge the Knights of the Round Table. This Green Knight comes to prove the honor and reputation of King Arthur's Court.

Medieval secular literature was primarily concerned with knighthood and chivalry. Two masterpieces of this literature are the Chanson de Roland (c.1098; see Roland ) and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (see Pearl, The ). Arthurian legend and the chansons de geste furnished bases for many later romances and epics. The work of Chrétien de Troyes and the Roman de la Rose also had tremendous influence on European literature. The endless chivalrous and pastoral romances, still widely read in the 16th cent., were satirized by Cervantes in Don Quixote. In the 19th cent., however, the Romantic Movement brought about a revival of chivalrous ideals and literature.

Above: Louis XV, King of France from 1715 to 1774 King Louis XV of France (1710–1774) is shown wearing the royal robes. Around his neck are the collars and insignia of two orders of chivalry - the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece, and the French Order of Saint-Louis. The white 8-pointed cross of the latter order was awarded to many Canadian soldiers during the French regime in Canada. (National Archives of Canada C604).

 

Distinction of Chivalric orders

  • Chivalric orders by time of foundation:
    • Medieval chivalric orders: foundation of the order during the middle ages or renaissance
    • Modern chivalric orders: foundation after 1789
  • Chivalric orders by purpose:
    • Monarchical and dynastical chivalric orders: foundation by a monarch who is a fount of honor; either ruling or not ruling
    • Confraternal chivalric orders: foundation by a nobleman, either high nobility or low nobility
    • Fraternal chivalric orders: founded for a specific purpose only
    • Votive chivalric orders: founded for a limited period of time only by members who take a vow
    • Honorific chivalric orders: consist only of honorific insignia bestowed on knights on festive occasions, consisting of nothing but the badge
    • Pseudo-chivalric orders: self proclaimed imitation-orders without statutes or restricted memberships

Monarchical or dynastic orders

Confraternal orders

Confraternal orders are orders of chivalry with the presidency attached to a nobleman:

Princely orders were founded by noblemen of higher rank. Most of these were founded in imitation of the Order of the Golden Fleece, after 1430:

Fraternal orders

Fraternal orders are orders of chivalry that were formed ad-hoc for a certain enterprise:

Votive Orders

Votive orders are orders of chivalry, 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:

Cliental pseudo-orders

Cliental pseudo-orders are not orders of chivalry and were princes' retinues fashionably termed orders. They are without statutes or restricted memberships:

Honorific orders

Honorific orders were honorific insignia consisting of nothing but the badge:

Some honorific orders are modern foundations, such as the Order of the Bath, founded by King George I of Great Britain on 18 May 1725

Modern orders

Current orders

Former orders