The Order of the Golden Fleece is an order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip III,
Duke of Burgundy in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to the Portuguese princess Infanta
Isabella of Portugal, daughter of King John I of Portugal. It became one of the most prestigious
orders in Europe. Today there exist two branches of the Order: the Spanish and the Austrian
Fleece; the current sovereigns are respectively Felipe VI, King of Spain, and Karl von Habsburg,
grandson of Emperor Charles I of Austria. The chaplain of the Austrian branch is Cardinal
Christoph Schönborn.
Origin The Order of the Golden Fleece was established
on 10 January 1430, by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in celebration of the prosperous
and wealthy domains united in his person that ran from Flanders to Switzerland. It is restricted
to a limited number of knights, initially 24 but increased to 30 in 1433, and 50 in
1516, plus the sovereign. It received further privileges unusual to any order of knighthood:
the sovereign undertook to consult the order before going to war; all disputes between
the knights were to be settled by the order; at each chapter the deeds of each knight were
held in review, and punishments and admonitions were dealt out to offenders, and to this the
sovereign was expressly subject; the knights could claim as of right to be tried by their
fellows on charges of rebellion, heresy and treason, and Charles V conferred on the order
exclusive jurisdiction over all crimes committed by the knights; the arrest of the offender
had to be by warrant signed by at least six knights, and during the process of charge
and trial he remained not in prison but in the gentle custody of his fellow knights.
The order, conceived in an ecclesiastical spirit in which mass and obsequies were prominent
and the knights were seated in choirstalls like canons, was explicitly denied to "heretics",
and so became an exclusively Catholic award during the Reformation. The officers of the
order were the chancellor, the treasurer, the registrar, and the King of Arms, or herald,
"Toison d'Or".
The Duke's stated reason for founding this institution had been given in a proclamation
issued following his marriage, in which he wrote that he had done so "for the reverence
of God and the maintenance of our Christian Faith, and to honor and exalt the noble order
of knighthood, and also ...to do honor to old knights; ...so that those who are at present
still capable and strong of body and do each day the deeds pertaining to chivalry shall
have cause to continue from good to better; and .. so that those knights and gentlemen
who shall see worn the order ... should honor those who wear it, and be encouraged to employ
themselves in noble deeds...". The Order of the Golden Fleece was defended
from possible accusations of prideful pomp by the Burgundian court poet Michault Taillevent,
who asserted that it was instituted: Translated into English:
The choice of the Golden Fleece of Georgian Kingdom of Colchis as the symbol of a Christian
order caused some controversy, not so much because of its pagan context, which could
be incorporated in chivalric ideals, as in the Nine Worthies, but because the feats of
Jason, familiar to all, were not without causes of reproach, expressed in anti-Burgundian
terms by Alain Chartier in his Ballade de Fougères referring to Jason as "Who, to carry
off the fleece of Colchis, was willing to commit perjury." The bishop of Châlons, chancellor
of the Order, rescued the fleece's reputation by identifying it instead with the fleece
of Gideon that received the dew of Heaven. The badge of the Order, in the form of a sheepskin,
was suspended from a jewelled collar of firesteels in the shape of the letter B, for Burgundy,
linked by flints; with the motto "Pretium Laborum Non Vile" engraved on the front of
the central link, and Philip's motto "Non Aliud" on the back.
Habsburg Order With the absorption of the Burgundian lands
into the Habsburg empire, the sovereignty of the Order passed to the Habsburg kings
of Spain, where it remained until the death of the last of the Spanish Habsburgs, Charles
II, in 1700. He was succeeded as king by Philip V, a Bourbon. The dispute between Philip and
the Habsburg pretender to the Spanish throne, the Archduke Charles, led to the War of the
Spanish Succession, and also resulted in the division of the Order into Spanish and Austrian
branches. In either case the sovereign, as Duke of Burgundy, writes the letter of appointment
in French. Spanish Order
The controversial award of the Order to Napoleon and his brother Joseph, while Spain was occupied
by French troops, angered the exiled King of France, Louis XVIII, and caused him to
return his collar in protest. These, and other awards by Joseph, were revoked by King Ferdinand
on the restoration of Bourbon rule in 1813. In 1812 the acting government of Spain awarded
the order to the Duke of Wellington, an act confirmed by Ferdinand on his resumption of
power, with the approval of Pope Pius VII. Wellington therefore became the first Protestant
to be awarded the Golden Fleece. It has subsequently also been awarded to non-Christians, such
as Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand. There was another crisis in 1833 when Isabella
II became Queen of Spain in defiance of Salic Law that didn't allow women to become heads
of state. Her right to award the Fleece was challenged by Spanish Carlists.
Sovereignty remained with the head of the Spanish house of Bourbon during the republican
and Francoist periods and is held today by the present King of Spain, Felipe VI.
Knights of the Order are entitled to be addressed with the style His/Her Excellency in front
of their name. Living members of the order
Below a list of the names of the living knights and ladies, in chronologic order and with
between brackets the date when they were inducted into the Order:
The King of Spain – Sovereign of the Order since 2014 after his father abdicated his
rights to him. King Juan Carlos I of Spain
The Duke of Calabria King Constantine II of Greece
The King of Sweden Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg
The Emperor of Japan Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands
The Queen of Denmark The Queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth
Realms King Albert II of Belgium
The King of Norway Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria
The King of Thailand The Grand Duke of Luxembourg
The King of Saudi Arabia Javier Solana
Víctor García de la Concha Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic,
2007–2012 and Co-Prince of Andorra Enrique Valentín Iglesias
Armorial of the Spanish Golden Fleece Austrian Order
The Austrian Order did not suffer from the political difficulties of the Spanish, remaining
an award solely for Catholic royals and nobles. The problem of female inheritance was avoided
on the accession of Maria Theresa in 1740 as sovereignty of the Order passed not to
herself but to her husband, Francis. Upon the collapse of the Austrian monarchy
after the First World War, King Albert I of Belgium requested that the sovereignty and
treasure of the Order be transferred to him as the ruler of the former Habsburg lands
of Burgundy. This claim was seriously considered by the victorious allies at Versailles but
was eventually rejected due to the intervention of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, who took possession
of the property of the Order on behalf of the dethroned emperor, Charles I of Austria.
Sovereignty remains with the head of the house of Habsburg, which was handed over in 2007
by Otto von Habsburg to his eldest son, Karl von Habsburg.
Living members of the order Below a list of the names of the living knights,
in chronological order and with between brackets the date when they were inducted into the
Order: Archduke Joseph Arpád of Austria
The Duke of Bavaria Count Johann Larisch of Moennich
Archduke Karl of Austria – Sovereign of the Order since 2000
Archduke Andreas Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany
Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany
Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este Archduke Michael Koloman of Austria
Archduke Michael Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany
Archduke Georg of Austria Archduke Carl Christian of Austria
Archduke Joseph of Austria King Albert II of Belgium
Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg Prince Albrecht of Hohenberg
The Duke of Württemberg The Prince of Lobkowicz
Count Johann of Hoyos-Sprinzenstein The Prince of Waldburg-Zeil and Trauchberg
The Prince of Liechtenstein Prince Clemens of Altenburg
The Duke of Braganza Count Joseph of Neipperg
The Duke of Hohenberg The Prince of Schwarzenberg
Archduke Joseph of Austria The Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg
Count Gottfried of Czernin of Chudenitz The Prince of Orsini-Rosenberg
The Prince of Windisch-Grätz Olivier, Count of Ormesson
Baron Johann Friedrich of Solemacher-Antweiler Baron Nicolas Adamovich de Csepin
Count Alexander of Pachta-Reyhofen – Chancellor of the Order
Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna – Chaplain of the Order
Baron Wulf Gordian of Hauser – Treasurer of the Order
Count Philipp of Clam-Martinic – Registrar of the Order
Count Karl-Albrecht of Waldstein-Wartenberg – Herald of the Order
Bernard Guerrier de Dumast The Prince of Panagyurishte
The King of the Belgians The Prince of Ligne
Prince Charles-Louis de Merode Archduke Ferdinand Zvonimir of Austria
Alexander, Margrave of Meissen Chapters of the Order
Insignia
See also List of Knights of the Golden Fleece
References
Literature Weltliche und Geistliche Schatzkammer. Bildführer.
Kunsthistorischen Museum, Vienna. 1987. ISBN 3-7017-0499-6
Fillitz, Hermann. Die Schatzkammer in Wien: Symbole abendländischen Kaisertums. Vienna,
1986. ISBN 3-7017-0443-0 Fillitz, Hermann. Der Schatz des Ordens vom
Goldenen Vlies. Vienna, 1988. ISBN 3-7017-0541-0 Boulton, D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre, 1987. The
Knights of The Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, 1325–1520,
Woodbridge, Suffolk, (revised edition 2000. External links
The Society of the golden fleece, an association of people interested in the Order
The Most Illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece at a reference site on chivalric orders.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh,
ed.. Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press.