Alongside the military religious orders born with the crusades, the late Middle Ages saw the appearance of a different kind of order of chivalry. They were not made up of warrior monks but of lay nobles gathered around a ruler. They had statutes, oaths, robes and ceremonies, and for this very reason they form an important chapter in the history of Western ritual forms.
A new form of chivalry
In the fourteenth century the great crusading orders were in crisis: the Templars had been suppressed and the Holy Land was lost. In the same period kings and princes were looking for ways to bind the high nobility to themselves, in an age marked by long wars such as the Hundred Years' War.
The court order met this need. The ruler was its head, the number of members was limited and membership became a highly coveted honour. The knights pledged mutual loyalty and respect for a code of conduct.
The Order of the Garter
The oldest order of this kind still in existence is the Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III of England around 1348. Its spiritual home is St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, where the knights' arms and banners are still displayed.
Several elements characterise it:
- its patron is St George, the figure of the knight who defeats the dragon;
- the members were originally twenty-four, besides the sovereign and the Prince of Wales;
- its badge is a blue garter bearing the French motto Honi soit qui mal y pense, "Shame on him who thinks ill of it".
The famous story that the king picked up a garter dropped by a lady at a ball appears only in much later sources. The real reasons for the choice of symbol remain uncertain.
The Order of the Golden Fleece
In January 1430, in Bruges, on the occasion of his marriage to Isabella of Portugal, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy founded the Order of the Golden Fleece. It was one of the most prestigious orders in Europe, and the Burgundian court made it a masterpiece of ceremonial.
Its symbol was the golden fleece, linked to two stories: the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts and the biblical story of Gideon, who asked God for a sign by means of a woollen fleece. This double reading, pagan and biblical, was typical of the courtly culture of the time.
| Element | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Golden fleece | Jason and Gideon, quest and divine sign |
| Firesteels and flints | Fire, emblem of the Duke of Burgundy |
| Collar | Bond of loyalty between knights and their head |
| Chapter | Assembly in which members' conduct was examined |
A notable feature was the chapter, during which each knight's conduct was examined by his fellows, including the duke himself. After the Burgundian line died out the order passed to the Habsburgs, and after the War of the Spanish Succession it split into two branches, one Spanish and one Austrian.
The Order of the Annunciation
In Italy the best-known example is the order founded by Amadeus VI of Savoy, known as the Green Count, around 1364 under the name of the Order of the Collar. In the sixteenth century it took the name of the Order of the Most Holy Annunciation and became the highest honour of the House of Savoy. The collar bore the letters FERT, whose meaning has always been debated and for which several interpretations have been proposed.
The literary model
Court orders drew heavily on chivalric literature. The romances of the Arthurian cycle, with the Round Table and the quest for the Grail, offered the image of a community of knights bound to a king and engaged in a common enterprise. Edward III himself, according to the chroniclers, planned a great Round Table at Windsor before founding the Garter.
Rite and symbol
Although not initiatory in the esoteric sense, these orders had a precise ritual structure:
- election by the members;
- an investiture ceremony with an oath;
- the bestowal of a badge and a robe;
- periodic gatherings with liturgy and banquet;
- remembrance of deceased members, celebrated with funeral rites.
It is this combination of gestures, objects and words that makes them interesting to anyone studying the history of initiation. The badge in particular worked as a visible sign of transformation: whoever received it entered a new condition, with new duties.
From honour to decoration
Over the centuries many court orders turned into state decorations, awarded for civil or military merit. Some, like the Garter, still keep solemn ceremonies that recall their medieval origin, including the annual procession at Windsor on the order's day.
In short
- Court orders arose in the fourteenth century to bind the lay high nobility to a ruler.
- The Order of the Garter was founded by Edward III around 1348, with its seat at Windsor.
- The Golden Fleece was founded in Bruges in 1430 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.
- In Italy Amadeus VI's Order of the Collar became the Order of the Annunciation.
- These orders had a ritual structure of election, oath, badge and chapter.
