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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Buster7 (talk | contribs) at 13:08, 5 December 2008 (→Origin). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Order of the Golden Fleece

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, Karl of Austria. Sovereignty remains with the head of the house of Habsburg, but the present head, Otto von Habsburg, has transferred the sovereignty to his eldest son, Karl Habsburg-Lothringen.

Origin

The Order of the Golden Fleece was modeled on the English Order of the Garter, but dedicated to Saint Andrew. Philip had been elected to membership of the Garter in 1422, but had declined to avoid offending the king of France. Like the Garter it was 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 was explicitly denied to "heretics", and so became an exclusively Catholic award during the Reformation, though the choice of the pagan Golden Fleece of Colchis as the symbol of a Christian order caused some controversy. From:Order of the Golden Fleece.

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