Medieval Secular Order Names: History and Types of Knightly Orders
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Medieval Secular Order Names: History and Types of Knightly Orders

by Juliana de Luna (Julia Smith), Siren Herald

© 2008-2009 by Julia Smith. All rights reserved.
Version 1.1, updated 18 February 2009


History and Types of Knightly Orders

The idea of a knight as a noble (or quasi-noble) mounted warrior who received support from a feudal lord in return for maintaining his ability to function within the military system emerges around the year 1000 (Crouch). Many of these knights found an important purpose in the struggle against Islam, which had expanded in the west into Spain and the east into the Byzantine Empire. While expansion in the west was stopped in the eighth century, the tenth and eleventh centuries set off a new phase of warfare, which today we call the Reconquista. In the east, new invaders led the Byzantine emperor to ask for the assistance of European forces in 1095; this assistance would turn into the First Crusade.

In the aftermath of the First Crusade, knights who had remained in the Holy Land petitioned the Pope to allow them to create monastic orders in order to protect and care for pilgrims in the Holy Land. These organizations were formed in imitation of the religious monastic orders. >From there, the idea spread; religious knightly orders were founded in Spain and then in Germany, where they worked to conquer neighboring areas which were under non-Christian control. Members of these orders were of the knightly class; once they joined the orders, they were expected to follow certain vows (which often, though not always, included celibacy).

Secular orders of knighthood (the earliest of which were founded after 1300, 200 years after the military orders) were founded in imitation of the groups of knights associated with King Arthur, especially the Knights of the Round Table. The idea of a Round Table, where knights from around the world met as equals, first appears in Wace's Roman de Brut around 1150 (Green). Over the next 150 years, the Knights of the Round Table become more like a knightly order. Shortly after 1300, another fictitious knightly order, the Franc Palais, was created. These would form the inspiration for the secular orders that were to follow.

Types of Knightly Orders

The oldest type of knightly orders is the military religious orders - the Templars, Hospitallers and the like. These began in imitation of the priestly orders in the Holy Land during the First Crusade, but the idea quickly spread to other locations where Christians faced "pagans," specifically Spain and the northeastern parts of Germany. Originally, these were fraternal groups independent of any ruler, deriving their authority from papal decrees but not directly under the pope's control. However, the Iberian orders would by the high Middle Ages come under the control of the crowns of their kingdoms. The other orders would remain independent for longer, but eventually would either be destroyed or transformed into orders dependent on some state. They would not, however, be transformed into completely honorary societies with no duties until around 1600.

The second group of what we call knightly orders is what Boulton identifies as monarchical or curial (associated with a court) orders. These were created by kings, princes, and lesser nobles; they granted membership in these orders both to honor those they esteemed and to bind members more closely to them. While Boulton distinguishes several types (based on who controlled membership, the responsibilities of members, etc.), the most important for our purposes is between orders, whose members had obligations, and pseudo-orders, which were purely honorific and carried no obligations. This distinction is useful when considering the intent of the creators. However, orders tended over time to become progressively more like pseudo-orders, as the obligations on members almost inevitably declined over time.

The third origin for what we call knightly orders was as fraternal organizations, mostly organized by groups of the lesser nobility, but occasionally organized by a single prominent knight. These groups generally were intended to last for a set period of time (one to ten years) and focused on a specific goal. That goal was sometimes based around specific great deeds of chivalry (like a single pas d'armes), sometimes were more general ways groups of knights who served together in tournaments, but often functioned to create stronger alliances between local nobility (again, Boulton distinguishes these two types as votive and fraternal orders). Like the military religious orders, some of these were transformed into state-controlled orders later in time. The Golden Apple (Pomme d'Or) was such an organization, as were several other groups we have historically treated as orders. A large number of German societies fall into this category; some were military and political organizations, while others were fundamentally tournament societies. The latter are often described with the generic term turniergesellschaft or thornergesellschaft 'tournament society.' I have not included citations for organizations that are only described in such generic terms, without an additional descriptor.