History of the Order
The Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George is one of the oldest surviving orders of chivalry. According to tradition it is even the oldest.
Legend has it that the Order was established in the year 312 by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, after the battle of the Milvian Bridge in which he won the victory over his rival Maxentius. On the eve of that battle, he had seen a vision of the cross of Christ with the words 'In Hoc Signo Vinces' ('In this sign you will conquer'). The letters I, H, S and V can still be found on the Order’s cross.
The documented history goes back to the 15th century Byzantine Empire. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, many Byzantine nobles fled to Italy. Among them were members of the Angelus Flavius Comnenus family, who traced their lineage back to the Byzantine imperial dynasties of Angelos and Komnenos.
They introduced the Order in its current form and remained associated with it as grandmasters until 1698. Their coat of arms showed a double-headed eagle on a red shield, previously carried by the Byzantine emperors.
Already in 1551, pope Julius III had recognized the Angeli Comneni as legitimate offspring of the Angelos and Komnenos emperors in his bull Quos Alias. Later popes, such as Sixtus V in his 1585 bull Cum A Sicut Accepimus, granted ecclesiastical privileges to the knights of the Constantinian Order.
The Order came to bloom in a troubled and tense geopolitical context. In 1565, the Knights of Malta managed to save their island from Ottoman occupation after a bloody siege of four months. In 1571, the Holy League succeeded in destroying the Sultan's fleet at Lepanto.
The popularity of the Order in the second half of the 16th century reflected the hope of curbing the advancing Ottoman Empire and reconquering the eastern Mediterranean for Christianity.
The Order therefore attracted prominent members, including two successive doges of the Republic of Venice: Alvise Mocenigo and Sebastiano Venier, the latter known as the leading admiral in the battle of Lepanto.
In 1595, king Philip II of Spain was the first secular monarch to recognize the imperial claims of the Angeli Comneni grand masters. Emperor Ferdinand II of the Holy Roman Empire in turn recognized the Order and the claims of his grand masters in 1630; a recognition that was confirmed in 1671 by emperor Leopold I. In the same year, the Republic of Venice granted its formal protection to the Order. King Jan III Sobieski of Poland did so in 1684, after the Order had distinguished itself during the battle for Vienna in the previous year.
In 1698, the last male descendant of the Angelus family, Flavius Comnenus, transferred the hereditary grandmastership of the Order to Francesco Farnese, Duke of Parma.
In 1699, both emperor Leopold I and pope Innocent XII confirmed this transfer and the religious character of the Order. Since then, the grandmastership has been an ecclesiastical office, formally linked to the eldest son of the Farnese family.
In 1718, having participated in a successful campaign in the Austro-Turkish war led by prince Eugene of Savoy, the Order received the predicates 'holy' and 'military' from Pope Clement XI with his bull Militantis Ecclesiae.
After the death of the childless last duke, Antonio Farnese, both the Duchy of Parma and the Grand Mastership of the Order were claimed by Charles III of Spain, the son of Antonio's niece Elisabeth Farnese, who was married to king Philip V of Spain.
Charles was a descendant of the Bourbon family. In 1734 he became king of Naples and Sicily (the 'Two Sicilies') but he had to cede the Duchy of Parma to Austria in 1736. However, he retained the Grandmastership of the Constantinian Order.
Since then, the grandmastership has been linked to the royal house of Bourbon Two Sicilies as heir to the Farnese family.
When Charles III himself ascended the Spanish throne in 1759, he handed over the kingdom of the Two Sicilies to his son Ferdinand I. He was succeeded by Francis I, Ferdinand II and Francis II, until the kingdom was incorporated into a unified Italy in 1861.
The Italian unification deprived the Order of its rich possessions, but its autonomous history and spiritual values ensured its uninterrupted existence to this day.
Since 2008, the position of grandmaster has been filled by HRH prince Carlo, Duke of Castro and head of the royal house of Bourbon Two Sicilies.
The history of the Order has been described in detail, from the perspective of the Spanish branch, by the British historian Guy Stair Sainty in his work The Constantinian Order of Saint George (2018).
Other historical sources include:
Sansovino, Francesco: Statuti e Capituli della Militia Aureata Angelica Costantiniana di S. Giorgio, Venice 1573
Guarini, Andrea: Origine e Fondatione di Tutte le Religioni e Militie di Cavallieri, Venice 1614 (pag. 5 ff.)
Davity, Pierre: Liste et Origine de Tous les Ordres de Chevaleries, Paris 1615 (Turin 1876) (pag. 7 ff.)
Mennens, Frans: Militarium Ordinum Origines, Cologne 1623 (pag. 15 ff.)
Selden, John: Titles of Honor, London 1631 (pag. 805 ff.)
Marquez, Joseph: Tesoro Militar de Cavalleria, Madrid 1642 (pag. 1 ff.)
Mendo, Andrea: De Ordinibus Militaribus, Lyons 1668 (pag 4 ff.)
Privileggia Imperialia Confirmationes Apostolicae, Venice 1671
Giustiniani, Bernardo: Historie Cronologiche della Vera Origine di Tutti gl’Ordini Equestri, Venice 1672 (pag. 9 ff.)
Ashmole, Elias: The History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, London 1672 (1715) (pag. 30 ff.)
Giustiniani, Bernardo: Compendio Historico dell’Origine, Fondazione e Stato […] dell’Ordine Equestre […] di San Giorgio, Venice 1680
Menestrier, Francois: De la Chevalerie Ancienne et Moderne, Paris 1683 (pag. 354 ff.)
Gryphius, Christian: Kurzer Entwurff der Geist- und Weltlichen Ritter-Orden, Breslau 1697 (pag. 6 ff.)
Hermant, Jean: Histoire des Religions ou Ordres Militaires de l’Eglise, Rouen 1698 (pag. 215 ff.)
Statuti del Sacro Imperial Ordine Cavalleresco Costantiniana, Parma 1705 (Naples 1785)
Bonanni, Filippo: Catalogo degli Ordini Equestri, Rome 1711 (nr. 24)
Hélyot, Hippolyte: Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, Religieux et Militaires Vol. 2, Paris 1715 (pag. 249 ff.)
Clemens XI, Bulla Militantis Ecclesiae, Rome 1718
Sainte-Marie, Honoré de: Dissertations Historiques et Critiques sur la Chevalerie, Paris 1718 (pag. 58 ff.)
Musenga, Filippo: La Vita di Costantino il Grande, Naples 1769-1770
Clark, Hugh: A Concise History of Knighthood, London 1784 (pag. 201 ff.)
Hanson, Levett: An Accurate Historical Account of All the Orders of Knighthood, London 1802 (pag. 101 ff.)
Gottschalck, Friedrich: Almanach der Ritter-Orden, Leipzig 1818 (Vol. 2. pag. 167 ff.)
Perrot, Aristide: Collection Historique des Ordres de Chevalerie, Paris 1820 (pag. 137 ff.)
Rito e Forma […] del Real Ordine Costantiniano, Naples 1826
Schizzi, Folchino: Sulla Milizia Costantiniana, Milan 1828
Ruo, Raffaele: Saggio Storico degli Ordini Cavallereschi, Naples 1832 (pag. 27 ff.)
Carlisle, Nicholas: A Concise Account of the Several Foreign Orders of Knighthood, London 1839 (pag. 213 ff., pag. 377 ff.)
Wahlen, Auguste: Ordres de Chevalerie et Marques d’Honneur, Brussels 1844 (pag. 59 ff.)
Delle Cerimonie Pubbliche […] nel Regno delle Due Sicilie, Naples 1854 (pag. 149 ff.)
Radente, Antonio: Bolla di Clemente XI Militantis Ecclesiae e suo commento, Naples 1858
Castrone, Giuseppe: Delle Speciali Caratteristiche dell’Ordine Costantiniano, Napoli 1877
Seward, Desmond: Italy’s Knights of St. George, Gerrards Cross 1986
Bander van Duren, Peter: Orders of Knighthood and of Merit, Gerrards Cross 1995 (pag. 294 ff.)
Hoegen Dijkhoff, Hans: The legitimacy of Orders of St. John: a historical and legal analysis and case study of a para-religious phenomenon, Leiden 2006
Spada, Antonio: The Orders of Chivalry of the Royal House of Bourbon Two Sicilies, San Zeno Naviglio 2019
