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An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is an order of knights, [1] typically founded during or inspired by the original Catholic military orders of the Crusades (c. 1099–1291) and paired with medieval concepts of ideals of chivalry.
The rank of Commendatore (Knight Commander) is a higher award than Ufficiale (Officer), which in turn is higher than Cavaliere (Knight), the first level in this order of chivalry. The Italian government's orders are exceptional to the international standard in that they do not officially have special ranks or decorations for females (Dames).
Esquire is a rank of gentry originally derived from Squire and indicating the status of an attendant to a knight, an apprentice knight, or a manorial lord; [39] it ranks below Knight (or in Scotland below Laird) but above Gentleman. [e] [f]
The first secularized military order was the Order of Saint George, founded in 1326 by King Charles I of Hungary, through which he made all the Hungarian nobility swear loyalty to him. Shortly thereafter, the Order of the "Knights of the Band" was founded in 1332 by King Alfonso XI of Castile. Both orders existed only for about a century. [4]
The verb "to knight" (to make someone a knight) appears around 1300; and, from the same time, the word "knighthood" shifted from "adolescence" to "rank or dignity of a knight". An Equestrian ( Latin , from eques "horseman", from equus " horse ") [ 15 ] was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire .
Therefore the three main ranks were eventually known as knight brothers, sergeant brothers, and chaplain brothers. Knights and chaplains were referred to as brothers by 1140, but sergeants were not full members of the Order at first, and this did not change until the 1160s. [97] The knights were the most visible division of the order.
The rank of knight never faded, but Queen Elizabeth I ended the tradition that any knight could create another, making this exclusively the preserve of the monarch. [60] Christopher Wilkins contends that Sir Edward Woodville , who rode from battle to battle across Europe and died in 1488 in Brittany , was the last knight errant who witnessed ...
The insignia of a Knight Grand Cross of the military division of the order. Star and neck badge of a Knight Commander of the civil division of the order. Members of the Order wear elaborate uniforms on important occasions (such as its quadrennial installation ceremonies and coronations), which vary by rank: The mantle, worn only by Knights and ...