THE ORDERS OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE
1430-Today
There have been a large number of organizations, elite and popular, which have passed under the title the Order of the Golden Fleece and have taken Jason as their inspiration. Four of these are European orders of knighthood (Burgundian, Spanish, Austrian, and an abortive Napoleonic), all claiming to be the same organization; and one is an English fraternal brotherhood. (Others include a Georgian order and an American fraternity.) First, this page will discuss the orders of knighthood, and then it will review the English fraternity. |
The Order of the Golden Fleece
Charles Terlinden
Legend says that Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, having heard that the lords of his court had laughed at the vivid colour of the hair of a beautiful lady of Bruges, who was highly placed in the princely favour, decided to silence the critics by making a lock of this lady's hair the insignia of the highest honorary distinction of his State, and the most coveted order of the continent of Europe. That such a legend should have arisen is not surprising. As M. Dutry writes, the unexpected creation of the new Order, and still more the name given to it by its founder, 'made imagination gallop,' and people tried to find for the Golden Fleece an origin as romantic as that of the Order of the Garter instituted by Edward III. in honour of the beautiful Countess of Salisbury, or of the Order of the Annunciation founded as a gallant compliment by Amadeus VI. of Savoy.
The very fact that it was during the festivities of his marriage with his third wife, Isabel of Portugal, that Philip the Good created, on 10th January 1429 (1430 N.S.), the Order of the Golden Fleece sufficiently proves the lack of foundation for the legend recalled above. No man would have selected such a moment for glorifying an irregular attachment. Indeed the grace and beauty of the princess, whose features are familiar to us through a charming Flemish portrait now in the Louvre, seem definitely to have fixed the fleeting fancy of her husband. He was so delighted with his new consort that in her honour he chose this device :--
'Aultre n'auray
Dame Isabeau, tant que vivray.'
Quite obviously the title of the Golden Fleece was borrowed from the story of Jason and the Argonauts, and its selection was doubtless due to the fervour of the first renaissance, which had revived the study of classic antiquity in the Ducal Court.
The creation of the Order of the Golden Fleece, though it actually occurred in the middle of great festivities, was the result neither of a sudden caprice nor of chance. The earliest historian of the Order, Georges Chastellain, says that the idea of the institution of the Golden Fleece had for a long time been in the mind of the Duke, and he chose his own wedding for the occasion of announcing his long meditated project. The wedding feast, which took place at Bruges with unparalleled pomp and splendour, attracted not only the Belgian nobility, but also a crowd of foreign princes and lords, ambassadors and rich merchants, from all countries. To this concourse of people the Duke announced the creation of a new order of knighthood which should eclipse all others.
Philip the Good was too great a statesman to wish his famous Order to exist solely to gratify vanity and a love of ostentation; he took a longer view. Not content with having grouped under his sceptre almost all the ancient Belgian principalities, he wished to form a solidly constructed State, which, if it had lasted, would for the great good of Europe have constituted a strong barrier between France and Germany. The Burgundian State, stretching from the North Sea to Switzerland, would have taken the place of ancient Lotharingia, and might perhaps have been the guardian of the peace in Western Europe.
The statutes of the Order show that its founder wished not only to revive the cult of honour and the respect of ancient chivalry, but also to establish a distinctively national organisation. A primary aim of the Order was to interest the elite of the noblesse in the prosperity of the Burgundian, or, to be more exact, the Belgian, State. For centuries the Order retained this essentially national character, clinging to the soil of the Belgian provinces. Until the conquest of Belgium by the French Republic at the end of the eighteenth century, the office of Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece was inseparable from the sovereignty of the territories which, through so many vicissitudes and after so many successive spoliations, have remained the kernel of the ancient Burgundian States.
When, in consequence of the hazards of succession throughout the centuries, the sovereignty of the Belgian provinces passed to foreign princes, the Grand Mastership of the Golden Fleece was transferred ipso facto to those same princes, and accordingly if they lost their sovereignty they lost with it all their rights over this coveted Order. A celebrated jurist, Chancellor de Neny, who was entrusted by the Empress Maria Theresa with the task of writing a memoir for the instruction of the heir presumptive, the future Joseph II., stated that 'the dignity of chief and 'sovereign of the Golden Fleece has been considered from all 'times as being attached to the sovereignty of the States formerly possessed by the House of Burgundy, and therefore the Kings of Spain of the House of Hapsburg only hold it by virtue of their position as possessors of the said States.'
Within half a century from the foundation of the Order the male line of the House of Burgundy became extinct by the death of Charles the Bold in the moat of Nancy, and the independence of the Belgian provinces vanished for three centuries and a half. Maximilian of Austria, son-in-law of the dead Duke, hastened to declare, in letters patent dated October 1478, that he took the title of supreme chief of the Order of the Golden Fleece only in virtue of his marriage with Mary, sole heiress of the Burgundian dominions.
In 1555, when Charles V. decided to abandon the heavy burden of his almost universal monarchy, he remembered that the dignity of Grand Master of the Order was essentially attached to the possession of the States of the Dukes of Burgundy, and he created his son, Philip II., 'Chief and Sovereign' of the Golden Fleece while ceding to him the crown of the Low Countries. It was only two months later that, by a second act of abdication, he transmitted the kingdom of Spain and his possessions in Italy and the Indies to his same son. In 1598, when Philip II. ceded the Low Countries to his daughter Isabel, he expressly reserved to himself the dignity of 'Chief and Sovereign' of the Golden Fleece. This reservation proves that the dignity was not legally attached to the kingdom of Spain but to the sovereignty of the Low Countries, otherwise the stipulation would have been unnecessary.
Again, after the death of the Archduke Albert, when the Southern Netherlands returned to the Spanish monarchy, the Golden Fleece kept its essentially Belgian character. International public law never lost sight of the distinction that existed between the King of Spain, acting as such, and the same Prince acting as sovereign of the ancient Burgundian State. It was always in the latter quality that the Spanish monarchs exercised the dignity of Grand Masters of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
All contemporary authors are unanimous on this point. The illustrious historian Mezeray writes definitely on the subject, and the geographer Maty, after having spoken of the various orders of chivalry appertaining to the Spanish crown, says in formal terms, 'The Order of the Golden Fleece only belongs to the King of Spain in his quality of sovereign of the Netherlands, where it was instituted by the Dukes of Burgundy.'
Inigo de Brizuela, who, after having played an important part at the court of the Archduke Albert, became under Philip IV. president of the Supreme Council for the Low Countries at Madrid, and who always attempted, while holding this office, to reduce to a minimum the independence of the Belgian provinces, also proclaimed the essentially Belgian character of the Order of the Golden Fleece, which he contrasted with the 'Grandesse' in Spain.
In fact, this illustrious Order formed a national institution with political prerogatives and numerous privileges. The knights residing in the Low Countries constituted a form of Supreme Council to the Government. Article 6 of the original statutes engaged the sovereign 'not to undertake any great matter without having consulted with his brother knights.' A new rule, introduced in 1473, gave the knights practical access to the Council of the sovereign. This privilege was specially confirmed by Maximilian and by Philip II. In 1539 and in 1540 Charles V. called the knights together to discuss the measures to be taken with regard to the revolt in Ghent, and in 1562 Margaret of Parma invited them to Brussels to consult with her on the difficult situation in the provinces. Several times during the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the knights insisted on their right to be consulted in the affairs of the Government, and exercised an active patriotic influence.
Besides these political attributes, the Knights of the Golden Fleece formed the highest class of the national nobility, and enjoyed numerous prerogatives and exemptions which, confirmed by an edict of the Duke of Alba in 1532, lasted throughout all the political upheavals until the French conquest of 1794. These privileges were only enjoyed in the Low Countries and were never recognised, either in Spain or in the Spanish dominions in Italy, nor, later on, in the German provinces of the Hapsburg monarchy. In the same way all the knights who were not 'natives born' of the Low Countries or of Franche Comté, even the Spaniards, were always considered as foreigners and, as such, did not participate in the life of the Order, of which they were considered, in effect, as honorary members, elected at the wish of the sovereign and out of consideration for him.
All the solemn chapters of the Order were held in one or other of the Belgian towns, and though, after the time of Philip II., the chapters were no longer held by reason of the absence in Spain of the princes who ought to have presided over them, it was nevertheless in the Belgian provinces that all the active life of the Golden Fleece was manifested. The statutory fete of the Order was throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries always celebrated at Brussels on St. Andrew's Day. Moreover, the Knights of the Order were, as such, associated in all manifestations of national life. A curious picture of Fr. du Chastel, now in the Brussels Museum, depicts the knights, in 1664, leaving the Coudenberg palace in their full robes, to go to meet the new Governor-General, the Marquis de Castel Rodrigo. Some thirty years later, the Prince de Ligne, senior member of the Order in the Low Countries, called an assembly of the knights to decide on the funeral ceremonies to be celebrated at St. Gudule on the occasion of the death of Charles II. in 1700.
Until the French invasion, in 1794, the 'Chapelle' and the treasure of the Order remained in Belgium. The Treasurer, who collected all the revenues of the Order and gave an account of his stewardship to the Grand Master, was strictly prohibited from leaving the country. He had to guard the treasure of the Order, which was kept in its chapel adjoining the palace in Brussels. In 1715 the knights dared strongly to oppose the Emperor's desire to transfer to Vienna this chapel, which was regarded as the social seat of the Order, and he was obliged to submit to their decision.
Article 7 of the 'Instructions for the Officers of the Order' says that the Treasurer 'shall have charge of all the charters, privileges, letters, mandates, writings, and teachings touching the foundation and the appurtenances of this Order, and also the care of all the jewels, relics, ornaments and Church vestments, tapestries and library belonging to the said Order.'
Article 9 gives to the Treasurer 'the receipt of the revenues of the foundation and dotation of the said Order, and the gifts, inheritances, augmentations, profits, benefactions, and emoluments of the same . . . and he shall also do other missions and make the necessary expenditures at the command of the Sovereign of the Order or of his representative.'
It may therefore safely be stated that the Order of the Golden Fleece remained essentially Belgian until the end of the old regime, and the Grand Mastership was contingent on the possession of the Low Countries rather than on a purely hereditary right.
The War of the Spanish Succession, which followed the death of Charles II., the last male representative of the Spanish branch of the Hapsburgs, in 1700, had an important influence on the destinies of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Philip V. began by occupying the Low Countries and simultaneously claimed the Grand Mastership. In the course of the war the fate of arms went in favour of the Austrian Emperor Charles VI., who at once challenged the right of his rival to this dignity on the ground that it rested on the effective occupation of the ancient Burgundian States. The Emperor Charles even revoked the promotions which had been made by Philip. Neither the Treaties of Utrecht (1713) nor of Rastadt or Baden (1714) settled the question of the Golden Fleece as between the Austrian Emperor and the Spanish King. Charles VI. continued to claim that he had legitimately inherited the Grand Mastership of the Order by the very fact that he had inherited the Low Countries with 'all the rights, pre-eminences, prerogatives, and pretensions' of preceding sovereigns of the Belgian provinces. Philip V. nevertheless maintained his claims as regards the Order, even though he did not possess any country, province, or district of the States which had originally belonged to the House of Burgundy.
It was thus that the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece came into existence, but it was effectively a new Order since no territorial right over the Low Countries existed to justify the transference of the Grand Mastership of the ancient Order to a new King of Spain belonging to the House of Bourbon. A few years later the court of Spain took advantage of the difficulties of succession consequent on the death of the Emperor Charles VI., the last heir of the male line of the Austrian Hapsburgs, to endeavour to establish in a note of 17th January 1741 the contention that the dignity of the Chief of the Order of the Golden Fleece and the faculties belonging to it could only belong to King Philip V. But the claim was not admitted by the representatives of the Austrian Hapsburgs. Nor did the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in October 1748, which put an end to the war of the Austrian Succession, decide the question. In a note of 20th November 1748 the Ambassador of Spain protested against this omission and the Ambassador of the Empress, on the 26th of the same month, also presented a short note of counter-protest. But the matter went no further.
Thus, beginning with 1701, there existed in effect two Orders of the Golden Fleece, and this situation lasted until 1794. The Austrians in evacuating Brussels before the victorious march of the Republican armies, took away with them the treasure of the Golden Fleece and its archives, transferring to Vienna all its administrative machinery. From that date until the revolution of 1918 the Emperors of Austria remained the Grand Masters of the Order. Nevertheless the fact of the loss by Austria of the ancient Burgundian States—a loss which the Emperor Francis had to accept in signing the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797—had taken from the Grand Mastership all its legal basis. Thus the Golden Fleece, though it became one of the highest Austrian Orders, ceased to be the true representative of the essentially Belgian Order founded by Philip the Good. The Austrian Grand Masters from 1797 onwards illegally appropriated the name and the spoils of the ancient Burgundian Order.
Only a prince reigning de facto and de jure over the ancient Burgundian provinces has the power to resuscitate this glorious Order. Napoleon, when he became master of Belgium, seemed at one time desirous of reviving it, but at the same time he intended to enlarge it and merge it into the Spanish and Austrian Orders of the Golden Fleece. On 15th August 1809, his birthday, the all-powerful Emperor, who had just crushed Austria and made his brother Joseph King of Spain, signed a decree at the Castle of Schonbrunn creating the Order of the Three Golden Fleeces. But, from force of circumstances, this decree was never executed and the Order, which the Emperor intended to take precedence of all other distinctions of the French Empire, was never conferred.
When William of Orange became King of the Netherlands in 1815, it appears that he also wished to revive the national Order of the Golden Fleece. But circumstances were not propitious. His kingdom, artificially created by the Congress of Vienna, had too much need of the support of the Powers for him to risk difficulties with Austria. William had to content himself with a modest assertion of his claims by putting the cross and briquet of Burgundy on the insignia of the order which was destined to recompense the heroes who had risked their lives at Waterloo for the defence of the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands.
Circumstances are very different now. Since 1830 the old Burgundian State has lived again, in full independence, as prosperous and glorious as in the far-off days of the great Dukes of the West. It has just emerged victorious from the most terrible crisis known to history. Why should not King Albert seize this opportunity to revive the most celebrated of the orders of chivalry on the continent? Why should not Belgium possess an order of chivalry to compare with the Garter of England, the Annunciation of Italy, the Seraphim of Sweden, the Elephant of Denmark, the Lion of Norway? All these orders contain only one class of knights, and are held in exceptional esteem owing to the small numbers of their holders. No obstacle as regards international law now exists to prevent this restoration. Since the fall of the Hapsburg monarchy, the Austrian Order has itself disappeared, and none of the present democratic authorities in Austria would be lawfully competent to raise the question of this essentially monarchical order.
With the disappearance of the Austrian Order, Spain remains alone in the possession of an Order of the Golden Fleece, and she has no valid objection to put forward. As we have shown above, when the crown of Spain, in 1713, lost all its rights over the Belgian provinces, it also lost its rights over the Burgundian Order founded by Philip the Good. The Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece has no connexion with the Burgundian Order except in the similarity of name. Nor is it likely that Spain having already seen in existence for two centuries an Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece, would oppose, after the disappearance of the Austrian monarchy, the revival of the original Order by the sovereign of the country which, in international society, has succeeded to the old Burgundian State.
Source: Charles Terlinden, “The Order of the Golden Fleece,” The Edinburgh Review, October 1920, 307-315.
Ancient Order of the Golden Fleece, Bradford Unity
Cyclopedia of Fraternities
The pretentiousness of the title of this exclusively English secret beneficiary society is not altogether unwarranted, although Jason, who led the Argonauts to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, which was guarded by tame bulls and the monstrous dragon, is not claimed as the founder. But the name of Jason is perpetuated in the society which styles the chief officer of a Lodge "Most Noble Jason," and his assistant, "Deputy Jason." Tradition has it that there existed in Bradford, England, as long ago as 1780, some say earlier than that, an Ancient Grand United Order of the Golden Fleece, which was brought into England by some German workmen at the time of the introduction of woollen goods manufacture into the United Kingdom. This earlier Order of Golden Fleece was largely convivial in its objects, although charitable purposes were not overlooked. It is to be regretted that like so many other of the old workingmen's guilds, no records or early history have been preserved of this one. The ceremonial of the Ancient Grand United Order was very florid, and, like the Foresters, contained a second order within it, the Patriarchs, to which none was eligible except members of the Golden Fleece. Dissensions arose in 1833, and John Milner, "founder of the new Order." and ten others, seceded, and at Bradford opened Lodge No. 1 of present, or Ancient Order, Bradford Unity. This Order did not grow very rapidly, did not adopt tested and approved methods of collecting and paying sick and funeral benefits, continued firmly opposed to registering under the friendly societies act, hedged its trustees of beneficiary funds with extraordinary checks against dishonesty, and provided for suspension of members who should obtain goods or property from any brother and not act according to contract. By 1851 another dissension arose, and twenty-one lodges with 900 members seceded and formed the Independent Order of the Golden Fleece, which for some years prior to 1880 it was thought could be induced to reunite with the Ancient Order. The government of the Order is lax, although it follows in general outline that of the Ancient Order of Foresters. The chief officer of the Order is the Grand Sire, which statement is also true of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The Ancient Order of the Golden Fleece, of England, is the skeleton of what such a society should be. It was started on a modern basis one year before the Ancient Order of Foresters seceded from the Royal Order of Foresters, yet the Foresters number 900,000 members, and the former perhaps 5,000. The Ancient Order of Golden Fleece is chiefly of interest here because of its contributions to rituals of similar societies in the United States
Source: Albert C. Stevens (ed.), The Cyclopedia of Fraternities, s.v. International Order of Odd Fellows (New York: Hamilton Printing and Publishing Company, 1899), 251.
Cyclopedia of Fraternities
The pretentiousness of the title of this exclusively English secret beneficiary society is not altogether unwarranted, although Jason, who led the Argonauts to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, which was guarded by tame bulls and the monstrous dragon, is not claimed as the founder. But the name of Jason is perpetuated in the society which styles the chief officer of a Lodge "Most Noble Jason," and his assistant, "Deputy Jason." Tradition has it that there existed in Bradford, England, as long ago as 1780, some say earlier than that, an Ancient Grand United Order of the Golden Fleece, which was brought into England by some German workmen at the time of the introduction of woollen goods manufacture into the United Kingdom. This earlier Order of Golden Fleece was largely convivial in its objects, although charitable purposes were not overlooked. It is to be regretted that like so many other of the old workingmen's guilds, no records or early history have been preserved of this one. The ceremonial of the Ancient Grand United Order was very florid, and, like the Foresters, contained a second order within it, the Patriarchs, to which none was eligible except members of the Golden Fleece. Dissensions arose in 1833, and John Milner, "founder of the new Order." and ten others, seceded, and at Bradford opened Lodge No. 1 of present, or Ancient Order, Bradford Unity. This Order did not grow very rapidly, did not adopt tested and approved methods of collecting and paying sick and funeral benefits, continued firmly opposed to registering under the friendly societies act, hedged its trustees of beneficiary funds with extraordinary checks against dishonesty, and provided for suspension of members who should obtain goods or property from any brother and not act according to contract. By 1851 another dissension arose, and twenty-one lodges with 900 members seceded and formed the Independent Order of the Golden Fleece, which for some years prior to 1880 it was thought could be induced to reunite with the Ancient Order. The government of the Order is lax, although it follows in general outline that of the Ancient Order of Foresters. The chief officer of the Order is the Grand Sire, which statement is also true of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The Ancient Order of the Golden Fleece, of England, is the skeleton of what such a society should be. It was started on a modern basis one year before the Ancient Order of Foresters seceded from the Royal Order of Foresters, yet the Foresters number 900,000 members, and the former perhaps 5,000. The Ancient Order of Golden Fleece is chiefly of interest here because of its contributions to rituals of similar societies in the United States
Source: Albert C. Stevens (ed.), The Cyclopedia of Fraternities, s.v. International Order of Odd Fellows (New York: Hamilton Printing and Publishing Company, 1899), 251.