T H E C Onstantinian Order O F S Aint G Eorge
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GUY STAIR SAINTY, as a reputed expert in the According to legend the Constantinian Order is the oldest field, has written extensively on the history of Orders chivalric institution, founded by Emperor Constantine the GUY STAIR SAINTY Great and governed by successive Byzantine Emperors and of Knighthood and on the legitimacy of surviving their descendants. While this chronology was supported by chivalric institutions. His interest in the Constantinian multiple writers even into the twentieth century, it has little Order began in the early 1970s, since which time his historical basis. Nonetheless, the Angeli, Farnese and Bourbon families which held the Grand Mastership could researches took him to Naples, Rome, and Madrid legitimately claim Byzantine imperial descent, albeit in the where numerous hitherto unexamined documents female line, and the Order’s cross replicates that seen by have enabled him to shed new light on the Order’s Constantine in the vision recorded by both Lactantius and T HE C ON S TANTINIAN ORDER Eusebius, writing very soon after Maximian’s defeat at the history. After studying law in London, he worked first battle of the Milvian Bridge. for a London art gallery before founding his own New The Order’s emergence in the middle of the sixteenth century, York gallery in 1982, moving it to London in 2005. OF when Christian Europe was under assault from a militant Ottoman empire, gained Papal support almost immediately S AINT G EOR G E and by the end of the seventeenth century the Order had mem- bers across the Italian peninsular, in Spain, Bavaria, Austria and Bohemia, Croatia and Poland. Today the majority of the Order’s members are found in Italy and Spain but there are also members in Portugal, France, Belgium, Great Britain and Luxembourg, with smaller groups in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden as well as an expanding membership in the United States. This work examines the conversion of Constantine and the histories of the Angeli, Farnese and Bourbon Grand Masterships, with extensive reference to hitherto unpub- E lished documents in the Vatican archives and in the Farnese G and Bourbon archives in Naples. These serve to confirm the close relationship the Order had with the Church and the high regard in which it was held by successive Popes, as well EOR as its autonomy as a subject of canon law independent from G any crown or temporal sovereignty. This unique status has enabled its hereditary Grand Masters to maintain this dignity after the absorption of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies into a united Italy. The Order’s autonomy, coupled AINT S with the Grand Master’s close links to the Spanish Crown, has meant that Spanish and Italian citizens (as well as the citizens of several other states which have accorded the OF Order recognition) may obtain official permission to wear the Order’s decorations. 2018 is the three hundredth anniversary of the Papal Bull Militantis Ecclesiae which confirmed and approved the ORDER previous Papal acts concerning the Order and laid out the rights and privileges of the Order, its Grand Masters and members. In the early 20th century Pope Saint Pius X and Benedict XV conferred further privileges on the Order, ap- proving the statutes, while the then future Pope Pius XII had been admitted to the Order in 1913. Today the Order is engaged in works of charity, in conformity with the Church’s teachings, and includes among its members some TANTINIAN thirteen Cardinals as well as some thirty members of reign- S ing or former reigning families. AINTY ON S C TAIR S HE UY Boletín Oficial del Estado T G GUY STAIR SAINTY THE CONSTANTINIAN ORDER OF SAINT GEORGE AND THE ANGELI, FARNESE AND BOURBON FAMILIES WHICH GOVERNED IT BOLETÍN OFICIAL DEL ESTADO Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 9 PREFACE ......................................................................................... 11 PROLOGUE ...................................................................................... 17 CHAPTERS I. The Legend . 41 II. The Historical Origins of the Angeli family .............................................. 49 III. The Early Documentation of the Order ................................................. 67 IV. The Internationalisation of the Order in the Seventeenth Century .................... 83 V. The Order in Spain in the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries ... 109 VI. The Transfer to the Farnese ............................................................. 123 VII. Challenges to the Farnese . 145 VIII. The Balkan Crusade and the Bull Militantis Ecclesiae .................................. 153 IX. The Succession of the Bourbons as Grand Masters .................................... 163 X. The End of Charles III’s Grand Mastership . 183 XI. The Grand Mastership of Ferdinand IV and III . 195 XII. The Administration and Membership ................................................... 207 XIII. The Foundation of the Parmesan Constantinian Order . 225 XIV. Francis I and Ferdinand II, Grand Masters .............................................. 233 XV. The Grand Masters no longer Reigning Sovereigns ..................................... 245 XVI Alfonso, Count of Caserta, Prince in Exile . 279 XVII. The Count of Caserta as Grand Master ................................................. 297 XVIII. The Internationalisation of the Order in the Early Twentieth Century ................. 315 XIX. The Consequences of the Rapprochement between the Holy See and Italy . 323 XX. The Grand Mastership of Ferdinand-Pius, Duke of Calabria ........................... 339 XXI. The Succession to the Grand Mastership in 1960 . 353 XXII. The Grand Mastership of the Infante Don Carlos, Duke of Calabria ................... 371 XXIII. The Constantinian Order Today ......................................................... 385 The Constantinian Order of Saint George 7 APPENDICES Appendix I. The Grand Masters ................................................................ 409 Appendix II. Genealogical Descent of the Grand Mastership in the Angeli Family .......... 413 Appendix III. Statutes and Regulations . 419 Appendix III B. Heraldic Regulations ........................................................... 436 Appendix III C. Heraldic Manual . 439 Appendix IV A. The Spanish Royal Inquiry 1708-11 ........................................... 447 Appendix IV B. Constantinian Commanderies . 455 Appendix V A. Papal Approved Divine Office and Ecclesiastical Calendar ................... 461 Appendix V B. Papal Approved Norms for Ecclesiastical Dress ............................... 469 Appendix V C. Decrees of the Apostolic Penitentiary ......................................... 471 Appendix VI. Pragmatic Decree of 1759 ....................................................... 473 Appendix VII. Opinion of the Spanish Council of State ....................................... 477 Appendix VIII. Balkan Families . 489 Appendix IX A. The Cantacuzene Constantinian Order ....................................... 509 Appendix IX B. Liber Aureus Ordinii Constantiniani . 521 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................. 525 INDEX OF NAMES . 543 8 The Constantinian Order of Saint George sight of this the battle grew hotter. The hand of the Lord prevailed, and the forces of Maxentius were routed. He fled towards the broken bridge; but the multitude pressing on him, he was driven headlong into the Tiber.»28 There, blocked from escaping by a miasma of dead, dying and wounded soldiers and horses and overcome by the weight of his armour, Maxentius was dragged under and drowned; it was not until the next day that his body was found, buried in the muddy slime at the bottom of the river. His head was removed and shown to the Roman people before being taken to Africa to be displayed to those who doubted his death. Following his great victory, Constantine put to death Maxentius’ young son,29 as was Roman custom, but spared his supporters in a spirit of magnanimity that was remarked on at the time; contemporary accounts demonstrate that his victory was popular with the overwhelming majority of the citizenry. As a precaution against treason he dissolved the praetorian guard and the imperial horse guard and sent the remainder of Maxentius’s army for duties on the Rhine. The imperial subsidies were now restored and, as he had done in Trier, Constantine insured that the people would be able to enjoy the games that were such an essential part of Roman daily life by considerably enlarging the circus maximus which replaced the smaller venue built by Maxentius. On 9 November 312 he began the construction of what was to become the archbasilica of Saint John Lateran on the foundations of the former horse guard barracks (the Castra Nova equitum singularium), dedicated to the Saviour who had inspired Constantine’s victory and since 324 the cathedral church of the bishop of Rome.30 Today one may see in the entrance the massive marble sculpture of Constantine, retrieved from the baths of Diocletian, although only the Constantinian baptistery has survived the various rebuildings and restorations over the centuries. A slightly different record of these events is recounted by the early historian of Christianity, Eusebius, bishop of Cæsarea Maritima (in Palestine),31 whose better known32 version written originally in Greek is included in his panegyric on the life of Constantine. This begins with the emperor’s vision, an episode omitted by Lactantius The reconstructed Labarum of Constantine, presented to Pope