Emperor Francis Joseph I

Today is the 180th anniversary of the birth of the Emperor Francis Joseph I, which seems as good an excuse as I can find to post this portrait of him as a young man - I think the portrait would be from about 1855. I had not seen this portrait before, and it is a reminder of the younger man before the venerable balding be-whiskered image became more or less definitive.

He is wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, the star of the Order of Maria Theresa and the Fourth Class of the Russian Order of St George, which he was awarded in 1849 by Emperor Nicholas I for bravery under fire in the fighting in Hungary in the months following Francis Joseph's accession.

Orders of the Day

St George, as a military martyr saint has, not surprisingly, become the patron of several chivalric orders.
The most famous is, of course, the Order of the Garter, founded in 1348 by King Edward III. There is a history here, and this is what the present Sovereign's website says about it.

In Russia there is the Order of St George, founded by the Empress Catherine II in 1769. The distinctive riband design survived for a military decoration even in the Soviet era, and the Order was re-established in 1994.There are details and pictures of the insignia here.

Earlier in origin even than the Garter is the Hungarian Order of St George. A chivalric guild under the patronage of King Charles I it originated in 1326, but appears to have had a rather discontinuous history, but has been revived again in recent years, and functions as a charitable foundation. Its British website is here, and for those of you who are less acquainted with the life of Charles I, (sometimes referred to as Charles Robert or Carobert) there is an account of him here.

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies has the Constantinian Order of St George. This also functions - is its disparate forms - as a charitable foundation. Its history is given here.The website of the branch, under H.R.H. the Duke of Castro, and which operates in Britain, is here.

Like the claim to the throne of the Two Sicilies the headship of the Order is divided between rival claimants, three in the case of the Order, as opposed to two in respect of the throne itself. Considering at the history of Il Regno one should not be surprised. I can see that acquiring a reasonable understanding of the issues, claims and personalities in the current dispute could, quite apart from its genuine interest, also be socially very useful as either a conversation starter or killer depending on the circumstances in which one found oneself.

In addition the Kingdom also had the Order of St George and Reunion. This was founded in 1819 by King Ferdinand I ( formerly Ferdinand IV ) to celebrate the creation of the United Kingdom of the Two Sicilies three years previously. Details of this Order can be found here.

Heraldry on a spring afternoon

I spent a very pleasant afternoon on Saturday giving a guided tour of the heraldry in Merton and Brasenose to fellow members of the Oxford University Heraldry Society.

The Society which originated in 1835, but has gone, in best Oxford fashion, and like the best peerages, through a series of periods of success and dormancy, has been revived this year, and this was a joint meeting withe the Chiltern Heraldry Society.

Both colleges looked beautiful in the spring sunshine - the college planting of bulbs and window boxes were looking quite splendid - and the chapels and halls provided some fascinating points for discussion. We considered the variable quality of nineteenth century heraldic art, the niceties of canting arms and the value of heraldic glass in dating a medieval building, and the courtly and political world it could evoke in the modern viewer.

My favourite new discovery was some glass in the hall at Brasenose, given apparently by King Louis XVIII, presumably during his residence as an exile at Hartwell in Buckinghamshire. Side by side were his arms and those of King George III - with the electoral bonnet, not the crown on the Hanoverian inescutcheon - between the badges of the Order of the Garter and the conjoined French Order of the Holy Ghost and St Michael.