Order of the Four Emperors

The Order of the Four Emperors, and Order of the Ancient Order of the needle or four Roman Emperors or Order of St. George - A European Order of the House of Habsburg - Lorraine, is a secular orders of knighthood.

History

The Order was instituted on December 6, 1768 as a secular orders of knighthood from Philip Graf Ferdinand von Limburg- Styrum. Sense of the order was the preserving the memory of the four emperors of the Holy Roman Empire from the house of Luxembourg: Henry VII (reigned 1308-1313 ), Charles IV (reigned 1347-1378 ), Wenzel ( reigned 1378-1410 ) and Sigismund ( reigned 1410-1437 ). The order was given to the twelve commanders a board ready, the other members had to pay high entrance fees. Also a fief could be given as a replacement.

1806, the rule of the Counts of Limburg- Styrum Stirum was mediatised as part of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Therefore, the Order lost the status of a house medal and was continued under Grandmaster vacancy " silently". The members of the now generally ecumenically oriented order came from especially the German, Flemish, Walloon and French nobility and this dichotomy into a German and a French tongue wrote down the first reorganization of 1789. In the second reorganization Convention of 1838, inspired by religious Vice Chancellor Vicomte de Kerckhove, the Order opened under the auspices of the German tongue, as the French had largely been extinguished as a result of the revolution in France, also members not of noble descent, sat down, however, emphasizes conservative goals.

Reason Placed in the reorganization Convention of 1926 in Hannover, 1927, the statutes were to deepen the religious life readjusted and the Order was named Age Order of Knights called the St. George Order of the Four Holy Roman Emperor, with the bailiwicks Wendland Lower Saxony, Rhineland -Westphalia, Southern Germany and Austria - Hungary. Visible expression of this renewal of the Order in the spirit of its founders and sponsors was the takeover of St George in the religious character. In 1935, the seat of the Order, laid the political situation in the German Reich, to Salzburg in the bailiwick of Austria - Hungary, where he performed against Nazism; three years later, after the annexation of Austria, the Order was banned.

Modern Times

The abolition of the Old St. George's Equestrian Order, also called the Order of the four Roman Emperor, in 1935 in Germany and 1938 in Austria was reversed by the reorganization Convention of 18 January 2008, with considerable contribution of religious protector Otto von Habsburg and the Order of the Order Convention of 30 April 2011 at the pin Neuberg an der Murz by the Grand Master Karl Habsburg-Lothringen in Order of St. George - renamed A European Order of the House of Habsburg -Lorraine.

The Order has commanderies in Germany and Austria, the construction of additional commanderies with jurisdiction area, inter alia, Burgundy, Hungary, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Romania, Croatia, Italy and Belgium are planned.