Chivalric Orders
fireplace in Chateau Amboise
King Edward III of England, who started the Hundred Years War with France (more accurately one hundred and eighteen) founded the Chivalric Order of the Garter.
The duke of Burgundy who supported the English in their wars against France founded the Chivalric Order of The Golden Fleece.
Louis XI, who ended the Hundred Years War with England, not to be outdone, created the Chivalric Order of Saint Michael in 1469.
Portraits of Louis always show the hard bowler hat he wore in case he injured his head during an epileptic fit. Saint Michael is always depicted slaying a serpent. It may be, for Louis, the saint symbolised him ridding France of the English.
The aim of the Order was to cement a Band of Brothers type loyalty with his Companion Knights (Chevaliers). The Order, limited to thirty-six, was prestigious. The first Knights were the most powerful nobles in France. Many were relatives of Louis.
Knights wore a gold medallion of the Saint depicted on Mont Saint-Michel slaying a serpent. It hung from an elaborate gold collar of scallop shells linked with double knots. This is the scallop shell worn by pilgrims to Mont Michel in France, not that of St James, worn by pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The English called it the Cockle Shell Order.
The Collar of the Order was incorporated into the Royal Arms of France. Official portraits of Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII and Francois I show them wearing the collar. In 1498, Anne, Duchess of Brittany, crowned Queen of France twice, the feisty, feminist, widow of Charles VIII, the second wife of Louis XII, decided she would found an Order for women.
She called it L’Ordre des Dames Chevalières de la Cordelière. The cordelière, a rope with knots worn around the waist, was part of the insignia. She bestowed the honour on her ladies-in-waiting, to widows and noble women at her Court. All who received into the Order were allowed to add it to their Coats of Arms.
There are as many theories as to the significance of its name as there are books written about Anne.
Because she created the Order when she was widowed one suggestion is that she was inspired by the French tradition of tying a cordelière around the arm of the widow of a noble.
Anne was so devout, some sources say the cord represented the scourging of Christ, others that it was a tribute to the knotted rope worn by Saint Francis of Assisi (her much loved father’s name was Francis).
At the same time she founded the Order, Anne ordered a warship to be built in Brittany. It was 600 tons, 40 meters long, 12 meters wide, armed with 200 artillery pieces and a crew of a thousand. She called the jewel of her fleet La Cordelière.
Because the Motto of the Order was ‘J'ay le corps délié’ - I have untied the body - some think the rope symbolises Anne’s much resented forced marriage to Charles VIII whose death freed her from bondage. She could now return to her beloved Brittany where she ruled in her own right, answerable to no-one. Symbols of both Orders can be seen carved into a fireplace in Chateau Amboise.
Post by Pamela
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