Page:The Book of Orders of Knighthood and Decorations of Honour of All Nations.djvu/28

 AUSTRIA.

THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE.

' Order of the Fleece ' was founded by Philip le Bon (Duke of Burgundy and the Netherlands), on the 10th January, 1429, the day of his marriage with the Princess Isabelle of Portugal, The number of the members was originally fixed at thirty-one, including the sovereign, as the head and chief of the institution. They were to be: ' Gentilshommes de nom et d'armes sans reproche.' In 1516, Pope Leo X. consented to increase the number to fifty-two, including the head.

After the accession of Charles V., in 1556, the Austro-Spanish, or rather, the Spanish-Dutch line of the house of Austria, remained in possession of the Order. In 1700, the Emperor Charles VI. and King Philip of Spain both laid claim to it. The former, however, on leaving Spain—which he could not maintain by force of arms—took with him to Vienna the archives of the Order, the inauguration of which he solemnized there, in 1713, with vast splendour; but Philip V. of Spain declared himself Grand Master, and formally protested, at the Congress of Cambrai, (1721), against the pretensions of the German Emperor, The dispute, though subsequently settled by the intercession of France, England and Holland, was frequently renewed, until the Order was tacitly introduced into both countries, and it now passes by the respective names of the