Page:The Book of Orders of Knighthood and Decorations of Honour of All Nations.djvu/463

200 of one of the royal family, when the chain is allowed to be exhibited.

The Knights of the Black Eagle are, at the same.time, also, Knights of the Red Eagle, first class, the badge of which they wear round the neck, suspended by a narrow ribbon.

THE ORDER OF THE RED EAGLE.

In 1705, George William, the hereditary Prince of Anspach and Baireuth, founded the 'Ordre de la Sincerité:' consisting of a gold cross set in diamonds, with wide edges. The middle contained the initials, 'C. E.' (afterwards 'G. W.') with a palm branch beneath a prince's coronet, while in the four corners of the cross were seen golden rays, richly mounted with diamonds. The Chapel of the Order was always to belong to the Evangelical Church of the original Augsburg Confession.

This Order was re-organized on the 13th July, 1734, by the Margrave, George Frederick Charles, under the name, 'The Brandenburg Red Eagle.' The number of the members was limited to thirty, who could show their noble descent through eight generations, by both parents, while the nomination fee was fixed at twenty ducats. In 1759, the same Margrave added to the Order a first class of the Grand Cross. In 1777, the number of the members was increased to fifty, and the nomination fee to 500 fl., Rhenish, while the candidates were, previous to their nomination, to bear the title of ' Excellency.'

In 1791, Frederick William II. raised the Red Eagle to be the second in point of rank of the Orders of his house, and he changed the decoration into a golden white enamelled Maltese Cross, surmounted by a royal crown, with the Brandenburg Eagle in the corners, and the letters, 'F. W. R.' in the middle. It