The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, 1325-1520

New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987. Hardcover. VG- (ex-library copy with stamps and labels; light soiling to top text block. Book is otherwise very clean and tight.). Blue cloth boards with silver lettering; bw dust jacket with white lettering, color illustrated on front, mylar cover; xxv, 540 pp; bw illustrations. "The orders of lay knights founded in some profusion in the 14th and 15th centuries were a favorite subject of the antiquarian historians of the 17th and 18th centuries, but they have attracted little attention from modern critical historians. Here Dr. Boulton sorts the numerous lay orders founded in this period into a number of distinct classes., and and examines on the basis of of the surviving primary evidence the nature and history of each of the thirteen orders that certainly belonged to the 'monarchial class': orders with corporate statutes that attached the presidential office to the crown of the princely founder or made it hereditary in his house. Orders of this class--the most famous of which are those of the Garter and the Golden Fleece--were founded at some time between 1325 and 1470 in almost every kingdom of Western Christendom and commonly occupied an important place in the life of the court. Modelled either directly or indirectly on the fictional society of the Round Table, they were all organized as devotional confraternities, but incorporated varying numbers of element borrowed from the older religious orders of knighthood and from contemporary institutions such as retainig by contract and brotherhood-in-arms."--Jacket. Contents include: Introduction -- The Fraternal Society of Knighthood of St. George: Hungary, 1325/6 -- c.1395? -- The Order of the Band: Castile-Leon, 1330 -- 1474? -- The Society of St. George, or Order of the Garter: England, 1344/9 -- present -- The Company of Our Lady of the Noble House, commonly called the Company of the Star: France, 1344/52 -- 1364/80? -- The Company of the Holy Spirit of Right Desire, commonly called the Company of the Knot: mainland Sicily (Naples), 1352/3 -- 1362? -- The Order of the Sword: Cyprus, 1347/59 -- 1489? -- The Order of the Collar, from 1518 called the Order of the Annunciation of Our Lady: Savoy, 1364? -- present -- French princely orders founded before 1430 -- The enterprise of the knights of St. George: Aragon, 1371/9 -- 1410? -- The Order of the Ship: mainland Sicily (Naples), 1381 -- 1386? -- Monarchical and quasi-monarchical orders founded in Spain and Central Europe, c.1380 -- 1433 -- The Order of the Golden Fleece: Burgundy and the Netherlands 1430/1 -- present -- The Order of the Ermine: mainland Sicily (Naples), 1465 -- 1494/1501 -- The Order of St. Michael the Archangel: France, 1469 -- 1790 -- Epilogue: developments from 1469 to 1525 -- Conclusion: the monarchical orders of knighthood.