Origins of the Order
Miloš Obilić, a Serbian knight, had created the secret order of the Dragon of
St George. His shield represented the sun with twelve rays and there were 12 knights, himself included, belonging to this order. As a distinctive sign, they wore a dragon on their helmet. The aim of the order was the death of the Ottoman
sultan Murad I.
On
June 15th,
1389,at the
Battle of Kosovo, Miloš made his way into the Ottoman camp on the pretext of being a deserter, forced his way into the Sultan's tent and stabbed him to death. Miloš Obilic was later executed together with all other Serbian prisoners by Murad's son,
Beyazid I.
Only one of the twelve knights of the Dragon survived. He later became a trainer of Serbian prince - Despot
Stefan Lazarevic. Despot
Stefan Lazarević (
1374-
1427) was the son and heir to
Lazar , the
Serbian prince who died at the
Battle of Kosovo against the Turks in
1389. He was the first European-style
knight in Serbia. Stefan became a vassal of
Hungary and a knight of a special order, so when the Hungarian king
Sigismund created the
Order of the Dragon in
1408 Despot Stefan Lazarević was the first on the list of members.
Order of the Dragon Renewed
On
December 13,
1408, the charter for the Order was publicly announced, dedicating the Order to the defense of the cross from its enemies, particularly the
Turks. The founding twenty-four members were indoctrinated in 1408, including:
Symbol of the Order
For their
symbol, the Order designed an insignia of a
dragon with its tail coiled around its neck. On the back of the dragon from the base of the neck to the tail is the red cross of
St. George, with the entire image on a silver field. The dragon represented
the Beast of the
Book of Revelation while the red cross represented the victory of
Christ over the forces of evil. Members were required to wear the symbol (often as a medallion) at all times and were often buried with the symbol.
A University of Bucharest annotation to the original edict which establishes the Order reads 'O Quam Misericors est Deus, Pius et Justus' and may be part of the emblem.
Growth of the Order
In
1431, Sigismund chose to expand the ranks of the Order. To achieve this, he invited a number of politically influential and militarily useful vassals and nobles for indoctrination into the Order. Included in this ceremony was
Vlad II Dracul, father of
Vlad Ţepeş, who was serving as frontier commander guarding the passes from
Transylvania to
Wallachia. (The post-title "Dracul" refers to being invested with the Order of the Dragon.)
The addition of new members caused the creation of many classes within the Order. Each class had a slight variation on the symbol of the order, although the dragon motif was dominant in each variation. Common changes included the addition of inscriptions like "O quam misericors est Deus" ("Oh, how merciful God is") and "Justus et paciens" ("Justifiably and peacefully"). The order remained prominent until the death of Sigismund in
1437. Without a strong sponsor, the Order quickly lost influence and prestige.
Modern day
Few historical artifacts of the Order remain today, although the symbol of the Order has been adopted for many family crests throughout Europe. A copy of the edict forming the Order dating to
1707 is the oldest historical artifact of the Order and is stored at the
University of Bucharest.
The Imperial and Royal Dragon Court and Order, is a recent and unauthorized revival of the original Order of the Dragon. Although not generaly considered a legitimate Order of Chivalry, it has gained a growing group of adherants. One of its most prominant members is Michael Stewart of Albany, better known as the self styled "
Prince Michael of Albany". Albany claims to be the direct descendant of
Charles Edward Stuart, last head of the Royal House of Stuart.
Copy+paste thanks to wikipedia
Monday, December 19th, 2005
Order of the Dragon
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