Order of the Palatinate Lion

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Medal (embroidered star)

The Order of the Palatinate Lion was an Electoral Palatinate , Electoral Palatinate-Bavarian and Bavarian order of nobility and merit from 1768 to 1808 . It is considered to be the first order of merit donated by the Wittelsbach dynasty. The collection of the Bavarian Army Museum has one copy.

history

The award was donated by the Palatinate and later Bavarian Elector Carl Theodor on January 1, 1768, one day after completing his 25th anniversary in government. In allusion to this, the number of medal winners was limited to 25.

In 1808 the order was repealed by Carl Theodor's successor Max Joseph , who had become King of Bavaria in 1806 , and replaced by the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown . Max Joseph's grandson, King Ludwig II of Bavaria , founded an order in 1866 that was based on the order of the Palatinate Lion, the Order of Military Merit .

Today's Bavarian Order of Merit is a successor to the Order of the Palatinate Lion and the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown.

Order decoration

The golden order cross, in the form of a Maltese cross with bundles of flames between the cross arms, shows on the front the Palatinate lion striding heraldically to the right . The inscription reads MERENTI (To the Meritorious). On the reverse the monogram of the donor CT under the electoral hat and the inscription INSTITU.AN.1768 ( institutum anno 1768 - established in 1768). The cross arms were enameled dark blue.

According to the statutes, the order's cross had to be carried on a four-finger-wide white ribbon with a sky-blue border, from the left shoulder to the right side. Clergymen were required to wear a narrow ribbon around their necks, hanging on their chests.

At the same time the owners should an embroidered cloth star (in the statutes religious character called) wear on the left chest, which corresponded in appearance to the rear of the Order of the Cross, but in matt and gloss silver with golden embroided writing.

Medal bearer

The first knights appointed on the day of the foundation were:

literature

  • Georg Schreiber: The Bavarian orders and decorations . Prestel-Verlag, Munich 1964.
  • Felix Joseph Lipowsky: Elector Karl Theodor . Sulzbach 1828, pp. 109–111 ( digitized version )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Web portal of the Bavarian Order of Merit
  2. ^ Felix Joseph Lipowsky: Elector Karl Theodor . Sulzbach 1828, p. 110 f.
  3. ^ Wilhelm Kreutz:  Oberndorff, Franz Albert Fortunat Leopold Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 397 ( digitized version ).