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Order of the Dragon
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The Order of the Dragon (lat. Societas Draconistrarum, ger. der Drachenorden, hun. Sárkány Lovagrend, cro. Zmajev red, rom. Ordinul Dragonului, ser. ??? ?????) was a monarchical chivalric order for selected nobility, created in Hungary in the late Middle Ages.
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The Order of the Dragon (lat. Societas Draconistrarum, ger. der Drachenorden, hun. Sárkány Lovagrend, cro. Zmajev red, rom. Ordinul Dragonului, ser. ??? ?????) was a monarchical chivalric order for selected nobility, created in Hungary in the late Middle Ages. Founded in 1408 by Sigismund, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia (r. 1397-1437) and later Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1433-1437), the Order primarily flourished in Germany and Italy. According to a surviving copy of its statute, the Order required its initiates to defend the Cross and fight the enemies of Christianity.
Historical background
Sigismund
The origin of the order is to be understood in the light of Sigismund's fierce struggles for power leading up to the foundation of the order in 1408. In 1387, the Bohemian royal son Sigismund of Luxemburg was elected King of Hungary and Croatia, a title which he owed chiefly to his marriage to Queen Mary of Hungary in 1385 (without her consent). During the next decade, he constantly sought support or employed more ruthless methods to strengthen his unsteady hold on the throne. His claim to rule was weakened when in 1395 Mary and their only son died under suspicious circumstances. In 1396, when Hungary appeared to be facing the threat of an attack by the Ottoman Turks, who were already in control of most of the Balkans, Pope Boniface IX proclaimed a crusade against the Ottomans. Sigismund led a coalition of forces, but eventually agreed to surrender in the Battle of Nicopolis. Although he was allowed to escape, his position in Hungary was seriously undermined. Having tried his luck elsewhere, with only marginal success, he returned to Hungary in 1401 and facing a number of revolts, gradually resumed control and re-asserted himself as the rightful King of Hungary. He could not do so single-handedly, but fought off domestic rivals with the aid of his allies Nicholas II Garay and Hermann (II), count of Celje, in return for military support. He campaigned against the Croats and Bosnians, which culminated in 1408 with the Battle of Dobor — fought for the possession of Bosnia — and a large-scale massacre of noble families. His pact with Hermann II was secured in 1408, when Sigismund married his daughter Barbara of Celje (also Cilli).
Miloš Obilic
Miloš Obilic was a founding member of Order of the Dragon of St. George.The original Order, called the Sacred Order of the Dragon of Saint George, was created by Milos Obilic, the first Serbian to be dubbed a knight in the feudal tradition. Obilic created his order with twelve other knights and the society had a single purpose at its center: The assassination of the Ottoman Sultan, Murad I. Milos Obilic achieved the aim of his organization during the disastrous battle of Kosovo Polje (June 15th, 1389), when he was able to force himself into Murad’s tent and stab the Sultan to death. All the original members of the Dragon Order fell on the field of Kosovo except for one, who survived to become the military tutor of the Serbian Prince, Stefan Lazarevic.
Foundation and purpose
On December 12, 1408, following the Battle of Dobor, Sigismund and his queen Barbara of Celje founded the league known today as the Order of the Dragon. Its statutes, written in Latin, call it a society (societas) whose members carry the signum draconis (see below), but assign no name to it. Contemporary records, however, refer to it by a variety of similar if unofficial names, such as Gesellschaft mit dem Trakchen, Divisa seu Societate Draconica, Societate Draconica seu Draconistarum and Fraternitas Draconum. It was to some extent modelled after the earlier Hungarian monarchical order, the Order of St. George (Societas militae Sancti Georgii), founded by King Carol Robert of Anjou in 1318. It likewise adopted St. George as its patron saint, whose legendary defeat of a dragon was used as a symbol for the military and religious ethos of the order. The prologue to the statutes of 1408 report that the society was created:
- "in company with the prelates, barons, and magnates of our kingdom, whom we invite to participate with us in this party, by reason of the sign and effigy of our pure inclination and intention to crush the pernicious deeds of the same perfidious Enemy, and of the followers of the ancient Dragon, and (as one would expect) of the pagan knights, schismatics, and other nations of the Orthodox faith, and those envious of the Cross of Christ, and of our kingdoms, and of his holy and saving religion of faith, under the banner of the triumphant Cross of Christ ..."
Such a focus on external threats, however, served purposes of a more domestic nature. The statutes go on to describe the order's symbols of the ouroboros and the red cross, which were worn by its members and gave the order its corporate identity (see below). They also list the mutual obligations of the king and his nobles. The members were to swear loyalty to the king, queen and their future sons and to protect the royal interests. Boulton argues that "the Society of the Dragon was clearly intended to serve [...] as the institutional embodiment of the royal faction its founder had created." In return for their services, the nobles could expect to enjoy royal protection, honours and offices.
The creation of the order was not without precedent. Many late medieval kings founded their own orders of knights to support their thrones. Sigismund's order was particularly inspired from the Order of Saint George (see above), whose statutes from 1326 required protection of the King from any plot against him, principles also upheld in Sigismund's Order. Another influential model may have been the Sicilian Order of the Ship, founded in 1381.
Between and 1408 and 1437, the Order of the Dragon was the most important noble political association in Hungary and Croatia. The Order of the Dragon was quickly recognized internationally, and as early as 1409, it inspired the Spanish Order of Calatrava.
Membership
Members of the order, known as "Draconists", are referred to in the statutes as barons (barones, occasionally socii). They were mostly Sigismund's political allies and supporters, who were at first largely confined to the political factions of Nicholas II Garay and Hermann (II), count of Celje. The initial group of inductees for Sigismund's Order numbered 21 men, which extended to about 24 in 1418. In 1431, Sigismund chose to expand the ranks of the Order. A second group of inductees was initiated between 1431-1437. The Order of the Dragon had two degrees. The first one had 24 members which were allowed to wear as the Order's emblem both the dragon and the cross. The second degree had a large amount of members, and its symbol was only the dragon.
Following Sigismund's death in 1437, the Order lost prominence. However, the prestigious emblem of the Order was retained on the coat of arms of several Hungarian noble families, including Báthory, Bocskai, Bethlen, Szathmáry and Rákóczi.
Selected list of inductees from 1408
Selected list of inductees from after 1431
Symbol of the Order and other artifacts
The edict of 1408 describes two insignia to be worn by members of the Order:
- " ... we and the faithful barons and magnates of our kingdom shall bear and have, and do choose and agree to wear and bear, in the manner of society, the sign or effigy of the Dragon incurved into the form of a circle, its tail winding around its neck, divided through the middle of its back along its length from the top of its head right to the tip of its tail, with blood [forming] a red cross flowing out into the interior of the cleft by a white crack, untouched by blood, just as and in the same way that those who fight under the banner of the glorious martyr St George are accustomed to bear a red cross on a white field ..."
The dragon described here, with its tail coiled around its neck, bears comparison to the ouroboros. On the back of the dragon, from the base of the neck to the tail, is the Red Cross of Saint George, with the entire image on an argent field. The Order's dragon emblem has not survived in any original form, but it has been referenced on coins, art, and in writing.
A University of Bucharest annotation to the original edict reads O Quam Misericors est Deus, Pius et Justus, which may been officially part of the emblem. The various classes of the order had a slight variation of the dragon symbol. 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"). One of the highest classes may have worn a necklace with a seal, while a period painting of Otto von Wolkenstein depicts another type of class variation.
Few historical artifacts of the Order now remain. A copy, dating to 1707, of the statutes of 1408 is the oldest known literary artifact of the society. Today, known materials are archived within the University of Budapest.
Modern references
The Order was also one of Bram Stoker's inspirations for his 1897 novel Dracula. Interest in this mysterious knighthood and its members continue on today through scholarly research, entertainment, and popular culture and subcultures.
Primary sources
- Statutes of the society, promulgated on 13 December 1408, ed. György Fejér, Codex diplomaticus Hungariae X.4. No. CCCXVII. Buda, 1841. 682-94; earlier edition by J.F Miller, "Monumenta diplomatica nunc primum ex autographis edita". In Acta Literaria Musei Nationalis Hungarici 1. Buda, 1818. 167-90.
- Sigismund's charters, ed. J.F. Böhmer, XI: Die Urkunden Kaiser Sigismunds 1410/11-1437. 2 vols. Innsbruck, 1896–1900.
Further reading
- Bogyay, Thomas von. "Drachenorden." In: Lexikon des Mittelalters 3. Munich, 1986. p. 1346.
- Boulton, D'A.J.D. The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, 1325-1520. Boydell Press, 2000. 348 ff.
- Kuzdrzal-Kicki, Wladyslaw. Der Drachenorden: Genese, Gründung und Entartung. Dokumentation und Schlußfolgerungen. Vol. 1. Munich, 1978.
- Timon, Akos. Ungarische Verfassung- und Rechtsgeschichte. Berlin, 1904.
- Baslack, Andreas. Abbildung und Beschreibung aller Ritterorden in Europa. Reprintauflage der Ausgabe von 1792. Holzminden, 1980 and 1999. ISBN 3-8262-1807-8. From the original: G. Eichler, Abbildungen und Beschreibung aller hoher Geistlichen, Weltlichen und Frauenzimmer Ritter-Orden in Europa. Augsburg: Bürgien, 1792.
External links
- , Sigismund.hu.
- , Sigismundus.hu.
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