The Ordre de la Sincérité ( en, Order of Sincerity), was an order of knighthood of the German Margrave of

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...

. The order's name came from 18th-century courtiers who spoke French. The order had fifty knights. It was later renamed the Order of the Brandenburg Red Eagle and later as the Order of the Red Eagle.

History

The Ordre de la Sincérité was founded on November 17, 1705, by the ruling Margrave George William of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, a member of the House of Hohenzollern. As it was often the case with the orders of knighthood of the small German courts it soon fell into disuse. However, was revived in 1712 in Brandenburg-Bayreuth and again in 1734 in Brandenburg-Ansbach, where it was renamed "Order of the Brandenburg Red Eagle". The statutes were changed in 1777 and the order named therein as the "Order of the Red Eagle". The order was conferred in one class, limited to fifty knights. The church of the order was the

Ordenskirche St. Georgen The Ordenskirche St. Georgen or Sophienkirche is a church in the Sankt Georgen suburb of Bayreuth, a suburb which had been founded by George William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth as hereditary prince of the Principality of Bayreuth. The churc ...

. In January 1792, the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

bought both Brandenburg-Bayreuth and Brandenburg-Ansbach and on June 12, 1792, King Frederick William II again revived the order as a Prussian royal order. After the

Order of the Black Eagle The Order of the Black Eagle (german: Hoher Orden vom Schwarzen Adler) was the highest order of chivalry in the Kingdom of Prussia. The order was founded on 17 January 1701 by Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg (who became Friedrich I, King ...

, the Order of the Red Eagle was the second highest order of the kingdom in order of precedence. In 1918, it was finally abolished as a state order, but continues as a House Order of the House of Hohenzollern.

References

Sources

Maximilian Gritzner Adolf Maximilian Ferdinand Gritzner (29 July 1843 – 10 July 1902) was a German expert on heraldry and a herald in the Ministry of the Interior in Berlin. His reference book on orders of knighthood was still in print in 2000. Gritzner was bor ...

, Handbuch der Ritter- und Verdienstorden aller Kulturstaaten der Welt innerhalb des XIX. Jahrhunderts. Auf Grund amtlicher und anderer zuverlässiger Quellen zusammengestellt. Verlag:Leipzig., Verlagsbuchhandlung von J.J.Weber, 1893. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ordre De La Sincerite Orders of chivalry of Germany