The Order of Amarante, or Amarante Order (

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

: ''La frairie d'Amarante'';

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

: ''Amaranterorden''), was a

fraternal order A fraternal order is a fraternity organised as an order, with traits alluding to religious, chivalric or pseudo-chivalric orders, guilds, or secret societies. Contemporary fraternal orders typically have secular purposes, including social, cu ...

of Swedish knights, founded in 1653 by

Queen Christina of Sweden Christina ( sv, Kristina, 18 December (New Style) 1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Monarchy of Sweden, Queen of Sweden in Queen regnant, her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father ...

at Epiphany. The Order was established in honor and memory of her meetings with the Spanish ambassador Antonio Pimentel de Prado, who originated from

Amarante, Portugal Amarante () is a municipality and municipal seat in the Tâmega e Sousa subregion in northern Portugal. The population in 2011 was 56,264, in an area of . The city itself had a population of 11,261 in 2001. The city has been part of the UNESCO ...

. He was also the first to receive the award. The Order was limited to 15 knights, who had to remain unmarried. Order members were those "who participated in the Queen's most intimate pleasures." Among the original members were (besides the Spanish ambassador) the French ambassador

Pierre Chanut Pierre Hector Chanut (February 22, 1601 in Riom – July 3, 1662 in Livry-sur-Seine) was a civil servant in the Auvergne, a French ambassador in Sweden and the Dutch Republic, and state counsellor. Life In 1626 Chanut married Marguerite C ...

, Venetian ambassador

Francesco Morosini Francesco Morosini (26 February 1619 – 16 January 1694) was the Doge of Venice from 1688 to 1694, at the height of the Great Turkish War. He was one of the many Doges and generals produced by the noble Venetian family of Morosini.Encyclopæd ...

, Denmark's national steward

Corfitz Ulfeldt Count Corfits Ulfeldt (10 July 1606 – 20 February 1664) was a Danish statesman, and one of the most notorious traitors in Danish history. Early life Ulfeldt was the son of the chancellor Jacob Ulfeldt. He was educated abroad, concluding wi ...

, Poland's crown chancellor

Hieronim Radziejowski Hieronim Radziejowski (1612—August 8, 1667) was a Polish noble, politician, diplomat, scholar and a military commander. He was the governor of Sochaczew since 1643 and Deputy Chancellor of the Crown between 1650 and 1652. He also served as M ...

, chamberlain Christoph Delphicus zu Dohna,

Jacob De la Gardie Field Marshal and Count Jacob Pontusson De la Gardie ( Reval, 20 June 1583 – Stockholm, 22 August 1652) was a statesman and a soldier of the Swedish Empire, and a Marshal from 1620 onward. He was Privy Councilor from 1613 onward, Governo ...

, Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie and Clas Tott (1630–1674). The Order was also awarded to

Władysław IV Vasa Władysław IV Vasa; lt, Vladislovas Vaza; sv, Vladislav IV av Polen; rus, Владислав IV Ваза, r=Vladislav IV Vaza; la, Ladislaus IV Vasa or Ladislaus IV of Poland (9 June 1595 – 20 May 1648) was King of Poland, Grand Duke of ...

, Elector John George of Saxony, and Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse-Eschwege. The members of the Order had to take part in a supper on Saturday evening at

Jacobsdal Jacobsdal is a small farming town in the Free State province of South Africa with various crops under irrigation, such as grapes, potatoes, lucerne, and groundnuts. The town was layout in 1859 by Christoffel Jacobs on his farm Kalkfontein, and t ...

, called the "Feast of the Gods" in the happy Arcadia. Ulfeldt was god

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...

, Pimentel was dressed as a war god

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

and Radziejowski as

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

into the hall on a barrel with a large vinstop in hand. There were fourteen dancing couples on the first evening. In 1656, the Order was dissolved. In July 1760, the Order of the Amarant was revived again in Stockholm, Sweden by Claes Qvist. The Order holds its ceremony and ball in Stockholm at Grand Hotel every even year since mid of the 19th century. "Amaranth" derives from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

(''amarantos''), "unfading," with the Greek word for "flower," ἄνθος (''anthos''), factoring into the word's development as "amaranth." The more accurate "amarant" is an archaic variant.

References

www.amaranterorden.se

Sources

* C. G. U. Scheffer, ''Stora amaranterordens historia'' (1942). {{Orders, decorations, and medals of Sweden 1653 establishments in Sweden Organizations established in the 1650s Orders, decorations, and medals of Sweden Fraternal orders Christina, Queen of Sweden