Knight of the Golden Spur (Hungary)
On 21 April 1918 Charles IV of Hungary created a decorative medal for them as a memorial insignia to his 30 December 1916 coronation in Budapest.
The first proposal was submitted to Baron Rhemen, who was responsible for the issue in June 1917, and a compromise agreement was reached in December.
[3] The statute of Charles IV about the decorative medal of knights of the golden spur was finally issued on 21 April 1918.
The hand written royal decree of 10 April 1918 allows that the decorative medal may be retained, and passed over to the heirs of the bearer as a gift.
[4] The medal from the front side shows a white enameled double cross, with the letter K (Károly) in the middle.
[5] At that time, gold and silver honors began to be replaced by bronze and zinc, and only the highest orders were made from precious metals.
On 13 November 1918 they sent another negative answer regarding the acquisition of ribbons, although the badge was the same as the neck-ribbon of the middle cross of the long existing Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen.
All this perfectly reflects the extent of the lack of raw materials (and the negative effects of accumulation of goods) at the end of the World War.
[7] (It is possible that the privileges of Charles I of Hungary from 1327 to magister Doncs also belong to the tradition of the Knights of the Golden Spur.
When Charles I of Hungary died (16 July 1342), three mounted knights were set guard in front of the gates of the Buda church, to personalize the king.
During the 1343 Rome pilgrimage of Queen Elizabeth, the mother of king Louis the Great, her cortege was made of fifty knights of golden spur.
[10] In 1396, King Sigismund created Resti, the admiral of the Hungarian navy knight of the golden spur, in the city of Ragusa.
[11] It happened at Christmas Day, when King Sigismund was presented with a piece from the Savior's sponge by the Ragusan city council.
At the same time, King Sigismund made him his counsellor (consiliariorum et athletarum nostrorum), created him knight of the golden spur (cingulo militis seu militaris preheminentie decore presentialiter adornamus, facientes tibi insignia militie et presertim calcar deauratum ad calcem sinistri pedis tui per nobilem Stephanum de Rozgon aule nostre regalis militem et de dicta societate socialem more et observantia debita in talibus et consueta coram cunctis astantibus apponi et aligari, preserving him the possibility, that – when he'll put on aureas imperatorias infulas in urbe Romana – he can put a spur on his another leg as well), furthermore, he was also belted with a sword (gladio ancipiti seu ense, cum nos bellum insigne committemus, te nobis astante statuentes expresse et hoc regio decernentes edicto).
On 24 June 1488 in Vienna (under Hungarian occupation that time) the Swiss Envoy Melchior Russ was knighted, in the presence of the courtiers and ten foreign ambassadors.
On 28 February 1514 György Dózsa was knighted for a winning duel fought in the area of Nándorfehérvár, against the Ali of Epeiros, the leader of the mounted sipahis of Szendrő.
As a reward, king Louis II granted him with a double service pay, golden chain, purple dress richly embroidered with gold, spur and sword.
In 1563, at the coronation of king Maximilian I some nobles were knighted who fought successfully in Turkish wars, like György Thury, Antal Székely, László Gyulaffy and Miklós Hennyey.
[22] However, there also appeared a lot of people who were unworthy of honoring this title, but simply jostled themselves forward during the coronation, so the knighting ceremony had to be abandoned.
[23] In 1598, Archduke Matthias made knights of golden spur Ferenc Nádasdy and Miklós Pálffy in Győr, newly recaptured from the Turks.
[26] For a long time, the coronation of Hungarian kings, and the new knightings took place in the Franciscan church of Pressburg, the then capital city of Hungary.
According to the Hungarian jurist Ignác Kassics, in 1691 king Leopold I knighted his favorite court servant, a certain Hannibal Dascoli, but this time the primarily personal title was given to his male descendants, as well, as a reward for the military merits made by him and his ancestors.
[27] In 1840, Kassics also describes the insignia of the order,[28] (probably referring back to the 1742 book of József Pintér:[29] a cross-shaped golden "decorative medal" hanging from the gold necklace.
[31] The source of this description was the book by Sámuel Decsy (1742–1816), titled A magyar szent koronának és az ahoz tartozó tárgyaknak historiája (Vienna, 1792. paragraph 367), but it is just a reference to Pintér.
The intention was to raise those soldiers for knights of golden spur who already were given war medals for their valiant conduct against the enemy.
The Würzburg historian, Reinhard Freiherr von Bibra (1845–1926), in his study of Charles IV coronation (1916) published an image of the potential badge worn by the knights on their hats (a buttercup with golden spur and egret feathers), but he did not support it with sustainable historical sources.
In 2011, the knightly society has been re-established as a self styled order in the Franciscan Church of Esztergom (the first knightings were made on 30 April), under the name Aranysarkantyús Vitézi Lovagrend (Ordine Equitum Auratorum, Ritterorden vom Goldenen Sporn); in reality it is a private organization following Austrian Association Law with a seat in Götzis, Austria.
Magyarra fordította Lambach Elek, Kegyes Iskola-béli Pap, és a' Pesti Iskolákbann a' Szelídebb Tudományoknak Tanítójok.
[12] Ignácz Kisfaludi Kassics: Érdem koszorúk, vagy Értekezés A' Felséges Austriai, Császári és Királyi uralkodó Házat illető Jeles Rendekrűl, megtiszteltetésekrűl és jutalmazásokrúl, toldalékkép pedig Europában most virágzó egyéb Jeles Rendekrűl is.
[15] Johann Stolzer – Christian Steeb: Österreichs Orden vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart.
