Records show that a few Illuminati were members of the early Order of Saint Joachim, specifically Count von Kollowrat-Krakowsky, as well as Freemasons and Rosicrucians.

Baron von Ecker und Eckhoffen is named as a member of several other mystic societies, including the Christian Masonry of Bohemia in 1756, and the Asiatic Brethren.

Leopold II, King of Hungary and Bohemia (later Holy Roman Emperor) formally acknowledged and sanctioned the wearing of the insignia of the Order on May 23, 1790 with a document of Royal Concession.

He appointed the Comte Christian von Leiningen, a knight of The Order of Saint Joachim and relative of the Grand Master, to be Chamberlain of the Imperial Palace.

[2] In 1801, 'Sir' Levett Hanson[6] wrote to Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson offering him membership of the order to recognize his victory at the Battle of the Nile.

Several other Englishmen later received the King's Warrant to accept the Order of Saint Joachim, including Nelson's brother, Viscount Merton, General Sir Charles Imhoff,[8] and Philippe d'Auvergne, Prince de Boullion, Rear Admiral of the Blue.

[10] Knighthoods granted by The Order of Saint Joachim to British subjects and confirmed by the King's Warrant also entitled to holder to assume the title of 'Sir' as in the case of Sir Charles Imhoff where "King George the Third not only permitted Imhoff... to accept the insignia and rank of a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Joachim, but granted him at the same time leave to assume, in virtue of that foreign decoration, the titular distinction of a Knight of England.

"It was long understood," he wrote, "that moyennant a certain not inconsiderable deposit at a banking house at Pall-mall, the distinction was at the service of any one who might have a fancy for it; and that letters-missive were soon forthcoming from 'Sir' Levett, containing due notification of election by the 'equestrian, secular and chapteral Order,' at its last sitting at Bamberg, Hamburgh, Lubeck or wherever that personage happened, at the time, to be domiciliated.

Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (26 February 1861 – 10 September 1948) a prince of the Koháry branch of the ducal family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was popularly pictured with the insignia of The Order of St Joachim in 1888, although the connection between the two is unknown.

[14] A manuscript dated November, 1892 is a translation by F.G. Irwin of a document in the Paris Arsenal Library of a French Masonic ceremony from the “Rite of Adoption Ritual of 35º Chevalieres of St Joachim.

The French 35th Degree also has added Masonic-style floor work, wands for the officers, signs and a “secret” handshake which do not appear in the Order’s published ceremony.

In Canada, the Order is organized as a federal not-for-profit corporation, where its general charitable purpose is to promote religious tolerance, support the widows and orphans of war, refugees and indigent servicemen and women.

The star, said the College of Arms incorrectly in its newsletter, was "the bogus Order of St. Joachim created and hawked around the Courts of Europe by 'Sir' Levett Hanson.

The next three Grand Masters were sovereign rulers (Duke de Monfort followed by successive counts of Leinigen), and would technically qualify as a "fons" of royal patron or protector of a confraternity and noble company, like those found in Spain.