Royal Order of Saint Hubert | |
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Awarded by The Head of the Bavarian Royal Family | |
Type | Catholic chivalric order |
Royal house | House of Jülich (1444–1609) House of Wittelsbach (1609–present) |
Motto | In Treue Fest (Firm in Fidelity) |
Status | Rarely Constituted |
Founder | Gerhard VII, Duke of Jülich-Berg |
Sovereign | Franz, Duke of Bavaria |
Grand Master | Prince Max |
Grades | Knight Grand Cross with Collar Knight Grand Cross |
Precedence | |
Next (higher) | None (Highest) |
Next (lower) | Royal Order of Saint George for the Defense of the Immaculate Conception Royal Order of Saint Elizabeth |
The Royal Order of Saint Hubert (German: Sankt Hubertus Königlicher Orden), or sometimes (German: Königlicher Orden des Heiligen Hubertus) is a Roman Catholic dynastic order of knighthood founded in 1444 or 1445 by Gerhard VII, Duke of Jülich-Berg. He sought to commemorate his victory over the House of Egmond at the Battle of Linnich on 3 November, which is Saint Hubert's day.
The establishment of the Order occurred during a long-term, intermittent territorial dispute, initially between the Dukes of Jülich and the Dukes of Guelders, who were descended from a female line of the House of Jülich. The dispute began in the 1430s, when Arnold, Duke of Gelderland claimed the duchy of Jülich and the county of Ravensberg, and was resolved in the 1614 Treaty of Xanten, which established the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg of the counties of Ravensberg and Mark with the duchies of Cleves, Jülich and Berg. In 1778, Charles Theodore, Duke of Jülich and Berg and the Count-Elector Palatine, succeeded his childless cousin, Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria and brought the Order to Bavaria.
Initially, the order was open to men and women, although limiting the number of male companions to sixty. It commemorated the conversion of Saint Hubert and his standing as the patron saint of hunters and knights. Over time, the award had other uses as a reward for loyalty to the monarch and service to the princely state.