Order of the Eagle of Georgia


The Order of the Eagle of Georgia and the Seamless Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ commonly known as the Order of the Eagle of Georgia, is the highest order of chivalry awarded by the House of Bagration, whose Chief and Grand Master is Prince David Bagration of Mukhrani. Prince David became the disputed head of the Royal House and the order when his father, Jorge de Bagration, died.

History of the Order

The Order claims to have been founded by Queen Tamar of Georgia, and its modern history dates from when it was "restored" by Prince Irakli Bagration of Mukhrani in 1939 as the highest of the House Orders of the Bagrationi dynasty.
The name of the Order refers to the Sacred Tunic that Jesus Christ wore at his death. According to legend, the relic was raffled off by Roman soldiers and it was then taken to Georgia, preserved, and buried in the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, alongside the insignias of former Kings of Georgia.
In 1942, Prince Irakli Bagration of Mukhrani was elected President of the Union of Traditionalist Georgians, who were dedicated to restoring a free Georgia under a constitutional monarchy.
Upon his death in 1977, Prince Irakli was succeeded in his claims by his first-born son, Prince Jorge de Bagration, who only awarded the Order within his family until 2001, when he decided to give concessions for "excellence and merit." After 2003, Prince Jorge gave the order a new constitution, establishing its current terms and conditions.
During the Grand Mastership of Prince Jorge, significant figures from nobility and royalty entered the Order.
In 1991, it was reported that the Georgian Parliament acknowledged Prince Jorge Bagration of Mukhrani as the head of the Royal house of Bagrationi, but others dispute his claims. In 1995, Prince Jorge, traveled to Georgia with and met with Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, who declared to Prince Jorge: "My Lord, you are in your homeland which needs the Royal Family to maintain its unity."
Due to the Mukhrani's long exile in Spain, many of the order's members are Spanish. The order is highlighted in a list of notable orders on the Blasones Hispanos, Ordenes Dinasticas website. The Spanish government formally accorded the Bagration-Moukkrhani Princes the qualification of "Royal Highness," although the title had been Serene Highness before the Mukrhani diaspora.
Prince Jorge's son, Prince David repatriated to Georgia in 2008, one year after the Patriarch of Georgia, Ilia II, who is a holder of the Grand Collar of the Order of the Eagle of Georgia, had called for the restoration of the Georgian monarchy. David was granted citizenship, and a year later,married Princess Anna, daughter of the genealogically junior Grazinsky Bragration branch who were rivals to the defunct Georgian throne. Princess Anna was, herself, a Dame of the Order. The marriage sparked widespread interest in the revival of a constitutional monarchy. The royal couple divorced in 2013, and their son Prince Giorgi, was a Knight Grand Collar of the order from birth.
In 2017, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, "received the Grand Collar of the Order of the Eagle of Georgia" on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in honor of her 90th birthday. The presentation was criticised by the British newspaper The Mail on Sunday, who later published an investigation alleging that membership of the Order was available for sale. The Order's Chancellor wrote in an email to the newspaper that the Grand Collar, the same grade Queen Elizabeth II received, cost £3,000.
The Order has been conferred on various Georgian politicians and notable figures including former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. On December 16, 2018 Prince David was invited to the inauguration of Georgia's first female President, Salome Zouravishvili, who herself selected one of the old Georgia Kingdom's last Royal Residences to celebrate Georgia's "royal heritage and its future."
The dynastic order is assessed as an authenticated order of chivalry, but by slightly varying standards. In Burke's Peerage, it is as an order "founded by royal claimants in exile". The International Commission on Orders of Chivalry validates it as a "new chivalric institution founded by the head of a formerly reigning dynasty". The Augustan Society notes it as a non-ruling dynastic honor.

Grand Masters of the Order

The Order of the Eagle of Georgia is composed of seven grades. However, the two lowest ranks are not usually awarded.