Prior to the creation of the Order of the Holy Spirit in 1578 by King Henri III, the senior order of chivalry in France had been the Order of Saint Michael. This order was originally created in 1469 to rival the BurgundianOrder of the Golden Fleece, and to help ensure that leading French nobles remained loyal to the Crown. Its membership was initially restricted to a small number of powerful princes and nobles, but this increased dramatically due to the pressures of the Wars of Religion. At the beginning of the reign of Henry III, the Order of Saint Michael had several hundred living members, ranging from kings to bourgeois. Recognising that the order had been significantly devalued, Henry III founded the Order of the Holy Spirit on December 31, 1578, thereby creating a two-tier system: the new order would be reserved for princes and powerful nobles, whilst the Order of Saint Michael would be for less eminent servants of the Crown. The new order was dedicated to the Holy Spirit to commemorate the fact that Henry III was elected as King of Poland and inherited the throne of France on two Pentecosts. The new order was also identified with the "Order of the Knot" which had been founded in 1352/3 by Louis I of Naples. This had been one of the short-lived chivalric orders popular among the high nobility at the time. The statutes of the 14th-century order are preserved as BNF Fr 4274. An elaborate facsimile of this manuscript was produced under Louis XVII. During the French Revolution, the Order of the Holy Spirit was officially abolished by the French government, along with all other chivalric orders of the Ancien Régime, although the exiled Louis XVIII continued to acknowledge it. Following the Bourbon Restoration, the order was officially revived, only to be abolished again by the OrleanistLouis-Philippe following the July Revolution in 1830. Despite the abolition of the order, both the Orléanist and Legitimist pretenders to the French throne have continued to nominate members of the order, long after the abolition of the French monarchy itself.
Composition
The King of France was the Sovereign and Grand Master, and he made all appointments to the order. Members of the order can be split into three categories:
8 Ecclesiastic members;
4 Officers;
100 Knights.
Initially, four of the ecclesiastic members had to be cardinals, whilst the other four had to be archbishops or prelates. This was later relaxed so that all eight had to be either cardinals, archbishops or prelates. Members of the order had to be Roman Catholic and had to be able to demonstrate three degrees of nobility. The minimum age for members was 35, although there were some exceptions:
Children of the king were members from birth, but they were not received into the order until they were 12;
Foreign royalty could be admitted to the order from the age of 25.
All knights of the order were also members of the Order of Saint Michael. As such, they were generally known by the term Chevalier des Ordres du Roi, instead of the more lengthy Chevalier de Saint-Michel et Chevalier du Saint-Esprit.
Officers
The order had its own officers. They were responsible for the ceremonies and the administration of the order. Officers of the order were as follows:
The symbol of the order is known as the Cross of the Holy Spirit. At the periphery, the eight points of the cross are rounded, and between each pair of arms there is a fleur-de-lis. Imposed on the centre of the cross is a dove. The eight rounded corners represent the Beatitudes, the four fleur-de-lis represent the Gospels, the twelve petals represent the Apostles, and the dove signifies the Holy Spirit. The Cross of the Holy Spirit was worn hung from a blue riband.
Due to the blue riband from which the Cross of the Holy Spirit was hung, the knights became known as Les Cordons Bleus. Over time, this expression was extended to refer to other distinctions of the highest class - for example, Cordon Bleu cooking and Blue Riband sporting events. It has been suggested that the term "Cordon Bleu" in cooking has derived from the splendour of feasts held by the knights and not simply from the term becoming synonymous with prestige; however, this is not confirmed.
Habit and insignia
The badge of the Order is a gold Maltese cross with white borders, each of the eight points ending in a gold ball and with a gold fleur-de-lys between each adjacent pair of its arms. At the center of the cross, was set a white dove descending surrounded by green flames. The back of this cross worn by the knights was the same as the front except with the medallion of the Order of Saint Michael at the center rather than the dove and flames. During the ceremonies, the cross of officers and commanders officers was attached to a collar of links of gold fleur-de-lis alternating with links consisting of a white enameled letter H crowned with a gold French royal crown, with identical crowns on either side of it or alternately with a trophy of weapons. Each of these links was surrounded with red enamel flames forming a square around it. More generally, the cross was suspended from a large ribbon of color moirée blue sky, hence the nickname cordon bleu the knights wore. For the ceremonies of the Order and when the knights of the Order made their Communion, the knights wore a long black velvet mantle sprinkled with embroidered gold and red flames and with a representation of the collar round its edges embroidered in gold, red and silver. Like the royal mantle, this mantle opened on the right side and just as an ermine shoulder cape covered the top of the royal mantle, a shoulder cape of pale green velvet with the same embroidery but smaller was worn over this mantle and formed the upper part of it. Both the mantle proper and the shoulder cape were lined with a yellowish orange satin. The mantle was worn over a white coat, waistcoat and puffed hose, heavily embroidered with silver. A black hat with a white plume completed the dress. The star of the Order had the same design as the front of the badge, but embroidered in silver on both the knights' coats and their vests.
Special privileges
In France, red or green sealing wax was used for the royal seal on documents requiring a royal seal. Only in documents relating to the Order of the Holy Spirit was white wax used for this royal seal.
