Descripción
THE CONSTANTINIAN ORDER OF SAINT GEORGE
The Constantinian Order is a dynastic institution dedicated to promoting charitable, humanitarian, cultural and heritage initiatives. It aims to make a difference in today’s
world in areas such as providing assistance to people threatened by poverty, exclusion or war, or to those persecuted for their faith, as well as promoting culture in the form
of tangible and intangible heritage.
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It is one of the oldest international equestrian-religious orders.
The Order’s supposed legendary origins are attributed to its foundation by Isaac Angelo, Emperor of Constantinople
In 1550, Pope Julius III recognised the ‘Sacred Constantinian Military Order of St George’ through the papal bull Quod Aliasla,
in which the title and dignity of Grand Master
of the Constantinian Knights were conferred upon Andrés Ángelo y Comneno.
With the extinction of the male line of the Angeli Comneni family, the office of Grand Master was established by an agreement of 1698 concerning Duke Francesco Farnese and his successors
as heirs of the Farnese family, in an act of cession confirmed by the Emperor and by Pope Innocent XII, in what is known as the brief Sincerae Fidei of 1699.
Subsequently, when Antonio Farnese, Duke of Parma, died without issue in 1727, Charles of Bourbon, Infante of Spain—son of his niece Isabella Farnese and King Philip V of Spain—was called to the succession.
Later, on 6 October 1759, Charles III of Spain bequeathed all his Italian estates to his third son, Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. Shortly thereafter, on 16 October, as the ‘legitimate first-born son of the
Farnese line’, he invested him as Grand Master of the Constantinian Order, a title transmissible to all first-born sons.
Over time, the Order split into two branches, known as the Spanish-Neapolitan and the French-Neapolitan branches.
