Royal Guelphic Order

Royal Guelphic Order
Badge of the Royal Guelphic Order
Awarded by Kingdom of Hanover
Type	House Order
Motto	Nec Aspera Terrent (Not afraid of difficulties)
Grand Master	Ernst August V
Grades (w/ post-nominals)	After 1841 Grand Cross Commander 1st Class Commander 2nd Class Knight Cross of Merit
Former grades	Original Knight Grand Cross Knight Commander Knight
Established	28 April 1815
Precedence
Next (higher)	Order of St. George (Hanover)
Next (lower)	Order of Ernst August
Ribbon of the order

Star and badge of a Commander 1st Class.

The Royal Guelphic Order (German: Guelphen-Orden), sometimes also referred to as the Hanoverian Guelphic Order, is a Hanoverian order of chivalry instituted on 28 April 1815 by the Prince Regent (later King George IV). Named for the House of Guelph, of whom of the Hanoverians were a branch, it has not been conferred by the British Crown since the death of King William IV in 1837, when the personal union of the United Kingdom and Hanover ended.

It continued to be conferred by the Kingdom of Hanover as an independent state and subsequently. After the defeat and forced dissolution of the Kingdom of Hanover by the Kingdom of Prussia, the order continued as a house order to be awarded by the Royal House of Hanover. Today, its current chancellor is the Hanoverian head of the house, Ernst August, Prince of Hanover. The honour is named after the House of Guelph to which the Hanoverian kings belonged, and its insignia were based on the white horse of that kingdom's arms.

In the United Kingdom it has always been regarded as a foreign order, and even before 1837 members of the order were not entitled to style themselves as "Sir" unless they were also created Knights Bachelor, as many were.

Classes

The Order includes two Divisions, Civil and Military. It originally had three classes, but with several reorganizations since 1841, as house order today it has four classes and an additional Cross of Merit. In descending order of seniority, are:

1815-1841

• Knight Grand Cross (GCH)
• Knight Commander (KCH)
• Knight (KH)

(Holders of the respective degrees of the order in Britain were entitled to be postnominally addressed with the initials, which stand for Knight Grand Cross of Hanover, Knight Commander of Hanover and Knight of Hanover.)

After 1841

• Grand Cross
• Commander 1st Class
• Commander 2nd Class
• Knight
• Cross of Merit

The Order

Officers

The Order has six officers: the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, the Register, the King of Arms, the Genealogist, and the Secretary.

Officers until 1837

The first six officers were:

• Chancellor: Count Ernst Friedrich Herbert von Münster
• Vice-Chancellor: Georg Nieper
• Secretary: Ludwig Moeller
• King of Arms: Sir George Nayler
• Genealogist: August Neubourg
• Register: Sir William Woods

Officers since 1987

• Chancellor: Ernst August, Prince of Hanover

Notable members

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS.
• William Herschel
• Sir Augustus d'Este
• Sir John Franklin

See also

• British honours system
• List of Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order
• List of Knights Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order

Flag of the Electorate of Hanover, 1692

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons