Royal Order of Saint George for the Defense of the Immaculate Conception

The Royal Military Order of Saint George for the Defense of the Faith and the Immaculate Conception, also known as the Royal Bavarian House Equestrian Order of Saint George, was founded by Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria in 1729 to provide for a means of honouring the nobility and recognizing distinguished civil and military service. Establishment There are rumors that the order was founded as early as the twelfth century, or by Emperor Maximilian I a reference to the Habsburg Order of Saint George. Allegedly, the tradition of loyalty to the patron saint of chivalry, Saint George, was long established in Germany, and various Bavarian Princes, most notably Eckhard I, Count of Scheyern, who until the fifteenth century had made pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulcher and were there invested as knights, had each made a promise to Saint George. The Order was founded by Elector Charles Albert on April 24, 1729, who gave it its title of Order of the Holy Knight and Martyr Saint George and the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary and established its statutes on March 28, 1729, as a Military Order of Chivalry for Roman Catholic noblemen The Grand Master always was the elector, later the king of Bavaria. Its foundation as a Catholic Order was confirmed in the papal bull nihil aeque jucundum of 15 March 1728 specifically giving the Order the same rights as the Teutonic Order.